I ended the last post with:
"Three times Jesus predicts his fate, and still it seems that the disciples never get the message. As we will see, however, when Jesus predicts his fate he always foretells the fate of humanity--though all the ages of Christianity seem not to have gotten that message."
This is one of the places where "roused, readied, reaped" rises to the fore as a mode of analysis. The fate of humanity is usually displayed by Jesus in the form of experience--how people will feel about what happens to them--and this can be represented by the notion of "experience-arcs" as espoused by this blog. We will experience things in consequence of, and in concert with, the elements of Jesus' ministry. Inasmuch as Jesus demands transformation, there is very little in the spectrum of expected experience-arcs that will not be unsettling--to say the least.
Jesus came to the world to give up his life, and to get us to give up our lives (usually a rather more piecemeal and partial occurrence.) Three times in the Gospel of Mark Jesus predicts his death (or so have the conventional commentators numbered it), and I will not fail to note that the conventional view is as well that Mark is the earliest and most straightforward of the gospels. Each of these predictions, however, is followed by a series of events that cinches together the elements of Jesus' fate with those of his followers. This phenomenon of reflection of our experiences against those of Jesus has apparently escaped the commentators, who have superimposed upon the experienceable workings of the organ of Creation their own conceit--that is, this or that set of contentions about the interactions of discrete characters on the fancied stage of a surveyable Creation.
The three instances of Jesus predicting his own death are in Mark 8:31-33, Mark 9:31-32, and Mark 10:32-34. We will see how each prediction introduces and is followed by an exposition of the disciples' experiences as participative in the elements of the prophecy.
Mark 8:31-33: And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. (KJV)
". . . the Son of man . . ." : Here, as in the other two predictions, that which is quoted or described as the actual utterances of Jesus always uses this enigmatic phrase. That choice of phraseology is at the least worth pondering.
". . . must suffer many things . . ." : After excoriating Peter for attempting to rebuke him for the prophecy, Jesus is described as convening "the people unto him with his disciples also" and he launches into, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
". . . and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes . . ." : The next narrative element has Jesus take Peter, James, and John--the most prominent candidates for leadership among the disciples--up onto the mountain to view the Transfiguration. This is an episode that--for all its evocative quality--drives home the logical point that the very nature of Jesus as the Son of God (shown here in a radiance that must eclipse Moses and Elijah) annihilates any notion that Jesus is some sort of outgrowth of Judaism or some sort of enhanced manifestation of "the elders . . . chief priests, and scribes." Even Moses and Elijah are lost into the cloud, and similarly is lost to the disciples any hope of fellowship with the authorities of Judaism as authorities in themselves. Affinity on some levels with the leaders of the Jews might yet exist for the followers of Jesus, and well as some hope that such leaders might join the company of believers, but the burgeoning seed of mutual rejection is sown with, "This is my beloved Son: hear him."
". . . and be killed, and after three days rise again . . ." : Immediately following the Transfiguration the narrative deals with the notion of the now-murdered John the Baptist having constituted in some way the re-animated (one hesitates to say "resurrected") Elijah. Then, having just come down from the mountain, Jesus and his three companions are confronted with a large crowd disputing about a demon-possessed boy. Naturally, Jesus cures the lad, but not before we are provided with the detail that "he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." The business of dying, and of death not being the end, is meant by Jesus to be an ever-present experience of the believer.
". . . and after three days rise again . . ." : This is, of course, a detail idiosyncratic to Jesus' death (though only a matter of some approximation, as if exactitude mattered), but such notions as "three days" or even "a thousand years" or "a watch in the night" are of small consequence against the underlying notion that, for the believer, death is not final.
The experiences of suffering, of rejection, of death, and of the prospect of new life (or, as I would put it, the experience-arcs of moments and moods attendant to such things) are intrinsic to the teachings of Jesus and are intrinsic to the logic of the Gospel of Mark. This is evident in the first prediction by Jesus of his own death, and we will see the same things in the following two, which appear in quick succession.
Mark 9:31-32: For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.
". . . delivered into the hands of men . . ." : This is the chief difference between the second prediction and the first, standing in the place of the first prediction's mention of suffering and rejection. So what is the second prediction, including "delivered into the hands of men," followed by? A lengthy and multi-part discourse on the things that people do to each other, particularly when in positions of power. The disciples "were afraid to ask him" about "the saying" that they did not understand, but that does not stop Jesus from teaching about the ramifications of power, about "the hands of men."
Jesus launches unbidden into teaching about how, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." As regarding children, "Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me." As regarding those of other denominations, "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me." As regarding charity from outsiders, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward."
Of course, there are dark aspects to human power: "And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." And of what little power we have over ourselves: ". . . if thy hand offend thee, cut it off . . . ." This leads still further, into the notion of being "salted" with the "fire" of self-appraisal, and of negotiating the delicate matter of supportive yet responsible social interactions: "Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another."
And when confronted shortly with the matter of divorce, it is not the question of licentiousness that occupies Jesus, but the question of harsh power--the question of what people do to others who have fallen into their hands. "For the hardness of your heart he [Moses] wrote you this precept [divorce]." "Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, committeth adultery"--the latter a fascinating manifestation of first-century feminism.
It is the powerless little child, or the person who attains a like status, who is "of the kingdom of God." And it is the rich man who cannot part with his goods who will fail to "inherit eternal life," while those who willingly give up all will gain all. All these lessons about power crowd the interval between Jesus' second prediction of his death and his third.
Mark 10:32-34: . . . And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.
". . . and the Son of man shall be delivered . . ." : And presently the sons of Zebedee, desiring the places of preference in glory, deliver themselves to their fate: "But Jesus said unto them, ye know not what ye ask."
". . . and they shall condemn him to death . . . " : Asked by Jesus if they can "drink of the cup" that awaits Jesus, the sons of Zebedee say, "We can." "And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of."
". . . and shall deliver him to the Gentiles . . . " : To admonish the twelve over the dissention that follows the presumption of the sons of Zebedee, Jesus says, "Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you."
And then lastly, before the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, there is the episode of blind Bartimaeus who, regardless of his nationality, addresses Jesus as "thou son of David"--strikingly reminiscent of the pleading Gentile "woman of Canaan" of Matthew 15. The episode of the blind man is short, but not so short as to fail to mention that "many charged him that he should hold his peace." The savior who was soon to face the degradations he listed in his prediction did not fail to succor a lowly man who apparently was routinely degraded.
It is usually the matter of experience--the simple, accessible matter of what human beings think and feel--that provides the best understanding of the teachings of Jesus.
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