Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Mark 14:22-24
As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many.”
There are many different ways to convey a message. The most obvious is to use words, but there are times when they are not enough. In the Old Testament, we often see the prophets acting out their message. One such dramatic moment was when Ahijah tore his robe into twelve pieces and gave ten of them to Jeroboam to demonstrate that ten of the tribes would make him king (1 Kings 11:29-32). Jeremiah also used dramatic actions to emphasise his messages. He fastened a yoke to his neck with leather straps to show how the Babylonians would conquer the land (Jeremiah 27:2). Nobody could have misunderstood his message.
In our reading today, Jesus shared a special meal with His disciples. Using the powerful imagery of the broken bread and the wine, Jesus told His bemused disciples that these symbols spoke of His own body and blood. Jesus had already clearly told them that He was going to die, but now He demonstrated it through sharing a simple meal with them.
I wonder what the disciples made of that meal. At the time, it must have been very confusing. Alarmingly, it began with Jesus telling them that one of them was going to betray Him. They knew that there was an increasing tide of opposition to Jesus’ ministry and must have been nervous. In the midst of it all, they met Jesus their friend, their master and their Lord.
When we celebrate Communion, we are in a very different place from the disciples. We know that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that on the third day He rose again and is still alive and in heaven. But just as the disciples shared that last supper with the Lord in an atmosphere of tension, so too we meet with the living Jesus in a world in which there is still much brokenness, violence and sin. Jesus meets with us where we are, just as He met with His disciples long ago in that Upper Room.
Question
What does the service of Communion mean to you?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You that You meet with me day by day in the midst of the challenges and opportunities of life. Amen

Mark 14:8-9
[Jesus said:] “She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”
Jesus said this after a woman had anointed him in Bethany. It was clearly an amazing moment. It was quite usual for a house guest to be greeted by being given a few drops of perfume, but the woman deliberately broke open the whole perfume bottle. The onlookers immediately responded to the apparent waste of money. The perfume was made from nard which came from far off India and was, therefore, extremely expensive – the equivalent of one year’s wages.
Jesus vigorously defended the woman’s actions. The people who suggested that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor weren’t wrong, but they missed the point. This woman was preparing Jesus’ body for burial, and nothing could be more important than that. Jesus’ death on the cross was going to bring salvation to the world, so her action was of the first importance. I am particularly struck by the fact that Jesus commended the woman for doing [itals]what she could[end itals]. That’s the challenge we all face. God may not call on you and me to lead countries or armies or change history through great social reforms, but He does ask us to do what we can. Perhaps He is calling us to encourage the elderly people next door, or write a note of encouragement to a colleague, or pay a debt on behalf of a family member. Our action may hardly be noticed, but that’s not the point. We will have done what we could.
In his letters, the apostle Paul constantly encouraged his readers to keep doing God’s will. He knew that life was full of challenges and distractions, but he commanded them: “Be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Question
What will you be able to do for God today?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank You for the opportunity of serving You today. Amen

Mark 12:29-31
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
The Jewish teachers of the law were famous for two things. Firstly, they took hold of the 613 laws that were given to Moses and added layer upon layer of other regulations, but they also enjoyed being able to reduce the whole law to a short sentence. That’s what Jesus does here. He took the vast weight of the Jewish law and summed it up with the command to love God and one’s neighbour. He was the first person to bring together these two instructions into a single command.
The words that Jesus used would have been very familiar to any Jew. They were known as the Shema and they opened every act of Jewish worship - and still do today. Jews are constantly reminded of them. On every doorpost in a Jewish home, there is a small cylindrical box called a Mezuzah. Inside the box, there is a tiny copy of the Shema. It was also contained in the phylacteries which devout Jews wore as they prayed. These were little leather boxes, and you will still often see them being worn by Jews at the Western Wall (otherwise known as the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem.
We can so easily make life complicated, but Jesus continually calls us back to the simplicity of his message. Love is the key. We can never go wrong if we love him and live in obedience to his loving commands. St Augustine summed this up well with the famous saying: “Love God and do as you like.” Often when we think about laws, we think about the negative ones – the long list of things that we shouldn’t do – but God’s fundamental law is entirely positive. When we love him and show love to our neighbour, the thought of hurting them in any way disappears. Our whole interest is to encourage and strengthen them in just the same way as God constantly seeks to build us up and make us stronger.
Question
What will it mean for you to love God today with all your heart, mind, soul and strength?
Prayer
Loving God, I thank you for your perfect love for me. Help me to learn more each day about how I can pass that love on to others. Amen

Mark 11:16-17
[Jesus] stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
The Temple in Jerusalem was an impressive building and occupied a vast 30-acre site in the heart of the city. The temple area was divided into distinct parts and the commercial activity all took place in the extensive Court of the Gentiles, the wall of which was covered in notices indicating that the penalty for any non-Jew entering further was death. The Court of the Gentiles trading area was often extremely busy. It is said that on one occasion a trader offered 3,000 sheep for sale on a single day! The priests were also involved in the trading, and the high priest seems to have owned shops in the area. If you have ever been to what we now call The Old City of Jerusalem or any other middle eastern bazaar, you will have a good idea of what it was like. It was noisy and hectic as traders went about their business. This was all too much for Jesus, who was furious at this abuse of the temple and energetically drove out the traders.
The temple was, of course, principally the focus of worship for Jews, but the Court of the Gentiles was there to show that non-Jews were welcome. Jesus observed that it was to be a house of prayer for all nations, so seeing it dominated by noisy traders was deeply offensive.
I’m sure we all share Jesus’ sense of outrage at the abuse of the temple, but the same thing can happen in our own day. It is perfectly possible for churches to become distracted by secondary matters. They may become so focused on their buildings, music, social engagement or fellowship that prayer gets crowded out. All of those things are good, but they should never be our priority.
Question
Is prayer the priority of your church?
Prayer
Lord God, help me to always make prayer the priority of my life. Amen

Mark 11:9-10
“Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Blessings
on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!”
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem shows us his extraordinary courage. He could easily have slipped quietly into the city, but in deliberately entering the city on a donkey, he was making a powerful statement. He was declaring for all to see that he was indeed the Messiah, the one who had come to save his people. Their praises show that they were entirely clear what was happening. Some may even have recalled that this was exactly what Zechariah had prophesied: “Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey – riding on a donkey’s colt” (Zechariah 9:9).
The people were delighted to welcome their Messiah, but there were clearly very different ideas of what such a person would do. Jesus wasn’t offering himself as the one who would kick out the occupying Roman forces, and that was probably the kind of liberation that most people were looking for. The thought that their Messiah was going to face crucifixion within a week wasn’t in their minds at all. Not even Jesus’ closest disciples had understood how the week would unfold.
As we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, it is good for us to remember that he is the one who sets us free, but not always in the way that we expect or want. We may want him to be the powerful authority figure who comes on an impressive war horse to sort out the problems of our lives and of our world, but he comes on a donkey and gently shows us how we need to forgive, love and support the people around us. Jesus’ ways are not our ways but, like the people of long ago, we need to welcome him with enthusiasm and joy because he is coming to us in the name of the Lord.
Question
What kind of Messiah are people looking for these days?
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, I praise you. You are the one who has come to give me peace and salvation. I welcome you into my life today. Amen