Mark 6:13-29 ... and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them. King Herod had heard about him, since by now his name was well known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Others said, ‘He is Elijah,’ others again, ‘He is a prophet, like the prophets we used to have.’ But when Herod heard this he said, ‘It is John whose head I cut off; he has risen from the dead.’
Now it was this same Herod who had sent to have John arrested, and had had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife whom he had married. For John had told Herod, ‘It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife.’ As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him, but she was not able to do so, because Herod was in awe of John, knowing him to be a good and upright man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him. An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee. When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me anything you like and I will give it you.’ And he swore her an oath, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.’ She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist.’ The girl at once rushed back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, immediately, on a dish.’ The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her. At once the king sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head. The man went off and beheaded him in the prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study The larger section set off above is questioned as to its accuracy. C.M. Tuckett, one of the strongest proponents for the primacy of Mark in the synoptic gospels, says it in a scholarly fashion:
"The structure of the story in the overall narrative (as in 8:28 where very similar opinions are also recorded) suggests that Mark thinks that these opinions are at best inadequate (Jesus is ‘one of the prophets’), at worst quite clearly wrong (Jesus is John returned). The story of John’s death itself has a number of bizarre features and is quite unlike Josephus’ account of John’s death, where John is executed because Herod fears an insurrection." -- Barton, J., & Muddiman, J. (ed.) 2001. Oxford Bible commentary . Oxford University Press: New York
Tuckett even has problems with the conjectures that Mark ascribes to Herod about who Jesus really is. What we are left with, then is a snippet about the return of the disciples from having been sent off two-by-two, penniless -- and John's burial.
The larger middle piece, while perhaps only a literary device (but what a humdinger!) serves the purpose of hinting at Jesus' fate, that of a holy and religious man -- and God incarnate -- unjustly murdered by the civil government. Mark, despite his hurried pace to get to Jerusalem the last time, ensures that we are sensitized to the climate and the culture, first.
A Reflection "...and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them."
Taken on balance, modern medicine performs far more numerous physical healings than did the twelve when they went out two-by-two, anointing with oil. We can count Jesus' documented miraculous healings in small numbers. Yet modern medicine often fails us. Our dearest friends and relations lie dying, in sterile, expensive, machine-rich environments, attended by highly-trained and caring medical personnel who are just as clueless as you or I when it comes to how to heal them.
If we were in perfect communion with our friends and relations, and in unity in Jesus with them, would we feel the same way? That perfect communion would mean that Jesus, they, and we, all three parties, would share in the glow of God's glory. If one or both of us here on earth were to transition from this life to the next, we wouldn't think too much of it.
But two-thirds of that circle of communion -- the human part -- keeps it broken, all the time. None of us can be in perfect communion because each of us is imperfect. (In my case, by a lot.) We are called to that perfection, unachievable though it may be. Our sin constantly keeps us in a state of separateness. It is, unfortunately, our "natural" state.
And knowing that we don't have that communion, now, today, is what (I think) makes it so hard to let go of those whom we love so dearly, when they die. If we have prayed those hard prayers, asking specifically for their lives to be spared, in full belief that Jesus can make that happen, and they die, we must then shift into the mode that gives thanksgiving that Jesus, too, died, to keep their separation from surviving death. As Naomi put it so well, "God has dealt bitterly with me."
My next-eldest brother-in-law calls himself the "hollow man." All the excretory plumbing in his body is now artificial, medical marvel stuff, replacing that which was destroyed by cancer. His artifical bladder malfunctioned yesterday, his urine backed up into his kidneys, and they shut down. His doctors don't know whether they'll re-start or not. And he is in the middle of his next we-lost-count-how-many round of chemotherapy to try to stave the cancer off a little longer.
He is genuinely courageous. He astounds us all with his genuinely good attitude and positive outlook. Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm the only one of the three of us -- Jesus, Robert, and me -- who is still separated. But it's still enough to make me sad to think of losing him, and sad to think of his wife and three kids trying to continue without him.
Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd of the sheep, you gather the lambs in your arms and carry them in your bosom: We commend to your loving care your child Robert. Relieve his pain, guard him from all danger, restore to him your gifts of gladness and strength, and raise him up to a life of service to you. Hear us, we pray, for you dear Name's sake. Amen.
Mark 6:1-13 Leaving that district, he went to his home town, and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house’; and he could work no miracle there, except that he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Don’t take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust under your feet as evidence to them.’ So they set off to proclaim repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study While Luke has things in a bit different order, alll three synoptics include an account of Jesus' homecoming, and all three are puzzling.
"He was amazed at their lack of faith."
Jesus is someone who knows that there's a demon-possessed fellow waiting for him on the shore, before he can see him, and starts driving the demons out before the boat lands -- but doesn't know that his hometown people will reject him? He knows that Phillip was sitting under a fig tree, and is an "honest Israelite," but doesn't know that people in Nazareth will have no faith in him? Don't bet on it!
We can only surmise that Jesus did go home again and that Mark here records it for our benefit, perhaps for his disciples' benefit. This was an object lesson in undeserved rejection and the right way to handle it.
Then surprisingly, with no indication he's about to do so, he sends them off in pairs to preach and heal, penniless and with no spare clothes. In one account, they are even to leave their sandals behind. This is truly a lesson in faith, given by the disciples, showing their belief in Jesus and his teachings.
A Reflection "I remember that kid when he got lost in Jerusalem when he was twelve, and his mom and dad had to turn around and go and look for him! Remember that? Who the heck does he think he is, a carpenter, disappearing for a year, and then coming back here pretending he's some sort of mystical rabbi and healer? The nerve! And then to lecture us about being a despised prophet. Give me a break!"
Go figure. The American humorist and comic strip author, Walt Kelley (1913-1973) created an opossum philosopher named Pogo, whose most famous line remains, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
My mother, in her 80's, was having less than satisfactory outcomes with the doctor she had used for decades. I asked her to visit a high school classmate of mine, in his late 40's, who is a renowned geriatric internal medicine specialist. He gave her a totally new regimen, cutting out half the pills she had been taking, and changing the other half. "A miracle those pills didn't add up to kill her," said he. A few weeks later, she was back to her old doctor. Earl, my classmate, had failed the "prophet test," and was deemed to have no honor in his own home town.
Sometimes we just "know" things too well.
It is remarkably easy to daydream while "participating" in liturgical worship. Sorry, God. I've known you for so long in this environment that I don't have to give you complete attention anymore. OK?
I cannot verify the following to be accurate, but if it isn't, it should be:
We are God's beloved. Jesus is always by our side. The Holy Spirt is in every breath we take. God is never contemptuous of us -- and he knows us, is more familiar with us than we are with ourselves. The Enemy would love for us to become so familiar with God in any or all of His persons that we, too, grow contemptuous.
