Mark pt 2

Mark 9-13

The chief problem with online Bibles is that they don't put the words of Jesus in red, so you can't compare to see if he "really said" something. So I'm just using the online ones to cut and paste the quotes. (sigh)

Jesus takes Peter, James and John up into the mountains. They have a vision (I guess) of seeing Jesus standing with Moses and Elijah.

11And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"

12Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him."

I think… he's saying he's not Elijah and John was not Elijah, but Elijah was Elijah. I think.

He wants to go to Jerusalem for Passover, as is traditional. Outside the city he asks two disciples to go into the city and take a colt that will be waiting for them. The disciples rightly worry that people will get angry with them for stealing. Jesus says "tell them it's for Jesus."

Now, I can't see this working in real life. He may have been Big Stuff in back in Galilee but this is the big, cosmopolitan city and the owner of the colt is more likely to say "Ohh, Jesus wants it. Oh, well then, by all means, take it. After all, we can't deny Jesus. Is Jesus planning on paying for this? " But actually they'd probably just yell "Guards! Someone stole my colt!"

But this doesn't have to be realistic. It's actually what's called a "ritual myth". A ritual myth is a story that may or may not have happened, but the purpose is not to pass along facts. A ritual myth becomes liturgy, the rhythm and the emotion is more important than characterization or realism. It's meant for the already initiated, who don't need any background to it. Passover is also a ritual myth, so this becomes a ritual myth about people coming together to observe a ritual myth.

They go to visit the Temple, and when they enter the courtyard, they're greeted by the sight of people selling animals and changing money. Jesus goes berserk and smashes the booths.

he said, "Is it not written:
" 'My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations'[c]? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'[d]"

I guess the people had turned the Temple into a shop- a God shop were you could buy salvation (and nifty trinkets). Today's churches are beginning to slip back into it- several "mega" churches have rented out space to Starbucks, and churches with steeples sometimes rent their towers to cell phone companies. I don't see anything wrong with a shrine or cathedral having a gift shop, as long as it's located away from the front doors and sanctuary, and the church hasn't sold itself out to some greedy corporation. St. Paul's in London, for example, has a giftshop located discreetly in the basement, accessed by a side door, where discreet people buy discreet gifts discreetly. Many churches have charity shops. But people shouldn't have to walk through a mall to get to God. And they shouldn't have to buy absolution or a ticket to Heaven. Once a church enters into partnership with people whose sole goal is to make money, the church is making an unwise choice. The pagan temples were doing the same thing as the Jewish Temple, and it led to corruption as well. Jesus seems to preach against the corrupting power of money more than anything else. Incidentally, he says "it is written", he is quoting someone else here, not himself.

It's at this point that the high priests get involved. Because now Jesus has interfered with making money, and that is unforgivable. The Pharisees were probably very devout local guys, who wouldn't really have done anything to Jesus because he was popular and his relatives would probably not stand for it. But the high priests just saw some guy threatening their tenuous relationship with Rome. The high priests, unlike the regular people, did not want any kind of "Messiah" showing up, they'd been allowed to run things for far too long and God, or an ordained messenger from God, would just ruin it all. This is not a fault of Judaism alone, this would happen in any organized religion- imagine if the Vatican (or the Falwell/Dobson/Robertson crowd) heard that Jesus was back and was coming to Have Words with them.

Jesus is spurred into talking about the End Times.

As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!"

2"Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus. "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

This does actually happen. Not a few days from his own death or anything but it does happen. It's famous for happening. But since the writer is writing this after it's happened (the destruction of the Temple), did Jesus really predict this or is someone from the future looking into the past with their own bias?

you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

1) There will be a lot of things that seem like the end of the world, but they won't be.
2) It's the end of an age, which will be terrifying, but the beginning of something better.

14"When you see 'the abomination that causes desolation'[a]standing where it[b] does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

One of the things that sparked the riots and the Siege of Jerusalem, the standoff between the Zealots and the Romans, was a Roman leader's plans to build a pagan temple over the Temple of Solomon. Many Jews fled into the mountains. And it was through fleeing into the mountains where it was difficult to get to them, that they saved what was left of their religion.

Or maybe he means this? That's an abomination in my book.

15Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18Pray that this will not take place in winter,

It almost freaks me out to read the words about being on your roof, because it reminds me of Katrina. But then I remember that these words are being written in a culture where people often have/had rooftop gardens, so someone being on their roof would not be terribly unusual. It would not be a sign that say, they were up there to avoid drowning.

21At that time if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Christ , or, Look, there he is! do not believe it. 22For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

24"But in those days, following that distress,
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
25the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'[d]

But this hasn't really happened, so what is he talking about here?

I tell you the truth, this generation[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

If all of this is really referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the surrounding events involving the Romans, then he is right. Mary Magdalene, and St. John (the beloved) survive for quite a long time, they outlive Peter, who lives at least until 65 C.E. It sounds like he's addressing his own generation, but then he predicts some things that don't come true as well and seems to be implying that there's an even worse apocalypse coming later.

32"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

How can God know something Jesus doesn't know?

In Margaret Starbird's "Magdalene's Lost Legacy", I found an interesting theory about the End Times and the Anti Christ. She worries that perhaps the GodMan Christians have been worshipping for thousands of years is not the real Jesus, that we've turned him into someone he was not and never wanted to be. We made him a warrior and a dictatorial king when he tried to flee from both roles in the Bible. His messages have been turned on their heads- he wanted women to be equal with men, instead Christianity took away what few rights ancient women had left. He wanted to expand the central tenets of his own religion to be accessible to Gentiles, and instead the Gentiles went power mad, blamed the Jews for killing him and embarked on centuries of anti Semitic campaigning, culminating in six million Jews dying in German concentration camps. He told us being physically clean wasn't the same as being spiritually clean and…surprise, here comes the Plague. He told us to be peaceful, but instead we beat the living daylights out of any person or country that won't bow down and worship him (or at least give us their oil). He told us to take care of the poor and instead we leave thousands of poor people to drown in filthy water or starve inside shelters waiting for help that won't come. His effort to break down the temple/high priest systems turned into the world's most extensive and powerful system of high priests and temples. Our Jesus is a white guy, with no sense of humor who walks around spouting platitudes (when he's not melting people with his eyeballs). We're often encouraged to pray to him, not to God- if we just ask Jesus for it, he'll give it to us! And we wave the instrument of his torture around-this violent image with the unbalanced sides (the "male" bar is longer than the "female" bar) that Constantine had a dream about. This is a false Jesus, a frightening, mirror world version- is Jesus foretelling the rise of an Anti Christ who will be…himself?

I'm not covering the Crucifixion here, because it's going to come up again three or four times so I'll just combine all those passages when I'm done with the Gospels. But I'd like to point out these links and discussions on "Who really died? "

This is an interesting theory.