Reflections on Scripture through the Daily Office (7)
Sunday: Psalm 24, 29; Isaiah 51:9-16; Hebrews 11:8-16; John 7:14-31
Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
– Isaiah 51:9-11
It has become my practice to check different translations of Scripture against others when I sit down to study (note too, that intensive study of Scripture and spiritual, devotional reading of Scripture each have their place, and are not at odds with the other. Both are best done holding the beckoning hand of our Savior, who is both entirely familiar to us, and who is also foreign, ever teaching us new things). This cross-reading includes checking the Septuagint text against the Masoretic text.1 Doing so with our section of Isaiah today, I found some interesting differences.
Namely, that the Septuagint does not have the line about the dragon and Rahab (a monster of chaos), and also does not ask that the arm of the Lord awaken and put on strength. Instead, the Septuagint says “Awake, awake, O Jerusalem; put on the strength of your arm!”
Oh Holy Spirit, let us dance with You between these renditions of the text—You have something for us in each, and the two in tension together.
And oh, for more words to expound upon what is great about each of these versions of the text! For those of you with no time, I present this thought for today: God contends with us, patiently and diligently, and wants each of us to rely upon Him as He actively provides ways forward for our lives.
For those of you with a little more time, see what Mary and John have to say about the arm of the Lord in Luke 1:51 and John 12:38, with Deuteronomy 4:33-35 as a backdrop. Namely, they see Jesus Christ as that very wisdom and strength of God—Jesus Christ is the arm of the LORD! Appreciate as well the symmetry the Septuagint wants between verse 1 and verse 17, each time calling Jerusalem to awaken and trust Yahweh as in the ancient days. See how much expectation and agency the Septuagint’s Isaiah puts on God’s people to be participants in God’s plan of deliverance for all.
Prayer: Who is this King of Glory, who pursues me with His love? And haunts me with each hearing, of His softly spoken words? My conscience a reminder, of forgiveness that I need…who is this King of Glory, who offers it to me? His name is Jesus! Precious Jesus. The Lord Almighty, the King of my heart, the King of Glory. We thank you, Lord! Amen. (Third Day’s “King of Glory,” adapted to prayer, based off of Psalm 24)
Katherine Schuessler
Monday: Psalm 56, 57, [58]; Isaiah 51:17-23; Galatians 4:1-11; Mark 7:24-37
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. – Mark 7:24-30
The shock factor is extreme—a foreign woman approaches a Jewish man, and her request is for someone who isn’t even with her. This is extraordinary desperation and hope on the part of this woman; it’s a powerful highlight of Jesus’ teaching on prayer elsewhere (namely, Jesus’ story of the persistent friend in Luke 11, followed by the poetic ‘ask, and you will receive, knock, and the door will be opened to you’).
Jesus’ words are often read as a flat refusal to help this woman, but that is neither what he is saying in the text nor what happens in the story. Jesus’ response is like a mini parable-in-a-sentence, and it is no coincidence that it is about children, given that the subject at hand is the healing of the woman’s daughter. It is as if Jesus is reversing the tables on her, to reveal to her the gravity of her request—“you place your own daughter above all else dear woman, so you must understand my situation too, that as a Jewish healer I am first called to my people?” I feel with certainty the woman’s response was an encouragement and blessing for Jesus to hear: “Wisdomkeeper,2 I don’t deny the preciousness of our children, but there are always leftovers (had she heard word of the bountiful leftovers of the feeding of the 5,000?), and why shouldn’t the outsiders receive those leftovers, dogs or whatever they may be?”
It is the first time in Mark’s gospel that Jesus has performed any kind of miracle without being physically present, whether healing or casting out demons (the story of the faith of the centurion is in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels). And up to this point in Mark’s gospel, nobody has had the wisdom, cleverness, or faith to engage with Jesus like this woman has.
Their encounter serves as further prophetic witness to what Jesus was accomplishing for both the Jew and the Gentile—“when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we [all] might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:1-2, 4, ESV).”
Prayer: Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until the destroying storms pass by. I cry to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me, he will put to shame those who trample on me. God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens, your faithfulness extends to the clouds, Amen. (Psalm 57:1-3, 10)
Katherine Schuessler
Tuesday: Psalm 61, 62; Isaiah 52:1-12; Galatians 4:12-20; Mark 8:1-10
Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong. You know that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you; though my condition put you to the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them. – Galatians 4:12-17
His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’…[the people] ate and were filled; and [the disciples] took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. – Mark 8:4-5, 8
The struggle of belief is hard, and real. It’s also good; there is no better struggle to undergo, than the struggle for truth and an alignment to it.
The texts gesture towards this today (indeed, they do this whole week). The Galatian church is struggling to reconcile what they’re hearing from outsiders with what Paul had told them originally about their faith—they’re confused to the point of seriously questioning Paul’s message. And in Mark, we have the feeding of the four thousand men (not including women and children). This is the second time that Jesus has performed this miracle, and he is just about to be faced with the disciples’ worry over low provisions, leaving Jesus in wonderment that they could twice miss what they have seen (Mark 8:14-21; Mark 6:35-44).
And yet! It is not stressed often enough, that struggle is a natural part of life that God does not condemn us for. Quite the opposite; struggle proves effort and life are there, when the opposite of struggle is apathetic passivity. “One can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of a pure regard for truth. Christ likes for us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms (Simone Weil).”
Prayer: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken. Amen (Psalm 62:1-2)
Katherine Schuessler
Wednesday: Psalm 72; Isaiah 54:1-10(11-17); Galatians 4:21-31; Mark 8:11-26
They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him [Jesus] and begged him to touch him. [So] he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’ – Mark 8:22-26
This story of the blind man receiving his sight is odd, and I think is intelligible only when taken in the larger context of Mark’s gospel. What we’ve seen thus far is that many understand in part, but not in full, which for Mark is the same as being blind. The disciples and people understand enough to have them flocking to hear Jesus teach and drive out ailments and demons, but they don’t see clearly or comprehendingly, such as when Jesus speaks about the forgiveness of sins, or the suffering of the Messiah and the death to the self. Jesus’ words “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:21) are still ringing in our ears when we’re introduced to this story of the blind man’s healing.
We remember Jesus has no need to be present or to touch a person in order to make them well (Mark 7:29-30). But that is the request made of Him—they ‘begged him to touch the blind man.’ And so, Jesus does. He leads him by the hand. He takes him to a quiet place, outside of the village where they are surrounded by the trees and are away from the people. Jesus rubs spit into his eyes, and lays his hands on him; he touches him.
And does the blind man’s answer indicate a partial or failed miracle of Jesus’, when he says that he sees ‘men, as I see trees, walking’? Not likely, especially when Jesus later heals a blind man by just speaking with him (Mark 10:46-52). Rather, the blind man here is allowed to express his confusion; an inversion of where they had just been (in the village, surrounded by people) with where he currently was (amidst the trees with Jesus). His understanding is at first confused, and then with Jesus’ revealing touch, he can see fully and clearly. Just as with the blind man, so too with the disciples, as Mark is about to show (Mark 8:27-33).
Prayer: I want to good, but I can’t stay right. I’m wretched, waging war against the law of my mind; I’m in a losing fight. Who will heal me from these wounds I hide? Thanks be to God who delivers me, thanks be to God who delivers me. Christ, Christ alone, come and set me free. Thanks be to God who delivers me. Amen (Jon Foreman, “Thanks Be To God” adapted into prayer)
Katherine Schuessler
Thursday: Psalm [70], 71; Isaiah 55:1-13; Galatians 5:1-15; Mark 8:27—9:1
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? – Mark 8:34-37
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. – Isaiah 55:1-2
We see here how ‘God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, how His ways are not our ways’ (Isaiah 55:8).
Jesus’ speech comes on the heels of privately conferring with his disciples, affirming their recognition of him as Messiah and denouncing their disbelief that he is also the Suffering Messiah; that is, that to be the Messiah is to be the Suffering One. He then expands on this message to the crowd at large—what does it mean to follow Jesus as a disciple, if not but to follow him in likeness to himself? To follow the Suffering One means to allow him define for us what life is like, rather than cling to our own definitions of life.
Isaiah 55 beautifully expounds on what it means to ‘lose one’s life for Jesus’ sake and save it, rather than attempt to save one’s life and invariably lose it.’ We thirst, every one of us, and we yearn to come to the waters to satisfy that thirst—we want to live! But we have no means of buying or gaining this life, and what we do have, we spend on useless things that do not satisfy us or have anything to do with life. We rightly know that life is worth having, and we rightly wish for life, but we do not know how to live, or even how to recognize life. We need to be given what we cannot provide for ourselves, and we need to accept it, and to see in that accepting how it satisfies and brings forth life.
Accept and cling to, partake of and share the Bread of Life, dear reader.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ! All your life did you endure suffering in order to save me; and alas! the time of your suffering is not over. But it is true, is it not? that you will continue to endure suffering in your task of saving and redeeming—this patient suffering in having dealings with me, I who so often go astray from the right way, or, even if I remain on the straight path, nevertheless so often stumble along the right way, or go creeping forward so slowly on the right way. Infinite patience! infinite suffering of patience! How many times have I been impatient, wished to forsake you, wished to give up everything, to take the terribly easy way out, the way of despair: but you did not lose patience. Amen (Søren Kierkegaard, p. 68 Meditations from Søren Kierkegaard)
Katherine Schuessler
Friday: Psalm 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; Isaiah 56:1-8; Galatians 5:16-24; Mark 9:2-13
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Many of us are overly familiar with what we Christians call “the fruits of the Spirit.” I remember singing a song in Vacation Bible School as a little wee one, designed to distill into us kids the fruits of the Spirit as virtues to recognize, practice, and cherish.
As well intended as those efforts are (and all these years later, I clearly remember the song!), today it is striking me how quickly and easily we miss reading verse 16 as the key to the rest of the passage. “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.” It is not to say that we don’t practice love, joy, peace and the rest as virtues; of course we put effort forth in that way. But the point is perhaps better highlighted by remembering Paul’s list of ‘the works of the flesh’ too. Juxtaposing these lists against each other, we see it is more about how we conceive of and deal with conflict, than it is about what to do or not do.
It is not that passion itself is bad, or that desire is inherently corrupt; no, it is rather how passions and desires manifest themselves that makes the difference between what is ‘by the flesh’ and ‘by the Spirit.’ We’ll know we are living by the Spirit when kindness, patience, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control abounds and is happening; those things are of the Spirit. When we choose to ‘crucify the flesh’ we recognize how the flesh is presumptively bounded by its passions and desires in ways that wish to ‘compete against one another’ (Galatians 5:26), and find pleasure in either discord or triumphalism.
Prayer: Dearest Lord, in Your own commandments You are present, even when we obey them without intending our obedience as an act of love of You, for their very content is necessarily an expression of Your sacred being. In the commandments of human superiors we find nothing but a human will, and thus instead of making us free they take away freedom, unless we obey them out of love of You…Give me Your love, Adoni, which is the only true freedom, the love without which all obedience to human authority is mere external observance and servitude. Give me a heart filled with reverence for every legitimate command, and also respect for the freedom of Your children, which You have won for me by Your own redeeming obedience…You are not the God of laws, because You will that we should serve the Law; You are instead the God of the One Law, that we should give our love and service to You alone. Amen (Karl Rahner, Encounters with Silence, lightly adapted)
Katherine Schuessler
Saturday: Psalm 75, 76; Isaiah 57:3-13; Galatians 5:25—6:10; Mark 9:14-29
When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can come out only through prayer.’
To end our week, I leave us with some of St John Chrysostom’s thoughts on this section of Mark, which is another that requires a close and careful reading. The details are interesting, and question-raising:
“The Scriptures declare that this man was weak in faith, for Christ says, “O faithless generation:” and He adds, "If you can believe.” But although the man’s want of faith was the cause of their not casting out the devil, he nevertheless accuses the disciples. Wherefore it is added, “And I spoke to your disciples that they should cast him out; but they could not.” Now observe his folly; in praying to Jesus in the midst of the crowd, he accuses the disciples, wherefore the Lord before the multitude so much the more accuses him, and not only aims the accusation at himself, but also extends it to all the Jews; for it is probable that many of those present had been offended, and had held wrong thoughts concerning His disciples. Wherefore there follows, “He answered them and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” By which He showed both that He desired death, and that it was a burden to Him to converse with them. But this the Lord permitted for the sake of the father of the boy, that when he saw the devil vexing his child, he might be brought on to believe that the miracle was to be wrought…And His rebuking the evil spirit, and saying, “I charge thee,” is a proof of Divine power. Again, in that He says not only, “come out of him,” but also “enter no more into him,” He shows that the evil spirit was ready to enter again, because the man was weak in faith, but was prevented by the commend of the Lord. For the devil was not able to inflict death upon him, because the true Life was come. They feared that perchance they had lost the grace conferred upon them; for they had already received power over unclean spirits. It goes on: “And He said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.” — John Chrysostom, lightly modernized language; commentary located at catenabible.com).
Prayer: The fullness of the Godhead knit with our humanity, flesh and bones sewn in the heart of God inseparably. Strange and sweet collision of justice and mercy, Your burden is light and Your yoke is easy. I know, I know, and I believe, that You are the Lord…help my unbelief. My Lord and my God, help my unbelief. Amen (Audrey Assad, “Help My Belief”)
Katherine Schuessler
the Septuagint (shorthand LXX) is the Greek translation of the ancient Hebrew scriptures. It is what the New Testament writers were most familiar with and most frequently quoted; the LXX was also what many of Jesus’ contemporaries relied upon when studying their Scriptures. The Masoretic text (shorthand MT) is the official Hebrew text of the Hebrew Scriptures (i.e. Old Testament), being curated by the Masoretes and universally recognized by the Jewish community in the centuries following Jesus’ death and resurrection. Dr. Tim Mackie explains their differences further in his beginner-friendly introduction to how the Bible was written and put together: “Making of the Bible P1: Exploring My Strange Bible” .
For one of the English translations of the Septuagint I am using, go here.