Friday, July 08, 2005

Proper 9, Friday

Today's Readings:Despite watching their baby brother's annointment as King, David's older brothers chastise him for 'coming out to watch the battle.' He witnesses Golith's challenge to the Israelites.
Peter preaches his new understanding that God is not a tribal God and does not show partiality because of race. Peter claims the authority of a witness of the resurrection to preach that Christ is the judge of the living and the dead. Forgiveness of sins comes through Jesus' name. The Gentiles, even the uncircumcized ones, receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized.
Finally, I get to start a progressive reading oy the Gospel of Mark. This is the earliest canonical Gospel and vas used as source material for Matthew and Luke. In studying the early Church, it is important to understand what each community of believers actually believed. I am of the opinion that there was not one community led by the twelve and Christianity had been one faith from the crucifiction on. How many of the named apostles are in Acts? So far, only a few. The way I see it, and I openly admit this may not be accurate, the earliest stories about Jesus are the most common among the various groups, but also closer to the truth. When something hits the news today, various urban legends and outright lies pop up immediately, within twenty four hours on network news. Because of the oral tradition and high illiteracy rates in Biblical times, I don't think that people who told fantastical lies were able to get those lies out to enjoy any kind of popularity. So what is in Mark, the earliest canonical Gospel, is more reliable fact (as we understand fact in the 21st century) than say, the Gospel of John, which was written to a faith community that had been in development of Gnostic ideas for at least fifty years.
Anyway, back to Mark. Mark* starts his Gospel with John the Baptizer, appearing in the wilderness. The books of Malachi and Isiah are quoted early on. John's message is simple: baptism + repentance = forgiveness of sins. Throngs of people go out to him, and he tells them that a great one is coming after him, one who will baptize with fire, the Holy Spirit. Jesus comes from Nazareth and was Baptized in the Jordan. As he came up from the water he hears a voice from heaven: You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.
Jesus goes to the wilderness to pray. Satan tempts him, and angels help him.
This is a very personal message to Jesus. I have often wondered if Jesus understood or knew of the divinity that He is credited with. It is easy to read in Mark the story of a man who is searching for the truth, like everyone around him, and he is told at baptism that He is special, the Son of God, the Beloved. In Mark, no one else hears this statement, and John does not proclaim Jesus as the Lamb of God or the Messiah upon seeing him. The idea that John and Jesus are cousins is not in Mark. Jesus listened, believed, was baptized, and blessed. This must have come as a shock to Jesus, because I don't think Jesus grew up knowing that he was the Messiah. It didn't occur to him. He wasn't the youngest son, like David and Jacob and so many other 'worthless children' in his family. (Of course, if you believe the Roman Catholic myth that Jesus' brothers and sisters are all children of Joseph from a different, earlier marriage, then this works.) Jesus had to get away from everyone else and pray about this. He had to talk to God in a way that wouldn't get him labeled as demon posessed. As we shall see, Mark is full of instances where Jesus tries to keep this quiet.
Mark also does not explain the Roman occupation. Why would he? Estimates vary to the timeline, but Mark was most likely written before (or shortly after) the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. His audience knew what the Romans were about, and knew that the Jews were looking for freedom through military victories. That's the Jewish story. It is hard to believe that the authors of the new testament could imagine their works being read 2000 years later. Paul wrote to the contemporary Church, and I think the Gospels were written for the current generation and the next. The return of Jesus was believed to be coming soon.

*Yes, "Mark" is the name attributed to this document, and nobody knows exactly who wrote it, but the attribution makes it easier to talk about the document and we might as well let the evangelist "Mark" take credit for the unnamed scribe who physically wrote the thing.

posted by Josh English @ 10:55 AM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home