Day 14 - Mark 1:21-28

This is the story of the first exorcism. This can also be found in Luke 4:31-37.

I won't spend a lot of time on some of these verses. Capernaum was a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee.

I think it's interesting, phrases like "He spoke with authority unlike the teachers of the law." So the priests and rabbis of the day didn't speak or teach with authority. Or maybe they did, but they didn't have a fraction of the authority that Jesus had. The word "author" comes from the same word as authority. It means ultimate control. An author has ultimate control over the words they write and the fictional world they create. The authority of God refers to Him being the Creator of the universe and the ultimate power He has. Jesus spoke with the same authority, power, and sovereignty that God has.  Authority in speech means the ability to influence those around you. Jesus had/has the power to change the hearts and minds of the people. Which is something a lot of people struggle with. Well, God can change our minds, so why doesn't He force us to obey Him? He has the power, but that's the beauty of God, he values us and respects us and wants us to make the decision on our own to believe and obey.

Onward to the rest of the passage, I hate using the word "exorcism" mainly because people think of modern exorcism and how it's used in culture and how the meaning of exorcism has been distorted. If you don't already know this, I'm a word nerd. I looked up the origin of the word exorcism. Exorcize (not exercise. And no, exercism is not a real word) comes from Greek ex (out) and Greek horkos (oath). Over time and translated a few times, it ended up as exorcise, originally meaning to conjure up or command an evil spirit. And of course -ism is to take a verb and make it into a noun. 

Cultures and religions worldwide have used "exorcisms" to control or drive out demons from a person or place for centuries. I have no idea if cultures and other religions were practicing exorcisms before Jesus' time or if they started doing them after. I tend to believe the latter. That the Good News was spread to all nations and when the priests of other religions heard it, they probably didn't believe Jesus was God. They probably figured, "if that rabbi can control an evil spirit, so can I". And I believe that the spirit was indeed "driven out" because the possessed person believed it would work. Power of the mind and all that. You probably are thinking, "Power of the mind? Not power of God?" Wait, I'm getting there. 

I believe that a demon can control you or Satan can influence you if you allow it. You make the decision to give in to temptation or to resist it. You have the power to fight back if Satan is trying to grab hold of you. So the only way that a demon is able to control someone is if they have given up fighting and allowed the demon to enter. But in comes in a priest who believes he can make the demon go away. And when you allow the exorcism, you believe the demon can go away too. Therefore, the exorcism "worked". So if what Jesus is doing in this passage have been "successfully" repeated over time, then why is it considered a miracle? Why is it in the bible? Why is it even special at all? It is a miracle because 1) this was the first exorcism. No one had done this before and only the Power of God could do it. 2) the man had allowed this demon in, or at least he had succumb to the demon and given up the fight, and the man didn't believe the demon could go away. But Jesus controlled the demon and made it go away. 

Remember that Jesus IS God in flesh form. Remember that God created Satan (Satan was good when he was created) and God also created all the demons. So remember when you feel like your life is surrounded by demons and you are fighting your hardest to keep them back, GOD IS IN CONTROL. God has power over every demon, big or small. 

The same astonishment that the crowd had when Jesus cast the demon out of the man is the same astonishment that still happens today when people can see the effect that Jesus has had in your life by casting out the darkness. 

Day 13 - Mark 1:14-20

I wanted to start of by apologizing for being SO late in this post. I didn't mean for my computer being with geek squad to mean 2 weeks away from my blog. 

Today, we'll only be covering 7 verses. I'm coming to find Mark has very short sections. I know I told you that a few posts ago, that Mark prefers action rather than dialogue and inner monologue. I guess I didn't realize how short it really is. This story is also found in Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:2-11, and John 1:35-42.

We don't know when John was put in prison, or what for, yet. I'm sure it is specified in a different or parallel passage. It probably was because John the Baptist was "disturbing the public" with his radical speeches. But after John had been put in prison, Jesus went out among the people and shared the same message that John had said, to repent their sins and open their hearts to accept the good news that the Kingdom of God was upon them, that Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to the people, and Jesus was there.

I see this scene as an old political ad, where they drive around with a megaphone, "Vote for Mayor for mayor!" (Powerpuff Girls reference there) So there's Jesus with his megaphone, walking all throughout the land, and he walks beside the sea and sees two fishermen, Simon and Andrew. He tells them to drop their nets and come be fishers of men. I'll come back to this phrase in a second.

Jesus went a little further and finds James and John with their father Zebedee. In enters "other John" along with the confusion of "is it John the Baptist or John the Disciple?" This comes up a lot in the scriptures. But they were two very different men. These guys were getting ready to fish and "without delay" (another action phrase of Mark's), meaning with no hesitation, Jesus calls them to follow. Jesus didn't get Simon and Andrew and walk off and then double-back, "Hey, you guys wanna come too?" No. He saw them, He knew the purpose He had for them and he called to them. Also without hesitation, they left their father in the boat with his hired workers. No hesitation means they didn't sit there and think, "Hmm, should we?" or "Dad, is it ok if we go?". They didn't even know who Jesus was, but they "knew" and they could feel the Holy Spirit's pull on them and they left.

Fishers of men. For the longest time, this phrase totally confused me. Maybe because I grew up a Christian so phrases like this were "normal" and used in daily conversation without explanation to what it really meant. To be a fisher is different from being a hunter. Fishers are patient and wait for their catch, as opposed to hunters who chase it. Fishers are passive, while hunters are aggressive. Notice Jesus didn't find hunters to be his disciples. 4 men, which means 1/3 of His disciples were fishers. Fishers were important to Jesus and he used His men to tell the Good News, the way that shepherds are used to tell stories in both the Old and New Testament. Fishers catch fish by laying down nets or baited lines and the fish come to them. Hunters attack their prey by surprise or long distance. When Jesus finds fishers and asks them to be fishers of men, he is asking them to a) leave their lifestyle, career, home and family and b) to lay down their life and their story to lead people to Christ. Jesus is not finding disciples to hunt down people and forcibly make them believe in Christ.

These same words apply to today. Here I am, writing this blog, laying down my time, energy, words, stories and life in the hopes of leading people to Christ. I can only hope that the people reading this are doing the same and leading others. I'm not pounding on doors and holding a gun to your head demanding you to repent to save your soul. That kind of person is a hunter, not a fisher. As you live your life and speaking to others about Christ, ask yourself if you are doing so as a fisher, or as a hunter.

Day 12 - Mark 1:9-13

5 verses. This seems like a very short section today. And... quite frankly, it is. Just wait until we get into the minor prophets and the whole book is a blink of an eye. You will find that many things in the gospels are told numerous times because it is the same story written by 4 different men. That doesn't mean that you should just read one and move on. Each man had their own perspective and insight and thoughts about the same event. This story is also found in Matthew 3:13 to 4:11 and Luke 3:21 to 4:13. Personally, I like the Luke version better because it contains the genealogy of Jesus and the dialogue between Jesus and Satan when he was tempted. It gives you more of an understanding. But I'll stay here in Mark and know that we'll get to that section in Luke another day.

At the time, when John was baptizing people in the Jordan for purposes of preparing their hearts for Jesus, Jesus himself came to John to be baptized.

What a glorious picture this would've been to witness. Mind you, Jesus did not have his disciples yet, or any other followers. There might have been a group getting baptized all together that day. We don't know. It could've been just Jesus and John. But what a great thing for John to have witnessed.
When Jesus came out of the water, the clouds parted and the Holy Spirit descended on them.
In the Old Testament, when God wanted people to visibly see Him, the Holy Spirit came as a cloud of smoke (I.E. in Exodus 14) or as fire (I.E. in Exodus 3). So when the bible says that the Holy Spirit descended, picture either smoke or fire or both. But it also says descending on him "like a dove". So a dove on fire? A smoking dove? A dove flying through smoke and fire? I don't know. Doves are used all over the Bible for various symbolism. Noah used doves to see if/when it was safe to look for land when the rains had stopped during the flood and a dove holding an olive branch has come to symbolize peace because the bird finding the branch meant God's punishment was over. The cooing sound of a dove is what what described as the mournful sound of the Israelites during their various hard-times. Doves were used for sacrifice, maybe God's way of foreshadowing Jesus as a sacrifice. Doves have come to represent the Holy Spirit, whether it is descending upon someone, or the imagery of it being there.
So the Holy Spirit is descending on Jesus and a voice came from heaven (voice of an angel? I think it was the voice of God. Because of the dove and because if it was an angel, the angel usually is actually mentioned). The voice says, "You are my Son." God is declaring to the people that this is the Son of God. "whom I love." He is showing that He is a loving God. "with you I am well pleased." We know that Jesus didn't sin, but God is saying this because by being baptized, Jesus is ticking another box on his check-list as the Messiah.

The Spirit sent Him out into the desert (notice the "at once" there, signature of Mark). Jesus is following this dove into the desert. Jesus knew what to do, but I think the dove was there to show the people that this was God's will to lead Him there.

Jesus was in the desert 40 days. It isn't said in this version, but it was 40 days of fasting. No food. Little to no water. Jesus is God, He can do anything, but Jesus was also man and he was hungry. This fasting made Him tired and weak. So, naturally, Satan comes along to tempt him. We'll get into the temptations later.

He was surrounded by wild animals who could've eaten Him at any moment, but He wasn't killed because He is God. He probably talked to the animals. And angels were at His side. Know that when you are in your period of hardships, you don't have to be the Messiah for angels and the Holy Spirit to be at your side. Both come to comfort you and to give you strength to get to the end of your hardship.

I hope today didn't feel rushed. I'll be back tomorrow with the next section.

Day 11 - Mark 1:1-8

Today's section is very short, with only 8 verses. But it continues with how Luke set up his book. Luke began with the birth of John the Baptist, and so Mark begins with John the Baptist preparing the way. This story can also be found in Matthew 3:1-11, and Luke 3:2-16. The same story under 3 different author's flair.

Before we get into this, we haven't done anything on Mark before. The same way that I introduced you to the book of Luke, I'll introduce you to Mark. Luke read like a broadway musical, remember? With all the song and dance. Well, Mark reads like an action movie. Event, event, event, event, event. Mark's words are like camera directions, which is awesome to think that he had that type of brain even before cameras were invented. He pans over crowds and then zooms in on the "main character", Jesus. Mark doesn't focus on dialogue and personal narrative the way the other writers of the bible do. mark doesn't reflect on Old Testament or Jewish law much. This leads scholars to believe his "target audience" was the Roman Empire who were new to not only the Christian faith, but to Judaism also. Mark wrote to the Gentiles, the "non-Jews".
The New Testament was written in either Greek or Latin, because the Roman Empire controlled Israel. Mark's book is written in Greek. He uses the Greek "hurry-up" adverb 42 times, it was recorded into English with a variety of synonyms: at once, immediately, etc. He wanted to captivate his audience and entice the reader who would be bored by dialogue and personal narrative. He tells mostly the same stories as the other Gospels, he just has his own way of saying things. So without further ado...

...a bit of knowledge. The first sentence just talks about the name of Jesus. Jesus has countless names, but here, we already have 3.
Jesus - this is actually the Latin translation of the name Joshua, which means "God saves". And it's really cool. The other famous biblical Joshua was the one who lead the Israelites through the desert after Moses had died. He's the one who actually got God's people back to their land. Being the leader, he represented the fact that God saved them from slavery. Now with Jesus, He is the savior. He is the flesh image on earth and proof that God saves. Through Jesus, God saved His people from sin. Now, I don't feel so bad about the hispanic families who name their child Jesús. It's "the same" as naming your kid Joshua, I guess.
Christ - this word is actually the Greek translation for the Hebrew word Messiah. (You'll see this mentioned in the footnotes of the biblegateway link above) I should've mentioned this when we were going through Luke, but whenever you see the word Christ, think of Messiah. Both mean "Anointed One", but with Messiah, you remember that the Israelites waited 400 years for their Messiah. You remember the prophesies and the promises they desperately waited for. Or at least that word makes me think of those things.
Son of God - some translations don't say this here, they stop at "Jesus Christ", but this being in here is important. It is telling/reminding the reader that this man was not only a savior and the anointed and long-awaited Messiah, but He was also the Son of God. He is not separate from God. He does God's will because He is part of God/He is God.
Also, the term "gospel" means: 1) the life/teachings/revelations of Jesus, 2) a thing that is absolutely true, and 3) a set of beliefs.

So this first sentence, Mark quickly said, "This is the true story of the life, teaching, and revelations of Jesus; the long-awaited savior and Anointed One who is God."

First He quotes Isaiah in Malachi 3:1, and then in Isaiah 40:3. Isaiah spent his life just telling people what God told him. in these two particular prophesies, he talks about a man who will "prepare the way for the Lord." Every time I read those words or type them, I think of the song, "Did you feel the Mountains Tremble?" during the chorus. Don't mind me as songs keep going through my head. But the term "prepare the way" refers to preparing the people. Make the people ready to see and believe the Messiah. Get them ready to understand His words. They were already waiting for their King, so John's job was to get them hyped up about it. 400 years is a long time to wait, and John had to light the fire under them again.

As I was reading though verse 4, I came upon some questions: What is a baptism of repentance and how is it different from the baptism we practice today (Christ's commandment to publicly baptize to proclaim your faith). Why were the disciples and Jesus baptized before Christ gave the commandment and before His death and resurrection? Luckily enough, other people out there had the exact same question. And here is a well-written out answer. If you don't have time to read it, here's a quick sum-up. John's baptism of repentance was in accordance with his call to prepare the way for Christ. John had to not only light a fire, but soften a heart to accept Jesus. He called people to ask for forgiveness of their sins and by baptizing, they would wash it away. It allowed the people to understand and accept when Jesus offered forgiveness of all sins and ended up being a sacrifice for their sins. (He couldn't give away that spoiler to the people)

So the people went to him and confessed their sins and were baptized. John was fulfilling his purpose.

But John, was a little bit of a weirdo. And this is the neat thing. You find scattered all throughout the bible are weirdos and cast outs and cowards and people that are not your typical hero stereotypes. But God uses the weirdos. He takes their inadequacies and makes them stronger and uses them as his vessels.

John wore clothing made from camel hair. The "common man" had clothing made of goat hair. Camel hair was expensive. But John lived in the desert and spent his time wading in the Jordan River. It'd be like wearing cashmere while you're living in the slums or painting a house. People probably thought he was a crazy idiot for wearing camel hair clothes.

With a leather belt around his waist. Why is this important and why was the previous statement about the camel hair important? It ties John the Baptist to Elijah, the prophet. In 2 Kings 1:8, Elijah is described to wear a hairy garment (or be a hairy man, we aren't sure) and wear a leather belt. It signified that both of these men were Jesus' preparers, set in different times to aid in Israel's waiting process.

He ate locusts. Firstly, ew. For some reason, as a child, I dint know what a locust looked like, so I just imagined various bugs I don't like when Sunday school taught about the 10 plagues. But locusts are the swarming phase of certain short-horned species of grasshopper. So a grasshopper. So we don't forget what we're talking about, I'll just call them grasshoppers from now on and gross myself out a little bit more. Grass hoppers are actually very nutritious. Grasshoppers are still commonly eaten in Arabia. But in Jesus' time, eating grasshoppers meant you were a hermit and you couldn't afford "real food".

And wild honey. Wild bee honey was a common thing to eat back then, but some people think that the sweet substance he ate was the gum from the tamarisk tree. It is tasteless, yet nutritious. Either way, his diet literally only consisted of grasshoppers and liquid. Feels like Timon and Pumbaa's diet.

If you haven't already got the word "weirdo" plastered all over John the Baptist, check out this really famous song by dcTalk. If you've already heard it, you might not have caught the straight-from-the-bible rhymes.

BUT(!) God used this weirdo. Mark and Matthew both point out John's weirdness because despite all of his quirks, people still came to this out cast and listened to what he had to say. And this is what he told the people:

After me will come one more powerful than I. He's telling the people that somebody way better is coming soon. Jesus was already born, but John was saying that He will soon be public.

The thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. What an interesting image. I am not worthy to get close enough to get down on my knees to touch his shoe. Which is interesting because later, Jesus values when Mary of Bethany sits at His feet to listen and later when that same Mary pours expensive perfume on His feet, He says she did the right thing.

I baptize you with(in) water, but He will baptize you with(in) the Holy Spirit. Being baptized by water can only clean your skin and your outward appearance. And later baptism becomes an outward display of faith. But Jesus uses the Holy Spirit to cleanse you thoroughly; your insides, your spirit, your mind.

I'm glad I only did 8 verses today. Who knows if that is what analyzing the short writing of Mark will always be like.

Day 10 - Luke 2:41-52

Hopefully you find this story in Luke 2:41-52 as funny as I do.

So, Jesus and his family always travelled to Jerusalem for Passover. We all have heard of the holiday and maybe know a bit about it.
Passover was established in Exodus 12, when God passed over the Hebrew homes during the 10th plague that killed the first born of every family and consequentially freed the people of Israel from slavery.
In biblical times, It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals that all the nation of Israel and tribes of Judah travelled to Jerusalem for. You know those family reunions you go to every year? My family has a reunion every year. Always just after Christmas and always either in Riverside or the outskirts of LA. Either way, its only about a 30 minute drive for us, and we find reasons to get parts of the family together during other parts of the year. I know some people have an annual family reunion where they have to drive 6 hours to get there and you might as well stay the weekend because you have to drive another 6 hours back home. Other people have a family reunion where they have to take a 12 hour flight to get there. And you might as well stay a week or two because it was expensive getting there. But these six hour drives and twelve hour flights mean that it is really difficult to get back to your family at any time during the rest of the year, right? I don't know which category you fall in with the distances you travel to your families. But think about that when you think about the biblical observance of passover. Because it was all the Jews who travelled to Jerusalem for the festival, each town travelled by foot or donkey in a group for days. Of course, each group's travel distance was different, and I'm sure each city had it planned out what time they had to leave. Maybe the furthest town would start at a certain time and when they got to a city, all the Jews joined them and added to their numbers traveling. I don't know how they did it then, but they travelled for days. By the time they got there, it was like the 12 hour flyers, you might as well stay for the whole week. I know why Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days, but I don't know why other Jewish holidays are celebrated for 8 days also. Personally, I think it was because they travelled so far and figured they should stay there for a bit before going home. But not only did they make this immense journey, by Jewish law, they did it three times a year!! They travelled for Passover (which was in March or April), Pentecost (which was in May or June and only lasted 1 day, not 8), and for the Feast of the Tabelnacles (which was another 8 days in September or October). Literally, the Jews of the Bible, and some modern Jews, spent their whole lives either worshipping God, praising God, celebrating what God had done, or planning out how to do one of the 3 previous things. I have full repeat for that. They had their priorities straight.
This is how Jewish people currently celebrate it.
But this is the Christian perspective on this. This is why Christians do not celebrate Jewish holidays. I fully respect Jews who celebrate their holidays with full knowledge of the history and meaning of the holiday, with full understanding (which leads to the emotional connection to it), and with full application to their life. But we, as Christians, are called to not celebrate those days because Jesus is the Lamb of God, He is the ultimate sacrifice, and we no longer need to sacrifice or remember the sacrifices of the past because of what He has done. Jewish holidays were only a glimmer of the greatness, glory, and celebration that is due for Jesus.

Ok, so back to how they celebrated Passover in the Bible. With the big long journeys for the week-long feast. The year that this Passover took place, Jesus was 12 years old. The festival ends and Mary and Joseph start their journey home with the mass going to Nazareth. A full day later(!) Mom and Dad realize that Jesus is not with them, He had stayed behind in Jerusalem. So they turned around to go back to Jerusalem. I don't know if Mary and Joseph had turned around alone, or if the other Nazarenes had gone with them. But they went back. It says they found Jesus after three days. I don't know if this means 3 days total from when they had left the first time, or three days after they got back to Jerusalem, which would be 5 days. Total. Either way, panicked parents.

Have you ever lost your child? I'm sure everyone has had that 5 minutes of panic. When I was little, maybe 3 years old, I wandered off in a Ralph's. Pretty much a blink of an eye situation. Mom turned for three seconds and I was gone. She panicked. She left her shopping cart where it was, she ran through the aisles, she ran into the parking lot looking for me, or a van with a screaming child, or a van speeding off. She didn't know what to think. She was freaking out.

Finally, after 3 or 5 days, Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple courtyard with the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Naturally, the teachers didn't know He was God in human flesh and were amazed at how much Jesus understood at His age. Mary comes us and gently scolds him. "Why have you treated us this way. Why did you run away? We were so worried about you!" And Jesus replies, "Why did you have to look for me? Didn't you know I would be in my Father's house (or in some translations "doing my Father's work")? Didn't you realize I would be in the temple, doing my job on earth?" But Mary and Joseph were confused. He used the word "Father" referring to "Heavenly Father" right after Mary uses the term "Father" referring to Joseph. And with parent panic mode fully engaged, I think they forgot that their little boy was, in fact, the Messiah.

So, Mom takes another look through the Ralph's and finds me Right in the front. I haven't seen them in a long time, and my mom still swears this is why, but do you remember those giant metal cages that had big plastic/rubber balls inside? I was there. Playing with the bouncy balls. My mom ran up, spanked me and after a few quick scolds to never do that again, she asked why I was there. I simply responded, "I like the balls, Mommy. I just wanted to play with the balls." She then had to give me a quick lessen that there are bad men in the world who like to steal little girls so I had to never leave her side in public. Especially since the ball cage was by the front door and someone could pop in, grab a kid, and run off.

So all was well, both Jesus and I were found during our panicked parent situations.
Jesus went home with His parents. He had to learn to be obedient to both His earthly parents and His Heavenly Father. I still struggle with this.
His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And I love that. She took what she saw in her son and she learned from them.
Jesus grew in wisdom and stature (in body and mind). I think this is mentioned because we don't hear anymore childhood stories of Jesus. That's Luke's way of saying, "Jesus grew up".
In favor with God and man, which I take to mean, He was loved by the people as He was loved by God.

All done with Luke 2, and done with Luke for a bit. Tomorrow, we'll continue our "Life and the Teachings of Jesus" route with Mark 1.

Day 9 - Luke 2:21-40

Today we are in Luke 2:21-40, When Jesus is presented in the temple.

We already talked about circumcision when John the Baptist was born. If you haven't already read that, go here.

If you are curious, this is the passage that God established circumcision.

In Luke 2, it says that Mary and Joseph had to take two doves or two young pigeons with them to be sacrificed when Jesus was named and circumcised. Man, I hate typing that word. but in that passage I just linked to you, it talks about nothing to do with sacrifice while you snip. So I looked up where in the bible it talks about sacrificing birds.
I came up with Leviticus 1, and Leviticus 14.
The hard thing about reading Leviticus is that you can easily get bogged down with the detailed rules that the Israelites had. One could look at the rules and compare it to other religions saying, "Look! He's just like any other God who makes His people do the hokey pokey before gaining access to Heaven!" but that is absolutely not true.
In those days, back when He established the rules with Abraham and that era of time, He didn't mean for it to become a hokey pokey. He wanted the people to constantly be reminded of the promises He had fulfilled in their past, and the promises he would keep in the future. The rituals that consumed their time and energy were so that they wouldn't get distracted by other things or other gods. Also, when it came to circumcision and the other practices they had, it was God's way of setting his people apart from the others. It sounds bad, but it was his way of branding them, except you chose to be branded, as opposed to Him forcing you to follow. God never forced His people to believe in Him, to love Him, or to obey Him. He showed them how to believe, love and obey, and gave them the choice to follow.
These rules are what evolved into what Jesus hated about the temple, the priests, and the pharisees. They followed the rituals and practices of Judaism, but they did not have the love in their heart. They did not have the blind faith.
We need to look at these rules as a piece of history, not as something to do. Because of Jesus being the God-human sacrifice, the old rules are null and void.
That being said, let's move on.

In comes this man, Simeon. And I love Simeon's enthusiasm. He was a righteous and devout man, meaning he had followed all the laws and was pure of heart. But he was waiting for the Messiah and he was growing weary in heart waiting. So God spoke to Him and said, "Don't worry, you won't die until you see Christ." So Simeon went to the temple and behold(!) there was Jesus with his parents! So the man held Jesus and praised God thanking Him for fulfilling His promise to see the Messiah. Not many people at this time know exactly what to expect of the Messiah, as I've already said in previous posts. They expected a conquering king. They did not expect their savior to be a humble carpenter, able to die. They (the Israelites) know their savior would save them, they didn't know he would save the Gentiles (non-Jewish people) too. Mary and Joseph filled with wonder at what he said, and then he continued to talk to Mary about what Jesus would do, and that His salvation would even reach her. That just gives me chills, that Mary carried Jesus, gave birth to Him, raised Him, but His salvation was for her too.

Then there's Anna, a prophetess. It says she was of the tribe of Asher. As you can see in the picture, Asher was the northern-most tribe of Israel. (That green thing next to Nephtali) The tribe of Asher isn't really talked about much. Not because it is unimportant, but I think it is because it is so far north of our normal "setting". Jerusalem is in the tribe of Benjamin, near the border of the tribe of Judah.

So Anna travelled far to be there. I don't know if she had always lived in Asher (it says she was 84 years old) or if she and her husband had moved south in her younger years. Either way, she has been a widow for decades and so she spends all of her time in the temple, worshipping God 24/7. (You go, Anna!) 

In those days (yes, this will be a common phrase in this blog, get used to it) when a man died, his wife was given to his brother. Women had the purpose of bearing children, so if a man were to die and the woman was still of child-bearing age, the would be wed or given as a second wife to the brother. The fact that she has been a widow for decades means her husband probably had no brothers. Without a brother to marry, Anna was without a purpose. (Hey, hey! Guess what, her purpose was praising God) 

So, Awesome Anna, who has been praising God 24/7 even though she has no purpose in society's eyes, she is able to see any Jesus, and from then until the day she died, she spoke with words of hope to fellow Israelites who had been looking forward to Christ. 

Mary and Joseph return home to Nazareth with Jesus. 

He grew and became strong. This can be both physical strength and strength in God. We know Joseph was a carpenter because it is told to us, but honestly, I hadn't read it in the bible so i had to look it up. In Matthew 13:55, it talks about Jesus' earthly family. A carpenter has to be strong to build. Joseph taught Jesus his skills before Jesus went on his evangelical travels. 

He was filled with wisdom. Remember that Jesus is God in human form. Remember that God is omniscient, which means He is all-knowing. So the full knowledge of God was in the human brain of Jesus. 

The grace of God was upon Him. We've talked about grace before. The favor of God. And let's be honest, Jesus is God's son/God's flesh. Of course He would be in good favor. God would do whatever he could to protect His son from harm before His purpose was fulfilled. 

Tomorrow we will finish up chapter 2 and in my opinion, it is a funny story. I'm excited :)

Day 8 - Luke 2:8-20

We pick up our nativity story with the Shepherds and the Angels.

Remember I said, Bethlehem was a sheepherder's town? So here are these shepherds with their sheep in the middle of a field. And by field, I mean it is the outskirts of town, because animals were disgusting and people didn't want to be near them, they just wanted to eat them and sacrifice them.
Speaking of, shepherds were disgusting. Not only by their society's view of them on the hierarchy, but because they actually stank. They spent all their time with their sheep, and maybe with a couple other shepherds, in the dirty fields, in any weather. They did not have time to take baths, and they probably couldn't afford even the public baths in the town square, that is to say if such a small town had a public bath. They jumped in the river if it wasn't too cold to freeze them. Shepherds were disgusting people, yet look at who God chooses to go greet baby Jesus and worship Him.

The angel appears to them. We do not know which angel this is. But thats not what is important. It doesn't even matter what "type" of angel it was (cherubim, seraphim, etc). But we do know that the glory of the Lord shone around them. And it freaked these shepherds out.

A shining glory. I'm going to take this two ways.
It could have been a shining light that displayed God's glory. K, so these shepherds are out side of town because they smell, which is a good thing because these angels are like a flood light to a world without electricity. (Then again, God could've shielded Bethlehem for noticing this magnificent light, the same way I believe he shielded historians and archaeologists from noticing Nazareth until 400 years later) God and His greatness created the sun and all of its brightness and heat-ness, so these angels could have had the blinding light of the sun in their eyes. That's scary!
Or, the glory that they are shining with is like an "aura" where it is unseen, but an emotion and goodness shines around them.
Either way, it was a scary experience for these poor shepherds and this clip from The Two Towers, is the way I think of it.



Also, shepherds were defenders. They protected their sheep, so I'm sure they knew how to wield a weapon. If they didn't immediately know that it was angels around them, yeah, they might've attacked.
But I love that after Legolas and Gimli realize that it is Gandalf and not Saruman before them, they bow down to him. Yes, they were scared at first. Yes, they tried attacking, but when the glory had dimmed down, they bowed down.

The angel has to tell them to not be afraid and that they are to tell them something awesome. They tell the shepherds that Christ has been born in the town they are near. And Christ translates to Messiah, so the angel it telling them that this Messiah they have waited 400 years for, now has come.
They give the shepherds a clue on how to find the Messiah. And I'm sure the shepherds weren't expecting the angels to say that the Messiah would be a baby lying in an animal trough.

Now the other angels join this one and start singing. HOLY COW! How awesome would that have been to hear a choir of angels? I know I will hear them in the future when I am in Heaven, but to hear it on earth with earthly ears, when you are used to the sound of bleating sheep. It would've brought me to tears.

One of the most famous lines in Christmas songs in here, and it in itself it the gospel: peace on earth to men on whom his favor rests.
peace is not just a time of no war, peace is that overwhelming comfort.
remember we went over favor a few days ago - grace, charm, acceptance, goodwill, desire, to stoop in kindness to an inferior, and to be shown consideration.

God gives an overwhelming comfort to mankind because He forgives you, He is attracted to you, He has good intentions for you, He desires you, and He comes down on our level. 

Then the angels leave. The shepherds say, "Awesome! Let's go into Bethlehem and see the Messiah!" I'd be that shepherd still sitting on the ground like, "Guys! Did you see the angels?" It takes me time to get over such awesome stuff, then I'd be excited to see Jesus.

They get to the barn and when they realize it's all true, I can imagine them running and skipping through the streets saying, "Come to the barn!! The Messiah has come! He's a baby, but it's HIM!" They probably woke up all the neighbors and the travelers staying at the inn, but it says all were amazed at what they had said. Then they returned to praise God for the fulfillment of His promise.
I'd like to think that if these people were woken up and were amazed, that it was more than just the shepherds who returned to praise God. That barn was probably packed with the entire little town of Bethlehem to see their savior.

Here ends our nativity scene. We'll pick up tomorrow with verse 21.