Sunday of the Man Born Blind; + The Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot.
Polyeleos Feast.
Acts 16:16-34; 1 Corinthians 4:9-16; John 9:1-38; Matthew 13:54-58.
Read Acts 16:16-34
What kind of change do we expect from others? That can depend as much on what’s going on with us as the other person. Paul expected a kind of change from John Mark that could not happen as quickly as Paul thought he needed. A couple of years previously, on the first journey that established the churches Paul now wanted to return to, John Mark left Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem, so Paul refused to take him now because he didn’t think he could rely on him for the kind of work he would be doing.
Barnabas had previously advocated for Paul to those in Jerusalem who considered him suspect after he persecuted the church. He did so on the basis of what he had seen in Paul, “how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.” (Acts 9:27) Now Barnabas was advocating for John Mark, his cousin (Colossians 4:10), apparently on the basis of something he had seen in him.
But Paul insisted that if Barnabas was going to work with John Mark he had to do it apart from him and his work. So, one of the kinds of work Barnabas apparently did was the formation of John Mark. About ten years later, John Mark’s reliability in a tough spot was such that he was present with Paul during his first imprisonment in Rome. (Colossians 4:10) At the end of Paul’s life, during his final imprisonment, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Get Mark and bring him with you; for he is very useful in serving me.” (2 Timothy 4:11)