Meeting Jesus through the Gospel
1. Sit quietly, recollect yourself. Concentrate on Jesus. Call on the Holy Spirit. Take your time. There is no rush and there is no fixed rule to follow. Be free in the Spirit.
2. Be aware that Jesus is with you. Use a mantra if you like, e.g. ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ..’
3. Read the passage with Jesus who was there and in the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
4. Note the words and sentences that strike you.
5. Pray about these and ask the Lord to speak to you through his Spirit.
6. Keep a journal of the inspirations you are given for your life. Jesus is present to you and he is speaking to you.
7. If the passage is a ‘dramatic’ one try and live the passage in your imagination. Remember it is not just imagination because Jesus is present now with you. Put yourself in the scene. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real.
31st May Monday.
Mark 12:1-12
1 Jesus went on to speak to them in parables, 'A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. 2 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3 But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty handed. 4 Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully. 5 And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest. 6 He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, "They will respect my son." 7 But those tenants said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours." 8 So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this text of scripture: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; 11 this is the Lord's doing, and we marvel at it ?' 12 And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.
Jesus condemns the Jewish priests for their continued obstinacy. The vineyard was the people of Israel
3 Next they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to catch him out in what he said. 14 These came and said to him, 'Master, we know that you are an honest man, that you are not afraid of anyone, because human rank means nothing to you, and that you teach the way of God in all honesty. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or not?' 15 Recognising their hypocrisy he said to them, 'Why are you putting me to the test? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.' 16 They handed him one and he said to them, 'Whose portrait is this? Whose title?' They said to him, 'Caesar's.' 17 Jesus said to them, 'Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar -- and God what belongs to God.' And they were amazed at him.
The heart of the matter is not the paying of taxes. His enemies hated Jesus. They wanted him destroyed and so proposed this trick question. The Pharisees, strict observers of the Law, compromised. Their conscience said paying tax to Caesar was wrong but could they face the consequences of not paying? They grudgingly paid. Could a prophet of God compromise? He must say yes or no. They didn’t believe a word of what they said, in fact the opposite, but Jesus, so they thought, must come out straight. No trick question deserves a straight answer. Before the crowds he shows them to be hypocrites. They have the hated coin issued by Caesar and so his property. They thereby acknowledge his authority. You have his coin. Give it back. Jesus doesn’t have it. How do you stand before Jesus? Do you stand transparent before him or try to justify your compromises?
Wednesday 2nd June 2010
18 Then some Sadducees -- who deny that there is a resurrection -- came to him and they put this question to him, 19 'Master, Moses prescribed for us that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a wife and then died leaving no children. 21 The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, 22 and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?' 24 Jesus said to them, 'Surely the reason why you are wrong is that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 25 For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? 27 He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.'
The Sadducees were the aristocracy having a religion of convenience to further their political ends. They only accepted the Pentateuch in which there is no explicit mention of resurrection. They try to show the stupidity of the idea. Jesus tells them they do not understand the Scriptures. Every page of the Bible talks of a God who loves mankind. Is he a God who lives in his own glory while caring nothing for his friends and lets them fall into nothingness at death? They know nothing of the power of God. Nor do we. Before God we are not even as ants before us. If you had never seen the beauty of flowers and the majesty of trees what would you imagine by looking at some colourless and lifeless seeds in your hand. We live in a hopeful expectation which is fully grounded in God’s infinite love for us.
Thursday 3rd June 2010
Mark 12:28-34
28 One of the scribes who had listened to them debating appreciated that Jesus had given a good answer and put a further question to him, 'Which is the first of all the commandments?' 29 Jesus replied, 'This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one, only Lord, 30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.' 32 The scribe said to him, 'Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true, that he is one and there is no other. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.' 34 Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God
Like the Jews we may have heard this from childhood with the familiarity which makes us pass it by. But Jesus takes our minds off individual laws and casuistry. He focuses us on what life is all about. Everything we have including the very breath we breathe is a gift from God. He gives us freely everything we see around us, the whole universe. We are preserved in being by his constant loving thought. Our existence is to be a response of love for him. There is no room for anything else. Then how often we fail and need to repent. All our dealings with our neighbour are to be an expression of love. We do not love them as we love God but as we love ourselves. We must then love ourselves, see ourselves as precious to God and love others in the same way. How often we fail.
Friday 4th June
Mark 12.35-37).
35 While teaching in the Temple
His enemies have tried to belittle Jesus in the eyes of the crowds by asking trick questions about taxes and the resurrection and a scribe admiring his answers had asked publicly about the most important commandment in the Law. Jesus had answered them all to their amazement. Now he asks a question to make them and us think more deeply. The Messiah is the son of David. But how could he be son and so inferior if David himself calls him Lord and has God say that he will sit at his right hand. He is making the Messiah equal with God. It is a veiled way of speaking but Jesus wants them to reflect. In the historical situation no one guessed that Jesus was truly God. We know that.. How does that change your perception of Jesus present to you now? Your Friend and Saviour is God.
Saturday 5th June
Mark 12:28-44
38 In his teaching Jesus said, 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, 39 to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; 40 these are the men who devour the property of widows and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.' 41 He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, 'In truth I tell you, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; 44 for they have all put in money they could spare, but she in her poverty has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.'
Jesus is contrasting two kinds of devotees. On the one hand those scribes who are full of self. They wear distinctive religious clothing, desire to be honoured and respected in public while having no love of God in their hearts. In daily life they satisfy their greed while giving the opposite impression. We find this type everywhere. On the other hand is a woman who has very little but out of love for God offers everything she has to His Temple. She lives for God. Where am I? Do I belong to Christ? Do I use all his gifts, many or few, for him alone or do I use them for myself? What kind of a devotee are you? We cannot compartmentalise our life. We either use all our gifts for him alone or we hold back and keep things for ourselves. Jesus accepts my ‘treasure’.
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