Tag Archives: Mark 3

Chapter-a-Day

Best of ’24: #6 When Rest Becomes Work

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For two weeks, while Wendy and I are away enjoying some warm weather, I’ll be counting down the top ten chapter-a-day posts of 2024 (based on total views anIt’ s always interesting which posts resonated with readers and listeners. The chapter for tomorrow’s post will be listed at the bottom.

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed.
Mark 3:7 (NIV)

Wendy and I are in the process of selling our place at the lake. For those who know us and for those who have followed my blog for any length of time, this may come as a surprise. “The Playhouse” has been a part of my family for over 25 years, and for the past 15 years it has been regular place of retreat, refreshment, and relationship for ourselves, our family, and many, many friends. The featured image on today’s post is our final farewell to the Playhouse as we moved things home.

The truth is that Wendy and I have been praying about the end of this season in our lives for a few years. We’ve talked about it with friends, but circumstances consistently told us that it wasn’t time. This summer, we once again prayed in earnest whether it was time and everything rapidly fell into place in a way that told us the time was right.

One of the themes that God weaves into the Great Story from the very beginning of Genesis is the blessing of rest. God creates everything in six days, and on the seventh day He rests. Then, in the book of Exodus when God through Moses prescribes how His people should live and conduct themselves, He emphasizes rest in multiple ways on multiple levels. This was a radical idea. For 400 years God’s people had been slaves in Egypt without a day off. Now God prescribes that they need a day off every seven days. In fact, whether you’re a believer or not, you can thank God every weekend because the weekend was born when the Roman Emperor, who was a Christian, followed God’s prescription and declared that everyone in the Roman Empire gets Sundays off.

In today’s chapter, Mark’s choice of scenes reveals several things. Jesus’ teaching and miracles are drawing huge crowds from all over. Word has spread and people are traveling from far away places. Between the crowd scenes, Mark shares that Jesus “withdrew” from the crowds. Once He withdrew to a lake. Another time He withdrew up a mountain. What that tells me is that Jesus knew He needed rest from the crowds, the teaching, the miracles, the exorcisms, and the chaos of His Miraculous Mystery Tour.

But Mark plants another seed when he begins by telling the story of Jesus teaching in the synagogue. Jesus challengers, who I wrote/talked about in yesterday’s post/podcast, have now become His outright enemies. No longer simply challenging Jesus, they’re seeking a way to accuse Him, discredit Him, and bring Him down. So, they lie in wait to see if Jesus would perform a miracle on the Sabbath day of rest. Because the good religious fundamentalists had deemed that performing a miracle was work.

Mark says that this “angered” Jesus, and He was “deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” Why? Because they had perverted and profaned the plan. The Sabbath, which had been prescribed as a blessing of rest, had been transformed into a burden in which people had to expend time, energy, and resources to track and follow all the rules that had been made around it. What was meant for rest became work.

Which brings me back to our place on the lake. As Wendy and I prayed and discussed it over this past spring and summer, we realized that things had changed. What was meant to be, and used to be, full of retreat, refreshment, and relationships had slowly become a burden on multiple levels. And, the opportunity arose to pass it on as a blessing to others in answer to their prayers

So, in the quiet this morning I’m reminded that the prescription for rest remains. Like Jesus, Wendy and I need to find our new places to withdraw and find retreat, refreshment, and relationship amidst the chaos of work and worry. We are excited for the new season ahead. And, in the wake of a long and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, I’m also grateful as I think about what a blessing God has woven into the plan of creation in prescribing, and exemplifying, regular periods of rest.

Tomorrow’s Chapter: Romans 9

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

When Rest Becomes Work

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Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed.
Mark 3:7 (NIV)

Wendy and I are in the process of selling our place at the lake. For those who know us and for those who have followed my blog for any length of time, this may come as a surprise. “The Playhouse” has been a part of my family for over 25 years, and for the past 15 years it has been regular place of retreat, refreshment, and relationship for ourselves, our family, and many, many friends. The featured image on today’s post is our final farewell to the Playhouse as we moved things home.

The truth is that Wendy and I have been praying about the end of this season in our lives for a few years. We’ve talked about it with friends, but circumstances consistently told us that it wasn’t time. This summer, we once again prayed in earnest whether it was time and everything rapidly fell into place in a way that told us the time was right.

One of the themes that God weaves into the Great Story from the very beginning of Genesis is the blessing of rest. God creates everything in six days, and on the seventh day He rests. Then, in the book of Exodus when God through Moses prescribes how His people should live and conduct themselves, He emphasizes rest in multiple ways on multiple levels. This was a radical idea. For 400 years God’s people had been slaves in Egypt without a day off. Now God prescribes that they need a day off every seven days. In fact, whether you’re a believer or not, you can thank God every weekend because the weekend was born when the Roman Emperor, who was a Christian, followed God’s prescription and declared that everyone in the Roman Empire gets Sundays off.

In today’s chapter, Mark’s choice of scenes reveals several things. Jesus’ teaching and miracles are drawing huge crowds from all over. Word has spread and people are traveling from far away places. Between the crowd scenes, Mark shares that Jesus “withdrew” from the crowds. Once He withdrew to a lake. Another time He withdrew up a mountain. What that tells me is that Jesus knew He needed rest from the crowds, the teaching, the miracles, the exorcisms, and the chaos of His Miraculous Mystery Tour.

But Mark plants another seed when he begins by telling the story of Jesus teaching in the synagogue. Jesus challengers, who I wrote/talked about in yesterday’s post/podcast, have now become His outright enemies. No longer simply challenging Jesus, they’re seeking a way to accuse Him, discredit Him, and bring Him down. So, they lie in wait to see if Jesus would perform a miracle on the Sabbath day of rest. Because the good religious fundamentalists had deemed that performing a miracle was work.

Mark says that this “angered” Jesus, and He was “deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts.” Why? Because they had perverted and profaned the plan. The Sabbath, which had been prescribed as a blessing of rest, had been transformed into a burden in which people had to expend time, energy, and resources to track and follow all the rules that had been made around it. What was meant for rest became work.

Which brings me back to our place on the lake. As Wendy and I prayed and discussed it over this past spring and summer, we realized that things had changed. What was meant to be, and used to be, full of retreat, refreshment, and relationships had slowly become a burden on multiple levels. And, the opportunity arose to pass it on as a blessing to others in answer to their prayers

So, in the quiet this morning I’m reminded that the prescription for rest remains. Like Jesus, Wendy and I need to find our new places to withdraw and find retreat, refreshment, and relationship amidst the chaos of work and worry. We are excited for the new season ahead. And, in the wake of a long and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, I’m also grateful as I think about what a blessing God has woven into the plan of creation in prescribing, and exemplifying, regular periods of rest.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

A Different Playbook

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A Different Playbook (CaD Mk 3) – Wayfarer

Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
Mark 3:6 (NIV)

As a student of history, I’ve observed that much of history is about those in power, how they came to power, how their power was threatened or taken away. It always makes for a good story, as Shakespeare well knew. The Bard mined a lot of historical leaders and events to write plays that are still being ceaselessly produced today.

One of the themes that runs through both history and our classic literature is that of holding on to power. I find it to be a very human thing. Once I have power, I don’t want to let go of it. This is not just true of politicians who rig the system to ensure they remain in control, or business leaders who cling to their corner office, but it’s also true of parenting. For almost two decades I am essentially ruler and lord with total authority over this child. Then I’m suddenly supposed to just “let go” of my power and authority and let her run her own life when she might make some crazy life decision? Yikes!

As I read today’s chapter, I couldn’t help but see the continued development of conflict that Mark is revealing in the text. Those representatives of the powerful religious institution who were indignant with Jesus’ teaching in yesterday’s chapter, are finding Jesus to be a growing threat to their power in today’s chapter.

Jesus’ popularity is rising off of the charts. His name is trending throughout the region, even in Jerusalem where the earthly powers of politics, commerce, and religion reign. Crowds are traveling to Galilee to see this rising star. And the people who are flocking to Him are the crowds, the masses, commoners, the sick, the poor, the simpletons in fly-over country, the deplorables.

The stakes have grown. The power brokers and their minions are no longer just watching, they are plotting:

“Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus…” (vs. 2)

Once again, Jesus thwarts their monopolistic, religious control by healing someone on the Sabbath. The crowds are cheering. This Nazarene upstart could turn the crowds against them. Mobs, protests, and violence in the streets could be the result, and that’s a threat to our power. Something must be done, and Mark tells us that something interesting happens:

“Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” (vs. 6)

The Pharisees were religious power brokers who publicly condemned the Roman Empire who was in control of the region. The Herodians (followers of local King Herod) were local political power brokers who did business with Rome in order to get lucrative Roman contracts and Roman authority to wield local political control. These two groups publicly hated one another, and in the media they had nothing good to say about one another. However, history reveals time and time again that in the playbook of the Kingdoms of this World “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Welcome to the smoke-filled back room. Have a seat. We’re just getting started. What are we to do with this “Jesus problem?”

Jesus, meanwhile, has other problems. The crowds are pressing in to the point of almost being out of control. The line of people wanting to be healed is endless. They’re coming from all over. Where are all these people going to stay? What are they going to eat? The locals are complaining about their quiet little towns being overrun with foreigners. The markets are sold out of everything!

And then Jesus’ own mother and brothers show up. They’re scared. Jesus is making powerful enemies. They are feeling the pressure themselves. Is it possible that an elder from the local synagogue was urged by higher-ups to pay Mary a friendly visit? I can imagine it…

“Mary, this isn’t good. Your boy has a good heart. I know he means well, but he’s going to get himself in big trouble with the Sanhedrin, with Herodians, and you don’t want the Romans to get involved. This could look really bad for your family. You’re a widow. Jesus is your oldest boy. He’s responsible to take care of you and instead he’s running around creating trouble for you and your family. We think it best that you talk to him. Be a good mother. Talk some sense into your boy.”

When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” (vs. 21)

Next comes the spin campaign, and those in power know how to spin a narrative. It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to come from a seemingly “reliable” and authoritative source. It has be sensational, it has to be easily repeatable, and it has to create fear and doubt in the minds of the public.

 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” (vs. 22)

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking that the more things change, the more they stay the same in the Kingdoms of this World and their playbook.

And Jesus’ response to all this? He sticks to His core message: “The Kingdom of God is here, and it’s not like the Kingdoms of this world”. He continues to heal, He feeds, He tells stories, and He escapes the crowds to be alone for periods of time. He refuses to bow to pressure from the envoys of worldly power. He even refuses to bow to pressure from his own mother.

Poor Mary. It’s hard to let go of authority of your adult child when He can make crazy life decisions that affect the whole family. I think it’s lovely that as Jesus hung on the cross one of the last things He did was to see to it that His friend John would care for His earthly mother.

The further I get on my own life journey, I find myself seeing the Kingdoms of this World with greater clarity on all levels. As that happens, I hear the Spirit calling me to understand that being an Ambassador of the Kingdom of God on earth means living in the World, but following a different playbook.