and the third and fourth as well, seventy times seven

Paul and Barnabas had such a serious argument about this that they separated and went different ways. Acts 15:39

I forget sometimes that these early Christians were flawed sinners just like me. Paul doesn’t forget: For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

This must be one of those moments.  

Here, Barnabas, whose real name was Joseph, but was nicknamed, “Son of Encouragement,” which is the same word Luke uses for the Holy Spirit, Paraclete, stood against a decision of Paul.  And it’s pretty fun to imagine what kind of guy Barnabas must have been, that he was nicknamed, “Son of the Holy Spirit,” and how closely that is tied up with encouragement and walking alongside the outcast, the stumbling, the discouraged.  This was the guy who stuck up for Paul when everyone else rejected him, and sought him out.  And brought him into the community.  

And so John Mark had wimped out, been a goof ball of some sort, and headed back to Jerusalem before the trip was over. Or the commentators guess that he wasn’t so happy with the Law-less Paul’s mission to the heathens. And the important thing is that Paul was tired of messing with him.  John Mark just slowed him down. But Barnabas clued into what was important, of the Holy Spirit, and gave him another chance.  And thus, we have a gospel which grips the reader with the immediate passion and active voice of Jesus.  Who later earned the name of “John Mark the Evangelist.” Who was later a comfort to a lonely, imprisoned Paul. 

We serve the God of second chances.