Today I read the book of Mark. There is no Christmas story in the book of Mark. We just jump straight to cousin John carrying on out in the desert. He’s loud, he’s weird and giving everybody a dunk in river. He’s addressing sins and calling out everyone on their BS. Jesus shows up and John passes the ministry off to him. Jesus does a 40-day fast and returns as John disappears in to prison for saying too much about the wrong person.
Jesus starts recruiting down by the docks. These are going to be his witnesses and although they don’t get it yet, but future recruiters themselves. A few he guys renames. Simon becomes Peter, James and John, the Thundersons.
Jesus preaches at a synagogue and is heckled by a man with a demon. (As crazy as stuff gets in this book, it’s not like we don’t hear people talking the same way today.) He heals sick people and casts out evil spirits. This is very tiring work and he takes off early in the mornings to pray—Biblical self care.
He heals a man who cannot walk and then he also forgives this man’s sins. The Pharisees, i.e. the established religious authority, take offense at him. They have no power to heal anyone, yet run their mouths all day long about everyone else’s sin. (Again, this reminds me of all of the modern critics that do nothing for anyone but complain about others.) This pattern continues for a while. Jesus picks up more disciples, heals more people, hangs out with the wrong crowd and gets into “trouble“ with the religious establishment.
Jesus gets really popular with huge crowds and the religious leaders meet up with the politicians to figure out how to get rid of him. Undeterred, Jesus and his 12 keep up the good works. They start feeding the crowds as well. The religious authority start using a slender, saying that Jesus is healing by the power of the devil. Jesus’s family comes to collect him, and he says that he has a new family, everyone who believes. This family is less about birth and more about faith and connection. The people you were born into doesn’t have to be your only family. Jesus’s hometown doesn’t appreciate him, so he goes to other towns that do.
He uses a lot of stories and many of those are botanically based. All this talk about plants and seeds and it reminds me that my garden needs some help. I planted a bunch of seeds, but only some of them came up. I need to put more seeds in there. The metaphors go both ways.
Jesus goes into a boat and tells the storm to knock it off. Many of his disciples are former fishermen and had spent a ton of time in the ocean and are shocked/horrified/impressed at his power. He can tell the winds and the waves what to do. He is demonstrating that he is God. The contemporary gatekeepers to God are not happy at all.
Jesus is ministry expands outside of his area to the neighboring towns of people of competing religious background. He also heals Romans, the occupy force in his land. Jesus is not xenophobic or scared of people that are different. In fact, he cares for them and they respond to him. He demonstrates love for his neighbors and enemies by helping them, healing them and acknowledging them. People with different theology isn’t a problem for him. Why is it such a problem for us?
He sends the 12 out to go and heal and preach to people. They are learning through doing and sometimes mess up. When they fail and come back, he explains to them what they did wrong and sends them back out. This is how we should train people, by having them do the thing that they are learning to do.
Meanwhile, cousin John gets unalived. King Herod’s niece dances for him at his birthday party and he promised his sister-in-law that he’s sleeping with anything she wants. That girl did not come to play, she wants the truth-teller silenced before he convinces the king to break up her. It’s a of Game of Thrones-themed party ending with John‘s head on a platter.
Jesus keeps feeding the crowds, healing the sick and pissing off the religious order. All the while he is warning people that he will suffer and die, yet they can’t wrap their heads around it. His words challenges people’s mindsets about things that we still get wrong today. We are supposed to accept children, and feed the poor and take care of each other not just silence children, ignore the poor and be selfish. This isn’t a side quest, this is how we get into heaven, being like a child, and valuing people over accumulated wealth.
All day long Jesus is healing blind people, preaching truth and yet many can’t see the person right in front of them.
Reading the whole book of Mark in one sitting is very powerful. So many scriptures have been taken out and used in contexts that counteract their true meaning. For example, Jesus’s teaching on marriage and divorce. The Pharisees were talking about divorce because they wanted to ditch their old wives and marry new wives. He’s telling them to stick with the person that you promised yourself to. Yet people today have turned his talk about one man and one woman into a declaration of heterosexuality.
Jesus curses a fig tree for not producing figs. This is not a gardening tip, but a judgment against people who promise good things but never deliver. Jesus says we too have power to heal and bind with our words on earth. We don’t have to be stuck where we are, accepting less than what we are promised, we have the power to change in word and deed.
