Free sample of the first week of
FOOTSTEPS EVERY DAY:
Mark: A Devotional Commentary
Day 1
Read and Listen: Mark 1:1-8
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
In the first century, a wealthy Jewish merchant family from Cyprus owned a spacious home on the southwest hill of Jerusalem. They came from a priestly background, and two members of the family became followers of Jesus—a man named Joseph, nicknamed Barnabas (“Son of Encouragement”), and his cousin Mary, the mother of a boy named John Mark. The night before he was arrested, Jesus arranged with Mary to use the upper room of their home in Jerusalem to share the Passover meal with his disciples. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, this home seems to have become the base of operations for the leaders of Jesus’ movement in Jerusalem. It is where a number of significant events took place in the years to come, including the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
When Barnabas and Saul were commissioned by the leaders of the church in Antioch to set out on the first missionary journey, Barnabas invited his young nephew John Mark to accompany them. Although John Mark didn’t complete the journey, this experience, along with all the things he must have witnessed in the family home back in Jerusalem, had a significant impact on him. According to tradition, he eventually ended up as a disciple of the Apostle Peter in Rome and took notes while listening as Peter told his eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and did during his life on earth. This became the basis for the Gospel of Mark. Mark wrote in a time of great turmoil, when a series of unstable Emperors ruled in Rome, and the First Jewish Revolt wrought havoc in Palestine. Mark’s Gospel offers an account of Jesus’ life that is profoundly good news for people facing pressure and uncertainty.
In his opening line, Mark announces Jesus is the Messiah, also called the Son of God. It is incredibly Good News when Jesus is King, in sharp contrast to the violent and unstable emperors and kings who were making their lives so difficult. Then Mark introduces us to John the Baptist and his mission of preparation. John was out in the Jordan Valley dressed like the great prophet Elijah who was prophesied to return before the Messiah appeared. (See Malachi 4:5-6.) Mark quotes John’s mission statement from Isaiah 40:3, “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!”
John prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah by inviting people to join him in the desert wilderness and immerse themselves in the waters of the Jordan River. First-century Jews were used to immersing themselves in ritual baths (Hebrew: mikveh) for the symbolic cleansing of external ritual impurity. John’s baptism of repentance was something much deeper. This baptism was for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The word “repent” (Greek: metanoia) literally means to have a changed mind. John was preparing people for the coming Messiah by inviting them to receive a whole new perspective from God, as well as a brand-new start. It was about undergoing an internal recalibration in which God reoriented their lives so they would be ready when the Messiah appeared. John told them the coming Messiah would immerse them in the very presence and power of God.
Are you ready for what Jesus wants to do in your life? Are there internal roadblocks keeping the Holy Spirit from working in you? Are you going through the external motions, or are you ready to let Jesus do a deep work of repentance and forgiveness in your life?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Day 2
Read and Listen: Mark 1:9-13
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
Jesus chose to begin his mission by going to John in the desert and submitting to baptism. This seems a strange way to launch a messianic career! Why not go to the Temple in Jerusalem and impress the crowds with some miracles? Because Jesus was not setting out to impress anyone or draw a crowd. Nor was he coming to prepare himself through confession and repentance. John’s baptism of preparation was coming to an end. Jesus was doing something new.
Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant promised by God through Jeremiah, “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34) This New Covenant is not based on the Law carved into tablets of stone. This is a covenant of mercy and grace written on the hearts of God’s people!
The place where John baptized was at the Jordan River in the southern part of Israel, just to the east of the ancient city of Jericho. Tradition tells us this was the same place where Joshua led the people of Israel across the river into the Promised Land. This spot had been off limits to visitors for over forty years due to regional conflicts, but now we can visit this idyllic location on the Jordan River. Each time we visit, we invite people to renew their baptism by being immersed in the very same spot John baptized Jesus. It is truly a powerful experience!
When Jesus came up out of the water that day, the sky was torn open. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, like the many white doves we still see today at the site of Jesus’ baptism. A voice from heaven declared, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” The Father was announcing Jesus’ true identity. The Father was expressing his love and favor over his Son! The New Covenant is an invitation into a relationship of love and grace with the Father. It is an invitation to discover who you really are, a beloved child of God!
From this powerful experience of love and grace, the Spirit “drove” Jesus into the harsh desert wilderness just to the east of the river. Jesus entered an extended time of fasting, the spiritual discipline that teaches us to depend on God and seek him above all else. Here the devil began to attack Jesus. Mark doesn’t give us any details of this epic wrestling match, but we know that Jesus prevailed, and he came out of the desert stronger than when he went in.
Do you know who you really are? On what is your identity based? Is it what you own or what you have accomplished? Jesus shows us where to find our true identity. It is in the waters of baptism. The Father is the only one who can tell you who you really are. You are his beloved child. Not because of anything you have done, but because that is who he has made you. This is the New Covenant of grace in Jesus. This is how we face and overcome the inevitable battles that lie ahead. Jesus is showing us it all begins with knowing who we really are. Who are you?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Day 3
Read and Listen: Mark 1:14-20
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
The four eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection recorded in the Bible are called “Gospels.” Gospel means “good news.” When Jesus finished his time of testing in the desert wilderness, he returned north to his home region of Galilee and began telling people good news. He told them that a special moment in time had finally come. The Greek word for linear time is chronos, which is time that simply ticks along from one second to the next. But Mark uses the Greek word kairos to express this special moment in time Jesus was announcing. Rather than a linear unfolding of time, kairos is like coming to a crossroads in time. It is that moment when something new is happening and we have to make a decision. Will we continue on straight ahead, or will we turn right or left?
Jesus said, “The time [kairos] is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.” This is the Good News! All the suffering, pain, and injustice of this world is a result of humanity rejecting God as our rightful King. When Adam and Eve decided to rule their own lives, God’s perfect creation was profoundly broken, and so were they. Ever since we have toiled by the sweat of our brow, bringing forth thorns and thistles. Ever since we have borne pain and conflict as we try to rule over each other. (See Genesis 3:1-19.) This is the bad news with which we are all painfully familiar.
God is all good. God is all powerful. God is all knowing. God is all present. When God is King, things are good, because he is righteous, holy, and just. Above all God is love, and it is for love that we are created. When God is King, love prevails. When love prevails, there is peace and joy, fulfillment and fruitfulness. This is what Jesus meant when he declared the Good News of the Kingdom of God. God is going to be our King once again!
Jesus explained this new reign of God has not yet been fully enacted but is in the process of coming. The phrase “at hand” translates the Greek word engidzo, which describes something that has begun to arrive but has not fully come yet. It is like a moving train entering the station. It is here, but it has not yet fully arrived. Jesus said the Good News is that the restored reign of God as King over his creation is now in the process of arriving. The Kingdom of God is coming!
Jesus goes on to explain that there are two primary ways for us to respond to this Good News of the Kingdom, “Repent and believe the good news!” “Repent” means to get a new mind and “believe” means putting faith into action. Listening to God is how we get a new mind. We ask Jesus, “what are you saying to me?” Paul tells us faith comes from hearing Jesus’ personal word to us. (See Romans 10:17.) Once we have repented by listening for the word of faith, then we respond to what God is saying by exercising that faith. This is what it means to believe. We ask Jesus, “what is the next step of faith you are calling me to take?”
This is what it means to be a disciple. Disciples listen to the voice of Jesus and exercise faith by following in his footsteps. When Jesus met the four fishermen, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, he shared this Good News of the Kingdom with them. They allowed that word of Jesus to change their minds and plant faith in their heart. They exercised that faith by putting down their nets and beginning to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They were going to learn a whole new kind of fishing with God as their King! How are you responding to the Good News of the Kingdom?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Day 4
Read and Listen: Mark 1:21-34
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
When Jesus spoke, people listened in a different way than they did to other teachers. Most scribes quoted the teaching of other rabbis to make their points. They told people things that other people had told them about God. Jesus was different. He spoke directly as a representative of God. That was because he knew who he was. God was his Father, and he was God’s Son. He spoke and acted out of that relationship. As he said, “So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.” (John 12:50) This is what it means to say Jesus spoke with authority. He did not speak on behalf of himself, but as a representative of his Father the King. That is why his words impacted people so powerfully. As Mark records, “They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.”
But it wasn’t just Jesus’ words that carried the authority of his Father the King; it was also his actions. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.” (John 5:19) The reason Jesus could heal people of their diseases and deliver demonized people from their oppression was not that he was God. He was divine, but he set that aside when he became fully human and operated out of his humanity for the three decades he walked this earth. (See Philippians 2:6-7.)
When Jesus saw the Father wanted to heal, he exercised faith in the authority given to him as a son of the King and through the power of the Holy Spirit healed people. In this case, in the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus saw that his Father wanted to deliver this man from these unclean spirits, so he spoke as an authorized representative of the King, acted in faith, and the unclean spirits came out! Jesus was doing something we can learn to do as well. Jesus’ brother James explains it this way, “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
Capernaum was a medium-sized fishing town on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was where the four fishermen Simon, Andrew, James, and John lived with their extended families. Capernaum has been extensively excavated, and archaeologists have discovered the remains of the first-century synagogue where Jesus taught as well as the home of Simon and Andrew’s extended family. In biblical times multiple nuclear families typically lived together in the same compound, sharing life together and carrying out a family business. Simon and Andrew’s extended family owned a beautiful home right next to the waterfront where they carried out their family fishing business. It was into this very home that Simon invited Jesus after the synagogue service was over.
It was a great honor for their family to host a rabbi in their home, and Jesus further blessed them by healing Simon’s mother-in-law. She promptly served them a nice Sabbath meal. Everyone would have been thrilled. But then Jesus did something radical and unexpected. He opened the outer door of their extended family home and invited everyone in town to join them! Pretty soon the whole courtyard was filled with people. This was not the way things worked. You didn’t invite just anyone into your home—only those who would bring honor to the family. Since Jesus invited the sick and the demon-possessed, it was obvious everyone was invited. There, in that home, he began to heal and deliver them.
Jesus showed them you don’t have to go to the synagogue to experience God’s presence and power. Your own home and family are the place where the Kingdom of God is meant to be lived out. Where do you experience God most powerfully? How can you bring that into your home and family?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Day 5
Read and Listen: Mark 1:35-45
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
Being a disciple is learning to know what the rabbi knows, as well as learning to do what the rabbi does. The goal is to become like the rabbi. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he invited men and women to come close enough to him so they could hear his words and observe his actions. His words were a source of incredible information, but his actions were an example that called for imitation. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) Jesus called people to believe in his Truth but also to follow his Way. Many of us have focused on studying the truth of Jesus’ teachings, but often we forget to imitate the patterns and rhythms of the way he lived. Perhaps that is why our lives often don’t look much like his amazing life.
The secret of Jesus’ authority and power was the incredibly close relationship he had with his Father the King. Jesus had intentional rhythms in his life that nurtured that intimate connection with the Father. As we see in this passage, Jesus rose early each morning while it was still dark and went to a “deserted place” so he could have some quality time alone with his Father. The hillsides above Capernaum are strewn with volcanic basalt stones which makes it difficult to plant crops there. This is probably the deserted place where Jesus went to watch the sun rise over the beautiful Sea of Galilee each morning while spending time in prayer.
At the end of his ministry, Jesus gave the disciples a picture of what it means for us to develop this kind of relationship with him. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” (John 15:5) The Greek word meno is translated “remain” here. It means to dwell or abide in the same place. There is a rhythm of abiding and a rhythm of fruit-bearing. Jesus intentionally spent time dwelling in the presence of his Father, and this was why he was able to do all the incredibly fruitful things he did.
Jesus’ time alone with the Father was not the only daily rhythm in his life. He also had a regular rhythm of telling people about God’s Kingdom and demonstrating the power of God’s loving reign. When the disciples came frantically looking for him that morning, Jesus didn’t send them away as if he had become a reclusive monk. Instead, he stepped out of his time of abiding with the Father and into all the things his Father was calling him to do that day.
He told people the Good News of the Kingdom. He demonstrated the nature of that Kingdom by casting out demons. He touched an untouchable leper and made him clean so he could rejoin his family. That is how the Kingdom of God works. No one is an outcast. Everyone is welcome. This is the good Kingdom fruit that came from Jesus’ intentional rhythm of abiding with his Father the King.
Are you intentionally following the Way of Jesus in addition to studying his Truth? What daily rhythms help you stay closely connected to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Is there a new rhythm Jesus might be inviting you to add to this time of daily Scripture reading? What good fruit do you think Jesus wants to help you bear out of your deepening connection with him?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Day 6
Read and Listen: Mark 2:1-12
Take a minute to listen for what the Spirit is saying in these verses…
Comment and Consider
One of Jesus’ regular rhythms was going out on mission trips with his full-time disciples, ministering to the many towns and villages of Galilee, but then returning to the extended family home of Simon and Andrew in Capernaum. The Greek word for an extended family and the home in which they shared life together is oikos. This word can be translated “household,” “house,” or “family.” An oikos was made up of multiple generations of relatives and friends who all contributed to a common family business. In the first century, everyone who could lived as part of an oikos, because it was the best way to protect and provide for the ones you loved.
An oikos house was typically comprised of multiple rooms built around a central courtyard. The house had strong outer walls with no windows, almost like a small fortress. All the doors and windows of the rooms opened inward to the courtyard. A strong outer door led into the courtyard which gave access to all the rooms of the house. Usually, a set of steps just inside the outer door led up to a flat rooftop where they would dry fish and fruit, and even sleep at night during the warm summer months.
It is significant that, already at the beginning of chapter two, Mark refers to Simon and Andrew’s oikos as Jesus’ “home.” He was no longer a visitor there; he had become part of the extended family. But the family was changing. No longer did they hide behind the walls of their family compound, only allowing in people “like us.” Now they opened the outer door and invited everyone in. Often the courtyard was so filled with people that there was no more room and people overflowed out the door.
This is the setting when four friends heard Jesus was “at home” (literally “in the oikos”), and thus tried to bring their paralyzed friend to him for healing. When they arrived, they discovered the courtyard was so packed with people that they couldn’t get to Jesus. However, they could access the steps inside the outer door. So they carried their friend up onto the flat roof above the room where Jesus was teaching. The roofs were made of layers of mud and straw laid over rafters. Each fall they had to be resealed with a new layer of mud and straw, rolled flat with a heavy stone roller.
These four friends began to dig through the mud-thatched roof above Jesus’ head, making a large opening and a huge mess! They lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof to Jesus, who didn’t see the mess as much as their faith. Although Jesus saw this man’s obvious physical ailment, he also saw a deeper spiritual paralysis and so said to him, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” This immediately upset the religious teachers because they believed only God had the authority to forgive sins. Jesus was aware of their objections, so he pointed out that if he had the authority to heal, he must also have the authority to forgive. Then he called the man to his feet, and the man stood up, picked up his mat, and walked in front of them all!
What are you willing to do to bring those you love closer to Jesus? What are the paralyzed places in your life where you need Jesus’ forgiveness and healing? Often the obvious ailments in our lives are not the ones that are holding us back most. Sometimes we need to dig deeper to find out what is really going on. Are you willing to dig deeper and make a mess?
Reflect and Respond
What is Jesus saying to me right now?
What step of faith is Jesus calling me to take today?
Footsteps Every Week: Review
Write a brief summary of what Jesus said to you each day this past week and the step of faith he called you to take:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Footsteps Every Week: Reflect
Big Picture
As you look over what Jesus has said to you this past week, do you see any themes? What is the most important thing you need to remember and believe?
Predictable Pattern
As you look over what Jesus called you to do this past week, is there a new predictable pattern he is inviting you to establish in your life with God and others?
Plant the Word
As you look over the readings from this past week, write out the passage that feels most important for you and memorize it over the next week: