Sabbath

Hi, all. The Job 10:4 is going on a brief sabbatical until I get through exams. I hope to have some holiday oriented material up by Christmas. Depends on if I can find what disk I stored it on! Until then, prayers, coffee, and candles lit on my behalf are welcome and appreciated.
Grace and peace!

FAME! I'm gonna live forever!

They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazereth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” and the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 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.” At once his fame began to spread through the surrounding region of Galilee.

Although there are a couple of spots where, in passing, Mark mentions Jesus’s power to cast out demons, Mark specifically records four particular exorcisms:
1:21-28 In the Synagogue in Capernaum
5:1-20 The Gerasene Demoniac
7:24-30 The Syrophonecian Woman’s Daughter
9:14-29 The Stubborn Demon v. Bumbling Disciples
Although all four stories can be grossly lumped together as offers of proof of Jesus’s authority, they each serve very different roles in the narrative flow of Mark’s gospel. I mean, you would think that an exorcism is an exorcism, right? Well, not exactly. Sometimes, the crowd stands in awe of the miraculous new teacher (1:27). Sometimes the crowds politely ask for Jesus to go exorcise some place else (5:17), while other times, Jesus can’t escape even for a quick meal (7:24). And sometimes, Jesus seems just flat-out tired, frustrated, and pissed off over the whole affair (9:19).

And all that is fitting. Throughout Mark, Jesus has an uneven relationship with the crowds. And I can imagine why. I witnessed an act of authority tonight. I was sitting in the cushy chair at Starbucks, facing out the huge glass walls in front, and watched a cop pull over a car full of teenagers in a battered old Oldsmobile. I couldn’t look away. I mean, it’s not like I’ve never seen a cop at work. It’s not like I’ve never seen teenagers treated with suspicion. No shocker there. But there is something morbidly attractive about it. We all hate being behind the rubber-neckers in traffic, but once we are up by the scene of the accident, we still can’t help but take a look. So, I kind of understand the reaction of the crowds. Sometimes we are simply attracted to the flashy lights, mesmerized, transfixed, numbed to where we don’t even notice that even the demons have figured out that Jesus’s presence is gonna mean some major changes in the order of things. I mean, a guy just fell screaming and writhing to the floor in a fit of liberation in the middle of the synagogue. The crowd’s reaction? “Wow, teaching with authority!”

REALLY?

I hope somebody was on the scene helping out the until-just-recently-possessed guy on the floor. I hope somebody was getting the guy a glass of water and a couple of aspirin. And I think I know why those guys aren’t in the story: this isn’t their story. This is the story of Jesus and his authority. And whether it is John crying out in the desert or a demon crying out in the synagogue, the secret is out. You can’t un-ring a bell.

OK, one more thing before we move on. Demons. There’s gonna be lots of them in Mark. I am not content to demythologize/modernize/sterilize Mark by saying that the folks possessed by “unclean spirits” were “merely” mentally disturbed or insane or something of that nature. Even if I was to do so, have I really changed the point of the story? Is it any less miraculous if Jesus is casting out “insanity” rather than demons? That’s still a handy skill if you ask me! What if there really were just that many demons? I mean, once you’ve accepted the idea that God cracked open a perfectly good sky to comment on Jesus’s baptism, is it really that far of a stretch to imagine that if demons exist at all, this might be the period of history where they’d be particularly interested in seeing what God was up to? Do I believe that actual, literal demons exist? Yep. Sure do. When a bus full of school children are ripped open by a terrorist’s bomb, I think a demon has been busy. When an affluent but neglected American teenager takes her life because she can’t imagine anything good ever happening again, a demon is there. When a child shows up on a milk carton. Fill in the blank. Pick a social evil. Even if a demon is really nothing more than the reification of a reality which is simply too traumatic for us to otherwise comprehend, I sure hope God has control over that, too. If so, I’m on board.

Finally, I would note one important thing: for Mark, demons are equal opportunity tormenters. Children, gentiles, Jews, whoever. Out with the pigs or in the middle of synagogue. Let us not imagine we are too good to be tormented, nor too tormented for God to find good in us.

You know, you know?

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

After reading those few lines, I can’t help but wonder: Is this story moving really fast, or is it just me? Why is John in prison? Since when did dressing odd and yelling at people by the river gain the status of class C felony in the Jerusalem Code? (that’s a lame lawyer joke, for those of you not following). Where is Galilee? And I don’t mean to seem naïve here, but what, pray tell, do you mean by “kingdom of God,” Jesus? What good news? OK, from a more utilitarian standpoint, if the kingdom of God is that near, and the news is that good, why did Jesus chose the decidedly non-metropolitan, sparsely populated Sea of Galilee to make his dramatic debut? And what’s with leaving Papa Zebedee scratching his head and holding the nets? I’m not saying the “offer” wasn’t good, I’m just hungry for a few details here. Can I buy a vowel, Mark!?

Although Mark hasn’t told us several key pieces of information, he has, intentionally or not, hinted at others. For example, Mark has told us a lot about who he thinks will be reading what he’s writing. Example: Despite all this tremendous sense of urgency, keep in mind that even ultra-conservative scholars think Mark was writing this a couple of decades after the events described. Let that soak in a minute. Some of you may have been to interviews recently where you were asked, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” And for some, that may be a stretch. Imagine twenty, or even forty! This part of Mark’s story occurs somewhere around the year 30 A.D. A good many respected scholars date Mark’s gospel after the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. So, perhaps enough time has gone by now that the thrust, the dramatic punch, of Jesus’s message of repentance, forgiveness, and edge-of-your-seat expectation needs a refresher. Maybe.
Another thing: Mark must think you are pretty sharp. He assumes you know not only that John went to prison, but when and maybe even why. He assumes you know where Galilee is. Keep in mind, there was no maps-section at the end of Mark’s gospel when it was written.
He even sort of hints that you might respond, “Oh, yeah, Zebedee’s boys. Sure, I know those guys. Good people. Great fish.” In other words, Mark assumes his readers are, at least to some extent, “insiders.” From the beginning, either Mark thinks that you, the reader, are “in the know,” OR (hold onto your hat, here) he wants to make you feel like someone in the know. That’s important. A lot of folks in Mark aren’t gonna “get it,” i.e. they aren’t going to recognize Jesus for who Mark believes him to be. But YOU! oh, enlightened reader, will get it. Nice work, Mark! Nice work, reader.
Look, I don’t know why Jesus started his work in Galilee. Later Mark will tell us more about John’s “crimes” and the outcome of Jesus’s recruiting strategy. And Mark’s Jesus will talk more about the kingdom of God. But for now, Mark has a story to tell, and he doesn’t have time to muck about with details. At least, not with smart readers like you! Heck, you’ve probably already repented and believed by this point, right? Oh, well. I guess Mark is better at that than I am! And we still have 15 chapters to go!