Preliminary Thoughts on Mark 2005 March 10 for 30^th

Here is what I know about Mark going in:

It is one of the four eye-witness or near-eye-witness accounts of Jesus' life on earth;

It is the shortest Gospel;

It is aimed at a Gentile audience and therefore has less reference to genealogy, Jewish religious practice, and other background matters that would be of interest to and understandable by practicing Jews;

It is much faster paced; and

Mark was a younger man.

Since we are in this non-Jewish audience, perhaps we will be reached more directly by this account.

Mark 1 2005 March 11 for 31^st

John the Baptist, a wild man preaching repentance in the wilderness, came before Jesus, as prophesied. (And I said there was less prophecy in this book!)

John baptized Jesus, then Jesus was driven into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil and attended by angels.

John was put in prison and Jesus called his first disciples, Simon, Andrew, James, and John (sons of Zebedee).

On the Sabbath in Capernaum, he drove a demon out of a man, a very loud and amazing process. Simon's mother-in-law was sick; he went and healed her. Everybody in town then showed up to be healed.

Jesus went out to pray by himself and, when he was informed that "Everyone is looking for you!" decided that it was time for them to move on and preach somewhere else, since preaching was why he had come. By implication, healing was just a sideline, but he had the power of God, what else could he do?

They went to Galilee, preaching and "driving out demons." He showed compassion and healed a man with leprosy. After the healing, he told the man to go show himself to the priests, as Moses had ordered in the law.

Such crowds followed him everywhere that he had to live and preach out in the "lonely places."

This bullet-information form is not much of a departure from the book of Mark itself. It is therefore easy to gloss over details like "tempted by the devil and attended by angels." Have you ever been tempted by the master tempter, or attended by the heavenly experts?

Mark 2 2005 March 11 for April 1^st

Jesus returned to Capernaum and word spread quickly. The crowd was so large that a paralytic man and a group of four friends who were carrying him had to go open the roof and lower the man down to Jesus who was inside teaching. Jesus counted this as an act of faith and forgave the man's sins. The man then got up, took his mat, and headed out. The religious leaders took exception to Jesus forgiving sins, a prerogative of only God. Jesus knew they were angrily thinking this and confronted them about it claiming that he did in fact have the authority to forgive sins.

Continuing in his travels, Jesus called Levi to be his follower straight from a tax collector's booth. He stayed that night at Levi's house and ate there with many of Levi's sinner friends. This caused another stir among the religious leaders. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

John the Baptist's disciples practiced fasting as one of their religious observances, in fact all Jews did. Jesus was asked about this and said that it was inappropriate for the "friends of the bridegroom" to fast while he was there with them. He was referring to himself and said that there would be plenty of time for fasting after he was gone.

There are many things like this where the old ways don't fit the new realities. You don't patch old clothes with new cloth do you? I wonder why we don't do fasting so much today?

Another religious challenge came as the disciples did some minor harvesting while walking through a field on the Sabbath only to satisfy their own hunger pangs. Though this was technically illegal by strict construction of the laws of Moses, it was OK with Jesus, who argued that the Sabbath was made for man's benefit, not the other way around.

Wow, a "command" accompanied by reasoning!

Mark 3 2005 March 14 for April 4^th

The no-frills account continues with an incident in a Synagogue on a Sabbath. There was a man there with a shriveled hand and the religious leaders were watching closely to see if Jesus would heal him on the day of rest. Jesus, angered at this callous attitude, asked, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" When there was no answer to this, he healed the man. At this, two sects of religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Herodians began to work on plots to kill Jesus.

This was their answer then, "to do nothing rather than good."

After this, the crowds following Jesus became so large that he had to leave populated areas and, even when in the wilderness, had to have a boat on standby in case the crowd pushed him into the water. He healed everyone who could reach him, the number of God's creations who were broken and in need of his direct intervention was overwhelming to this one man. When he cast out demons, they yelled that Jesus was the Son of God, but he told them (strictly ordered them) not to tell.

Jesus retreated to the hills and called his twelve followers: Simon, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, Thaddaeus, Simon, and Judas. The first Simon was also called Peter. The second belonged to a party called "Zealots". James and John were brothers. Jesus called them "Sons of Thunder". Judas Iscariot would betray him.

Interesting the rumors and misunderstandings that arise when a person is as effective as Jesus. People started thinking that he was crazy himself, operating by the power of "the prince of demons". This accusation demanded an answer. Jesus told the "house divided" parable. A robber cannot rob without overcoming the master of the property. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Evil cannot overcome evil. Abraham Lincoln quoted this in a speech during the U.S. Civil War. Jesus' claim was that he could only do the good he was doing by the Spirit of God and by overcoming evil.

At this point his own family showed up to take charge of him. Perhaps this was a setup with the religious leaders who were attempting to discredit Jesus or perhaps the rumor was so widespread that his family had picked up on it. The leaders felt that Jesus could not be doing good since he was breaking their rules (or he was threatening to them). His family just wanted to protect him, to take him into custody.

When Jesus' mother and brothers arrived and asked for him, he declared his independence on the spot, claiming that his followers there with him and "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (… and sister, yes.)

Mark 4 2005 March 15 for April 5^th

Jesus' teaching turns to parables, and he uses the contingency boat by being rowed out some distance in order to preach to the large crowd on shore. In all cases, the parables are intended to be illuminating only to those who "have ears to hear". He is upset with the disciples because they don't get these teachings on their own, being in the inner circle, but he does explain things to them in private.

The first parable is one we have seen before about a farmer sowing seed. Some fell along the path, some fell in shallow ground among rocks, and some fell among thorns. None of this did well. Only the seed that fell in good ground (one might say "was properly planted") reproduced many fold, up to a hundred.

These represent, respectively, the Word of God being snatched away by the devil, the Word not taking root because of personal shallowness, the Word being choked out by money or other worldly interests, and the Word falling on good hearts and producing significant results.

This is followed by other parables that have become nearly clichéd in our day. Do you buy a lamp only to hide it? No, you put it up where it illuminates everything. Take care about the standards you use because those standards will be used on you, even more so. "Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."

The kingdom of heaven is like seeds growing in the ground. A man plants and tends and harvests, but he has no idea how it all works under the hood. Although we have serious additional insight into such processes thanks to modern science today, we still do not have a rational, objective understanding of how it is all motivated.

A mustard seed is tiny, but grows into a plant that does all sorts of good, feeding and sheltering.

After this was over, they got into the boat to cross over to another area and were caught in a storm at night. Jesus was asleep while the disciples struggled with the rigging. They woke him up in terror that they were about to be drowned. Jesus surprise response was not to join with them in the struggle but to command the storm to stop, which it did.

At this, they were even more terrified!

Mark 5 2005 March 17 for April 6^th

There was a region across the lake known as "Decapolis", that is, "Ten Cities." These cities, bound together by mutual trade and defense pacts, were mostly non-Jewish. Jesus went there in the boat.

A man who lived in a cave near their landing spot had become uncontrollable. He ran around naked causing disruptions all the time and had long since gotten past being bound with ropes or even chains. He would break anything anyone put on him, showing superhuman strength.

Jesus conversed with the man's demon. Apparently it was a long conversation. He told the demon to come out, calling it an "evil spirit", but the demon pleaded not to be sent out “of the region.” It told Jesus to "Swear to God that you won't torture me!" When Jesus asked its name, it replied "Legion" because there were many. Then, "Legion" suggested that they be sent into a herd of pigs nearby. Jesus gave them permission, they moved to the pigs, the pigs stampeded down the hill and drowned in the lake, and the man was totally cured.

At this sudden change in business fortune, the pig herders ran into town to tell everyone what had happened. People came out of the town, found the man dressed, sitting, and in his right mind, Jesus with him, and dead pigs in the water. They pleaded with Jesus to leave the region himself, which he did. (This must have been roughly the same fiscal impact as a hailstorm at a car dealership.) The man himself pleaded with Jesus to let him come along, but Jesus told him to go back to his family and tell them what God had done for him, which he did.

It is probably not coincidental that pigs are unclean according to Jewish law. It is interesting how hard Jesus had to work to perform this healing. I have always wondered what happened to the demons when the pigs drowned. Did they remain in dead pig bodies?

Back on the Jewish side of the lake Jesus was seriously pressed in by a crowd. A woman who had some sort of chronic bleeding disease came and just touched his clothes and was healed. Jesus realized that his power had been used and queried the crowd about it. The disciples were incredulous at this, "You see the people crowding against you and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"

The woman, realizing what was going on, confessed and Jesus sent her away healed and with a blessing.

Right then some men showed up, representing a man named Jarius, asking for Jesus to come and heal Jarius' daughter who was very sick. Jesus told them that the girl was dead, but he went with them anyway. He only took his three closest followers, Peter, James, and John.

Paid mourners were already at the house when Jesus arrived. She was indeed dead. He dismissed them, to their great derision. He then went up to the girl's room and spoke to her, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!" She did, to everyone's amazement. Jesus then gave two orders, to give the girl something to eat and for no one to tell anyone about this.

I suppose it will come up eventually so I'll mention it briefly here. A criticism of the Bible, particular the stories about Jesus, and other Christian undertakings along these lines through the centuries is that sick people can get into states that are difficult to distinguish from death. Since this an attempt to deflate the miraculous nature of these events, the criticism should be examined completely, inasmuch as one way to attract a following of the likeminded is to proclaim a half-truth then let the followers jump from there to their pre-disposed conclusion, in this case that people like this girl were not really dead.

Even if this was the case, it does not explain why Jesus speaking to her, and no other sounds or others speaking nearby caused her to wake up and get up without further symptoms aside from weakness. It does not explain how Jesus knew before he even started towards the house what the situation was. He knew more about it than the messengers sent to summon him.

To discredit this story, therefore, is to deny three miracles, not one. Since we are reading the Bible here with the attitude that we will take it at face value and believe what it plainly says unless there is serious evidence to the contrary, denying three pieces of the story is a much greater leap than denying any one. In any case, if Jesus or his followers were trying to build a cult from this, they would not have done it in private and they would not have sternly ordered everyone to keep quiet about it. In writing the book, they would have exaggerated even further. None of this happens here. Certainly the eyewitnesses believed that this was resuscitation (restoration of life to a dead body) in order to be surprised and need to be given such orders.

Once again, therefore, I will claim that I believe the account here, highly unusual though it is, because of the normalcy of the events surrounding it.

Mark 6:1 - 44 2005 March 19 for April 7^th

In his travelers with his followers, Jesus returns to his hometown. When he taught in the Synagogue on the Sabbath there everyone was amazed and wondered how he knew all this stuff. He couldn't do much there because everyone thought they knew him. "'Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?' And they took offense at him."

In addition to not being able to do much, Jesus was also amazed, at the people's lack of faith.

Is lack of faith really something to be amazed at? Maybe for somebody like Jesus it is. I wonder if Jesus ever had any concept of error? (Error in himself that is, he was obviously quite aware of error in others.)

Though the clear first meaning of this statement of familiarity is that Jesus had several siblings, Catholics allegorize this away somehow in support of their claim that Mary stayed "pure" all of her life. I would only point out that Jesus had no disciple, "Joses."

Jesus now begins to delegate his authority and multiply his effectiveness by sending the twelve disciples out in pairs. They travel light taking nothing extra, preaching so that people would repent, driving out demons, and healing sick people. If any town didn't accept them they were to "shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them."

This outreach made Jesus well known enough to catch the attention of Herod, whom he frightened. There was an incident with John the Baptist that we saw in the other Gospels. Basically, Herod had John put in jail because he was tired of him preaching against him living with his brother's wife Herodias. Herod didn't want to have John killed though, because he was "a righteous and holy man." And, Herod enjoyed listening to John's preaching.

But, there was this party with all the top officials and important people in the region at which Herodias' daughter's dancing pleased Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she wanted "up to half my kingdom." Consulting with her mother, she asked for John's head on a platter, which, since Herod was unwilling to go back on his oaths in front of all these important people, was delivered, though it greatly distressed him.

Well, there were many rumors flying around about who Jesus was. Some said Elijah, but Herod believed the one about him being John the Baptists, raised from the dead, head re-attached!

Jesus was so popular with the people that he was ultra-busy teaching and healing. He and the disciples needed a retreat so they got in the boat to go to a private place to rest. Crowds found out where they were going, ran around the lake, and met them there when they landed. Jesus had compassion and comforted and healed them anyway. As the day wore on, the disciples advised that Jesus should send them off to the nearby villages to buy food but Jesus told them to just feed them themselves. When they protested that this would take eight months salary to finance, Jesus demonstrated what to do by collecting what was available, blessing it, and passing it out to everyone. From five loaves of bread and two fish, five thousand men and the women and children with them were fed in groups of hundreds and fifties leaving twelve baskets of leftovers.

In Exodus, it says that God is compassionate….

Mark 6:45 - 7:23 2005 March 21 for April 8^th

Jesus sent the disciples ahead in the boat while he dismissed the crowd. Toward evening, he saw them struggling in a windstorm on the lake. He walked out to them on the water, acting like he would pass them, but when they saw him they all thought it was his ghost and were terrified. Reassuring them, he got in the boat and the storm stopped.

Although they were "completely amazed" at this, the narrative faults them "for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened."

I think the inference is that if they had understood about the miraculous feeding of all those people, how could they be surprised by their leader walking on water and controlling weather. They could only be surprised if they had "hard hearts." I don't know any human beings, myself included, who would pick up that understanding that quickly, or who wouldn't be amazed and terrified at someone they knew walking on water, even today. Skiing yes, walking no. Yes, undoubtedly, everyone I know and know of including myself has a "hard heart." It's a matter of freeway survival.

When they got to shore, people were showing up from everywhere, particularly with their ill. Everyone brought sick people to the marketplace in every village he went to for him to heal. Whoever barely touched him was healed, as they desired.

The Pharisees noted that some of the disciples were eating food without ceremonially cleaning their hands. The tradition of the elders was to wash when returning from the market, all utensils and flatware, and hands. Good hygiene, but Jesus quoted Isaiah to argue against the necessity of this:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.

How can we look at the extensions of Christianity that we have made today: putting political causes and correctness of moral rules ahead of caring for people, putting automatic systems like capitalism above human kindness, elevating the results of science and what it permits us to get away with ahead of matters of the spirit, and not be stung by this same quote?

And, it is clearly possible to "worship in vain." This seems like it would be worse than a waste of time then.

Jesus went further. 'You guys devote your money to the temple so that you will have nothing left to support your parents.' "Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

Ouch! Is it possible not to see ourselves in this?

Jesus then called in the whole crowd and said, 'Look, what you eat doesn't make you unclean. What you think, what comes out of your heart is what is unclean.'

"(In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")"

Interesting that today we fully embrace this nullification of the dietary law (not a stroke of which will pass away before all is fulfilled, by the way) while ignoring the rest:

[F]rom within men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'

One doesn't even have to step outside of a church to find all of these evils being practiced.

Mark 7:24 - 8:21 2005 March 22 for April 11^th

Jesus and the troupe went on to another new town. When he got there he tried to keep the place where he was staying secret, but people found out and soon he was crowded in again. In particular, a Gentile woman desperate to have a demon driven out of her daughter was present and was pleading with him. Jesus said something interesting to her, "First let the children eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." He was referring to the Jews as the "children," and the Gentiles as the "dogs," and the miracles he could do as the "bread."

Her reply was also clever, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Admiring this response, Jesus did what she wanted without even needing to leave the house. (The daughter was not present, only the mother.)

Later, in the same area, they came upon a man who was deaf and couldn't talk. Jesus took the man away from the crowds, put his spit on the man's tongue and put his fingers in his ears. "Sighing deeply" he said, "Be opened!" and the man could hear and talk. Though Jesus kept commanding people not to tell about these things, the news continued to spread like wildfire.

Teaching another large crowd, this time four thousand men and uncounted dependents, they ran out of food again. Same as before, they collected what people had, seven loaves and a few fish, Jesus blessed it, and the disciples passed it out. Seven baskets of leftovers were recovered after the meal.

As they crossed the lake towards another destination, the disciples discovered that they were nearly out of bread, having only one loaf left. Jesus warned them to "Be careful, watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."

After talking it over, they were pretty sure that what he had said had something to do with bread they needed to buy, but Jesus, annoyed with this, accused them of having eyes and being blind, having ears and being deaf, (same as the crowds, I recall). He reminded them of the two miraculous crowd feedings: five thousand and four thousand men respectively; twelve and seven baskets full of leftovers respectively, much more than was originally provided.

"Do you still not understand?" he asked.

Mark 8:22 - 9:13 2005 March 23 for April 12^th

At Bethsaida, a blind man was brought to Jesus. He spat on the man's eyes and asked him what he saw. When he said, "people look like trees walking around", he touched his eyes again and corrected the prescription. Then he told the man to go home without going through the village.

Lots of spitting going on here.

Indeed, in the account, the miracles like this come one after another in rapid fire. Each of these is something that would stand out for a lifetime to any individual but these accounts of Jesus are packed with them. I retell each one in the belief that part of the story is just the sheer amount of work done by Jesus.

As they walked along to the next place, Jesus asked who his close followers thought he was. They gave many answers, but he confirmed that "The Christ" was the correct one. Immediately after this, he began to teach them how his life (on earth) would end. He would have to suffer under the religious leaders, be falsely accused, and ultimately die. Three days later he would be raised back to life. Peter began to rebuke him privately about this but Jesus widened the discussion to all the disciples and rebuked Peter, "Out of my sight, Satan!" You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Jesus then started telling the crowds that, to follow him, they would have to take up their cross daily, that they would have to lose their lives to find them. The point was, "what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

"If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Again, ouch!

This sounds like our generation. This sounds like me. I imagine that in the Judgment, all the modern day baggage of Christianity will be gone, both the fraudulent bad reputation of the institutions of Christianity and the spiteful resistance that any good person encounters from people who despise good. When that baggage is gone, some of us will stand out as ashamed, unrecognized, people who should have done something more.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain where he was "transfigured before them." His clothes became brilliant white and he was seen speaking with Elijah and Moses. Peter offered to put up shelters but a voice from the cloud interrupted, telling them to pay attention to Jesus, "my Son".

On the way down, Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone about this. They talked among themselves about what this "rising from the dead" might mean and asked Jesus about the "Elijah must come first" thing. Jesus responded that "Elijah" had come and that "they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written." He was referring here to John the Baptist.

I don't know what the significance of the "Transfiguration" is, but I have a hunch, based on my own early training, as to what was going on here. Jesus had just reached the point in his life where he was fully realizing what he would have to do, the Crucifixion and Resurrection in particular. Perhaps he always knew this from his own youthful studies of the Scriptures, or perhaps he had recently learned this in prayer, or perhaps it was now getting close enough to dread. Whatever the case, he had only just now begun to proclaim these future facts publicly. Though he was the Son of God, anticipation of these events would have been a horror to his human nature (and the human nature of his followers), as was voiced by his follower Peter. In order to clarify and make absolutely sure of what was to happen, he went up and talked to the most famous leaders from the past, the ones who had known and who did know God the best, Moses and Elijah. While talking with them, he and his clothing were transformed to a heavenly, perhaps a resurrection-like state. God himself was also present and spoke.

There are only two places in the Bible that I know of where people who have departed this earth somehow return to interact with people who are still here. This is one of them.

This interview was enough for Jesus. He pressed on from here to the end.

Mark 9:14 - 50 2005 March 24 for April 13^th

As they arrived off the mountain, Jesus and the three found a crowd arguing with the other nine disciples. The crowd ran to Jesus and he asked them what they were arguing about.

One of the men in the crowd had a boy with a particularly tough demon. The nine had been unable to have any effect on it. Jesus found this frustrating, "How long shall I put up with you?" He ordered the boy brought over.

As soon as the demon saw Jesus, he threw the boy into a terrible convulsion. Jesus asked his father how long he had been like this. It had been since childhood and it was difficult because it would foam him at the mouth or throw him into the fire or water trying to kill him. The father asked Jesus to do anything he could. Jesus was insulted.

"If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes."

The father quickly backtracked, asking for help with his unbelief, in addition to help with his son's condition..

The crowd was growing. Jesus ordered the demon out, never to come back. With one last awful convulsion and a shriek, it came out and the boy looked like he was dead. Jesus lifted him up, he was fine, and sent them on their way.

The disciples asked why they couldn't do this one. Jesus replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer [and some manuscripts add, 'fasting']."

They then returned to the lessons about Jesus being killed and rising on the third day. The disciples didn't understand and were troubled about this, but were afraid to ask for any further clarification on this difficult day.

Later, Jesus found that two of the disciples were arguing. He asked them what it was about but they were embarrassed and wouldn't say. He brought all twelve together and discussed greatness (because that is what they had been arguing about). "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all," he said. Also, he presented them with a small child and instructed them that they should accept little children and, by doing so, were accepting him.

John found someone using Jesus' name to drive out demons and stopped him, because he was not part of their crowd. Jesus told John not to do this. "Whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward."

But, someone causing a little believer to sin is an awesome evil; "it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck." Anything that causes you to sin, even your hand or your eye, get rid of it. Better to be in eternal life maimed than whole in eternal destruction.

Sometimes crazy people take this "command" literally, but Christians of all persuasions take it allegorically, those who pay attention to this teaching at all. We see, therefore that there are far out sayings in the Bible that must be taken allegorically, by broad consensus.

Mark 10:1 - 34 2005 March 25 for April 14^th

Some religious leaders (Pharisees as usual) came to test Jesus with a legal question. 'Is divorce lawful?' He asked them what the Law of Moses said and they replied that Moses permitted a man to write a woman a "certificate of divorce." Jesus told them it was because their hearts were hard that Moses allowed this.

"But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

This last sentence is in our own marriage ceremony.

Many marriages would be better off to have followed all of this direction, particularly the part about leaving parents.

In private the disciples asked for more detail. Jesus told them that anyone who divorces and remarries commits adultery.

In addition to the usual crowds, throngs were bringing little children to Jesus for him to bless. The disciples, always interested in efficiency, were running them off until Jesus learned of it and was indignant. He told them that the kingdom of God belonged to people like little children.

A young man approached Jesus and asked what he had to do to get eternal life. Jesus told him, "you know the commandments. 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'"

Interesting that he picked these five from the ten, and in this order. It is probably reading too much into this to claim that he was anything but very familiar with the law.

The young man had done this all his life, he said. Jesus then said, fondly, "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

The young man did not feel that he could do this; he was very rich.

The disciples were, again, amazed. You can nearly hear them stutter, "What …?" The standard religious expectation up to that point had been that riches were a blessing from God indicating favor. If these people don't get eternal life, who could? Jesus told them plainly that it was very difficult for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God to which they continued, in effect, 'Well, uh, who can be saved, at all?'

"With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Peter, hedging, reminded Jesus that they had all left everything to follow him. Jesus promised that anyone who did this would receive much more of everything (friends, brothers, lands, and so on) in this life and eternal life.

"But many who are first will be last and the last first."

This is all plain to Jesus, but is kind of confounding to us. What is this pecking order all about? The rich who do get into heaven are "the last"?

These words seem amazingly restrictive. Perhaps "the few" who find the narrow way are truly "few."

They continued to head for Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way. The astonishment followed them and then Jesus once again predicted his own death, this time with more detail. The religious leaders would "condemn him to death and … hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

This is not the way to build a big power base for a revolution, or to attract a loyal following.

Mark 10:35 - 11:26 2005 March 26 for April 15^th

Once again, disciples seek ascendancy. James and John came and asked Jesus to sit at his right and left hand in his kingdom. These were the positions of highest honor and power.

Although the other disciples were indignant at this, as usual, Jesus ignored the emotion and gathered all twelve for another lesson on "whoever wants to be first must be slave of all." He also points out that it is not up to him to decide who will sit in these positions of honor in his kingdom but that whoever does receive these honors will go through the same ordeal, the same "baptism" as Jesus will. James and John agreed to this but they didn't know what they were agreeing to.

Jesus seems to do a lot of this instructing about pre-eminence. More than about matters of sexuality, for instance.

Nearing Jericho, they passed close to a blind man, son of Timaeus, who was begging beside the road. He heard they were coming and started calling out for Jesus. The crowd tried to quiet him down. A lot of this seems to happen too; Jesus must be in terrific demand to have a crowd following him who acts like this. Jesus heard and called for the man to be brought to him. I notice that Jesus nearly never goes looking for anybody or does things (like opening tombs) that others could do. Bartimaeus was brought.

Jesus asks him what he wants. "Rabbi, I want to see." Jesus gave him sight immediately, proclaiming that he was healed due to his faith. Bartimaeus then fell in with the crowd.

They were approaching Jerusalem when Jesus instructed the disciples to go get a colt tied up at a certain place. The colt had never been ridden. If anyone asked, just tell them, "The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly."

The disciples did this and found the colt exactly as specified. They were in fact challenged and the challengers were in fact satisfied with these words.

Jesus rode the colt into Jerusalem, the "Triumphal Entry" it is called. People lined the road putting branches and cloaks in the road to pave his way. They shouted,

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

and

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!

and

Hosanna in the highest!

They stayed in Bethany and the next day Jesus was hungry and saw a fig tree in the distance. Although the tree was in leaf, it was not the season for figs so there was no fruit. Jesus cursed the tree and told it no one would ever eat fruit from it again. Next day, sure enough, it was withered, "from the roots," and the disciples were amazed. Jesus told them that anything they asked for in prayer, believing that they had received it, they would receive. Anything, even something like throwing a mountain into the sea. But, if you have something against someone, forgive them while you are praying.

I've had it explained to me several times why this episode was instructive and not just an example of Jesus' human irritability. I still think it was hungry human irritability. The tree was out of season after all, what would anyone expect? Jesus, the master teacher turned it into a lesson in faith.

For his first official act in Jerusalem, Jesus went to the temple and threw out all the buyers and sellers there. No merchandise for this show! "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations," not a "den of robbers." This once again reinforced the efforts of the religious leaders to have him killed.

Jesus and his followers spent the night outside of the city.

Mark 11:27 - 12:27 2005 March 28 for April 18^th

When you shut down somebody's business, you get in trouble with the authorities. Next day in the Temple, the religious leaders came and asked him by what authority he was doing what he had done, running the money changers and sellers of sacrifices out of the court area. He answered them with a question. 'John's baptism, was it of men or of God?' They couldn't answer because they didn't want to admit they didn't believe John in front of the crowds who thought he was a prophet, but they didn't want to say, "of God" since Jesus would then say, "Well, why didn't you believe him then?" So, they said they didn't know and so Jesus didn't answer them either.

This was a classic case of needing a shared context in which to have a reasonable discussion.

Jesus then taught the crowds several parables that we've seen before in other accounts. In one a man built a vineyard and rented it out. When it was time to collect his profits, he sent servants to pick them up, but they were all beaten or abused or killed. The ones who came back came back empty handed. Finally, thinking that authority would convince them, the owner sent his son. Realizing that they had the heir to the property the tenants killed him, thinking that they would then own the vineyard themselves.

The owner then came personally and cut those tenants to pieces.

None of this was lost on the religious leaders. They knew that they were the tenants and that the prophets were the servants and that Jesus was the Son. They tried even harder now to figure out how to arrest him.

Another ruse was to try to trip him up with loyalties. They came and flattered him for a while then asked if it was all right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. He saw right through the trick and their hypocrisy and asked for a coin to be brought for him to look at. He asked them whose likeness was on the coin. "Caesar's", they said. So, give Caesar what is due him and God what is due him. Seems obvious in retrospect.

And then the Sadducees, the religious leaders of Jesus' time who did not believe in the resurrection (there is always somebody), came and told the story of the woman who married a man but died without conceiving children, then his seven brothers all married her and they all died without children and then she died too. Whose wife would she be in the resurrection?

This is a fairly weak case, by the way. Just because we can come up with a conundrum or a problem that would be experienced in an afterlife such as this does not prove that an afterlife does not exist.

Jesus answered more directly. "When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." And, by the way, when God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, remember that he referred to himself as being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This was all in the present tense; he was God of those patriarchs who were alive with him at that time. They were not dead, though they were no longer present on the earth and their earthly bodies were properly interred.

Mark 12:28 - 13:37 2005 March 29 for April 19^th

After all this sparring, one religious leader came and asked Jesus which was the greatest commandment. When Jesus replied "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength," (and the second, "Love your neighbor as yourself") the leader replied that this was correct and that this understanding was more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifice.

Jesus saw this as wise and told the man he was not far from the kingdom of God. After that, no one questioned him anymore.

I wonder what he means "not far"? Does he mean 'nearly there' in some sense? Like, 'not quite but nearly' or 'close and heading in the right direction so, ok.'

Jesus had his own puzzler. The Christ is called the son of David, but David himself, speaking in the Holy Spirit, calls him "Lord." How can these both be?

The crowds liked these puzzles, games of religion. Jesus then said not to be like the leaders who liked being admired for being overtly and overly religious. They would "be punished most severely."

Then, Jesus camped out near the offering box to watch for a while. People came by putting in huge sums of money, but when a widow came and put in less than a penny, Jesus praised her because it was all she had in the world "to live on." He said she had put much more in than the others.

Such teaching does not lead to good Capitalism, or perceived financial security.

As they were leaving the Temple area the disciples were jazzed by being around all the sacred buildings, but Jesus told them that "not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." He then began to talk about the "end times" and the lead disciples asked him privately how they would know when it would happen.

The answer is lengthy.

There will be rumors and disasters, but don't be deceived. Christians will be handed over to leaders and will thereby witness to them. (Don't worry about what to say, the Holy Spirit will speak through you when the moment comes.) Families will be split, brothers and children having their brothers and parents put to death. "He who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Some sort of abomination would be where it doesn't belong (other accounts say the Temple) and that would be the sign to flee for the hills. Pray that it won't be winter. Pregnant and nursing women will have it hardest, but even then watch out for false Christs and fake salvations.

Then it gets worse, the sun and moon go dark and the stars fall from the sky. "Heavenly bodies will be shaken." At that point the "Son of Man" will some "in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens."

It is totally unclear what any of this means. I have read Hal Lindsey where he talks about it being global overcast due to nuclear missiles and wars and such but am unconvinced that modern technology is the total answer. Jesus follows it by saying in essence, 'Now I've told you, so you know. Watch for the signs and be ready. Be ready like a servant who has been put in charge and doesn't know when his master will return. "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Not even Jesus knows when.

Mark 14:1 - 14:31 2005 March 30 for April 20^th

The Passover was two days away and they were staying in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper. A woman came and poured very expensive perfume on Jesus. Many watching were indignant at the waste of resources which could have been used to help the poor, but Jesus corrected them saying that it was a "beautiful" act in preparation for his burial and that they would and should always be able to help the poor.

The indignant people saw the perfume as a valuable resource and not the end in itself that Jesus experienced.

Still, Judas Iscariot had had enough. He went to the religious leaders and solicited money from them to betray Jesus. A deal was struck.

The next day, Jesus told them to go into the city where they would find and follow a man carrying a water jar to a house where a large upper room was waiting for them. They should prepare the Passover there. All this happened as predicted and they prepared the meal as instructed.

As they ate, Jesus said that his betrayer was eating with them. As they were going around the room asking which if them it was, he pointed Judas out indirectly and said that although "the Son of Man will go just as it is written about him," "It would be better for him [Judas] if he had not been born."

Jesus then extended the meaning of the bread and the cup in the Passover ceremony. (Those of us who have grown up taking communion cannot appreciate the acute paradigm shift that this must have been.) He referred to the bread as his own body, broken for sin, and the cup as his blood of the covenant, poured out for many. These words were traditionally used in the usual ritual, speaking of the body of the sacrificed lamb but Jesus was referring to himself as the lamb of the sacrifice.

They sang a hymn and proceeded to the Mount of Olives. Jesus told them that they would all fall away. Peter argued that he would never do this. Jesus directly answered that not only would he, but he would disown Jesus three times that very night before dawn. Peter continued to insist that he would follow Jesus anywhere, even to death, and the other disciples insisted similarly.

Mark 14:32 - 72 2005 March 31 for April 21^st

The group then goes to Gethsemane for a time of prayer. We see here the sort of story that you don't see told about mythical heroes. Jesus is "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." He pleads with his Father to take the coming task away from him. His loyal followers do not realize the import of the situation and fall asleep nearby, three times.

Suddenly, Judas arrived with the religious leaders. All of the groups of leaders are named so as to show that they are all unified and culpable in the arrest. Peter took a sword and started fighting but Jesus called him off, "Am I leading a rebellion?" All the followers fled, including a young man wearing nothing but a linen sheet, who fled naked.

Some think this young man was Mark, but it does not say this.

Although it was illegal to hold legal proceedings at night, the Sanhedrin, the group of governing religious leaders, convened to hold Jesus' trial in the middle of the night. Although all had fled, Peter was tagging along in the shadows, and followed all the way up to the courtyard. The court tried and tried to get testimony against Jesus, but none of their hired witnesses could get their stories straight, not even when talking about things Jesus had actually said, like his temple being destroyed and raised again in three days.

Finally the high priest confronted him, "Are you the Christ?" Jesus answered, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

This was blasphemy. They convicted and condemned him right there and the conviction was abusive. They spat and hit and jeered.

Well, actually, if anyone else had said this it would be blasphemy, and delusional….

A servant girl recognized Peter in the courtyard and challenged him. He said he knew nothing of Jesus. She challenged him again and he repeated the denial. Several people were catching on now and all claimed he was a follower of the condemned, they could tell by his Galilean accent. Peter swore oaths and "called down curses on himself", perhaps as only a fisherman could, and said he didn't know this Jesus. At that point the rooster crowed the second time. It was dawn.

Perhaps it mentions here the rooster crowing twice to indicate that Peter may have had a reminder in the midst of the denials. Whatever the case, human weakness is seen as just that, incapacity in the face of great threat.

Mark 15 2005 April 1 for 22^nd

Early in the morning the collected religious leaders did what they had been wanting to do since the beginning of Jesus' ministry: they tied him up and sent him to the Roman governor, Pilate. He was the person with authority to order capital punishment, that is, a crucifixion.

These leaders accused Jesus of many things but Jesus wouldn't answer them, to Pilate's amazement.

It was Pilate's custom at the time of the festival to release a prisoner. He gave the crowd a choice between Jesus and the worst, most notorious criminal in custody, Barabbas. The religious leaders stirred up the crowd to ask for Barabbas. Also, "to satisfy the crowd" Pilate handed Jesus over for crucifixion although his last statements indicated plainly that he knew Jesus not guilty.

The soldiers mocked him, mock worshiped him, and treated him like a mock king.

After this, they had him carry his cross out to Golgotha where he was crucified. They had a man named Simon help with the cross. When they offered Jesus a drug to deaden the pain, he refused it. At nine in the morning, Jesus was crucified under a sign saying "King of the Jews". The mockery continued. The religious leaders themselves said things like "He saved others, but he can't save himself!" This reminds me of the way children play on the playground when they are cruel and fantasize that they can never be the losers. It's not enough to "win". There is also this instinct to make the defeat worse by rubbing it in with jibes.

From noon to three it got very dark. Jesus cried out several times and died. "The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." The centurion in charge said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"

Women at the foot of the cross included Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of "James the younger" and others who had traveled with and cared for the disciples in their travels.

The Sabbath was about to begin at sundown. A brave and righteous member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea, went to Pilate and asked for the body. Pilate was surprised that Jesus was already dead and checked with the centurion who confirmed it. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in linen, and put it in his own tomb, sealing it by rolling a large stone over the entrance. The two Mary's just mentioned saw this happen and were witnesses to the burial.

Critics of resurrection accounts claim that Jesus might not have really died, that he only went into a coma from which he would later recover and that this is bolstered by Pilate's surprise at the quickness of the death. The other way to look at this account, however, is to note that if a group were trying to create the illusion of a resurrection when no death had actually occurred would certainly not include this detail as it might weaken their case. When you are telling lies, style, believability, and culpability are important. When you tell the truth, you just say what you saw happen and leave the interpretation to others.

The accounts of Jesus' resurrected appearances, next, are not of someone recovering from a coma.

Mark 16 2005 April 1 for 25^th

The burial was not finished on Friday when they rushed to a borrowed tomb to beat the Sabbath at sun down. It was necessary to put spices on the body, including the Myrhh that was given to Jesus at birth. This job could not be done on the Sabbath and it could not be done at night, so the next opportunity was Sunday morning. The two Mary's, thinking to carry their work of caring for Jesus to completion, were there at sunrise and were worried about how they, two women, would get the tomb open.

They found that the tomb was already open and Jesus' body was not there. Instead, "a young man dressed in a white robe" was "sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed." He told them that Jesus was not here and that he was going before them to Galilee where he would meet with them just as predicted. They were to go tell Peter and the disciples.

"Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid."

In the "most reliable early manuscripts" this is the end of the account. Other manuscripts add a dozen more verses in which are listed the people who Jesus appeared to, leading up to "the Eleven" who he rebuked for their lack of faith. Such rebukes should have seemed familiar to "the Eleven", an endearing event.

He then gives the command to go preach to all people in the world and baptize all who believe.

"These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

After this Jesus ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God while the disciples went about doing the commanded preaching.

I quote that prior paragraph because it seems to me that it begins into the extreme rewards predicted by non-central Christianity. Although many denominations are built around phrases in the long sentence ("snake handlers" comes to mind, a denomination some of whose founders … died of snakebite) I prefer to think of this piece of the text as less reliable and further removed from the actual events.

Or maybe Jesus did say all these things after his resurrection as a way to say, "be fearless!" I cannot say.

Concluding thoughts on Mark 2005 April 2 for 26^th

At our rate of progress, one page of my Bible per day, it has taken only three weeks to race through Mark. It is like two thirds of the material and detail of Matthew told twice as succinctly. The Gospel of Luke, which we'll start into after Leviticus, will be just the opposite, but, if you wanted to read an important part of the Bible yourself quickly, this would be a good book to choose.

Seeing the same story told through different, more focused eyes, I didn't pick up anything about Jesus from Mark that we hadn't already seen in John and Matthew. The same basic story is there. The same basic personality is there. Jesus, God made man, had great difficulty dealing with any and all of the regular people, yet he stuck with them, his friends and his enemies, to the end, yes, the bitter end. He was always out front to stand for his truth regardless of the state of mind of anybody nearby, in either camp.

He repeatedly said things that were incomprehensible to his followers and his opponents alike. The more they caught on, the more perplexed the believers became, and the more adamant for his destruction his enemies became. I've come to believe that this reaction is inevitable when God, or any great truth representing some part of God, visits the earth. In the wake of such a visit, the world is profoundly different. Many follow without really knowing what they are doing. Most following is partial, often from misunderstanding or incomplete understanding. A clear distinction is drawn and the enemies are increasingly determined and violent. I'm also thinking of Mahatma Ghandi in saying this. Although not Christian, Ghandi presented some great truths and faced support and opposition similar to Jesus as a result. In fact, this is universal. It's why Jesus said that his followers should expect to encounter rejection and persecution for the sake of the cause, and, he added, they should rejoice when it happens, because then the followers know that they are doing the right things.

Ghandi's truth had some differences from Jesus'. Jesus, as God, also performed physical miracles at every turn. As God encounters this imperfect creation he makes the parts of it he encounters perfect in the moment. As a spiritual and physical leader of the world of all time, Jesus is pre-eminent over any other in this respect.

To me, the whole story, that we've now gone through three times, is nearly too familiar. I've received a lifetime of training in the detail and nuance of these events, at least the positive, lovingkindness ones. Still, looking at it in detail here again, I'm intrigued by just how remarkable this incident in history really was.

© Courtney Duncan, 2005