On Line Bible Study - For the week August 10-16, 2009

Lesson 400

Mark 10:32-45 ... In this passage two things happen. First, Jesus predicts his death for the third time, and then James and John (sons of Zebedee) ask to sit at Jesus' right and left in glory.

Prediction of Passion and Death ... This third prediction happens - as do the other two - while Jesus is "on the way". After the first prediction (8:31ff), Peter rebukes him. After the second prediction (9:30ff) we are told the disciples did not understand what he meant ... Following this third prediction, there is no comment that directly describes the disciples' reaction. However, we have a scene that suggests at least some of them still don't get it.

Mark 10:35-37 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."

Donahue and Harrington point out that when Matthew tells this story it is not the two disciples who ask this of Jesus; it is their mother. They write: "Matthew seems to have found their request so offensive that he blames it on 'the mother of the sons of Zebedee'." But given the track record of the disciples, it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility that they would make their request themselves.

Once again St. Mark is pushing the question of the definition of "glory". James and John are leading with stereotypical notions of their culture - status and honor, these were the prizes that attended "glory", and they wanted to get their share of both.

Is that what the "Son of Man" came to give - status and honor to his followers? Is that really what these two men wanted? Is that what we want?

Maybe it's my age showing through ... but increasingly it seems to me that "status and honor" are burdens, even impediments! They are not the rewards of glory; they are the nemesis of it! True glory is what one experiences when we serve as we are called to do so. True joy is what attends a quiet life (for most of us), lived well - obediently, selflessly, patiently, humbly!

And as if to underscore this, the section we are considering concludes with Jesus saying that he has come not only to serve, but to give his life as a ransom. It goes without saying - this is not what James and John had in mind!

On Line Bible Study - For the week August 3-9, 2009

Lesson 399

Mark 10:17-31 presents us with the question from a rich man to Jesus: What must I do to inherit eternal life?

In Mark, the man addresses Jesus as Good teacher ..., and you may recall that Jesus reacts negatively to that greeting. Perhaps Jesus senses it as "insincere flattery" (Donahue & Harrington); if that is the case, Jesus quickly changes his assessment of the man, because after the man states that he has kept the commandments since I was a boy, we are told that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Then we read this - Jesus tells him:

Mark 10: ²¹Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

I have always focused on the fact of the man's wealth and the difficulty he had to divest himself of that wealth. But in reviewing the text and reading the commentary, another facet was revealed to me - the invitation from Jesus to this man to Follow me ... Obviously, the life of an itinerant disciple of Jesus would require the relinquishing of material encumbrances.

Hunger for Healing is a study that uses the Twelve Step program as a guide. A group of us from the church are using it, and last evening's lesson was on "Step 3" - Make the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

People speak of the difficulty they have turning their lives and their will over to God - to relinquish control for an unknown outcome - Will God come through for me? Can I depend on God to see me through? As surely as a person can be addicted to alcohol we can be addicted to our wealth - to our "stuff". And it can be every bit as challenging to admit that addiction as to admit to any other. You remember what Jesus tells his disciples as the young man turns away from (rather than toward) him:

Mark 10: ²³Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" I wonder ... Was Jesus calling them out on their own addictions? - Addictions to power, authority, prestige? ("Let us sit, one at your right and the other at your left in your glory ...")

Jesus still issues the invitation: Come, follow me! What keeps us from doing it?

Now - a quick word about a couple textual issues:

Mark 10: ²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

1. Notice that at first, Jesus says, without reference to wealth, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It's not just wealth that makes it difficult ... it is difficult - period.
   
2. Then we have the famous "eye of the needle" hyperbole. Donahue and Harrington note that there is no historical foundation to the idea that there was an "Eye of the Needle Gate" or "Camel's Gate" in Jerusalem. It is an exaggerated statement for the purpose of making a point (similar to "I had to wait for an eternity".)
3. Only after the statement of how difficult it is does Jesus remark about wealth in particular - if those who have the "leisure to observe God's commandments and the resources to give alms find it difficult to be saved, how much more difficult it must be for everyone else!" Indeed - it is God's gift to us!

One of the things that makes the "kingdom of God" so difficult for us to grasp has to do with the reversal of values that accompanies it. The first will be last, and the last first.

On Line Bible Study - For the week July 27 - August 2, 2009

For the week July 27 - August 2, 2009

Mark 10: ¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." ¹⁶And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

There are several themes we can pick up on in these verses:

1. First, the disciples still don't get it. We have discussed elsewhere the extent to which Mark presents the disciples in a negative light. We are in the midst of a section in which the disciples' quest for power and authority continually raises its head. (See, for example, Mark 8:14ff; 8:32; 9:32ff; 10:10; 10:24; 10:35ff ...)
2. "Little children ..." The word can mean a child from infancy to twelve years old. When Luke tells the story he will use the word that means specifically "infant" (see Luke 18:15.).
3. Children are the model because they are so receptive to receiving things as "gifts". The kingdom of God is not something that we can understand or conjure up. It is a reality that we either receive or we don't.
4. The "blessing" is believed to be of two kinds - that which is received when God's blessing is given to us, and that which confers power upon us enabling us to do the works of God. Jesus gives the children the fullness of God's blessing.
   

Something we might miss, and it's difficult to know if Mark had this specifically in mind - but the teaching of Jesus with regard to divorce and the children follow one another. As noted in the previous lesson, it was men who had the most to lose from Jesus' teaching about divorce. The kingdom of God is not something we access because we are powerful or deserving. It is something we receive with humility, as God's gift to us. It is interesting that women and children - those whom society continues to disenfranchise - are the ones Jesus protects, the ones he claims we must become like.

An article that might be of interest ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1]

On Line Bible Study - For the week July 20 - 26, 2009

Lesson 397

Jesus and Divorce ...
Mark 10: ¹Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
²Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" ³"What did Moses command you?" he replied.
⁴They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away." "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied.
⁶"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' ⁷'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh. ^"So they are no longer two, but one. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
¹⁰When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. ¹¹He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹²And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

Divorce was not uncommon, either in the Jewish or the Roman worlds. Several points of interest:

• Jesus asks: What did Moses command you? Donahue and Harrington suggest that this was intentional on the part of Jesus. He forced the Pharisees to acknowledge that Moses did not "command" with regard to divorce, but permitted it. (Matthew reverses this: In Matthew 19 some Pharisees ask: Why did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce....? And Jesus is the one who says it was "permitted".) The reason this distinction between what is commanded and what is permitted is important is that it leaves the door open for Jesus to accuse the people of having "hardened hearts", thus making the allowance necessary. We have noted elsewhere that "hardness of heart" is a major theme in the scriptures.
  
• The Pharisees apparently are aware that Jesus does not agree with the law (or allowance) stated in Deuteronomy 24:1ff. Their question could only be a "test" if they were attempting to prove that Jesus was not a proponent of orthodoxy with regard to marriage and divorce.
• As recorded by St. Mark, Jesus leaves no exceptions for the permission of divorce. Compare this with Matthew 19 and I Corinthians 7:10-11.
• Later in the history of the Catholic Church marriage became a sacrament - a sign of Christ's presence among us. But long before it was a sacrament, Jesus seems to have held marriage in very high regard.
  

That divorce was not uncommon is also attested to in the relationship between Mary and Joseph; Joseph is not faulted for his inclination to divorce Mary for apparent infidelity. Jesus is questioned by his disciples about his views on divorce. In his mind (as portrayed by St. Mark) Jesus simply does not allow for the unity of marriage to be broken. Rather than depend on the text from Deuteronomy 24, he turns our attention to Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 - the first referring to the creation of male and female, and the second referring to unity that occurs when they come together. This, says Jesus, is God's original intent for men and women.

The Deuteronomy passage says a man can divorce his wife "if he finds something displeasing or indecent about her . . ." The Rabbis debated what displeasing and indecent meant exactly. The School of Shammai taught it referred to sexual misconduct on the woman's part. The School of Hillel taught that if a woman spoiled the supper, or if a man found another woman who was more beautiful - those were reasons enough to issue her a certificate of divorce.

Could it be that men had everything to lose with Jesus' understanding of what divorce was all about?