What Will We Doing When He Shows Up?

Mark 13:33-37, CEB - Watch out! Stay alert! You don’t know when the time is coming.  It is as if someone took a trip, left the household behind, and put the servants in charge, giving each one a job to do, and told the doorkeeper to stay alert.  Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know when the head of the household will come,whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows in the early morning or at daybreak.  Don’t let him show up when you weren’t expecting and find you sleeping.  What I say to you, I say to all: Stay alert!”

 

                As the “Little Apocalypse” of Mark 13 draws to close, Jesus drives home the main point with a simple parable which foreshadows what is about to happen.  The owner of the household (Jesus) is about to leave his servants (disciples) in charge.  They are to attend to their duties conscientiously knowing that the owner is coming back.  Not knowing when, they have to be always watchful to see His return.  They do not want to be caught not doing their job.  Vigilance is key!

                Constant vigilance, however, is also very difficult for humans.  We are easily distracted.  We get bored. We get tired.  We get lost. We lose our focus.  Sometimes, we even lose hope.  This is even more challenging when the vigilance we are to maintain has been charged to us by another. I am way better at staying focused on what I want to do than a task given to me by someone else.  What about you?

                What is the work that God has given you to do?  How’s it going?  If Jesus showed up later today, what would be your reaction?  Spend some time today thinking about these questions. 

 

Prayer:  Lord, forgive me for getting distracted, bored, tired, lost, and/or unfocused.  Renew my hope.  Make it clear what my focus should be at this point in my life and help me stay alert. Amen,

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who life situation has changed recently in a significant way.  Pray for a fruitful transition.

 

Song:  I Wish We'd All Been Ready - DC Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu_fm0oedGU

Prime Directives

 

Mark 12:28-34, CEB - One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord,  and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself.  No other commandment is greater than these.”

The legal expert said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides him.  And to love God with all of the heart, a full understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 

This is the last question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders and experts in the temple and Mark uses it to highlight Jesus’s most important teaching.  More accurately, it is a summary of all His teaching.  Another noteworthy aspect of this exchange is that it is a positive conversation between Jesus and the legal expert, which is rare in all the gospels.  In Mark it is the only positive exchange. 

To the question of what is the most important of all the commandments, Jesus combines quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus to arrive at what I have often summarized as “love God and love people.”  However, when we’re looking at the specific text, it’s important to note some unique details to Mark.  First, Jesus begins His answer by quoting the Shema (“Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord”).  Jews since the second century BC have quoted this confession of faith twice daily.  It grounds Jesus answer in the everyday life of a person of faith and links what will be the Christian faith to the Hebrew faith of old.  It also affirms that both the Hebrew faith and the Christian faith are monotheistic.  There are times when the Christian faith is accused of being polytheistic (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  Jesus’s quote of the Shema refutes that accusation. 

Another important detail concerning Jesus’s quote of the Torah is that Jesus adds “mind” to the list in Deuteronomy of things with which we are to love God.  It brings to mind the 20^th century Paul Tillich’s definition of theology (loving God with the mind”).  The faith that Jesus invites us to is not one that requires us to leave our brain at the door.  This idea is strengthened by the fact that this theological discussion that Jesus is having with the legal expert ends with Jesus proclaiming, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

The core of the Judaic (and Christian) faith, according to Jesus is three loves – love of God, love of people, and love of self.  Love of self is assumed in Jesus’s statement, but it is still important.  Where love of self is lacking, love of others becomes strained, if not impossible.  Both love of self and others though, comes after love of God, which is our prime directive.   

Love God and love people is simple, but far from simplistic or easy.  We can do a thousand beneficial things without love and miss the point.  This is the “not far” of Jesus’s final statement to his questioner.  It’s not enough to know the centrality of love in following Jesus.  Love is a verb.  As such, one cannot possess the love Jesus speaks of, only practice it.  We love God and people by the many things we do and refrain from doing each day.  As soon as we stop actively practicing love, we have strayed from the Kingdom. 

 

Question:  Thinking about your actions over the last few days, how have you actively loved God, self, and others?

 

Prayer:    Lord, because You love us, we can love ourselves, return our love to you,  and extend that love to others.  Give us eyes to see the specific opportunities we have to actively love today. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:   Pray for people experiencing chronic pain today.

 

Song:  Luv is a Verb – DC Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfFuhrdGKM