When studying biblical literature, it’s easy to fall into the trap of attempting to lock down the meaning of the Bible’s characters and symbols. For example, students of the Bible often assume that “Egypt is evil,” or, “Assyria is evil,” ignoring contradictory evidence in the text. “Egypt and Assyria,” proclaims Isaiah, will be “a blessing…
Category: Mark
It’s Your Move, Herod
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” These words, spoken by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese author and civil leader, reflect almost perfectly the biblical teaching about fear and the…
It’s Not About the Teacher
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus repeatedly emphasizes the will of his Father in Deuteronomy, that any prophet or worker of miracles who seduces people from “the way (ὁδός) in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk,” should be ignored, or worse, put to death. Along these lines, in the story of Mark,…
Familiarity Breeds Contempt
When people are taught to change their behaviors or to admit their shortcomings, they use whatever means available to transfer blame for their sins to someone else. Almost always, they lash out against the messenger, pointing to the hypocrisy of their teacher or explaining how a person’s identity invalidates the message. In doing so, they…
Give Her Something to Eat
Self-righteousness is dangerous. When people who believe they are “right” apply rules to each other, even rules that were meant to protect us become instruments of abuse, cruelty and exploitation. You need look no further than the barbarity of Twitter mobs—liberal or conservative—to understand this dynamic. For politicians, sooner or later, this lack of humility…
The First Disciple
When Jesus permitted the unclean spirits to leave the Gerasene, he demonstrated two things: not only his ability to control a man whom no one could subdue, but his total power over Caesar’s legion. You had better believe everyone was terrified by the drowning of the swine, because when you mess with Caesar’s immutable power,…
Why Are You Bowing?
When it comes to bowing, our culture is schizophrenic. We teach people not to bow down to others or to let others tell us what to do, yet we bow down all the time. We bow to men of wealth; we bow to people and things of beauty; we bow to eloquent speech; worst of…
Why Are You Afraid?
Like the prophet Jonah, Jesus was sent to sow the seed of God’s teaching on other soil. Unlike Jonah, Jesus trusted God’s will, carrying out his Father’s instruction without hesitation or the slightest hint of rebellion. So you can imagine the Lord’s frustration, when at the first hint of danger, the disciples cower from God’s…
Like a Mustard Seed
A farmer sows seed because he wants security. He wants to know that he will have enough money and food in storage to secure his family until the next season. This understanding of farming is anti-Scriptural. In the Book of the Twelve, we are repeatedly warned that man’s lust for security is the cause of…
#cursed #afflicted #persecuted #amen
In the Gospel of Mark, the Lord Jesus said, “Whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” (Mark 4:25) In our consumer culture, this verse is almost always taken out of context and assumed to refer to worldly blessings: health,…