2024_11_20 Insight Post- Rusty Coram
This week’s reading- Colossians 4:10, Acts 12:25, Acts 13:1-13, Acts 15:36-41, Philemon 24, 2 Timothy 4:11
We’ve studied the men and women in this year’s Bible Reading Plan and I often find myself saying, “I wish I knew more.” In this case, we know that Paul and Barnabas were not only close ministry partners but also devoted friends. John Mark was Barnabas’ cousin and seemed eager to be part of the work. He had grown up around the early church and was an eyewitness to much of what was happening. It is one thing to be interested and another to invest. Mark joins Barnabas and Paul on a mission trip as their assistant, but he leaves and returns home during the trip. We aren’t told why. We are just told that when Barnabas wants to bring Mark on a follow-up trip, Paul refuses, and he and Barnabas go their separate ways. It appears that Mark may have quit on the first trip because it was difficult, and the opposition was significant. Maybe he was homesick. Whatever it was, Paul didn’t want to have it happen again. Barnabas, whose name means “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36), was ready to give his cousin a second chance.
After that, we learn about the work Paul and his team accomplished, but we don’t hear about Barnabas or Mark for quite a while. Then, seemingly out of the blue, we read that Paul and Mark have reconciled, and Mark is a valued and respected partner in ministry. How did this happen? When did they reconnect? Did Barnabas act as a go-between for reconciliation? Did Mark pursue Paul? Or did Paul search out Mark? I want to know more of the story but what I do know is that all three of them were deeply devoted to Jesus and to growing in their love of God and others. God’s Holy Spirit was at work in all three to get them to look at Him and then each other with truth, grace, and forgiveness. In the process, Mark became a strong leader and partner with Paul and was tapped to write one of the four official biographies of Jesus.
This relational problem wasn’t edited out or ignored in the Bible but chronicled so that each of us can have hope. Relationships can get pretty messy, but they don’t have to stay that way. A verse that sums up the Bible’s role we see played out here is Romans 15:4 (NIV): “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Rusty Coram
Senior Pastor