I opened up my morning devotional today, and before I even read the message, I looked up the bible verse that it was based on.
Mark 9:19 “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me.“
Wow… That’s uplifting, isn’t it? From that little snippet, doesn’t it sound like Jesus is just sick to death of us and our whining?
Confused at the context of the verse, and wondering why the author chose this verse for a morning devotional, I read the whole passage from the bible (Mark 9:14-29). The story tells of Jesus healing a boy cursed with demons, or in modern day lingo, a child that most likely had epilepsy. Now Jesus had a temper, I know that artists like to portray him as all peaceful and everything, but the man knew how to get pissed off. Remember him upsetting the tables in the temple? That’s just one example of him throwing a holy temper tantrum. He could also be pretty snarky when the situation called for it as you can see in the verse above. It’s ok, it shows us that anger, when properly directed, is not always a bad thing. However, when these passages are quoted out of context, they can often easily be twisted in their meaning. After all -- And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple. – sounds pretty bad if you don’t read the rest of the story and find out why he did it.
Now in reading the whole passage, I could take this one line and interpret it several ways. The passage (in the three different bible versions I read) doesn’t tell you who Jesus is talking to. In the KJV is says “him” possibly meaning the boy’s father, yet in other versions it says “them,” so it may have been his disciples who had tried to expel the demon and failed, or it could have been the crowd gathered around him. When I read it, I believed he was speaking to the disciples who had lacked the faith to perform the miracle.
Of course, the author of my devotional disagrees with me. He believes that this is a call for parents to bring our faithless children, born in sin, unto Jesus. Personally, I believe the author needs to get a grip. As Freud once said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Jesus does call for us to bring our children to God, but in this passage, where he’s lamenting having to put up with us (or someone anyway), he is not making this call. The last bit was simply a request for the man standing in front of him to bring the ill child over so he could be healed.
Now that you have the back story, let get to the meat of this post. After reading the scripture and the devotional, I had to ask myself; why? Why did the author choose this particular verse, especially for a morning devotion? Let’s be honest here, it’s a little depressing. The phrasing kind of makes you feel like you’re a rock under foot, a painful annoyance that lingers. Am I wrong?
if the author wanted to remind his readers that we should encourage our children to have faith, Matthew 19:14 would have been my passage of choice:
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
If, for some reason, the author wanted to use that particular passage from the bible (Mark 9:14-29), there is a much better verse contained within it that is more suitable for a morning devotion:
And Jesus said to him, “All things are possible for one who believes.” Mark 9:23
Personally, when my morning starts off fresh and new, I like to be reminded of the good in the world, the good in myself, and the blessings that my faith brings me. You can remind me how lowly I am at night, before I go to bed, when I’m already feeling like crap and know that if it wasn’t for God I’d never be able to keep it together, and that he only puts up with me because he loves me. In the morning though, encourage me to find the good in myself, so that I can be good to others.
So why the downer of a devotional?
I believe the reason that so many people who lead a specific church and/or belief system tend to dwell on negative passages such as this, is that it’s a form of control. If you’re constantly reminded of how horrible you are, and that the only means to salvation is through them, than you’re less likely to leave the flock. There’s safety in numbers, and more importantly there’s power in numbers. They want you to find God through them, so that they can take your tithe and own your salvation. To achieve this, they remind you constantly how unworthy you are and how lucky you are to have them watching over your soul.
I know this isn’t true of every church and every congregation, but I can honestly say that in all my years spent sitting in a pew, it was most assuredly a theme.
Now, I told you yesterday that as a child I was afraid of God, and it was due in large part to passages like this. They made me feel as if God didn’t even like humanity as a whole, and with me being as messed up as I am, I didn’t stand a chance when compared to the best of us. It wasn’t until I lost my way that I realized God doesn’t just put up with me, he loves me, and even likes me, faults and all. Sure, it upsets him when I screw up, but he understands that I’m trying to do the best I can. It’s the same way I feel about my own kids.
Whether or not you believe the scripture, that Jesus was the son of God or just a prophet, even if you’re not Christian at all, the message I’m trying to convey is still the same. Just because someone tells you something, doesn’t make it a truth. Read, explore, decide for yourself. Is your faith in the man standing in the pulpit? No! So don’t take his word as law. I could have taken the scripture in my daily devotion at the word of the author, but I found my own message instead, one that’s much more relevant to my life today.
“All things are possible for one who believes.”
I believe, and so it’s a beautiful day!
