Mark 6:5 – It’s amazing to me how Jesus power seemed to be limited by the faith of those hearing Him. It doesn’t say that He chose not to do any ‘mighty work’, but that He could not do any. This goes back to Mark 5 and the woman healed – am I and my shallow faith limiting what Jesus can do in my life? It’s hard to find the path between working hard on my faith to produce results from Jesus and getting the faith to allow Jesus to work. The first is really a works mindset, or some sort of ‘power of positive thinking’ psychology masked as faith, but how does one work at your faith with out working for the result of faith?
Mark 6:7-13 – He gave them authority to heal, but healing was not their message. Their message was “that people should repent.”
Mark 6:20, 26 – He feared John, it says in verse 20, and that was why he didn’t execute him. Yet, when backed into a corner it becomes clear that he feared his wife or perhaps public embarrassment more.
Mark 6:28 – I’ve often felt sorry for this girl, who, because of her mother’s hard heart and sin, gets handed a freshly severed head on a platter. I wonder how that image haunted her later in life?
Mark 6:30-44 – I wonder what it was like to be in that crowd. I wrote a story once, based on the account in John 6, from the perspective of the father of the boy with the loaves (not mentioned here). I think I’m that Dad in my story, the grumpy Dad, led reluctantly by his wife and kids into a miracle. One he would have missed if it weren’t for them.
Mark 6:56 – I don’t remember making the connection with this account here of folks touching his garments and being healed and the woman from Mark 5.

Mark 5:21 – They head back across and I wonder – did Jesus cross there simply to meet that demon possessed man?
Mark 5:28 – This woman’s faith is remarkable. She simply heard about Jesus and deduced that he was powerful enough that a single touch, not of the man himself, but of his clothing, would heal her.
And she was right.
Jesus never taught that, never even hinted at that. She figured it out and went for it in faith.
What an amazing lesson for us. We who are immersed in Jesus culture, hear the lessons preached, the parables explained, the teachings enumerated. We who know Jesus inside and out and have access to all his teachings and volumes upon volumes of commentary on them.
Yet we sit in our own sin, wondering how we can be cured?
This ticks me off, frankly, on a personal level for I wallow and wring my hands over my own sin. This woman was really suffering, bleeding and bleeding and bleeding and bleeding and bleeding. No one had been able to help her and many smart men had tried. If anyone had reason to be skeptical and doubt, she did. But she saw Jesus and believed. It was that simple. She didn’t require anything of him but access.
Here we sit – here I sit – with all the access in the world. I know that Jesus is readily available. I know that I can reach out and touch him today, right now. I understand it all, what I lack is faith. I can see Jesus. Jesus the healer, the restorer, the savior. I can see him, but he’s not real enough to me. I can see him, but I guess I don’t believe my eyes and I explain it away.
I’m tired of being the same yet proclaiming Jesus. I can see enough of Him to know that there’s something wrong with that picture. Folks who see him, really see Him, don’t stay the same. They are healed, transformed, changed.
If I see Jesus, am I willing to believe in what I see?

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

Mark 5:34

Mark 5:35-43 – I find great hope in the story of Jairus, especially reflecting on the bleeding woman’s story which is wedged in the middle of it. They both came in faith, but before he could get what he came for, Jairus is hit with reality. Jairus was faced with the obvious facts. The servants say she’s dead, they arrive to weeping and wailing, the people laugh at them when Jesus says she’s only asleep. If I’m Jairus, it would take all my energy and focus to remain faithful in the face of all that reality.
But Jesus told him, “Do not fear, only believe.” And somehow he does.
And in they go, and there’s his daughter, dead. A few words from Jesus and she’s alive and walking.
Everyday, all around us we are confronted with reasons not to believe that Jesus can change us. Even religious folk will try to diminish you expectations, ground you in reality. Jesus, however, puts his hands on our cheeks, turns our head toward his face and away from ‘reality’ and says just what he said to Jairus:
“Do not fear, only believe.”

Mark 5:1-13 – Imagine the scene. The boat hits the beach, Jesus steps out and then there’s this guy, scarred from cutting himself with rocks and filthy, from living underground. He’s clearly mad (crazy), and he’s big. Not Fat Albert or Santa big, more like The Incredible Hulk big. I mean no one can bind him and he’s wrenching chains apart. This is no frail homeless guy, he’s a buff madman.
Not only that, but Jesus is engaging him. He sees Jesus and comes at him, Jesus is shouting at him “Come out!” and he’s demanding of Jesus “What have you to do with me …” and he already knows that Jesus is the Son of God, something you’ve only begun to figure out. It’s a bit of a chaotic scene.
If you were with Jesus, what would you be thinking? I’d be thinking that I want to stay on the boat for now, thank you. Maybe you’ve heard of this mysterious madman, tales from across the sea. Legends that you weren’t sure were true, but here he is now. And you likely wish he wasn’t.
But Jesus isn’t hoping he’ll go away, he’s engaging him in conversation. Asking his name. The man’s clearly possessed, and dangerous. Then Jesus shows two remarkable acts of compassion in one gesture – he sends the demons away from him and grants their wish to go into a nearby pig heard. Did you ever wonder about that? Why did Jesus care what the demons wanted?
Another thing you might notice. No one could control the demons in this man’s head, not even the man himself. But when Jesus arrived, the order of authority is clear. They submitted to Him. Period. They asked – and received – a favor, but it was clear that if He did not wish to grant it, they would obey. This brings to mind Romans 8. This is the God who is for us. Complete authority, nothing can stand to his will.
And he stands for us.
So why, then, do I fear confronting my own demons? Why do I let them torment me? Why do I wring my hands, wondering if I can overcome?
Mark 6:14-20 – Now you’re in the crowd of locals, running to the news that this wacko had been cured. And there he is, “the one who had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind.” This man had likely scared the willies out of you, and he’s sitting there chatting with this stranger who had evidently cured him. On one had, you might rejoice that this menace was gone from your town. On the other, a man with power over that which you were powerless is scary indeed.
Now imagine you are the man who was cured. For years, running wild, not able to talk or be with anyone. People run from you and you wish you could run from yourself, unable to control this frenzy living inside you.
Have you ever wished, hoped against hope, that you could be different. Not richer or prettier, but truly, deep down in the depths of your soul different. no longer the man plagued by lusts, the woman tormented by lies, no longer given to anger, drinking, violence or … I have.
This man lived it every day and now it was true. He was rid of that which had controlled and tormented him. It was completely understandable that he would want to go away with Jesus, there was nothing there for him. He had likely hurt anyone who was ever close to him.
But Jesus says no, he has a differnt mission for him. Go back to the nearby owns, the towns of people who tried to tie you up, the people you frightened. Go there and tell them what God has done for you.
And here’s the remarkable thing – he goes. I wonder, would I go? I’d be tempted to go back to the caves, to the familiar.
So I also wonder, what mission has God given me now that I’m avoiding for the safety of the familiar?
I love this story. Check out this dramatized version from Real Live Preacher (not for folks who are offended by fishermen disciples who occasionally swear like, well, fishermen).

Mark 4:10-12 – I wonder, if his teachings were in parables that went over the heads of most, why did the crowds come? The simple answers, I suppose, are that likely not everything was in parables and that many were there to see healings or be healed.
Mark 4:13 – Mark paints a more frustrated and less understanding Jesus here than Luke did. From Luke I have a picture of a patient Jesus, confident that they will eventually ‘get it’ although they don’t know. Here, Jesus seems frustrated and less patient.
Mark 4:26-28 – My first thought on this was it is so contrary to the ICOC way of thinking. We believed that we could produce the fruit, the crop. We could make it happen. Here Jesus says that the Kingdom doesn’t work that way. Just as a farmer doesn’t know how a seed turns to a plant, we can’t produce disciples from the seed we sow. All we are called to do is sow, God makes it grow. So what we ought to be concerned with is planting, that’s all, God’s concerned with the growing.
We were always focused on the growth. If it didn’t happen, we’d work furiously to produce something.
Mark 4:34 – So much for the ‘not all his teachings were in parables’ theory. 😛

I had begun to post my notes on Mark 3 and had written about verses 1-12, hit save and my site went down and it was lost. 🙁 Oh well, here are my thoughts on verses 13 and on …
Mark 3:13 – I wonder how Jesus was able to get away with out the crowds. In verses 7-12, they were threatening to crush him and here he’s on a mountain with the 12. Was it just because climbing the mountain was too much trouble to see Jesus?
Mark 3:20 – Back home again and the crowd returns and they cannot even eat because of it.
Mark 3:29-30 – The long debated ‘blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’. For a teaching with such dire consequences (no possible forgiveness), it certainly is clouded by mystery. I have to admit, I’m not at all sure what it means, which is frankly a bit scary. I have a notion that it’s denying Jesus or something like that, but I honestly dunno. I wonder if there’s a clue in it being included here with the accusations that Jesus was working for Satan, but I’m not sure what to make of it. Any insights?
Mark 3:31-35 – Jesus draws a bold line of distinction here saying that his loyalty is no longer to his family but to the people of God. I wonder what it felt like for Mary and his brothers to hear this.