You do all things well.

 

And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

Mark 7:36-37

Lord,

You do all things well. You never make a mistake. You bring healing, wholeness, and a joy so amazing that I just have to talk about it. Just like these Decapolites, I am amazed at what You do. I am amazed that You save people. I am amazed that you recreated what sin has broken. I get to see You restore life to weary souls. I see the wonder of Your touch in people's lives every day as I serve and follow You, and I am amazed. You do all things well.

And, Lord, I am astounded at what You have done in me. I am just a sinner You changed. I cannot fathom how messed up and ruined I would be outside of Your saving grace. I'd be a bitter, selfish, and miserable man. Yet because You have saved me, You define my life now by grace, joy, mercy, and Your care in and through me. And I am amazed. You do all things well.

Amen

Who then is this?

 

He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Mark 4:40-41

Jesus silenced a storm. The disciples who were in the boat with Him were genuinely afraid for their lives as they saw the waves crashing in and filling the fishing boat. Jesus arose from a nap, rebuked the wind and sea with His Creator's command: "Peace! Be still!" Suddenly the wind died and the sea was calm and the storm was no more. These men, most of whom grew up as fishermen on the lake they were sailing were astounded. They'd never seen anything like this. It was supernatural.

Their fear then changed. Jesus not only rebuked nature, but He also rebuked His fear-filled, faithless followers. He gets to the root of their fear with five one syllable words: "Have. You. Still. No. faith?" Each word in that probing questions echoes with the sudden new calm, even as the wind is still ringing in their ears and their legs are still unsteady from the pitching of the boat from the tempest.

The disciples then feared and respected what they saw in Jesus. It seems from the text He simply created calm where there was none. It wasn't that the storm moved on and died out normally at His command. It was that peace and calm suddenly appeared at His command. He created calm instantly from the chaos. No human could possibly command that kind of power. They were left wondering at divinity!

Who then is this Jesus? That is a question all followers of Jesus ought to be constantly asking as they encounter Him. Do I feel wonder, awe, even fear at His power and person? If not, I may be distant from Him with a low view of my Lord. But, if I am close enough to Him to be uncomfortable with Jesus as God, a little afraid of what I see in Him, I am right where my Master wants me to be in order to teach me Who He is.

discipleship: a call and a command

 

(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

John 21:19

Following Jesus is both a call and a command. This is particularly apparent here at the end of John's gospel where the apostle John chooses to end his account of the story of Jesus with a conversation between the Lord and Peter that emphasizes the discipleship inherent in the process of believing in Jesus. The last recorded words John gives us from Jesus are on following Him. In verse nineteen in response to Peter's third affirmation of love, Jesus prophesies Peter's own death, ending that prophetic statement with just two words: "Follow me." The call could be no more clear... to follow Jesus would mean Peter's own death. Peter would suffer for the sake of his Master.

Peter attempts to divert this rather uncomfortable conversation about following Jesus to death by asking about John, implying if he too would follow Jesus to death. But Jesus simply refuses to make John the focus. Instead He keeps Peter focused on His call to lead His sheep while following the Master. And by so doing Jesus ends with a reiteration of the seriousness of the call to discipleship with a three word command: "You follow me!" (John 21:22)

When I see the beauty and the power of my Savior Jesus, and in the brevity of two and three word statements from Him I feel the call upon my my own heart to follow Him, I must believe. His grace saves me and brings new life and I willingly say "Yes, Lord" to His call to be His follower.

Yet Jesus Himself warned to "count the cost" and when I find rejection from some and ridicule by others in this world for following Jesus, I am tempted, like Peter at Jesus' trial, to hide my allegiance to Jesus in order to fit in. And here (just like Peter) is where I need the stern command again: "You... follow Me!" And somewhere in the tension of the sweet call and the sobering command of discipleship is where I live my life day to day as a follower of Jesus.

restoration and renewal

 

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep."

John 21:17

This conversation between Jesus and Peter is deeply personal and touches at Peter's heart in the deepest places. It is a section of the gospel I find strange to read in one sense, sort of listening in on what should be a private matter. I feel like I stumbled into a very important, very private talk. It would not be my preference to have Jesus so directly question my love for the world to read.

Three times Jesus asks Peter, the disciple who most adamantly and most publically denied Jesus at His trial three times, to affirm his love again for his Lord. And three times Peter does so, with the fresh memory of three denials and the sound of a crowing rooster still echoing in his heart. The third question from Jesus is the hardest to bear, for Peter's heart breaks at it. And Peter's affirmation is the most direct at that point. He knows Jesus knows his heart and appeals to Jesus as omniscient and forgiving God.

With all three questions, the conversation allows Peter to re-affirm His loving allegiance to His Master. And after all three of Peter's responses, Jesus leaves Peter to obey the command to "Feed my sheep". Jesus re-affirms Peter's call to be a shepherd. And in this cycle we see conviction, response, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration all take place. 

Jesus restores Peter to kingdom usefulness in this hard conversation walking together on the lakeshore after a breakfast of grilled fish and bread. Peter leaves off being a fisherman with one last miraculous haul that Jesus gave him, and now begins the work of being the shepherd Jesus is calling him to be, tending the flock Jesus is giving him to lead. This is both restoration of relationship and a transformation of Peter's life. Jesus does both quite well still today.

Jesus on mission

 

Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus was not even understood by His own family. The press of ministry became so great for Jesus and His disciples that He had to institute protective measures. In Mark 3:9 He instructed His disciples to procure a boat for Him so He can use it as a safe platform from which to teach. I think it also served as a quick getaway transport to "lose" the crowd when it got to be too much. Jesus has to clear time to get alone to pray and can only find time to do this by rising very early in the morning to avoid the press of the crowd each day (Mark 1:35). The reports of His miracles are so sensational that Jesus' reputation proceeds Him so that He cannot enter any large town anymore without causing a stir (Mark 1:45). He keeps primarily to the countryside, evidently camping out with His disciples, but even there the crowds still track Him down..

Mark's gospel is quick to pick up on the sensation Jesus has made among the people. Crowds always surrround Him, so much so that Jesus cannot even have a simple meal with His own mother and brothers. His family thinks it has all gone way too far. They don't see His mission or the ministry, just a mess, and their response is to try to rescue Him by intervention from what they see as craziness.

Even though Jesus is so massively followed, Mark points out the negative assessment of Jesus' family ("He is out of His mind") as well as the criticism of the Jerusalem scribes ("He is possessed by Satan"). Yet neither the outrageous demands of ministry to the crowds nor the outlandish accusations of the scribes or even of His own family will keep Jesus from His mission. He saw among the crowd and His disciples people who were clearly understanding Him and seeking the will of the Father Who sent His Son (Mark 3:34-35). And that was why Jesus came: to make family out of those who accept Him and then do the will of God.

The One coming soon

 

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Revelation 22:12-13

Jesus is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. And He Who is first in my heart has the right and the power to judge me. This promise Jesus gives to return soon is both thrilling and chilling. It thrills me to know Jesus will return to rule this world and fix what is so very ruined by sin and death. Yet it is also chilling because He will do so intimately with my heart. He will repay every person according to what each has done. He will do so with me. I will answer to Him. Jesus is my judge and He knows the degree of faithfulness I have or have not had with His call to live and speak the gospel.

Even though Jesus comes to evaluate and to reward, I work through that sobering aspect of judgment with joy. I love life, and I love Jesus even more. I have everlasting life in Him. And I want above all to see Him, to dwell with Him in an eternal home, to continue to enjoy Jesus forever. If I live on in this earth another day or get to see Him come in this way He describes, then Maranatha, Lord Jesus! And if I travel through death's valley first, then that is fine with me as long as I am with Him. His rule is the passion of this heart in life or death.

Yes, come Lord Jesus... soon! Yes, You alone are the first and the last. Yes,You have me as Your own, and even though I have not always served You as well as I could, I will receive my recompense with respect and awe and worship of You. I bow to You, Risen Lord and Coming King.

Amen

Yet Believe

 

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29

What Jesus said to Thomas

He also says to me

I want so much to see Him

in order to believe

I follow Jesus in the pages

thinking of Him as I read

yet I wonder if it's enough

to truly read it and believe

What I want from Jesus 

are answers to receive

and I pray fervently to Him

wanting to believe

But what I pray for

may not ever come to be

and in that crisis of my asking

will I truly still believe?

Thomas saw His God and Lord

and it forced him to his knees

no more doubting what he then saw

he came by seeing to believe

Jesus told him there would be others

who never would get to see

with their eyes the risen Savior

yet greater blessing attends their belief

Although I walk behind my Savior

Whom I never truly see

yet I know Him, learn to trust Him

blessed by Him since I not seeing, yet believe