Mark 1 & 2

Mark 1 "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, where for art thout my Christmas tree?"

Before I write about what Mark says, it'sd important to note what mark doesn't say... he doesn't mention the birth of Jesus. The Christmas story is nowhere to be found. If Mark was the only gospel we had, winter would be even more depressing!

So why doesn't Mark include the Christmas story? It it because he didn't know it? I doubt it. Mark's gospel was written somewhere between 60-70AD, 30 years after the crucifixion. Matthew and Luke were written in the 80's, or 20 years later. They both have the Christmas story, and they were written hundreds of miles apart from each other (which is like thousands of miles apart today, maybe millions, remember no cars, computers etc.). So the Christmas story must have been known by all Christians, neither Matthew or Luke made it up. The answer is... it just wasn't important to Mark, not important enough to be in his gospel anyway.

Why isn't it important to Mark? Good question, thanks for asking!

Mark believes that Jesus' life as the Messiah doesn't start until he is baptized. That's why his gospel starts with his baptism. Matthew and Luke would argue that his life as Messiah started at his birth, while John, which was written in the early 100's would say that it started at the beginning of time, he writes "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God... and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us."

Mark believed that baptism has the power to change who we are. Jesus was changed when the Spirit descended upon him and we are changed when the Spirit descends upon us. I think a useful analogy here would be that of a butterfly. A butterfly goes through many stages before it actually becomes a butterfly. The stage right before butterfly is caterpillar. It's almost as if Mark thinks that before Jesus was baptized he was a caterpillar, and during his baptism he turned into a butterfly, and the butterfly Jesus is the only Jesus worth writing about.

Baptism is the same for us. After we are baptized we are changed, we are given new life. Martin Luther believed that our baptism is the start of our eternal lufe, and so we are currently living in the midst of two life spans. One is eternal and the other not so much. We are caterpillars and butterflies at the same time. The problem is that we spend our lives focusing on the caterpillar, and ignore the butterfly in us. We spend so much time and effort being a child of this world that we forget we are children of God. I think that we need to learn from Mark, and focus on being butterflies and try each day to lose our caterpillar shell. Our births are not important, our eternal life is.

Mark 2 "Up on the housetop click, click, click..." (it's not my intention to title every blog after Christmas carols, that's just how it has worked out so far!)

There have been few things that I have wanted so bad that I would have gone on top of the roof and forced my way in for. I have wanted many things in my life, a Nintendo, a driver's license, a letter jacket in high school, but nothing enough to get on a roof! Maybe it's because I'm afraid of heights...

But these men didn't want anything for themselves; they wanted healing for their friend. I have some really good friends, friends I would do anything for, but I don't think going on the roof and forcing my way in would ever even cross my mind. What an act of faith by this man's friends.

And what is Jesus response? He forgives the sins of the man on the mat, not the sins of the men who brought him in through the roof!

First of all, understand the power of Jesus' statement. This is the first time in human history that a man (Jesus) was forgiving another man (guy on mat) for sins he committed against still another man (all the people that he was mean to in his whole life). Jesus was either a total lunatic or he was the Messiah.

Secondly, I think this story teaches us a lot about friendship. Imagine the friends that came in through the roof, they were taking a great risk. Imagine having people come in through your roof, I bet you wouldn't be happy. You might have them arrested or take matters into your own hands. They were willing to risk it all for their friend... and there was no guarantee that their friend was going to get anything for their trouble. They just had faith.

Sometimes it is hard to put ourselves at risk for our friends, especially when there are no guarantees that our friend will benefit from our actions. I have been blessed in my life to have wonderful friends, friends that have been there for me at my worst and friends that have been there for me at my best. I hope that I can be that good of a friend to them.

I hope that if they needed me to get on a roof and force my way in to save them that I would. You know, now that I am thinking about it, I am sure I have friends I would get on a roof to save them, but would I do what it really takes to save them, am I courageous enough to tell them about Jesus?