Reflections
Lent 2024
Included here are Reflections on the Gospel of Mark. These Reflections were written during Lent 2024 by the Ministry Team from St Peter’s Prestbury and St John’s Adlington to help us all as we read Mark’s Gospel as part of our Lenten practice for the year.
The Reflections are deliberately left anonymous but were written by:
Revd Patrick Angier
Revd Avril Ravenscroft
Revd Steve Murphy
Revd Lynne Bowden
Rachel Pendleton
Anne Stirling
Beverley Angier
Day 1
Ash Wednesday
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 1:1-13
Key verse: ‘The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God’ Mark 1:1
Reflection
Every Journey begins with the first step, today we begin our pilgrimage through Mark’s Gospel. Mark tells us it’s the beginning of the Good News but there is never an end to the Good News. There is no limit to the height, depth and breadth of God’s love as we will discover.
Prayer
On the journey Lord: open my eyes to see, mind to understand and heart to receive you Jesus. Amen
Day 2
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 1: 14 -34
Key verse: ‘And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ Mark 1:19
Reflection
Jesus’ fame grows quickly as his ministry begins. Today he calls Simon and Andrew, James and John and they respond immediately to follow. As we follow Jesus today we may be called to leave what we are doing, or follow where we are in our daily life, but always following makes a difference.
What does following Jesus mean to you? Talk to the Lord today about this and ask for his help in following him through Lent.
Day 3
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 1: 35-end
Key verse: ‘In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.’ Mark 1: 35
Reflection
Already Jesus has healed many people from disease of mind and body, and knowing that this is just the beginning… Yet next morning he is up before dawn to be alone with his Father and to pray. This is the relationship that will never be broken, weaving its sustenance throughout his ministry.
In our busy lives it can feel hard to find time to pray each day, yet staying close to Jesus is our sustenance too. When is your best time to set aside… to talk… to listen…?
Day 4
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 2: 1-12
Key verse: ‘And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.’ Mark 2:4
Reflection
Jesus is beginning to demonstrate his authority and also to generate hostility by his teaching in this crowded place. But our immediate attention is seized by the audacious actions of a group of people who really think outside the box in how to bring their paralysed friend to Jesus. This is faith in action!
Question
In your everyday life can you make the opportunity to live out your faith in action? Maybe not by making holes in roofs, but perhaps by helping a friend. This Lent ask God to help you to find situations in which you can live out your faith.
Day 5
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 2: 13 – end
Key verse: ‘The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ Mark 2:24
Reflection
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote that following Jesus is less about avoiding sin than it is courageously doing God's will. So, it's not about the law of Pharisees or even about our own efforts. It's about embracing what God has done for us by placing our trust in Him, accepting His love and allowing Him to interrupt and transform us.
Question
Talk to God – ask Him to help you to put your trust in Him. Ask Him to show you where he can interrupt you today and continue his work of transformational love in your life.
Day 6
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 3:1-19
Key verse: ‘And he appointed twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach’ Mark 3:14
Reflection
Today we see Jesus healing on the sabbath provoking the anger of the religious leaders, yet the people follow him in large crowds. From the crowd he separates the twelve disciples and calls them to him giving them authority but also responsibility. As we follow Jesus today we are both set apart and called to be part of the world, helping to heal.
Question
What does it mean to you to be a disciple? Ask Jesus to help you share your faith this Lent in word and deed.
Day 7
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 3: 20-35
Key Verse: ‘… whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.’ (Mark 3: 29)
Reflection
Both the scribes and Jesus’ family are sceptical about his claim to be working by the power of God. The scribes accuse Jesus of complicity with an evil spirit (Beelzebub) – so far from being the deliverer of those in the grip of spiritual evil they suggest he is himself under its control and therefore forwarding Satan’s purposes rather than defending them.
In our key verse today, Jesus makes a memorable pronouncement about sin that is beyond forgiveness – that of calling good, evil, or refusing to recognise goodness because of prejudice or malice.
Question
How can we grasp the truth about Jesus?
Ask God to help us to respond to this challenge and not resort to contrived explanation which might weaken or deny the truth.
Day 8
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 4:1-20
Key verse: ‘Listen! A Sower went out to sow.’ Mark 4:3
Reflection
Everyone who grows their own vegetables will identify with Jesus parable. The birds ate the peas, the slugs munched the lettuce, the sweet corn did not ripen, the tomatoes got blight... but the runner beans were amazing and made it all worthwhile. They produced a harvest, thirty sixty a hundredfold. Jesus reminds us that it is the same with the word of God.
Question
Do you focus on the rocks, birds and slugs or on the good things that God is doing?
Day 9
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 4:21-end
Key verse: ‘Peace, Be Still!’ Mark 4:39
Reflection
I like to imagine Jesus standing in the boat, hair flailing in the wind, disciples terrified at his feet as he roars, ‘PEACE, BE STILL!’, louder than the wind and rain – I love the wildness of this. Of course, he may have whispered it, and the storm of course would still have abated. Whatever the storm, Jesus is bigger and with him we are held safe in the boat.
Question
What are the challenges which face you today?
Maybe read the passage again and ask Jesus to whisper or roar, ‘Peace, Be Still’.
Day 10
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 5: 1–20
Key verse: ‘Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ Mark 5: 9
Reflection
Jesus is in Gentile territory now, faced with a man ostracised from every human contact by demons. They torment him, but he recognises them, and they recognise Jesus. As they meet in confrontation, Jesus drives them out…
Question
A dramatic event! But many of us face anxieties that lurk in the background, to limit or damage us. Recognising and confronting them can take courage, but God knows what they are. What might you bring to Jesus in prayer, to ask for his strength to drive them away…?
Day 11
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 5: 21–34
Key verse: ‘She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak.’ Mark 5:27
Another busy place, another healing … imagine the frantic crush, the smell, the noise, the confusion. Imagine the woman, with her heart racing, reaching out to touch Jesus’ cloak - how would the cloth feel on her fingers? What would she feel at the words: ‘Who touched my clothes?’
Question
Today, in a time of quiet thought, can you read the whole passage and put yourself into the woman’s place? Or into the place of someone watching this happen? In prayer you could tell Jesus how this makes you feel.
Day 12
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 5:25 –end
Key verse: ‘Do not be afraid; only believe?’ Mark 5:36 (b)
Reflection
There’s a myth that the phrase ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ appears in scripture 365 times. It doesn’t. But, even if it only appeared once, you could still wake up and read it every single day. Jesus warns us about being manipulated or ruled by our fear and offers us freedom by placing our faith in him and his love for us. For you and me.
Question
If you’re anxious, worried or fearful can you talk to God about it? Can you name your problem before God and then throughout the day say a short prayer asking him to help you and to give you peace?
Day 13
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 6: 1-13
Key verse:
‘Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offence at him’ Mark 6:3
Reflection
In his hometown Jesus is shunned. The people cannot accept that this man, who was a carpenter, is now a preacher who speaks with such power. From an earthly trade to a godly mission. But there is no secular and sacred. The example Jesus sets us is one of complete service to God in every context of life. As a preacher, a healer and as a carpenter. Jesus was always working for God by working for people.
Question
Is your faith truly every-day or does it get left for a Sunday? Ask Jesus how you can serve God in your life outside of church, how you can mirror his complete service in every part of your life?
Day 14
Bible passage of the day: Mark 6: 14-29
Key verse: ‘For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her.’ (Mark 6: 17)
In today’s passage we read about the macabre death of John the Baptist, who came to prepare the way of the Lord. The story is introduced to give a reason for Herod’s antagonism towards Jesus. His bad conscience about John suggests that in Jesus he sees another righteous and holy man, a troublemaker for him, who always makes a bold and uncompromising stand for principle.
Question: Do we have a bad conscience about something?
Ask for God’s forgiveness and pray for God’s guidance about how we can put this right and find peace in our hearts.
Day 15
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 6:30-44
Key verse: ‘Jesus had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ Mark 6:34
Reflection
Jesus identifies two needs of the crowd: their hunger and that they were shepherd-less. To try to be the shepherd they needed without addressing their hunger would have been self-defeating. Jesus does not just begrudgingly provide a crust, he provides abundantly. He shows the qualities not only of a good shepherd, but the qualities of The Good Shepherd.
Question
If I bring my needs to God do I expect him to respond abundantly?
Day 16
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 6:45- 56
Key verse: ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Mark 6:50
Reflection
‘Take heart’ Jesus says, ‘It is I’ to identify himself to the terrified disciples as he comes to their aid, walking on the water. The waters calm as he enters the boat and they are astounded, but they don’t understand who he really is. If they did perhaps they would not have been so afraid, or so surprised?
Prayer
In your prayers today hold tight to the statement ‘Take heart, it is I’ and pray for open eyes to recognise Jesus as he journeys beside you today.
Day 17
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 7: 1-23
Key verse: ‘Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach’ Mark 7: 18b
Reflection
Jesus is overturning priorities in today’s passage. What matters is who we are, not what we eat. Refusing a bacon buttie wasn’t going to make the Pharisees holy…!
Question
We’re told a lot about healthy eating, but what do we feed our minds and hearts with? Where do our views and opinions come from? And do they align with Jesus or the world…?
Day 18
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 7: 24–end
Key verse: ‘He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue’ Mark 7:33
Reflection
Most of Jesus’ healing miracles take place in the full view and hearing of crowds of faithful onlookers and disciples, critics and downright enemies, so it is interesting to wonder why he took the deaf man somewhere private and away from the crowd. Was it out of personal humility, or was it out of consideration for the man so that Jesus could communicate more clearly with someone who could not hear his voice? Or another reason? In any case, clearly Jesus wanted to give this man his undivided attention.
A prayer for today
Heavenly Father, help me to remember that I always have your undivided attention and that you know me completely. Help me to put aside time to spend with you every day. Amen
Day 19
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 8:1-10
Key verse: ‘His disciples replied, “How one can feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ Mark 8: 4
Reflection
Like the disciples, in today’s passage we can fail to grasp the great differences between ourselves and God. To overlook or misunderstand God's ability to provide amply from seemingly inadequate resources. But, as this scripture reminds us, God has the power to create and bring life where there was none before.
Question
Where are the desert places in your life? What do you hunger for? Mark tells us that Jesus has compassion for the crowd; this includes us. We are loved and counted amongst the hungry. Today can you ask God to feed you with power of his spirit?
Day 20
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 8:11-26
Key verse: ‘Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember?’ Mark 8:18
Reflection
The pharisees ask for signs and the disciples are preoccupied with their next meal. Both are leaning on their own understanding and fail to see the ultimate truth about the man in front of them. How often is this true of us? Do we forget the previous works of God within our own lives in moments of both joy and struggle?
Prayer
Take some time and ask Jesus to help you remember the miracles of the past and to see the miraculous today. To view the world around you and in the people in your life with the wonder that is deserved.
Day 21
Bible passage of the day: Mark 8:27 to 9:1
Key verse: ‘He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ (Mark 8:34)
Reflection
In response to Jesus’ question about his true identity Peter announces boldly that Jesus is the promised Messiah. But rather than being an all-conquering hero he is to be the victim of rejection and assassination. Still worse we learn that it is not only Jesus who must face the cross – but those who follow him.
Question
To what extent are we prepared to deny ourselves and be self-sacrificial in response to Jesus’ call?
Day 22
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 9:2-13
Key verse: ‘Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves.’ Mark 9:2
Reflection
Who would you share a once in a lifetime experience for four with? An experience you would never have imagined possible. Jesus chooses Peter, James, and John to join with him on the mountain. I wonder how the disciples left behind felt, as they were left behind and when they heard about what Peter, James and John experienced.
Question
Do you feel there is more of God that you could experience, deeper levels of encounter that you have heard of but not experienced?
Day 23
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 9: 14- 32
Key verse: ‘I believe; help my unbelief’ from Mark 9:24
Reflection
The Father of the boy who is healed , cries out of his desperation to see healing in his child - he grasps with everything he has, in hope that Jesus is able. Sometimes (often?!) our faith is not what we think it should be and all we have is a clutching-at-straws desperate hope, which calls us to cry, ‘I believe, help my unbelief’. Maybe this reaching out from the desperate mess to the God, who can, is just precisely what faith is?
Prayer
‘I believe, help my unbelief’ Make this your prayer today out of whatever surrounds you in life’s complexity, and wait for God to meet you where you are.
Day 24
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 9: 33- 50
Key verse: ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Mark 9: 35
Reflection
The disciples haven’t got it yet, they’re squabbling about who’s the greatest. But they do listen and later, as we see in Acts, they will change.
Question
I sometimes wonder if our hardest lesson is accepting that God loves us ALL, and that he isn’t impressed by power or status. Why then are we still drawn to people with power? Only the power of love matters.
Day 25
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 10: 1–16
Key verse: ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.’ Mark 10:v14(b)
Reflection
The disciples seem to think Jesus has more important things to do than be swamped by noisy wriggling children. He rejects their officious protection, and takes children into his arms and blesses them. Jesus’ welcome is a welcome for the vulnerable, a welcome of smallness and neediness – and especially for those who lack what the world considers important.
Question
Do you feel vulnerable, small or needy sometimes? In prayer ask Jesus to hold you in his arms today and bless you.
Day 26
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 10:17 -31
Key verse: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Mark 10:17 (b)
Reflection
The man (who Jesus loves) asks, “What must I do” to be saved? The fact is there is nothing he (or we) can do; scripture tells us that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus and not by our own efforts or works. Here Jesus highlights a person’s self-reliance and attachment to possessions, recognising that these are the things that are getting in the way and spoiling their relationship with God.
Question
Can you ask God to show you what is holding you back from a closer, deeper relationship with Him?
Day 27
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 10:32-52
Key verse: ‘whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.’ Mark 10:43-44
Reflection
Jesus tells his disciples what is to happen, the sacrifice he is about to make yet they still do not understand. James and John are jockeying for position but true greatness does not lie in power or authority. Jesus is showing them a different kind of leadership. That he came to serve, not to be served and to give away his life for us all.
Question
What does service mean to you? Ask Jesus how you could serve others in the wider community.
Day 28
Bible passage of the day: Mark 11:1-14
Key verse: ‘Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting ‘Hosanna! Mark 11:9
Reflection
Jesus arrives at the entrance to Jerusalem humbly riding on a colt. Whatever Jesus’ own interpretation of Messiah may be, it is as Messiah that he enters the city. The crowd, perhaps pilgrims for the Passover mingling with Jesus’ followers, hail him as the new David with cries of ‘Hosanna’ – which originally meant ‘Save us!’ but has also come to be used simply as a shout of praise.
Question
What sort of salvation do you think the crowds were looking for and how would their hopes, and ours, relate to what Jesus had in fact come to do?
Day 29
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 11:15-end
Key verse: ‘So they answered, Jesus, we do not know’
Reflection
Jesus counters the Scribes question of where his authority came from by asking them where John the Baptists authority came from. As they won’t answer neither does Jesus. Question and answer in Jesus’ culture was how faith issues were explored, teased out, challenged and reinterpreted. By not answering Jesus the Scribes are denying themselves the opportunity to grow and be changed.
Question
Do you feel nervous of exploring your faith or do you see it as the road to God bringing growth and transformation in your life?
Day 30
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 12: 1-17
Key verse: ‘So, they left him and went away’ Mark 12:12
Reflection
Does it always end the same way? People have always faced the same kind of challenges whenever they lived – how to spend money, how to prioritise what is most important, how best to balance life’s demands on us and how to live well and love. Faced with Jesus’ challenge the people turn and go away. They don’t see who Jesus is, just the weight of perceived demands.
Question
What might being loved unconditionally by God mean for you today and what might it mean to embrace this and not turn away?
Day 31
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 12: 18-34
Key verse: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12: 30
Reflection
When Jesus summarises the law to this questioning Pharisee – love God, love your neighbour – the Pharisee understands, and agrees. Among these hostile, suspicious authorities, this feels like a moment that must have warmed Jesus’ heart. There is hope…
Question
Some atheists take this verse as evidence that God is self-aggrandising by demanding our love. They miss the point utterly – loving God is loving Love, so everything else follows. Where in your life do you see his love for you?
Day 32
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 12: 35–end
Key verse: ‘They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation’. Mark 12:40
Reflection
In a bold denouncement Jesus calls out the scribes in today’s passage. Speaking God’s truth to power calls for courage and can be costly. It was then, and it still is now.
Question
Who can you think of in today’s world who speaks out to challenge injustice? How would you feel about speaking out God’s truth to power yourself? How costly might it be?
Day 33
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 13:1 – 13
Key verse: ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’ Mark 13:1 (b)
Reflection
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘church’ – what images does it conjure up for you? Large stones and large buildings – or perhaps a tin chapel on a country lane? Well both these things may be part of the story, but buildings are not the essence of church. The essence of church is that it extends beyond its physical structure; church is in fact a community of individuals united in their relationship with God.
Question
C.S Lewis once said that the church exists for nothing else but to, “draw people to Christ.” Can you talk to God about your experience of Church and ask him to show you how we may support each other, journey together and draw people to Him by sharing God’s love with others.
Day 34
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 13:14-end
Key verse: ‘Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory’ Mark 13:26
Reflection
Do you find yourself fearful of the future at the moment? Perhaps times are difficult, perhaps you or those you love are suffering. In our reading today Jesus is promising a happy ending. Yes, there is suffering in our world, but we can trust God with our suffering because in the cross we’ve seen what God can do with it. And in the humanity of Jesus we see the son of man who doesn’t know the future and has to live by faith and trust in the Father as we do.
Question
Ask God to be with you in your fears and struggles this Lent. Do not be afraid to ask him the difficult questions but try to find peace in the knowledge of his enduring love and hope in the promise of eternal life.
Day 35
Bible passage of the day: Mark 14:1-11
Key verse: ‘Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’ Mark 14:9
Reflection
The stage is set two days before the Passover for Jesus’ arrest and the authorities are undoubtedly scared of a political uprising. Judas now renounces his allegiance and betrays his Master. The woman with the alabaster jar of extravagant ointment – a preparation for burial - shows that at times there is room in God’s kingdom both for the careful stewardship of resources for those in need, but also, on occasion, for acts of spontaneous and uncalculating devotion to our Lord.
Question
What can we do to show our devotion and love of God and offer him our very best?
Day 36
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 14:12-31
Key verse: ‘When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives’ Mark 14:26
Reflection
We often sing Hymns to or about Jesus, but it seems strange to read Of Jesus himself singing a hymn of praise and worship. After the hymn Jesus and the disciples go to the Mount of Olives to pray. Jesus is modelling a pattern of prayer and praising God not just to his disciples, but to us.
Question
Where will you sing praise to God today?
Day 37
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 14:32-52
Key verse: ‘He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him.’ Mark 14:40
Reflection
The pain felt by Peter, James and John in the garden must have been unimaginable - seeing their friend and master suffer as Jesus did on that terrible evening, facing his betrayal. Sleep must have been a relief to them that Jesus did not have.
Question
There are many times when we don’t know what to say as we pray. What might it mean for you to know that you are always loved and heard by the one who knows what it is to suffer?
Day 38
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 14: 53-72
Key verse: ‘Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ And he broke down and wept.’ Mark 14: 72
Reflection
The air is thick with lies – Jesus in front of the high priest, accused by conflicting voices; Peter in the courtyard, denying he even knows who Jesus is. And two crystalline moments of clarity – Jesus unhesitatingly owning who he is, Peter recognising how bitterly he has failed…
Question
Being truthful can be costly, but Peter faces his betrayal and will be forgiven. What we don’t know is whether he forgives himself… Are there things in your life you find hard to accept God’s forgiveness for? Breathe… pray… accept… and let them go…
Day 39
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 15:1-20
Key verse:
‘Pilate asked him again, ‘Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you’. Mark 15: 4
Reflection
Jesus is composed and silent under questioning from Pilate. This is not an admission of guilt but evidence of Jesus’ commitment to the cross and his Father’s will. Sometimes it is more powerful in a challenging situation to be silent than to speak.
Question
In prayer today ask God to guide you in what you say, and what you don’t say. Ask him to help you keep in mind that silence can sometimes be more powerful than speaking.
Day 40
Bible Passage of the day: Mark 15:21 – 41
Key verse: Mark 15:40-41
‘There were also women - who followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him, and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.’
Reflection
It was the women who loved Jesus who were the last at the cross and (as we shall see) the first at the tomb - the first to be entrusted with the news of the resurrection of Jesus. In spite of what some would have us think, women were vital and integral to the formation and mission of the early church and, thank God, still are today
Question
As followers of Jesus we are all called to mission – a mission like no other - and God calls both women and men, sisters and brothers in Christ to leadership. As we prepare for Easter, and all that entails, can you pray for all who’ve been called to Christian leadership, especially those facing unjust opposition, inequality or any other difficulty?