September 5, 2022

Peachtree Church is reading through the Bible together in 2022 with Quest: Exploring God’s Story Together. Devotionals are sent by email three days each week. Monday’s email includes additional background, history, and cultural information to help us better understand the texts. On Tuesday and Thursday you will receive a devotional based on one portion of the texts for this week.

Texts for this week

Mark 8:31-10:34

Matthew 10, 16

John 4, 6, 8:12-59, 11:1-44, 13:1-17

Psalm 121

Introduction to the Texts

Our readings this week cover some of the best-known stories of Jesus, encompassing such moments as the Transfiguration, the feeding of the Five Thousand (and the Four Thousand), and Jesus walking on water. For those of us who were raised going to church, these passages may be so familiar that we skim through them without pausing to ponder just what they mean and how they touch our lives. This can be one of the challenges that we can face in reading words of Scripture that we know well. In these pages are some of the richest reminders of who Jesus is and how he was seen and understood by those who walked with him on the dusty roads of Judea two thousand years ago.

What binds our readings together this week is the manner in which they point toward Jesus as the Messiah. He was not simply an itinerant rabbi of remarkable skill or a prophet of the Lord. That word, Messiah, is a Hebrew word which means “anointed one.” In the Jewish tradition, three offices were marked by the process of being anointed with oil: prophet, priest, and king. While King David was also a prophet and the prophet Ezekiel was also a priest, the Messiah for whom the Israelites had been watching since at least the time of Isaiah was to embody all three of these offices. As we read through these pages, we have the opportunity to see how Jesus exemplifies these roles.

Devotional

Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. “[A spirit] has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!

Mark 9:21-24

When confronted by the father of a boy possessed by an impure spirit, Jesus began to question the man about the situation. After a bit of discourse, the father gave a most powerful statement of faith: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Many of us have had moments in our lives when we feel as though our faith has shrunk from the size of a mustard seed to something that might only be able to be seen with a microscope. In those times when it feels as though we have absolutely nothing left to give, we can remember the words of this unnamed father, who knew that while he believed, he also had doubts.

Many of us have been taught that we should not have doubts and questions that arise in conjunction with our walk of faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. The times when we raise difficult questions connected to the Christian life are the greatest opportunities that we have to grow closer to God.

For Reflection

Has there been a time in your life when you have had questions about God?

What does it mean to you to know that while you believe, you still have moments of unbelief?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we believe that you are the Messiah, even as we have times when we do not understand what that means for our lives. Help us to overcome our unbelief and to draw nearer to you each day. In your name we pray; amen.