- And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. Mark 2:2 – We can tell the Jesus isn’t too far into His years of ministry due to His not even having all His disciples called yet, but already Jesus’ fame had spread like wildfire. It makes sense though if you have someone in your area curing diseases, healing broken bodies, and casting out evil spirits that it would cause an uproar and everyone would be flocking to see, and possibly experience, all this for themselves. Jesus was in his hometown, seeking to teach the Gospel, when the crowds around the location He was at turned into the situation we see told to us in our verse. It was so crowded that there wasn’t any room in the house, nor any room at the doorway. The place was surrounded with people, making it impossible for anyone to even get close to Jesus (I suppose almost impossible, there was the roof…). While the story of the friends overcoming all the obstacles to get their friend to Jesus is beautiful, my heart wonders if we in the church are creating obstacles still for people to get to Jesus? Is our traditions at church helping people draw close to Jesus or making it difficult for them to do that? Is our beliefs that aren’t founded in scripture helping or hurting people’s journey to Jesus? For Jesus’ purpose on earth was to create a clear pathway to the Father for us. He took care of the obstacles of sin, death, and the enemy and fulfilled the law so that we could walk freely to the Father. Yet how have we taken that clear pathway and made it difficult again for people to come to Jesus? Let’s pray about how possibly our church has done this and our own personal lives are doing this. Whatever the Lord reveals, let’s be about tearing them down so we are fostering clear pathways to Jesus for all. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3093
- And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. Mark 2:4 – Strive to surround yourself with friends like this. Strive to be a friend like this. We see here a man paralyzed and unable to reach Jesus because of his condition and the crowds around Jesus. So the men with him were willing to push through the crowd, get on the roof, tear the roof open, and lower their friend down so that he could find his healing from Jesus. That’s the type of friends we all need, those willing to go the extra mile for us even if it means no gain for themselves. Seek out depth in your relationships like this, but also don’t let it be one sided. Be sure you too are willing to go that extra mile for your friends that are in need. While we can’t be everything for everybody, we need to grow a willingness in our lives to do the extraordinary for others. Jesus sure did that for those He loved, why can’t we begin the process of imitating that same sort of care for those we love? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 457
- And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. Mark 2:22 – As a commentary I found said, the Gospel cannot coexist with any alternative religious system. For the hearers and readers in the time of Jesus this was focused on the Jewish law and the laws the religious leaders of the day had made. What Jesus was teaching and inviting people into couldn’t mesh and exist in this old way of living. Today we must understand our “old wineskins” can’t exist either with the new wine of the gospel. Like the wineskins that allow hatred of others to be ok or the wineskins that say certain sins in my life are ok to entertain. These ways of living and thinking and ways of relating with God cannot coexist with the true gospel. Either we hold fast to the old and disregard the new or set aside the old to embrace the new. As we walk more with Jesus our old ways will be challenged. Will you set them fully aside so you can make room for the new wine? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1611
Daily DEVO 