Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 14:1-2 bible study (September 17, 2024)

September 17, 2024:  Tuesday Bible Study on the Gospel of Mark 14:1-2

May Grace and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ surround you everywhere in which you find yourself today. Please pray for Holly as she undergoes cardiac testing on Wednesday morning, and for her complete recovery afterwards. Pray for our Church Council as they work to get a 75th anniversary celebration for American in January 0f 2025. We will need help from you as members, to make sure that we will be able to reach out in the community and reach previous members to plan on being with us. More to come after our October council meeting on Reformation Sunday. Over the 76 years of our congregation, we have been richly blessed by generous giving, some major gifts, and the commitment of our members to share their time and talents. If you have not been coming on Sundays due to the heat, please remember that we are now past the season of humidity and heat - the coolers should really be able to keep us comfortable on Sunday morning now. Though summer is normally the time for our members to step back a bit from attendance, it also means that offerings are down too. We hope that you will be able to catch up with your offerings if you have been away, and if possible, to increase your giving each Sunday.  It would be really helpful if you would consider this. Our staff has not had any raises over a number of years, out of their commitment to helping our very special church home to continue in proclaiming the Gospel and serving it in our lives. We still work to offer interesting and compelling worship, and to meet the needs of our members' lives in their day-to-day journeys of faith. As your pastor, I also understand that sometimes it is just not possible to commit more of our time, talents, and resources. If that is the circumstance that you have, please know that the Lord rejoices in what you are able to do! Right now, Melody and I are giving an extra $20 each week for CROP. When that special offering is done, we will add that to our giving each week. Thank you for considering what you may be able to do.

Today in our study of Mark we find Jesus heading into Jerusalem for the annual celebration of the Passover. This is a time when the Jewish law requires all men within 15 miles of the city to come to the city for this Feast of Unleavened Bread.  It is also a time of excitement, and heightened emotions. Josephus, the historian tells us that 256,500 lambs were sacrificed, and each lamb required a minimum of 10 men to consume it along with the unleavened bread.  That meant that there were 3 million men present in the city for this celebration.  No wonder that the story of Jesus' triumphant entry into the city in another Gospel holds such an important role in all of this as it unfolds. Both the contingents of Romans soldiers and the Jewish military were present to prevent any uncontrolled uprising. In this hectic time in the city, during which the authorities were hoping to carry off an unnoticed arrest of Jesus. First with the huge number of pilgrims present, and then as they left all of the busyness enabled the plans to unfold to take Jesus as prisoner.

Passover is significant in two ways. First, it has historical importance. The Passover has carried forward from the time of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their being granted freedom after the Angel of Death came to take all of the first born of the nation unless their homes were blocked by the lamb's blood on the lintel of their doors. Secondly it is significant because of its agricultural celebration. Imagine it was a time of having enough wheat to produce unleavened loaves of bread for 3 million men to celebrate on one evening.  So, it was also a time of giving thanks for the produce of their farms. Every loaf had to be made from the new harvest.

Every possible preparation was made for the time of this great influx into the city.  All lodging was free, and that included Bethany and Bethphage! Street repairs and bridge repairs were made, and along the roads coming into the city, the markers of the graves of those buried alongside the roads were whitewashed so that no one would dare to touch them and be considered unclean for the purposes of partaking of the Passover. Alongside the road? The poor and average people could not afford the kind of tomb which Joseph of Arimathea would provide for Christ's burial. It is ironic that this celebration of freedom from slavery was surrounding the true freedom of the heart and soul by the Son of God!

Thanks for being with me today. God is always thankful for all that you do.

In Christ's Love, Pastor Kim