Ripped!
At that time Jesus came form Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
OK, I did not have as my goal to make any of us into Bible scholars with these posts.* But I have to give us a bit of remedial info here for this study to have the impact I think it should. Despite the traditional ordering of the four gospels in your Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars do not believe this is the chronological order in which they were written. You may or may not have noticed that Matthew, Mark, and Luke have some suspiciously similar material shared between them, such that it would earn them a charge of plagiarism at any modern institution of higher learning.** I concur with most modern scholars that Mark was in all likelihood the first gospel written. I have no idea whether Luke or Matthew wrote next. This is hardly the place and I am hardly the writer to explain all the nuances of this theory of composition, but if that sort of thing is suddenly intriguing you, type “synoptic problem” into the internet search engine of your choice, and I’m sure you’ll find much more to read than you have interest. Or buy me a cup of coffee sometime, and I'll give you my short version.
Point is, IF you take as a given that Mark wrote first, it makes comparison to Matthew and Luke more productive. Now, I’ve told you all this to bring your attention to but one “minor” detail in Mark’s baptism of Jesus account. In Mark, the sky is ripped open, torn. I’m gonna break one of my cardinal rules and use a Greek word, even though I think most Bible teachers who whip out Greek words for effect are the modern equivalent of those who wear flowing robes in the marketplace. Anyway, the Greek word there for “torn open” is schizo, recognizable as a root of English words such as schizophrenia. Yep, that one. Why should you care? Two reasons: First. That is the same word Mark will use later in 15:38 to describe what happened to the temple veil. Second. Luke missed it. Missed it!!! Changed it to “opened,” a nice, polite, sliding-door, Monty-Pythonesque aperture in the clouds that presumably closes back up neatly like a Ziploc bag once God is through speaking. And Luke, by most accounts, was a well educated guy. How could he miss the significance of the sky being ripped open?
What significance? Well, you might try thinking of it this way: If you open something, usually you can close it again. Even a bag of chips can have a clip put on it. But when you rip something, tear it open, there’s no closing it back. Ever. And I think that in the Christ event, that is what has happened. This mythic celestial separation of the realm of God and the realm of humanity has been breached. And depending on how you see it, that can either be really good news or really bad. If you like the kind of life where you know where the temple is, you are reasonably certain that God is there hiding out all Oz-like behind the curtain, you can still have your hiding place. God is “up there” or “in there.” But “in here,” we’re safe, because let’s face it: God is scary and has some rather rigid feelings about whatever it happens to be that we are doing “in here.” In the invasion of Jesus, that safety has been abolished. God is loose and running amongst us: freaking out demons, pissing off religious officials, breaking the rules of physics and society, and perhaps most disconcerting of all: forgiving sins. It’s awfully hard to forgive things you don’t know about, and if you’re anything like me, there’s a couple of things you might rather prefer God didn’t know about.
But God does know. God has escaped our man-built God-cages and is on the loose. And you are no longer safe “in here.” Not now. And that bit of “bad news” is the good news. God said so: “Son, I love you. I couldn’t be happier with what you’re doing ‘in here.’” God help us all, when God is on the loose. It looks like wild animals and angels have made peace with it. And we’d better get used to it, too. You can’t close up the God-shaped rift in the clouds.
* You know, it took me a second to decide what to call what we’re doing here. Meditations? Ichh. Sounds too needlessly churchy. Devotionals? Um. I guess, if you’re devoted to ‘em or something. Bible study? Again, a bit churchy for my taste. So, for now, I’m calling them posts, cause that’s all hip and bloggy and stuff. But if you are studying your Bible in a meditative state of devotion while hanging out at church, you call them whatever you want.
** As for John, um, he was working from completely different material. I promise. Seriously, just compare them sometime. Oh, and it is good to remember that although John intervenes between Luke and Acts in your Bible, the same author penned Luke and Acts such than some modern scholars refer to them as collectively as “Luke-Acts.”
At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
OK, I did not have as my goal to make any of us into Bible scholars with these posts.* But I have to give us a bit of remedial info here for this study to have the impact I think it should. Despite the traditional ordering of the four gospels in your Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars do not believe this is the chronological order in which they were written. You may or may not have noticed that Matthew, Mark, and Luke have some suspiciously similar material shared between them, such that it would earn them a charge of plagiarism at any modern institution of higher learning.** I concur with most modern scholars that Mark was in all likelihood the first gospel written. I have no idea whether Luke or Matthew wrote next. This is hardly the place and I am hardly the writer to explain all the nuances of this theory of composition, but if that sort of thing is suddenly intriguing you, type “synoptic problem” into the internet search engine of your choice, and I’m sure you’ll find much more to read than you have interest. Or buy me a cup of coffee sometime, and I'll give you my short version.
Point is, IF you take as a given that Mark wrote first, it makes comparison to Matthew and Luke more productive. Now, I’ve told you all this to bring your attention to but one “minor” detail in Mark’s baptism of Jesus account. In Mark, the sky is ripped open, torn. I’m gonna break one of my cardinal rules and use a Greek word, even though I think most Bible teachers who whip out Greek words for effect are the modern equivalent of those who wear flowing robes in the marketplace. Anyway, the Greek word there for “torn open” is schizo, recognizable as a root of English words such as schizophrenia. Yep, that one. Why should you care? Two reasons: First. That is the same word Mark will use later in 15:38 to describe what happened to the temple veil. Second. Luke missed it. Missed it!!! Changed it to “opened,” a nice, polite, sliding-door, Monty-Pythonesque aperture in the clouds that presumably closes back up neatly like a Ziploc bag once God is through speaking. And Luke, by most accounts, was a well educated guy. How could he miss the significance of the sky being ripped open?
What significance? Well, you might try thinking of it this way: If you open something, usually you can close it again. Even a bag of chips can have a clip put on it. But when you rip something, tear it open, there’s no closing it back. Ever. And I think that in the Christ event, that is what has happened. This mythic celestial separation of the realm of God and the realm of humanity has been breached. And depending on how you see it, that can either be really good news or really bad. If you like the kind of life where you know where the temple is, you are reasonably certain that God is there hiding out all Oz-like behind the curtain, you can still have your hiding place. God is “up there” or “in there.” But “in here,” we’re safe, because let’s face it: God is scary and has some rather rigid feelings about whatever it happens to be that we are doing “in here.” In the invasion of Jesus, that safety has been abolished. God is loose and running amongst us: freaking out demons, pissing off religious officials, breaking the rules of physics and society, and perhaps most disconcerting of all: forgiving sins. It’s awfully hard to forgive things you don’t know about, and if you’re anything like me, there’s a couple of things you might rather prefer God didn’t know about.
But God does know. God has escaped our man-built God-cages and is on the loose. And you are no longer safe “in here.” Not now. And that bit of “bad news” is the good news. God said so: “Son, I love you. I couldn’t be happier with what you’re doing ‘in here.’” God help us all, when God is on the loose. It looks like wild animals and angels have made peace with it. And we’d better get used to it, too. You can’t close up the God-shaped rift in the clouds.
* You know, it took me a second to decide what to call what we’re doing here. Meditations? Ichh. Sounds too needlessly churchy. Devotionals? Um. I guess, if you’re devoted to ‘em or something. Bible study? Again, a bit churchy for my taste. So, for now, I’m calling them posts, cause that’s all hip and bloggy and stuff. But if you are studying your Bible in a meditative state of devotion while hanging out at church, you call them whatever you want.
** As for John, um, he was working from completely different material. I promise. Seriously, just compare them sometime. Oh, and it is good to remember that although John intervenes between Luke and Acts in your Bible, the same author penned Luke and Acts such than some modern scholars refer to them as collectively as “Luke-Acts.”
posted by graysandpeas | 8:30 AM
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