And suddenly, there they were

 Hello again everyone. As we venture through the reading of Mark, I am going to continue to put these together. But by way of letting you know what to expect, on Sundays we will take a break from reading. I encourage you to find a local place to go and worship and hear God's Word spoken to you. That act also keeps you engaged with God's story.

As we work into chapter 3 today, one thing you will notice is that people have already started to notice Jesus. The action keeps moving fast, and it seems as though Jesus' words and actions are going highly noticed. Already there are plots against Him, watching to see what He does, and planning what to do with this disrupter of their nice comfortable system of religion. That's one of the things with Jesus, though. He gets people out of their comfort zones, and that includes you and I. 

This is also the first time we see Jesus starting to get an intentional group of people around Him that He will work with in preparation for sharing His work with the world. Even as He gathers these men, though, we see that everything Jesus is doing starts to disrupt even His family. They don't like what He is doing. They think He is out of His mind. And truthfully, when we see some of the things that Jesus does, or listen to some of the things He teaches, they truly do seem crazy. Love your enemies and try to work for their good? Really? Choose one follower who sympathizes with the Roman occupation, and another who actively worked to get rid of the Romans? That doesn't seem wise. 

And then Jesus changes the meaning of things. Even as His mother and brothers try to get Him to come home and mind His own business, He states that all who do God's will are His brothers and sisters and mothers. And that is the thing we experience with Jesus. He challenges our human, flawed way of thinking. He changes our reality. 

As you read through Mark, one thing you should experience is a good deal of unsettledness. Jesus is going to challenge how you think and act. And that is to be expected. Since He is the one true God, He knows how we were created to operate. So He is going to point out how God's design and expectations are different from our own. He points these out so that we see what He designed us to be, but also to realize how much we need what He came to bring. We need someone to restore us to God and to His original design. That's what Jesus came to do. 

So as we read, we will be confronted. It may be painful to think through some of what we read. However, the good news always resounds. Jesus came to restore our relationship with God and to make us new. That's why His death and resurrection become so key for us. We can't become perfect according to God's design, so we need Him restoring us. And so we read to make our feeble attempts in that direction, while giving thanks that He has completely restored us.