Plotting Mark Through Chapter Three

The last post, dealing with what is to be gleaned from the Gospel of Mark, ended with:

Jesus proclaimed the nearness and the imminence of the kingdom of God.  Jesus told his disciples that they would enlist others.  Jesus drove out unclean spirits and healed the sick.  Jesus taught that his disciples participate communally in the soliciting and the bestowal of eternal forgiveness.

3:13-19)  This section, the appointment of the Twelve, is chiefly important in that it spells out their purpose: "that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils."  Not all translations agree with the KJV in including the "healing" part, and without it the possibility arises that the power "to cast out devils" might be suspected to be a dispensation from Jesus rather than an acquired trait of the Twelve at that stage.  In any event, there is no textual warrant to the effect that what the Twelve are sent forth to preach is any more extensive in substance than the brief sketch we have obtained above.  So far, what we have above is all that we can assign of necessity to any "gospel" the Twelve had to disseminate.  All else is either supposition, or is injected into interpretations from the other gospels.

3:20-35)  This section includes the famous Unforgivable Sin, bracketed by two episodes that describe Jesus' mutual alienation from his kin.  This is not a happenstance of story-collection, at least as the story is told in the text.  Jesus arrives back home, and the gathering of the crowd prompts his family to try to collect him, in that "He is beside himself."  Jesus then has his famous exchange with "the scribes which came down from Jerusalem," followed by "There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him."

Jesus then says that, "whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."  This is not the only time in the gospels when Jesus promises that a new community (of a sort)--even new possessions (of a sort)--are available to his disciples, if they can be reconciled to giving up any claim to those things that we usually consider essential to any life that we would value.  We are assured by Jesus that, even in the face of hardship and persecution, the overall tenor of existence is such that it is understandable and ultimately not inimical to tolerable experiences.

This also seems to be a message of the Unforgivable Sin exchange with the scribes, challenging and frightening though it may be.  Jesus speaks of the Unforgivable Sin because, as the text concludes, "they said, He hath an unclean spirit."  Jesus is responding at first to the scribes' contention that "by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils."  Jesus counters with two parables that bear on the same point.  A house divided will fall of its own weakness and dissention (and so will Satan's if he decides to undercut his minions for momentary gain) and a house may be plundered if its formidable owner is bound (such as is the case when Jesus renders Satan unable to prevent his domain from being successfully assailed.)

In both parables the upshot is the same: existence, even the heady and frightening existence called by some "spiritual warfare," is a straightforward enterprise.  Jesus seems to have no use for the type of religion that bedevils humanity with the constant worry that the face of evil can hide behind mask behind mask behind mask.  Evil is ultimately identifiable and understandable, and evil acts will bear evil fruits.  Existence is understandable, and any religion that purveys existence as otherwise spins off inevitably into madness, and all too often renders its adherents lost--as well as rendering the most pointed of insults to the Divine, as being the maker and sustainer of a diabolical intellectual mire.

Jesus proclaimed the nearness and the imminence of the kingdom of God.  Jesus told his disciples that they would enlist others.  Jesus drove out unclean spirits and healed the sick.  Jesus taught that his disciples participate communally in the soliciting and the bestowal of eternal forgiveness.  Jesus taught that existence is understandable.

This gets us through Chapter Three.