The Week of September 14, 2008

(Mark 1) The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'" 4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." 12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." 16 As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. 21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. 29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." 38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.


Questions for Reflection

1. Have you ever had some good, maybe even great news that you wanted to share with someone else? Did you simply run up to the person with whom you wanted to share and blurt out what you wanted to say? Why would the person with whom you share your good news think that it was “good news?”


2. Why do you think John the Baptist was the best choice to prepare people for “the good news of Jesus Christ?” If you think he is not such a good choice, why?


3. Write a brief story about how you ended up being baptized. Compare your story with the circumstances of those being baptized in the wilderness by John. How are they different or the same? Do the differences make you feel like your baptism was not as good as those baptisms described in this opening chapter of Mark?


4. According to Mark, how does John see himself in relation to Jesus?


5. Reflect on John’s mention of two types of baptism—one of water provided by John and one of the Holy Spirit which the one John is announcing will initiate?



6. In Mark’s description of Jesus baptism, does it appear that John the Baptist recognizes Jesus as the one he was describing as more powerful than himself? Why do you think Mark chose to tell the story this way?


7. Who actually witnesses the coming of the Holy Spirit at Jesus baptism? How is this event described?


8. According to Mark, the Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness during which time he was tempted by Satan. Why would Jesus need to be tested if he were truly the Son of God? Does it sound like the Spirit intended for Satan to tempt Jesus?


9. According to Mark 1:13, it sounds like Jesus was being cared for and nurtured during his time of temptation (“the angels waited upon him…). What sense to you make of this? Have you ever felt that you were being nurtured and cared for during times of temptation? What does it mean to be tempted?


10. If Mark’s community was undergoing conflict from within and from without, what sort of temptation do you think they were experiencing?


11. What do you think the connection is between Jesus beginning his preaching of the Kingdom of God and the arrest of John the Baptist? Look at the very short versions of their messages. Is Jesus’ message different from John’s message?



12. Jesus recruits his first disciples quickly (Simon and his brother, Andrew and the brothers, James and John). Can you imagine what might have attracted these four men to follow Jesus simply on the basis of what you have read in this first chapter of Mark? What seems to be missing?


13. How do those who hear Jesus teach in the synagogue in Capernaum describe his teaching? What do you think it means to have “taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes?”


14. Why did a man with a demon show up in the synagogue just as Jesus was teaching with authority? What questions come from the man who is demon possessed? Why is it important that the demon recognizes Jesus?


15. How do those who witness this event react to Jesus’ actions? Why do you think those who witnessed this event called it a “a new teaching—with authority?”


16. What is the difference to the way that demons react to Jesus versus the way human beings react to him?


17. According to Mark 1:28, what was the result of Jesus teaching and exorcism in the synagogue?


18. What is the significance of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law? When she was healed by Jesus, what did she begin to do?


19. Why do you suppose people waited until sundown to come to Jesus for healing?


20. Why do you think Jesus silenced the demons who knew him?


21. Why do you think Jesus went to a place like the wilderness to pray (remembering that was the place of temptation and nurture for 40 days)?


22. Mark says that the disciples told Jesus that everyone was searching for him. Do you think this passage is also the experience of Mark’s community in Rome? Who was hunting for Jesus? Who was hunting for those who bore his name in Rome?


23. When Jesus hears that he is being hunted for, he answers that he must move on to the neighboring towns, so that he can proclaim the message there, for that is what he came out to do. How does his healing of a leper impact his ability to proclaim his message? Under what circumstances would you be able to hear the message that Jesus was proclaiming? What do you think he meant when he said:

“The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God has come near;
repent,
and believe in the good news.”

What time is it in your life and the life of our world? How can you tell the time?

What does Jesus mean by the Kingdom of God drawing near? How did Jesus see the relationship between Rome and the Kingdom of God?

Repent means to turn around or away from the direction we are heading. Are we, as a nation, church, individuals, heading down the wrong road? How would we know it?

To believe is to trust. To believe the good news means to trust that good news and trusting it, act upon it. Look at your own life. What news do you trust with your life?

SOME FURTHER MORE CHALLENGING COMMENTARY AND QUESTIONS

Mark 1:1-8

Resources

1. Robert Hamerton-Kelly, The Gospel and the Sacred, pp. 60-68. Hamerton-Kelly's extended comments on the opening of Mark's gospel include: (1) how the open ending of 16:8 invites the reader to begin re-reading, "The Way Is a Spiral"; (2) the "beginning" (Gr: arche) of the Gospel in comparison with the beginning of Creation, including a comparison to creation myths such as Enuma Elish; and (3) the theme of New Exodus. See more extended commentary by Hamerton-Kelly on Mark 1:4-11 at Epiphany 1B.

2. Robert R. Beck, Nonviolent Story; (1) pp. 45ff. on two parallel beginnings in Mark 1 and 14, beginnings of the rising action and the falling action, respectively; (2) pp. 109ff. on the christological titles of Mark 1:1.

(1) Two Beginnings. Beck uses Gustav Freitag's pyramid of narrative action: rising action of complication reaching a climax, and then falling action with a reversal or resolution of the problem set-up with the rising action. In Mark's Gospel, Beck suggests that John the Baptist helps to launch Jesus' ministry which, as he encounters resistance, reaches a climax with the cleansing of the temple and the ensuing controversies. Chapter 14 begins the falling action of the Passion narrative, with Judas as the catalytic figure parallel to John the Baptist. We could chart the two beginnings as such:


1st Beginning 2nd Beginning
Catalytic Figures John the Baptist - 1:2-8 Judas - 14:1-11
Symbolic Actions Baptism - 1:9-11 Cup - 14:12-31
Temptations In the Desert - 1:12-13 In the Garden - 14:32-42
Arrests John - 1:14 Jesus - 14:43-52

Notice that the symbolic actions of baptism and cup come together in the middle, with the story of the Sons of Zebedee, 10:35-40:

But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Mark 10:38)
(2) The christological titles of Mark 1:1. The two titles offered to the reader in 1:1 are Messiah and Son of God. Within the story, disciples need to discover what the reader is told from the beginning. The first crucial moment is 8:29 in which Peter gets the first half correct. But the ensuing passion prediction and rebuke of Peter shows that he hasn't yet been able to see what kind of Messiah. Beck suggests that this section of Mark, 8:27-10:52, is specifically about teaching the disciples what kind of Messiah is Jesus: a servant Messiah. For more, see his sections "Messiah: Christological Lessons," pp. 96-98, and "Servant: A Nonviolent Christology," pp. 99-103. He summarizes this teaching:
We see then an integral connection between the cross of 8:35 and the slave and ransom of 10:45. To gain one's self means to put one's self at risk, but to risk one's self in order to interrupt the flow of violence in its cycles is to ransom others. It is a ransom because it delivers others from the history and consequences of violence as force or as injustice, in this particular concrete instance. (p. 102)
Beck also offers the following formula:
Messiah + servant = Son of God
Unfortunately, the disciples never seem to get this, and so there is a stand in for the disciples at the cross: the centurion confesses Jesus to be the "Son of God" (15:39). On the matter of these christological titles of 1:1, Beck says:
The preceding might be summed up by saying that Jesus' relation to the disciples inside the story replicates the narrator's relation to the reader. Jesus extends his own mandate to the plot, to the disciples, in his invitation to follow him. The invitation Jesus extends to the disciples the narrator likewise extends to the reader. The discourse that the narrator directs to the reader parallels Jesus' teaching of the disciples by way of themes that give meaning to action in the main plot. The christological structure inside the story, based on the themes of Messiah and servant and on part of the characters' awareness, is matched by the structure outside the story, based on the titles shared by the narrator and the reader but not disclosed to the characters.
In other words, the Gospel story of nonviolent confrontation and conflict resolution is not simply shown for our admiration. It does indeed have a "rhetorical" aspect that takes it beyond the interests of literary poetics to the arena of practice. It does invite us, calling us as well as showing us. It not only scripts a way of nonviolent resistance but engages us to go and do likewise. (p. 113)

3. René Girard, The Scapegoat, ch. 11, on the general role of John the Baptist in the gospels. In more recent essays, he has also stressed the importance of the parallel in the gospels between John's death and Jesus' death. See the essays "Satan" and "The Question of Anti-Semitism in the Gospels," on pp. 194-221 of The Girard Reader. Here, for example, is a portion of that discussion:
It has been suggested that Pilate's handling of Jesus reflects a pro-Roman bias or rather, once again, an anti-Jewish bias. The parallel handling of the Herod/John the Baptist relationship makes this interpretation most unlikely. There must be an intention common to both scenes, and it is readily intelligible. The sovereign, each time, must make his subservience to the crowd manifest. It will be manifest only if his personal desire differs from that of the crowd and yet in the end, the crowd has its way. Herod and Pilate would like to save John and Jesus, but it cannot be done without antagonizing the crowd, and the two sovereigns yield to mimetic pressure; they become part of the crowd. The purpose is to show that a crowd in a lynching mood is the supreme power. For the Gospels, political power has been rooted in the crowd since the foundation of the world. (p. 214)
4. Gil Bailie has extended the comparison of John to Jesus around the theme of skandalon. There are structural similarities between their deaths, but there are also differences. John the Baptist was still in a mode of being scandalized by Herod's behavior. See his discussion of this in his section on "Scandal" (excerpt), Violence Unveiled, pp. 207-210.
He extends the comparison and contrast even further by bringing in yet a third murder account in the gospel tradition: Luke's account of Stephen's martyrdom in Acts 7. In his more recent tape series, "At Cross Purposes," he deals with John and Jesus briefly on tape 3, and then in an extended reflection of Stephen's martyrdom on tape 4.

When the lesser festival of St. Stephen, Dec. 26, falls on a Sunday, the preacher will have an opportunity to talk about Stephen then, with John the Baptist still fresh in people's minds.