Saturday, December 13, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Mark 7-9
Key Verse
Mark 8:26 — “And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.”
Devotional Thought
The Pharisees and scribes came down from Jerusalem to examine Jesus, and what they seized upon was not doctrine but dirty hands. His disciples ate bread without the ceremonial washing, and the religious leaders found fault. Jesus answered with Isaiah’s words about a people who honor God with their lips while their hearts are far away. He exposed the deeper scandal: they had declared their possessions “Corban,” a gift to God, so that they need not honor father or mother. The tradition of men had been set above the commandment of God, and the word of God was made of none effect. Then He gathered the crowd and spoke plainly: it is not what enters a man that defiles him, but what comes out of the heart—evil thoughts, adulteries, murders, thefts, covetousness, pride, foolishness.
From there Mark hurries us through a gallery of mercy. A Syrophenician woman, a Greek outside the covenant, begs for her daughter and receives her request with the striking words about dogs eating the crumbs under the table. A deaf man with a speech impediment is taken aside, touched, and told “Ephphatha”—Be opened. Four thousand hungry people in a wilderness are fed from seven loaves and a few small fishes. A blind man at Bethsaida sees men like trees walking before his sight clears entirely. A father cries out, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” and his tormented son is set free. Peter confesses, “Thou art the Christ,” then stumbles when Jesus speaks of suffering and death. On a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured, His raiment white as snow, Moses and Elias speaking with Him, and the Father’s voice declaring, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.”
In this Advent season we wait for the coming of that same Lord, and Mark shows us who it is we await. He is not a distant judge but the One who sighs over our unbelief, who takes children in His arms, who says that the first must be last and servant of all. The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy—outward cleanliness masking an unclean heart. But the leaven of the gospel is this: the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to suffer, to be rejected, to be killed, and after three days to rise again. Christmas is the beginning of that road to the cross.
So the question of Caesarea Philippi presses on us as it pressed on the twelve: “Whom say ye that I am?” Not merely a prophet, not merely a good teacher, but the Christ, the Son of the living God. And if we would come after Him, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? The One who opened the deaf ears and loosed the dumb tongue can open our hearts too—if we will hear Him.
Reflection
- Jesus said that what defiles a man comes from within, out of the heart. Where in my own life am I keeping outward traditions or appearances while my heart remains far from God?
- The father cried, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” What unbelief in my own heart do I need to bring honestly before Jesus this Advent?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we confess that our hearts are often far from Thee even while our lips speak Thy name. Cleanse us from within, for out of the heart proceed the very sins Thou camest to bear. Help Thou our unbelief, and open our ears to hear Thy voice afresh this season. Give us grace to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, and to follow Thee, trusting that whosoever loses his life for Thy sake and the gospel’s shall save it. Amen.