Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Dr. Kari Vo "Carrying ... What?" for Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Read Mark 14:12-16
Mark 14:12 On the first day for matzah, when they slaughtered the lamb for Pesach, Yeshua’s talmidim asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare your Seder?” 13 He sent two of his talmidim with these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him; 14 and whichever house he enters, tell him that the Rabbi says, ‘Where is the guest room for me, where I am to eat the Pesach meal with my talmidim?’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make the preparations there.” 16 The talmidim went off, came to the city and found things just as he had told them they would be; and they prepared the Seder. (Complete Jewish Bible)
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It was the first day of Passover, and Jesus' disciples needed to get the feast ready. So they asked Him where they should go since they were visiting Jerusalem and had no home to use. The directions Jesus gave them would have raised some eyebrows: "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him."
It was no surprise to meet a woman carrying water -- women did that all the time, and particularly when there was a holiday, with so much cooking and cleaning to do. But a man? No. That wasn't a man's job. So when they met a man carrying water, the disciples would definitely know it was the right man. There wouldn't be any others!
We don't know the details of why Jesus said this -- did He have some special signal arranged with His host family? Was it a pure miracle, and Jesus just knew things would happen this way? The Bible doesn't tell us, and really, it doesn't matter. The disciples found the right man, followed him to the right place, and got the feast ready.
"Look for a man carrying something you don't expect," Jesus says. To us He might say, "Look for a man -- the Son of Man, in fact, the Messiah -- carrying something you don't expect, doing a job you wouldn't expect of Him. He will be carrying a cross. Follow Him."
THE PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for the surprising way You saved me and all people. Amen.
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Leviticus 23-24; Mark 10:32-52
Leviticus 23:1 (iv) Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Tell the people of Isra’el: ‘The designated times of Adonai which you are to proclaim as holy convocations are my designated times.
***
It was the first day of Passover, and Jesus' disciples needed to get the feast ready. So they asked Him where they should go since they were visiting Jerusalem and had no home to use. The directions Jesus gave them would have raised some eyebrows: "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him."
It was no surprise to meet a woman carrying water -- women did that all the time, and particularly when there was a holiday, with so much cooking and cleaning to do. But a man? No. That wasn't a man's job. So when they met a man carrying water, the disciples would definitely know it was the right man. There wouldn't be any others!
We don't know the details of why Jesus said this -- did He have some special signal arranged with His host family? Was it a pure miracle, and Jesus just knew things would happen this way? The Bible doesn't tell us, and really, it doesn't matter. The disciples found the right man, followed him to the right place, and got the feast ready.
"Look for a man carrying something you don't expect," Jesus says. To us He might say, "Look for a man -- the Son of Man, in fact, the Messiah -- carrying something you don't expect, doing a job you wouldn't expect of Him. He will be carrying a cross. Follow Him."
THE PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for the surprising way You saved me and all people. Amen.
Reflection Questions
- Have you ever had to carry water at camp or at home? How did you enjoy that job? Why did you do it?
- Has anyone ever caught you doing a surprising job? What was it, and why were you doing it?
- Jesus' surprising job gives us life. Write or say a prayer of thanks for His love.
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Leviticus 23-24; Mark 10:32-52
Leviticus 23:1 (iv) Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Tell the people of Isra’el: ‘The designated times of Adonai which you are to proclaim as holy convocations are my designated times.
3 “‘Work is to be done on six days; but the seventh day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation; you are not to do any kind of work; it is a Shabbat for Adonai, even in your homes.
4 “‘These are the designated times of Adonai, the holy convocations you are to proclaim at their designated times.
5 “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between sundown and complete darkness, comes Pesach for Adonai. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of matzah; for seven days you are to eat matzah. 7 On the first day you are to have a holy convocation; don’t do any kind of ordinary work. 8 Bring an offering made by fire to Adonai for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work.’”
9 Adonai said to Moshe, 10 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘After you enter the land I am giving you and harvest its ripe crops, you are to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the cohen. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before Adonai, so that you will be accepted; the cohen is to wave it on the day after the Shabbat. 12 On the day that you wave the sheaf, you are to offer a male lamb without defect, in its first year, as a burnt offering for Adonai. 13 Its grain offering is to be one gallon of fine flour mixed with olive oil, an offering made by fire to Adonai as a fragrant aroma; its drink offering is to be of wine, one quart. 14 You are not to eat bread, dried grain or fresh grain until the day you bring the offering for your God; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live.
15 “‘From the day after the day of rest — that is, from the day you bring the sheaf for waving — you are to count seven full weeks, 16 until the day after the seventh week; you are to count fifty days; and then you are to present a new grain offering to Adonai. 17 You must bring bread from your homes for waving — two loaves made with one gallon of fine flour, baked with leaven — as firstfruits for Adonai. 18 Along with the bread, present seven lambs without defect one year old, one young bull and two rams; these will be a burnt offering for Adonai, with their grain and drink offerings, an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma for Adonai. 19 Offer one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs one year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 The cohen will wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Adonai, with the two lambs; these will be holy for Adonai for the cohen. 21 On the same day, you are to call a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live.
22 “‘When you harvest the ripe crops produced in your land, don’t harvest all the way to the corners of your field, and don’t gather the ears of grain left by the harvesters; leave them for the poor and the foreigner; I am Adonai your God.’”
(v) 23 Adonai said to Moshe, 24 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar. 25 Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai.’”
26 Adonai said to Moshe, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is Yom-Kippur; you are to have a holy convocation, you are to deny yourselves, and you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai. 28 You are not to do any kind of work on that day, because it is Yom-Kippur, to make atonement for you before Adonai your God. 29 Anyone who does not deny himself on that day is to be cut off from his people; 30 and anyone who does any kind of work on that day, I will destroy from among his people. 31 You are not to do any kind of work; it is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live. 32 It will be for you a Shabbat of complete rest, and you are to deny yourselves; you are to rest on your Shabbat from evening the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”
(vi) 33 Adonai said to Moshe, 34 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to Adonai. 35 On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. 36 For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to Adonai; on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai ; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work.
37 “‘These are the designated times of Adonai that you are to proclaim as holy convocations and bring an offering made by fire to Adonai — a burnt offering, a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, each on its own day — 38 besides the Shabbats of Adonai, your gifts, all your vows and all your voluntary offerings that you give to Adonai.
39 “‘But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to observe the festival of Adonai seven days; the first day is to be a complete rest and the eighth day is to be a complete rest. 40 On the first day you are to take choice fruit, palm fronds, thick branches and river-willows, and celebrate in the presence of Adonai your God for seven days. 41 You are to observe it as a feast to Adonai seven days in the year; it is a permanent regulation, generation after generation; keep it in the seventh month. 42 You are to live in sukkot for seven days; every citizen of Isra’el is to live in a sukkah, 43 so that generation after generation of you will know that I made the people of Isra’el live in sukkot when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Adonai your God.’”
44 Thus Moshe announced to the people of Isra’el the designated times of Adonai.
24:1 (vii) Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Order the people of Isra’el to bring you pure oil from crushed olives for the light, to keep lamps burning always. 3 Outside the curtain of the testimony in the tent of meeting, Aharon is to arrange for the light to be kept burning always from evening until morning before Adonai ; this is to be a permanent regulation through all your generations. 4 He is always to keep in order the lamps on the pure menorah before Adonai.
5 “You are to take fine flour and use it to bake twelve loaves, one gallon per loaf. 6 Arrange them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure table before Adonai. 7 Put frankincense with each row to be an offering made by fire to Adonai in place of the bread and as a reminder of it. 8 Regularly, every Shabbat, he is to arrange them before Adonai ; they are from the people of Isra’el, as a covenant forever. 9 They will belong to Aharon and his sons; and they are to eat them in a holy place; because for him they are, of the offerings for Adonai made by fire, especially holy. This is a permanent law.”
10 There was a man who was the son of a woman of Isra’el and an Egyptian father. He went out among the people of Isra’el, and this son of a woman of Isra’el had a fight in the camp with a man of Isra’el, 11 in the course of which the son of the woman of Isra’el uttered the Name [Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh] in a curse. So they brought him to Moshe. (His mother’s name was Shlomit the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12 They put him under guard until Adonai would tell them what to do. 13 Adonai said to Moshe, 14 “Take the man who cursed outside the camp, have everyone who heard him lay their hands on his head, and have the entire community stone him. 15 Then tell the people of Isra’el, ‘Whoever curses his God will bear the consequences of his sin; 16 and whoever blasphemes the name of Adonai must be put to death; the entire community must stone him. The foreigner as well as the citizen is to be put to death if he blasphemes the Name.
17 “‘Anyone who strikes another person and kills him must be put to death. 18 Anyone who strikes an animal and kills it is to make restitution, life for life. 19 If someone injures his neighbor, what he did is to be done to him — 20 break for break, eye for eye, tooth for tooth — whatever injury he has caused the other person is to be rendered to him in return. (Maftir) 21 He who kills an animal is to make restitution, but he who kills another person is to be put to death. 22 You are to apply the same standard of judgment to the foreigner as to the citizen, because I am Adonai your God.”
23 So Moshe spoke to the people of Isra’el, and they took the man who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him to death. Thus the people of Isra’el did as Adonai had ordered Moshe.
Mark 10:32 They were on the road going up to Yerushalayim. Yeshua was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed — and those following were afraid. So again taking the Twelve along with him, he began telling them what was about to happen to him. 33 “We are now going up to Yerushalayim, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers. They will sentence him to death and turn him over to the Goyim, 34 who will jeer at him, spit on him, beat him and kill him; but after three days, he will rise.”[Mark 10:34 Isaiah 50:6, Hosea 6:2]
35 Ya‘akov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai, came up to him and said, “Rabbi, we would like you to do us a favor.” 36 He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 They replied, “When you are in your glory, let us sit with you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 38 But Yeshua answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink the cup that I am drinking? or be immersed with the immersion that I must undergo?” 39 They said to him, “We can.” Yeshua replied, “The cup that I am drinking, you will drink; and the immersion I am being immersed with, you will undergo. 40 But to sit on my right and on my left is not mine to give. Rather, it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the other ten heard about this, they became outraged at Ya‘akov and Yochanan. 42 But Yeshua called them to him and said to them, “You know that among the Goyim, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. 43 But among you, it must not be like that! On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must be your servant; 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must become everyone’s slave! 45 For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve — and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
46 They came to Yericho; and as Yeshua was leaving Yericho with his talmidim and a great crowd, a blind beggar, Bar-Timai (son of Timai), was sitting by the side of the road. 47 When he heard that it was Yeshua from Natzeret, he started shouting, “Yeshua! Son of David! Have pity on me!” 48 Many people scolded him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, “Son of David! Have pity on me!” 49 Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him over!” They called to the blind man, “Courage! Get up! He’s calling for you!” 50 Throwing down his blanket, he jumped up and came over to Yeshua. 51 “What do you want me to do for you?” asked Yeshua. The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me be able to see again.” 52 Yeshua said to him, “Go! Your trust has healed you.” Instantly he received his sight and followed him on the road. g(Complete Jewish Bible)
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CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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