Tuesday 15 November 2011

Mark 2

Yesterday I had a look a Mark 1, and it was pretty much all in motion lines. Mark 2 begins with a forerunner to today's air ambulance.


A paralysed man gets hoisted through the roof of a house. As usual, Mark doesn't pad it out and leaves out any detail about the reaction of the crowd: or the house owner, for that matter. When Jesus says, "Get up and go home," I expect the house owner shouted, "Not before you fix my roof!" Also, when Jesus asked the "which would have been easier?" questions, my answer probably would have "Get up, take your mat and walk." I would have explained that "we wouldn't have got into this whole debate and you ended up saying it anyway." I think I slightly missed the point, though.

Jesus really knows how to annoy the Pharisees (a theme that becomes apparent throughout the book of Mark), although they never really manage to catch him out. In Mark 2 he forgives sins, picks grain on the Sabbath and eats with tax collectors. Sometimes I wonder if he did these things just to get on their nerves.

I love verse 17. Jesus is not for those who have it sorted and who are middle class and polite. Jesus is for the outcast, and the rude and those who don't belong. I love the Mother Teresa quote
If I ever become a Saint — I surely be one of "darkness". I will continually be absent from Heaven — to light the light of those in darkness on earth.
I think we quite often fortify ourselves in our holy huddles and forget to show the way in for those on the outside.

Quick Questions

  1. Could someone explain the whole wineskins thing? It always baffles me.
  2. What do you like about Mark 2?
  3. On a scale of 1-5 how tenuously linked is image in this post?

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