Isaiah 40:21-31

This may seem like a jump from the last couple weeks to a different part of the Bible than we've been but scholars agree this chapter of Isaiah begins a section that was written by the same writers or at least from the same time as Deuteronomy and Samuel. They were writing from or after the Babylonian exile in these verses and you can feel the distance from God that they must have felt. We are given a God's eye view of the world and told the rulers and judges are meaningless. We are told strength and power are available from Him, but how do get it? Wait, that's how. I'm guessing some people are getting impatient.

I shouldn't make light of this. If there were grumblings in the kingdom about this God not being good enough, this and the next few chapters try to address those concerns, and history says they succeeded. Judaism of course survived, and Christians continue to refer back to these passages and the next 15 chapters on special days in the calendar. Contrast this with the Book of Job, probably written around the same time but by different authors and expressing a lot of doubt about God and how we should relate to Him. Job inspires a lot of discussion, but it is not a source for liturgy.

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Chapter 9 is a continuation from Chapter 8, responding to the question about sacrificial meat and what right he has to do what he is doing and preach the way he does. He calls on his authority as one who saw Jesus. This wasn't a living Jesus but a spiritual one, but that is not a problem for Paul. Also, he is out there living and working with the people he preaches to, not in seclusion and not profiting from them.

He is walking a fine line, claiming the right to expect compensation, but pointing out he has the privilege not to. He sees this as a way to show the importance of what he is doing and to encourage others to do the same. He refrains from liberties he could take and takes on lifestyles of those he visits, seeking similarities and not alienating them. Parenthetically, he is keeping Christ's law, so there is a limit to this, but he has no problem becoming one who is outside the laws of the Pharisees.

Mark 1:29-39

Sounds like just a day in the life of Jesus, but notice it is the Sabbath. You're not supposed to work during the Sabbath although exactly what they mean by "work" is not clear. This is going to cause trouble for Jesus later and helps explain the reactions in this passage. The people bring their sick after sundown because that's the end of the Sabbath, and they know its okay for Jesus to get back to work. Also notice how quickly word is spreading about all this. All this, including last week's deeds show Jesus has powers that the current leadership does not.

But also notice we haven't seen much substance yet. We've seen healings, we've seen God give His blessing, so we are being told Jesus is amazing, but not given divine knowledge. These are elements of myth. These are tall tales that people who can't read and write will remember. It's assumed that the scribes will take care of the factual details. Well, I can't be sure what people were assuming, but this isn't intended to be a lie, it's just one of the ways ideas were passed on in a time of very few books. The idea in this case, the messiah showed up, and we didn't recognize him.