This coming Sunday is the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The account of the healing of the woman and Jairus’ daughter are part of a four-fold miracle narration in which Jesus has shown power over chaotic nature (4:35-41) and destructive demons (5:1-20), and now over debilitating illness and death itself. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. These miracles have to be understood as within the framework of ceremonial cleanliness. What is clear is that both the woman and the girl were not pure/clean in the Levitical sense because of illness/death. In Jewish thought uncleanness was infectious, a human being might incur it by contact with any unclean person or thing (Lev. 5:3); but the law regarded three forms of uncleanness as serious enough to exclude the infected person from society. These were leprosy, uncleanness caused by bodily discharges, and impurity resulting from contact with the dead (Num. 5:2-4). This is not a topic that is just being introduced in Mark 5. Recall the connection with the ending of Mark 4: the exorcism of the unclean spirits from the man living in the (unclean) tombs into the (unclean) pigs. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle B. Last Sunday, in the 12th Sunday’s gospel, Jesus begins teaching the disciples with the first in a series of miracles that demonstrate the extraordinary character of Jesus’ power
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. The scripture scholar Pheme Perkins raises some great points for reflection [581]. The long-ago story of the disciples’ experience of tribulation and suffering have lessons for us in this age. She asks questions about how we react to such times, especially in the way the times shape our thoughts about God – even if only temporarily. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Meanwhile in the gospel account: 38 Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind ceased and there was great calm.
It is such a sparse telling of the story that it is not hard to imagine Jesus awaking, being somewhat chagrined (a good night’s sleep is hard to come by), glancing at the storm, wondering what all the commotion is about, and directing the sea to “Quiet! Be still!” (literally: “be muzzled”) As suddenly as the storm had come it had subsided, subdued by Jesus’ sovereign command. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Given the fact that at least four of the disciples were professional fishermen and must have experienced such storms before, their terror gives us a clue about the severity of the incident. The Sea of Galilee, surrounded by high mountains, is like a basin with the Golan Heights to the East and dry deserts to the south. Sudden violent storms on the sea are well known. Violent winds from the southwest enter the basin from the southern cleft and create a wave of storms and periods of calm that succeed rapidly follow one upon another. The text lailaps megalē anemou suggests a sudden tornado-like whirlwind descending from above. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. 35 On that day, as evening drew on, he said to them, “Let us cross to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. 38 Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We are people who live in a time when transoceanic sailing is routine, but for the people of Old Testament times, the seas, deep oceans, and their creatures held a mix of practical, symbolic, and theological significance. To the OT mind the sea is the place of chaotic power, the habitation of sea monsters, and the place from whence comes evil. Given that perspective, there are three primary OT motifs which arise, not only in Scripture, but also in the text of other Ancient Near East cultures:
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Despite the traditional marking of chapters in the Gospel, most commentators do not include our gospel passage with the bulk of Chapter 4. Rather, our gospel passage is included with the content of Chapter 5. In 4:35-5:43 Jesus teaches with miracles that demonstrate the extraordinary character of Jesus’ power as he stills a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee (4:35-41); casts out a demonic legion (5:1-20); raises Jairus’ daughter and heals a woman sick for 12 years (5:21-43 – our gospel text for next week). These miracles show that Jesus has power over the realms of nature, the demonic, and death. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle B. From the beginning of Mark, chapter 4, we have seen Jesus teaching via some very memorable parables about the Kingdom of God:
