YOUR KING

SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 2015

Today Bishop Wright has circled back into Mark, chapter 1 verses 9-15. At first this surprised me, but in some ways, using all of Lent to work through this rather short, yet densely packed, Gospel allows this sort of circling.

Bishop Wright’s points out that if you know a little about the Old Testament, then there will be some phrases that really jump off the page at you in this account of Jesus’ baptism. He specifically notes how Psalm 2 is echoed in part of the text. This Psalm declares the kingdoms of this world are no match for the Kingdom of God…and God’s King. He then notes that there are tones from the servant poems of Isaiah 40—55. The point is that Jesus is God’s King…and that this king will be a very different one, one who will be a servant. It really is a nice piece of exegetically work and it is very approachable. Bishop Wright wants us to understand that, when we read Mark’s Gospel with the trained eyes, that it is shouting from the mountaintops, that Jesus is the long awaited Jewish King, the God’s King, the Servant King…all of that from verses 9-15.

So let me ask. How are you doing with all this “king-stuff?” I really just would encourage you to ponder what it means to have a king. If you got to pick a king…what would your king look like, what would your king do, and what would the effect of having a king mean for your life? I say Jesus is my king…and I say it rather matter-of-factly. So I am off to ponder all of this myself.