Scripture Notes: The Divine Physician (Mark 2)

Jesus had just called Levi (also know as Matthew) the tax collector to follow Him. At those two words, “Follow Me,” something in Levi woke up or became whole or both. He didn’t think twice. He got up, left everything behind, and followed after Jesus, becoming one of the Twelve Apostles. Levi’s whole life changed in an instant. He had been touched and healed by the Divine Physician.

Levi’s first action after his miraculous conversion to a new life was to share his joy with others. He threw a party for his friends, mostly other tax collectors and people the Jews considered sinners. He wanted them to know Jesus and to experience the same healing that had just entered his life. Jesus gladly sat with all of them, eating and conversing and touching who knows how many other hearts.

And the Jewish leaders had a fit. “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?” they asked Jesus’ disciplines. But the disciples did not answer; Jesus, overhearing their indignant question, did. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,” Jesus explained. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus knew exactly who needed Him the most: those who were suffering, those floundering in sin, those who understood deep down that there was something more for them besides their misery and their separation from God. The leaders, on the other hand, thought they were perfectly fine. They were not sick and sinful, or so they believed. They were righteous...but only in their own eyes. In reality, they were just as sick as those tax collectors and sinners. They needed Jesus just as much, but they didn’t know it and wouldn’t accept it. So they missed out on a life-changing encounter with the Divine Physician.

Scripture Notes: Overconfidence (Matthew 26)

Poor Peter. We all know how he must have felt. He honestly, truly loved Jesus, so when Jesus told the disciples that they would all fall away that very night, the night on which Jesus would be arrested, Peter was horrified. He could not imagine himself doing such a thing. “I will never fall away,” he insisted.  

Jesus knew better. He understood Peter better than Peter understood himself. He could see Peter’s weakness even though Peter could not. So Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times.” It was not an accusation; Jesus was not angry. It was simply a statement of fact.

Peter refused to believe it. “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You,” he firmly maintained. And he meant it. He really was sincere. But he was also overconfident. He did not realize what would face him that night. He did not comprehend the fear and the horror. He did not know himself well enough to properly predict how he would respond.  

But Jesus did. And Peter learned a tough lesson about himself. He did indeed deny Jesus three times that very night, just as Jesus had predicted. But Peter repented. He learned humility through his fall, and he discovered the risks of overconfidence. He also experienced Jesus’ great mercy and forgiveness, and all of this helped him as he assumed his role as leader of the infant Church.

Scripture Notes: Free Will (Sirach 15)

Once again, Sirach reveals his practicality and solid knowledge of human nature when he discusses free will. He begins with a warning: we must not blame God when we sin. Our sin is our very own fault, Sirach insists. God gave us free will from the very moment He created us. It is a gift because without free will, we cannot truly love. But with free will, we can choose to turn away from God in sin.

Sirach reminds us that the choice is ours. God “has placed before you fire and water,” the fire of condemnation or the water of life. We get to choose. We can turn to death or life, and God will give us exactly what we select.

God knows all things, Sirach says. He understands our actions better than we do. But He does not violate our free will (after all, it is his gift), and He never, ever commands anyone to sin. He does not even give permission to sin. Why? Because sin separates us from God. And that is the last thing God wants for His beloved children. So when we sin, we are responsible for our free choices, and it is a very good thing that God is merciful and forgives us when we repent and confess our sins and return to Him.

Scripture Notes: Appearances and Reality (Sirach 13)

The Book of Sirach continually returns to the theme of appearance versus reality. Sirach is, after all, a realist, and he knows all too well how some people try to deceive others, showing one thing by their appearance while their reality is much, much different. Some “friends” are only using others for their own advantage. Some “advocates” are only pursuing their own agendas. Some “supporters” are only supporting themselves. This may sound a little cynical, but we have all experienced it in one way or another. Appearances do not always match reality.

At the end of chapter 13, though, Sirach indicates that deceptions like this do not hold up for long. We can tell a person’s true character if we pay close attention, for “A man’s heart changes his countenance, either for good or for evil. The mark of a happy heart is a cheerful face…” In other words, faces don’t lie for very long. People’s expressions slip. Their true characters peek out. What is reality on the inside will appear on the outside. We just have to learn to read the signs.  

This little passage also tells us something about ourselves. Our faces will show our inner thoughts and feelings and dispositions. Maybe not all the time, for people are still good at hiding things. But reality will win out in the end. So the best way to cultivate a cheerful face is to cultivate a happy heart, and the best way to cultivate a happy heart is to grow closer and closer to God.

Scripture Notes: Repentance (Baruch 1)

The people of Judah were in a sorry state at the beginning of the Book of Baruch. They had been carried off into exile in Babylon and were living under their conqueror King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem had been destroyed by fire, even the Temple, the place the Jews counted on as the location of God’s presence among them.

And all of this had happened for a reason. The people saw it now. They had broken the covenant, fallen into idolatry, abandoned God, and called the covenant curses down upon themselves. It wasn’t as though they had not been warned. God sent prophet after prophet throughout the centuries to call His people back to obedience and love for Him. Baruch’s own boss, Jeremiah, was one of those prophets, and he warned the people over and over again what was going to happen to them if they did not repent. And his words came true.

But not all hope was lost. In fact, Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, was in Babylon now with a message for the people. God would restore them, just as He promised. But they would have to wait. And they would have to realize what they had done to get themselves into this situation in the first place. As the people listened to Baruch, their hearts filled with remorse. “We have sinned before the Lord, and have disobeyed Him, and have not heeded the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in the statutes of the Lord which He set before us,” they said. They had refused to listen to the prophets. They had worshiped other gods. They had done evil.  

Now they had to wait for restoration. God promised exactly that to people with repentant hearts. And His timing is perfect. The people were left to cultivate patience, hope, and repentant hearts.

Scripture Notes: Laborers for the Harvest (Matthew 9)

Jesus looked at the people around Him, those He was ministering to, teaching, healing, loving. These people were troubled, abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Their leaders had failed them. They were supposed to be God’s covenant people, yet many of them probably did not know much about God or His covenant. Jesus’ heart moved with compassion for them.

So Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.” The harvest was the people. Deep in their hearts, they longed for God, just like we all do. But they needed direction and guidance. They needed to be plucked up from their focus on the world and harvested for God’s kingdom.

That is what Jesus came to do, but He invites others to cooperate with Him. He told His disciples, “so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” The master of the harvest is Jesus Himself, of course, and those laborers are His disciples, both then and now. We are to ask Jesus, the master of the harvest, to send us out into the fields to gather in people who long for God (even if they do not recognize that longing).

We are those laborers. Our clergy have a special role in harvesting people for the kingdom of God, but we lay people are also involved in an intimate way. We are, after all, in the world. We are among the people all the time in our work and our leisure. So we have a responsibility to draw people to Christ through our words and actions. We should be like Jesus, filled with compassion for those who are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. And we must lead them to our Shepherd so that He may be their Shepherd, too.

Scripture Notes: The Voice of One Crying (Mark 1)

Isaiah prophesied a messenger. There would a “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” telling the world to prepare for the Lord, to make His paths straight that He may come in a completely new way, an unexpected way, a way that would lead to salvation.

That messenger was John the Baptist. He appeared out of the wilderness, looking to all the world like a prophet of old. He was shocking, with his camel’s hair clothing, his leather belt, and his diet of locusts and honey. But he was even more shocking in his words. He called for repentance, true repentance that involved not just words but a change of life. He did not even hesitate to use rough language when the situation warranted it. “You brood of vipers!” he railed at the Jewish leaders who came to see him more out of curiosity than anything else.

John had a mission. He knew he was the voice, and he knew that One was coming after him. He was to prepare the way and then get out of the way. “He must increase, but I must decrease,” he said humbly. “I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal.” John was to wake people up so that they could open their hearts and be ready for something new, something amazing, something that would save the world.