EmmDev 2025-08-08 [Moments with Mark] The right ambition (part 2)

The right ambition (part 2)

He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in His arms, He said to them, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the One who sent Me." (Mark9:36-37)

The disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest.
Jesus had already sat down like a rabbi and inverted power and value completely as He taught them about being a servant.
Now He adds a visual illustration...

In Graeco-Roman times and Israelite society children were loved, but they had no rights and no social standing at all. Children were dependent, powerless and vulnerable. They could offer no reward or advantage to the one who welcomed them.

Jesus is challenging the disciples to greatness through service and sacrifice.
To welcome and serve a child was service without explicit reward or advantage.
It was sacrificial and could often be costly, draining, and exhausting. (As anyone who has walked the corridors with a querulous infant knows)

Welcoming the helpless and powerless without reward or advantage is the service we are called to.
This kind of service:
- Was the pathway to true greatness
- Meant you were actually serving God
- Is radically counter-cultural and is a hallmark and benchmark of the Kingdom of God

Jesus is hammering His point home: "Greatness in His Kingdom is measured by our willingness to serve the least and welcome the overlooked."

How good are we at serving? Especially when there is more cost than reward?

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EmmDev 2025-08-06 [Moments with Mark] The right ambition

The right ambition

They came to Capernaum. When He was in the house, He asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." (Mark9:33-35)

This morning I was at a minister's fraternal where the speaker spoke about two kinds of pastors and churches: those operating as egosystems and those functioning as ecosystems. He talked about the need to be servant leaders. When I got home, I realised that our next passage in Mark deals with the same issue! (I love how often the Holy Spirit orchestrates these kinds of coincidences!)

Just some context for today's passage: Yesterday we looked at the lonely road Jesus was walking as He headed to the cross where He would lay down His life for us. The disciples just didn't understand.

We see the depth of their misunderstanding in today's passage because, immediately after Jesus had just declared His intention to lay down His life, they're arguing about greatness.

When they get to their destination, Jesus asks "What were you arguing about on the road?"
It's amazing - it was OK to argue on the road while Jesus was out of earshot, but now that He's listening, they don't want to admit it. Sometimes there are things we wouldn't do if we remembered that Jesus is near enough to see and hear.

So Jesus sits down.
This is the posture of a Rabbi.
It signifies that something of importance is about to be said.

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

This is the pulse of the kingdom.
Our ambition should never be for position but for the privilege of service.
We should be striving to be last - not to be losers - but to make everyone around us win.
Our goal is to help everyone around us reach their full potential.
Our ambition is to see others thrive and grow.
We're here to serve
- not so that people will compliment us,
- but that we can complement (note the different spelling) them.

I'm a cycling fan and so I was interested in the fanfare around the retirement of the Belgian rider Tim Declercq. He was celebrated and acknowledged by some of the most successful cycling champions, even though he did not have a single victory as a professional. Why? Because of the number of times he helped others to win. As a slightly bigger rider, he would spend hours riding at the front of his team so that the champion of the team could shelter in his slipstream. He would bury himself: riding until his legs gave out, fetching drinks and food from the team car and encouraging his teammates. Over the years, many riders benefited from his selfless service, as he helped them to earn victories and accolades. The two titles given to him were "El Tractor" and "Super Domestique" recognising the immense efforts he made to pull others to victory and his heart to assist them in whatever way he could.

Tim Declercq understood that he was part of an ecosystem and not an egosystem...
And it gave him great joy to do it.
May we do the same...

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EmmDev 2025-08-05 [Moments with Mark] The Lonely Road

The Lonely Road

They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, because He was teaching His disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise." But they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it. (Mark9:30-32)

It's quite a thought that while a significant part of Jesus' ministry was to announce the Kingdom of God (which was Good News and came with healing, miracles, and people being delivered from demon possession) there were also moments where He had to talk about the cost of the coming Kingdom...

This is one of those moments.
Jesus took steps to avoid the seeking and pressing crowds so that He could spend time with the disciples and try to attune their hearts to what was coming: betrayal, execution and resurrection.

The passage tells us that the disciples just weren't able to process this.
It was unthinkable, unpalatable, and unacceptable.
They're in denial: They can't, won't, or don't understand and they're NOT going to ask about it either.

So Jesus walked a lonely road.
He alone fully grasped the Kingdom cost He was about to pay.

Take a moment to reflect on that.
It's amazing to think that He would love us so much...

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EmmDev 2025-08-01 [Moments with Mark] What they missed...

What they missed...

When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, He rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," He said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer." (Mark9:25-29)

Imagine the scene with me...
The disciples have been trying to cast out the evil spirit.
A crowd has gathered. They know the story. They're hoping for a resolution.
The disciples are trying their best.
They're using every formula of exorcism they can think of.
They're invoking the name of Jesus and using all the gestures and rituals.
But it isn't working.

The crowd starts losing interest. They're drifting away...
Jesus arrives and the disciples and the dad and boy gather around Him.
Then the boy starts convulsing and the crowd starts dashing back to the scene.

Jesus responds quickly. He doesn't want the boy to become a spectacle.
He authoritatively commands the spirit to leave.
The boy, after being tormented for so long, collapses in a faint but Jesus lifts him to his feet.

Later on the disciples quiz Jesus: "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
They had tried. They had perhaps even said the right words. After all, earlier in Mark 6, Jesus had given them authority to cast out demons, and they had successfully driven out demons on their missionary outreach. So what happened here?

Jesus' answer is simple, but profound and it is linked to His earlier exasperated comment: "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"

"This kind can come out only by prayer."

What Jesus is saying is that they had forgotten to pray.
They'd relied on formula, ritual and past experience.
They'd used the words, repeated the actions, and gone through the motions.
But their faith was in the ritual and their "muscle memory."
They weren't actually connecting to and relying on God.

They weren't in communion and contact with their Heavenly Father, they were relying on technique, ritual, and formula. When it is actually about relationship and dependence.
(Some later manuscripts add "and fasting" but the same point is being made: "You weren't relying on God, but on yourselves.

The disciples had grown confident in their abilities. Perhaps they thought they could handle it themselves. But real spiritual power doesn't come from methods - it comes from communion with God.

Prayer is not just a religious activity.
It's our lifeline to the Father.
It is the place where we draw strength, authority, perspective, and compassion.

This moment was a sobering reminder for the disciples, and for us, that:
- We never graduate from needing God.
- We are never so "spiritually mature" that we can operate on autopilot.
- Power in ministry flows from a heart anchored in prayer.

The contrast is striking:
The father brought a reaching faith, filled with doubt and desperation - and he received a miracle.
The disciples brought technique and confidence - and failed...

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EmmDev 2025-07-31 [Moments with Mark] Reaching Faith

Reaching Faith

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet Him. "What are you arguing with them about?" he asked. A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." " 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark9:14-24)

As soon as they came down from the mountain top, Jesus and the three disciples were immediately thrust into a messy and heart-breaking situation.

A man had brought his son, who was suffering from demon possession (some suggest an extreme form of epilepsy, but it is clear that an evil and destructive force is at work here.) The disciples had tried to exorcise the evil spirit and had failed.

At that point the finger-pointing would begin: "You don't have enough faith", or "There is still hidden sin in your life", or "There is a generational curse that needs to be broken", or "This is God's will."

The father is desperate, the disciples are flummoxed and Jesus is disappointed at their lack of faith (more on that tomorrow). Jesus asks them to bring the boy and the reaction of evil to the Holy Son of God is immediate and dramatic. Could this partly be due to the close encounter that Jesus had with His Father - that He was still aglow with the glory of God?

When Jesus inquires as to the extent of the affliction the father affirms that it has been a long and destructive ordeal and this causes him to desperately plead "Please, if you can do anything...?"

This seems to strike a chord in Jesus and repeating the father's plea, He affirms "Everything is possible for him who believes."
At first this looks like the same old story - your prayers aren't being answered because you don't have enough faith. BUT the father's answer and the immediate deliverance Jesus provides shows us something different.

The father doesn't have great faith. He has some faith and a bunch of unbelief. He's not trying to bluff God or practice the power of positive thinking. He's coming to God just as he is. No pretences, just desperate reaching faith.

(Tomorrow we'll see what the real problem was...)

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EmmDev 2025-07-30 [Moments with Mark] Coming down from the Mountain

Coming down from the Mountain

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant. And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him." (Mark9:8-13)

There are three things to think about today:
1. Coming down the mountain
2. Rising from the dead and waiting
3. Elijah

Transfiguration moments are "mountaintop" moments. You'll remember from yesterday's devotion that Peter was so enamoured with the moment that he wanted to build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and just stay there. He doesn't even think about where he and the other two disciples will stay! But while we may want to stay on the mountaintop, we have to come down to the valley.

The purpose of renewal on the mountaintop is to strengthen us for life in the valley. So too, our times of worship on a Sunday and our devotions during the week are not mountaintops to linger on, but times to gain perspective and strength so that we can serve and work in the valley. But we do need the mountaintops!

Jesus tells them to keep the matter to themselves until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. This is a continuation of the "Messianic Secret" that we've seen in Mark's gospel. Discretion about Jesus' true identity was necessary so that He could complete His mission without being mobbed or misunderstood. He had come to seek and save. Being seen as a "Military Messiah" would have hindered that.

It's significant that after being transfigured (which confirmed that He was the Son of God), Jesus again refers to Himself as the Son of Man --- a title that emphasizes His mission to suffer and die for our sins. The disciples still hadn't grasped the full plan: that Jesus would die and rise again. So, when He referred to "rising from the dead," they were confused. But waiting to speak of what they had seen until the right time meant it would all make much more sense later.

Sometimes, on the mountaintop, God reveals things to us that are not for immediate sharing. There is a time to wait before speaking.

Their question about Elijah is very pertinent.
The last two verses of the Old Testament are:
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5--6

The expectation was that the end-times and the coming of the Messiah would be inaugurated by the reappearance of someone like Elijah, who would bring a spiritual awakening.

In Jesus' understanding, John the Baptist is the Elijah figure. The problem with the traditional view was that people expected the coming of the Messiah to be a glorious and victorious event. But Jesus points them instead to the prophecies of a rejected Messiah. As evidence, He reminds them that John was arrested and beheaded - and that a similar fate awaited the Messiah Himself.

This is a sobering piece.
The key takeaways are:

1. We need to come down from the mountain, but we need the mountaintops too.
2. Some things we learn on the mountain aren't for immediate use; we must wait for the right time.
3. Jesus, the Son of God, knew that He would have to die as the Son of Man because He had come to seek and save humankind.
4. The triumphalistic expectations around Elijah (John the Baptist) and the Messiah (Jesus) had to be tempered with the understanding that He would pay a price to save us.

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EmmDev 2025-07-29 [Moments with Mark] Transfigured

Transfigured

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There He was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!" Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. (Mark9:2-8)

The Transfiguration is a significant moment in the gospels.
Here are some key perspectives:

1. It is a confirmation of the confession Peter made that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Living God. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law (represented by Moses) and He is the hope of the prophets (represented by Elijah).
2. It speaks of the importance of setting aside time and making an effort to be in the Father's presence. While He was always in the Father's presence, this is a moment of retreat. Jesus deliberately sets aside time to be with the Father in solitude and natural wonder.
3. This moment is an important "tank-filling" or time of renewal for Jesus. His true identity has been declared, His intention to go to the cross has been made known, and He has unequivocally called people to follow Him. The Kingdom of God has come, and now Jesus must go to the cross. This moment strengthens Him.
4. The Father affirms Jesus with an audible public voice from heaven. The other times this happens are at His baptism and in the week before the crucifixion.
5. This is shared with only three disciples. It is a holy, precious and intimate moment.

So, the Transfiguration is a key symbol of Jesus' Divine Nature. It is a foundational event at a significant stage in Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God, and a profound moment of strengthening and divine affirmation for Jesus.

But I want to apply it a little differently:
If Jesus needed to retreat and be with the Father, how much more do we?

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul talks about how Moses' face glowed after he had spent time with God on Mount Sinai. The glory faded, and Moses wore a veil either to stop the Israelites from being scared of his luminous face, or to hide the fact that the glory was fading.

In verse 18 Paul writes:
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Like Moses, whose face glowed after being with God, and like Jesus, whose glory shone as He brought His frail humanity into communion with His Father - we also can shine with God's glory.

Many of us are running on empty, even though the stakes are high.
Let's learn from Jesus:
- Take time
- Retreat
- Keep it intimate
- Spend time in the Father's presence and with His Word

And I believe we'll be reminded:
"You are My child and I love you."
And I think our faces will shine!

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EmmDev 2025-06-24 [Moments with Mark] Down to Brass Tacks

Down to Brass Tacks

Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." And He said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power." (Mark8:34-9:1)

The saying "Getting down to brass tacks" most likely comes from the upholstery trade, where upholsterers finish their work by securing fabric with strong, durable brass tacks that won't rust and maintain their strength.

Jesus "gets down to brass tacks" after Peter's "awake and asleep" moment where he sees Jesus clearly for one moment and the next, he's trying to tell the Messiah how to run His ministry. And so Jesus calls the crowd and the disciples to follow Him.

The Greek phrase for "would come after Me" is interesting: There are three words:
-thelei - which means "choose, make a decision, or will (as in act of will)
-opisō - which means "after", "in pursuit", or "behind"
-akoloutheō - which means "follow" (in proximity) or "follow" (as disciple).

So Jesus is calling us to a serious choice.
We choose to make the conscious choice to follow behind Him as a disciple..."

Here's what this serious call comes down to:

• I must deny ourself - my agenda comes second.
• I must take up my cross - people knew that if you carried a cross you were going to die.
• I must follow Him - go where He would go, love what He would love, speak like He would speak
• I can't hang on to my life, I must lose it and hold it loosely.
  (But if I do make Christ and Gospel my priority I will find real and full life.)
• I have to realise that worldly gain is to lose my soul
  and that my soul has great value - it is far more valuable than the tinsel of this world.
• I can't be ashamed of Him, even though many others are.
  I don't want Him to be be ashamed of me.
• The Kingdom of God isn't only about heaven - "pie in the sky one day when you die"
  It's a reality that is at work in our here and now.

Peter, when He tried to impose his agenda on Jesus, showed that he hadn't grasped these concepts.

So these are the "brass-tacks" - they are just like the sharp, hard and durable nails pin down the upholstery project, only these are the sharp, hard and durable principles that make up discipleship:
Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him in word and action, give up the unimportant stuff, don't be ashamed of Him and recognise that we're not just trying to escape this world - we're bringing His Kingdom.
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EmmDevs will be taking a break until 22 July because of our General Assembly and the Gov School holidays.

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EmmDev 2025-06-20 [Moments with Mark] Awake and Asleep at the Same Time.

Awake and Asleep at the Same Time.

Jesus and His disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" He asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ. " Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Mark8:27-33)

This pivotal passage comes pretty much in the middle of Mark as Jesus is moving toward Jerusalem. Jesus asks a key identity question, and He is not looking for opinion but ownership. He moves from "Who do people say I am?" to "Who do you say I am?" The disciples need to commit.

We are not properly sensitised to the meaning of "Christ." We tend to use it as if it is kind of like a "surname" for Jesus. Christ, or "Christos" in Greek, means "Messiah", "Anointed One",simply "The One." It is a massive title and one could be stoned for using it inappropriately. All of Israel's longing and hope was fixed on the appearance of the Messiah whom they believed was God's representative who would defeat evil and restore hope. While it seems that Peter just casually drops this in conversation, it is a breathtaking moment. Matthew gives us more detail with Jesus exclaiming that Peter did not just recognise this by himself, but that the Father Himself had revealed it. Mark, in his typical punchy journalist style, is content to let Peter do the mic drop - "You are the Christ"

I have a good colleague friend and mentor, Malan Nel, who always talks about Jesus the Christ.
This is helpful - it reminds me that He's not just a carpenter with the name Jesus (which was a very common variant of Joshua which means "God saves") but that He has a title - a very big one.

Sadly, as awake as Peter is to who Jesus is, he falls spiritually asleep in the very next paragraph. Death and sacrifice weren't concepts that fitted with the Jewish expectation of a victorious Messiah and so when Jesus talks about these realities, Peter, backed by the disciples, scolds Jesus for being so negative.

Interestingly, as Jesus rebuked Peter, He was also looking at the disciples.
It is a stinging rebuke.
By trying to make Jesus conform to their triumphalistic expectations, Peter and the disciples were actually doing the work of Satan.

We cannot separate the Messiah from the price He will pay for all of us.

Christians are often criticised for speaking of the blood of Christ and the sacrifice on the cross.

It's not comfortable, but it is vital.

So, in a nutshell, we have four key theological take-home points:
1. The importance of personally owning the identity of Jesus.
2. The true meaning and weight of calling Jesus "Christ."
3. The discomfort we have with the idea of a suffering Messiah.
4. The relevance of sacrifice and cross-centered theology in discipleship.

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EmmDev 2025-06-18 [Moments with Mark] Sometimes it's a process...

Sometimes it's a process...

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man's eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village." (Mark8:22-26)

Mark mentions two healings that take place using saliva - the deaf man in the Decapolis and now the blind man of Bethsaida. As I mentioned with the healing of the deaf man, saliva was a means of healing used by loving parents and traditional healers. For a parent it spoke of spontaneous intimacy and in traditional healing it was an accepted and understood ritual.

In both cases Jesus takes them to one side. This is a very considerate gesture as receiving hearing and sight could be very overwhelming in the face of the crowd. Furthermore, the intimate nature of the healing deserves privacy.

The healing of deafness and blindness were powerful signs of Jesus' identity and power and this sets the scene for the coming conversation Jesus will have with His disciples regarding His identity. Scholars also note that this miracle marks the next phase of Jesus' ministry. Up until now He has been ministering in Galilee but now He will start moving towards Jerusalem. This section continues until the end of chapter 10 where Jesus heals "blind Bartimaeus." This repeated healing of the blind is very striking when we consider that Jesus talked about spiritual blindness a lot in the last two chapters...

There is one more unusual feature and that is that this healing happened in stages. There is no other healing account like this. The deaf-mute man instantly heard and spoke. The lame man walked immediately, even though his muscles must have been severely atrophied. But the blind man is healed in phases.

It's important to note that Jesus is not caught by surprise - it isn't a case of "Oops, that didn't work, let Me try again." Instead, Jesus deliberately heals the man progressively.

Once again, we see Jesus' compassion. It is likely He knew the man would struggle to cope with the sudden transition from complete blindness to full sight, so He heals him in steps - allowing him to adjust and not be overwhelmed.

So too, when we move from spiritual blindness to spiritual sightedness, many of us take the journey in phases. In fact, even in yesterday's account of the disciples' lack of faith, we see evidence of a gradual awakening - "a conversion in phases." And this is how many of us have come to faith...

Here are three comforting thoughts to consider:
1. Jesus deals with each of us personally and intimately.
2. Jesus brings light into darkness and opens blind eyes (physically and spiritually).
3. Jesus doesn't overwhelm us - His journey with us is step by step.

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