Today’s chapter is Mark 2

Tom writes:

In the opener of his gospel (1:2-3) Mark shows Jesus to be a super-healer, coming to make straight any crooked path. He now gets onto the question of who gave Jesus his medical licence; whose authority was he practising under. The natural assumption would have been that Jesus had come as a Jewish healer-prophet... but he didn’t seem to be wearing their uniform correctly and he wasn’t following their standard working practices. So Jesus was challenged about his source of authority. Jesus’ response is incredible. He not only says that he has given himself his authority but also that he is now redefining the whole Jewish healer-prophet movement. This seems to be equivalent to a British Airways employee showing up to work one day wearing a different uniform, treating customers in a different way and claiming that they were now the boss of the company. I suspect that neither the shareholders, nor the BA CEO would not stand for such activity for long, especially if it made headline news. So it is not surprising that the Pharisees and the Herodians plotted both to kill Jesus and to smear him as an agent of Beelzebub.

What is surprising is that Jesus neither completely ignored nor pre-occupied himself with winning this ideological battle. Rather, he got on with the job in hand; healing diseases, exorcising evil spirits, appointing apostles and teaching about the authority of his kingdom. Mark shows that Jesus was about so much more than just proving the authorities wrong; he was about tying up Satan and robbing him of all of his people, be they the sick, the possessed or the ideologically-misguided. And, as we read this, we realise with trepidation and joy that Jesus has added us to his medical licence. We realise with shock and excitement that the job of a Christian is neither winning ideological battles nor keeping everyone happy - the job at hand is inviting person after person to come follow Jesus and to apprentice themselves to his new way of doing life.

Question for reflection

What is most attractive about the new way of doing life that Jesus invites you to?

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Mark 2 - Wednesday 3rd April