The New Testament in 90 Days

After noticing the widow and her coin, Jesus begins to warn about the coming times of destruction, persecution.  Families will be torn apart, everyone ratting out everyone else.  Believers will be put on trial, but they should rely on the Hoy Spirit to put the words in their mouths. It won't be long before is put on trial, both before Herod and before the religious court.  Everything is set in motion, beginning with the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus for burial.  She is the beginning of the story of Jesus' death. I do find it ironic that Jesus tells the disciples that everyone will remember this woman and her actions, because actually, when we usually tell the passion story, we don't start here:  we start with the last supper.  Then there is the prayer in the garden, where the disciples can't stay awake.  There is the betray and arrest, the trials and Peter's denial. But the real beginning, which we never remember, is the anointing by the unname...

I'm struck here by the fact that Jesus teaches about divorce right before he blesses the children.  Is this a coincidence, or are these two teachings linked in some way?  The Pharisees ask Jesus if Moses permitted divorce.  As a matter of fact, Moses did permit divorce, in some cases.  (Although notice the way the question is asked, "Is it lawful for a MAN to divorce his WIFE?")  (what about the other way around?)  Jesus appeals not to Moses, but to the beginning of creation, and God's intention for humankind. Right after that, he blesses the children. The rich young ruler asks Jesus, "What must I do to obtain eternal life?"  I notice that in Mark's telling of the story, Jesus looks at the young man and loves him (vs. 21).  Then he tells him he must sell his possession and give them to the poor.  The young man went away, sad. What do you think this means?  In our day and age we don't preach much about the necessity of giving up our...

That's what the people say at the end of chapter 7.  Jesus has been teaching (and wrangling with the Pharisees), healing and throwing the demons out.  Again, he feeds a crowd; this time it is 4,000, not 5,000, and he has seven baskets left over, not twelve.  The disciples don't understand the significance of the bread, and Jesus asks them so many questions that it appears that he is exasperated. The wrangling with the Pharisees is over the fact that his disciples don't follow all aspects of the law. Jesus points out that the Pharisees themselves have (ahem) loopholes; they are supposed to Honor their parents and help provide for them, but they can declare everything an offering to God, and then they don't have to help their families.  Jesus declares them hypocrites.  Later on, he explains that it is not what goes into us that makes us unclean, but what comes out (of our mouths, he means.) Jesus heals the daughter of a gentile woman -- although he doesn't wan...

The first thing I noticed when I started reading today is that Jesus is preaching these parables from a boat.  Why have I never noticed this before?  And why do I think that it's sort of cool?  So here Jesus is, telling the story of the sower and the seeds, and he's speaking from a boat, to all the people gathered on shore. I know that there's a parable and then there's Jesus' secret allergorical explanation of it, but may I say that I think the original parable is way more interesting?  The focus in the original is on the sower and the fantastic yield at the end, despite all of the obstacles in the way.  In the later explanation, all of the sudden the focus becomes on the different types of soil.  that's okay, but for good endings, an 100-fold yield can't be beat (and impossible to believe, by the way....) Though I am liking Jesus in Mark, mostly, there's a little verse I'm going to have to wrestle with a bit more, in Mark 4:24.  "Those who...

There is no introduction to the Gospel of Mark.  There is no genealogy, no birth story, nothing to pad the entrance of Jesus onto the scene.  Well, that's not exactly true.  There is that one sentence, "the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God's Son," and the prophecy (a mix of Isaiah and Malachi) about the Messenger who will prepare the way.  But that's it. John the Baptist blows in, baptizes, and blows out.  Everything is happening very quickly.  When Jesus is baptized, the heavens don't just open, they are split open.  And the Spirit doesn't just lead Jesus into the wilderness, he drives Jesus into the wilderness.  In Mark, Jesus is tempted by Satan, but we don't get to know the content of the temptations (which I kind of like, by the way; more room for the imagination).  With such a spare description, I notice that out in the wilderness, Jesus is among the wild animals.  This sort of reminds me of "The Peaceable Kingd...