Tag Archives: Mark

Chapter-a-Day

“Bring Mark”

Leave a comment

Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 
2 Timothy 4:11 (NIV)

Paul sits alone in the Roman dungeon. Despite his words of encouragement to Timothy, despite the hope of an eternal reward that awaits him, there is no mistaking the heaviness of heart he feels as he awaits his appointment with the executioner that he knows is imminent. Paul’s final words of this the final letter are filled with loneliness…

Demas has deserted me.
Crescens left me too.
So did Titus.
Only Luke is with me.
Please come quickly.

Then Paul makes an unusual request.

Get Mark and bring him with you. I need his help.

The personal greetings in the letters of the New Testament don’t get much attention from casual readers. The names are strange, there’s no real context, and the message doesn’t have any real meaning for the reader. But those personal greetings often point to stories that are full of meaning and Paul’s request for Mark to come to him is one.

Mark was known as John Mark. He was a young man when he and his mother became followers of Jesus. Mark was present in the garden when Jesus was arrested. His mother’s house became a hideout for the disciples and Jesus’ followers during and after the crucifixion. When Paul set off on his first missionary journey to take Jesus’ message to the Gentiles in Greece and Asia Minor, young Mark was part of the entourage.

Wherever Paul went, he stirred the pot. When Paul stirred the pot things got hard. Persecution, riots, getting arrested, getting beaten, death threats, and getting stoned were what came with the territory.

Mark couldn’t handle it. He bailed on Paul and Barnabas and went home.

A few years later, Paul approached Barnabas about taking a road trip to visit all the local gatherings they’d planted on that earlier journey. Barnabas wanted to bring Mark with them. Paul wanted nothing to do with having Mark along after he wimped out on them before. Things got heated. Words were exchanged. Paul and Barnabas parted ways. Barnabas took Mark with him. Paul went in the opposite direction.

Fast forward to Paul in the final days of his earthly journey sitting alone in darkness and chains. Among the final words of this his final letter he writes:

Get Mark and bring him with you. I need his help.

We don’t know the whole story, but it is obvious that there was a reconciliation between Mark and Paul. Mark regained Paul’s trust. Paul forgave Mark for deserting him on that first journey. Their relationship was not only restored but grew. Mark became indispensable to Paul in his later years, his imprisonments, and his tireless work of spreading Jesus’ message.

As I look back at my life journey, there have been conflicts with people I love very much. I have my own moments of disagreement when things got heated, words got exchanged, and when I and my friend walked away in opposite directions. Life gets messy. I hear Jesus’ words echo in my soul as I type this in the quiet:

“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God. Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. “
Matthew 5:23-25 (MSG)

I wish I could say that every broken relationship gets reconciled this side of heaven. That has not been my experience, but some do and as a disciple of Jesus my job is to do my part in creating the atmosphere in which reconciliation might happen. I can’t control the other person, but I do control myself. I can forgive. I can be gracious. I can reach out. I can make the first move.

Paul’s desire to have Mark by his side at the end of his earthly journey is a reminder to never give up trying to make things right in relationship.

Note: I’m out on a business trip the next two days. Will plan to be back on the chapter-a-day trek on Friday.

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

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well.
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!

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Mark (Dec 2024)

1 Comment

Each photo below corresponds to a chapter-a-day post for the Gospel of Mark published by Tom Vander Well in December 2024. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Mark 1: Flyover Country
Mark 2: Opposition!
Mark 3: When Rest Becomes Work
Mark 4: Of Prophets and Plants
Mark 5: “Just Believe”
Mark 6: Of Motives and Outcomes
Mark 7: Big Dogs and Bad Dogs
Mark 8: God’s Base Language
Mark 9: Mountains
Mark 10: The Lead
Mark 11: The Fig Tree Mystery
Mark 12: Anonymous Cogs
Mark 13: The Tension
Mark 14: When the Rooster Crows
Mark 15: Of Appointees and Crowds
Mark 16: Needed Words
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

The Mark and The Choice

Leave a comment

The Mark and The Choice (CaD Ezk 9) – Wayfarer

Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
Ezekiel 9:3-4 (NIV)

When I was a young man serving as a pastor, I once got in hot water with certain members of my congregation when I used the abbreviation “Xmas” in reference to “Christmas.” It’s always amazing to me what gets people’s undies in a bunch and just how upset they can get. I apologized for offending the offended, but I also used the opportunity to offer an explanation.

In the early days of the Jesus Movement, especially during times of persecution, disciples of Jesus used symbols and metaphors for referring to Jesus rather than writing the name out. The icthus, or fish symbol, can still be seen on car bumpers everywhere. But the Greek letter Chi which looks like an X, was also commonly used. Why? Crucifixions were often carried out on an X-shaped cross. It was a sign of the cross, and it logically became a metaphor for referring to Christ. Therefore, the abbreviated “Xmas” does not technically “take the Christ out of Christmas” as my critics with bunched undies believed. Christ is still there for all to see for those who aren’t blind to metaphor.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision continues from the previous chapter. God took Zeke to the Temple in Jerusalem and gave him a tour of the temple and all of the pagan idols and altars that had been set up inside the Temple for people to worship instead of Yahweh. Now, Zeke sees six men with weapons in hand along with a seventh man who had a scribe’s kit. He tells the scribe to start at the Temple and go throughout the city of Jerusalem and place a “mark” on the foreheads of all those who had been faithful in their worship of God and had lamented the detestable things that were happening in the wake of all the pagan worship.

Much like in the final plague of Egypt when the Angel of Death “passed over” the homes that had the blood of the lamb coating their doorposts, those who had the mark were spared as the six executioners spread out across the city to judge and put to death any who didn’t have the “sign.”

The “sign” was a Taw, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In ancient Paleo-Hebrew script, that letter was an “X.” The same sign that some 400 years later will become a metaphor for Christ and the disciples who place their faith in Him.

In the quiet this morning, I’m simply marveling at the way certain metaphorical threads and themes weave their way throughout the Great Story and tie it together. Ezekiel’s vision echoes the same theme as the Passover in Exodus. It foreshadows the Judgment Day that Jesus promised will one day arrive for everyone. All three instances end with either life or death based on the acceptance or rejection of God as evidenced by faith or no faith.

As I meditated on these things this morning, I couldn’t help but hear God’s words to the Hebrew people at the very beginning of their formal relationship in Deuteronomy:

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.“
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)

Thousands of years later, the choice is the same.

I choose life.

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

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Mark (Apr/May 2021)

1 Comment

Each photo below corresponds to the chapter-a-day post for the book of Mark published by Tom Vander Well in April and May of 2021. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Mark 1: Source, not Compensation

Mark 2: The Great Conflict

Mark 3: A Different Playbook

Mark 4: Sow What?

Mark 5: The Three Questions

Mark 6: Soil Samples

Mark 7: The Contrast

Mark 8: The Inflection Point

Mark 9: “Ins” and “Outs”

Mark 10: Life on the Fast-Track

Mark 11: By-Products

Mark 12: The Crowd

Mark 13: Of Riches and Rubble

Mark 14: Mary and the Dudes

Mark 15: Success

Mark 16: Endings and Invitations

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Mark (Mar/Apr 2020)

Leave a comment

Each photo below corresponds to a chapter-a-day post for the book of Mark published by Tom Vander Well in March/April of 2020. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

Chapter 1: Non-Transactional Love
Chapter 2: Jesus, and the Religious Rule Keepers
Chapter 3: Resistance
Chapter 4: Seeds, Soil, and Fruit
Chapter 5: Jesus: Unwanted
Chapter 6: One Word: Believe
Chapter 7: Inside Out Transformation
Chapter 8: Getting It
Chapter 9: No Exemptions
Chapter 10: A Good Day
Chapter 11: Spiritual Horticulture
Chapter 12: Escalation, Truth, and Discomfort
Chapter 13: Apocalypse and Labor Pains
Chapter 14: “The Woman”
Chapter 15: Satisfying the Crowd
Chapter 16: Exile, Then and Now

You’re all caught up! Posts will be added here as they are published. Click on the image below for easy access to other recent posts indexed by book.

Click on the image above for easy access to recent chapter-a-day posts indexed by book!
Chapter-a-Day

Seasonal Companions

3 Comments

My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)
Colossians 4:10 (NIV)

“There are friends who are friends for a season, and there are friends who are friends for life.” Thus said a  wise woman to me while I was a Freshman in college. It was the first time I remember really thinking about the purpose and tenure of friendship in life’s journey.

Everyone knows that Jesus had twelve disciples, but Luke records that there was a wider circle of seventy-two disciples that Jesus sent out (Luke 10:1). Among the twelve it was only Peter, James, and John that Jesus called out to join Him when He was transfigured, when He raised Jairus’ daughter, and when He was in His deepest despair in Gethsemane. Like most of us, Jesus had concentric circles of relationship from the intimacy of His inner circle of three to the wider and less intimate relationships He had with the twelve, the seventy-two, and an even larger group of 500 followers to whom He appeared after His resurrection.

Along my life journey, I’ve had a number of friends, mentors, and protégés who became part of my “inner circle” during a particular stretch. Looking back, I observe a certain ebb and flow of pattern and purpose in relationships. As the wise woman stated, some paths converge for a season and then organically lead in opposite directions. Conflict, sadly, severed some relationships. In a few cases, I’ve realized it’s best to leave be what was. In others, reconciliation brought differing degrees of restoration. There is longing to experience reconciliation in yet others when the season is right. Then there are a few in which time ran out, and only memories both bitter and sweet will remain with me for the rest of my earthly journey.

Most readers of Paul’s letters skip through the personal greetings with which he typically tagged his correspondence at the beginning and/or end. This morning, it was one of these oft-ignored greetings at the end of the chapter that jumped off the page at me. Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, sends his greetings to the believers at Colossae. There is a back story there.

Mark, otherwise known as John Mark, had been a boy who was part of Jesus’ wider circle of followers. Mark’s mother was a prominent woman who also followed Jesus and likely supported His ministry financially. When Peter escaped from prison it was to the house of Mark’s mother that Peter fled. It was Mark’s cousin, Barnabas, who brought the enemy turned believer, Saul (aka Paul) into the fold of Jesus’ followers. Barnabas and Mark were part of Paul’s inner circle on his first missionary journey.

Then, it all fell apart.

In the middle of the journey, Mark left Paul and Barnabas and went back home. Paul felt abandoned and betrayed. Years later when it came time to make a return journey, Barnabas wanted to take Mark along. Paul, still angry that Mark wimped out and abandoned them, would have none of it. There was a big fight. There was a bitter separation. Paul went one way with Silas. Barnabas went the other way with Mark. The season of Paul, Barnabas, and Mark was over.

As Paul writes his letter to the Colossians it has been many years since the conflict with Barnabas and Mark. Paul is in prison and is nearing the end of his life. Mark is with him. We don’t know how the reconciliation happened or what brought them back together again, but Mark is there sending warm greetings through Paul. It’s nice to know that sometimes in this life we get over our conflicts. We let go of the past and embrace the present. Seasons of friendship can come back around.

In the quiet this morning I’m looking back and thinking of all the companions I’ve had along my journey. I’m whispering a prayer of gratitude for each one brought to my life and journey, despite where the ebb and flow of relationship may have led. And, in a few cases, I’m praying for the season when the journey might lead divergent paths back together, like Paul and Mark.

Tom's Messages

Mark 10:17-27 “The Trap”

Leave a comment

For any who might be interested, this is the message I delivered at our local gathering of Jesus’ followers this past Sunday.

Tom's Messages, Video

Mark 1: “The Dance”

Leave a comment

For any interested and for what its worth, this is the first in a series of messages on Mark’s biography of Jesus that I had the privilege of sharing with my local gathering of Jesus’ followers in the auditorium at Third Church a couple of weeks ago.

I’m scheduled next on May 15: “The Power…”

Cheers.