The feeding of the 5,000 (4,000) with 12 (7) baskets left over in Mark 6:34-44 (Mark 8:19-21) has more of a parable feel to it than of actual accounts. Those that listen to what God is telling them are filled and have enough to pass on to others. The numbers 12 and 7 make these seem like they're trying to strike a chord with the Bible reading population since they both are frequent numbers throughout the books. The point of the stories are not Jesus' amazing culinary abilities. It's that even if everyone in your immediate area is fed - a huge and impossible feat for most people - by the word of God, there are still baskets of teaching and help to give. You have to go out of your way and do all you can until your sources are exhausted, until your death.
In Mark 8:29-33, Peter tells Jesus he believes him to be the messiah. Jesus tells him and the rest of the disciples to keep quiet. Again, he doesn't want this title to spread. When Jesus is hanging out with Moses and Elijah in Mark 9:5, Peter wants to build a shrine/tent/tabernacle to each of them on that spot. He echos other passages in the Bible (i.e. Jude 8:9) where Satan and/or man want to worship and build shrines to people and locations. Instead of trying to understand and appreciate what happened, people like this are led astray by thinking a place is important, not the message. Jesus could be telling the disciples not to say anything to people about him being the messiah because they could have fallen for the unclean spirits' (Satan's) ruse. People are completely missing the point of Jesus' life, and his disappointment is repeated all throughout Mark. When Peter wants to build shrines to the event of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, God Himself comes down, obscures the three prophets, and tells Peter right to his thick skull to listen to Jesus.
Mark 13:12-13 "Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved." This could be seen as people will hate and turn over Christians to die, but could this not also be applied that non-Christians will be hated by all that make Jesus equal to or above God? Many non-Christians throughout history and contemporary times were hated and slaughtered in the name of Jesus.
Mark:21-23 "If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!' do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise an will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect." Most see this as a lot of people claiming to be Jesus and leading Christians astray. Could this not be interpreted as Jesus speaking about the unclean spirits and Peter claiming him to be the messiah?
Mark 14:61-62 This is the only time that Jesus accepts the title of "Messiah." However, Jesus' definition of messiah was different than what most people have in mind, as can be seen throughout Mark. He didn't want people to get the wrong message, which did become prevalent and still is today. Jesus thought of messiah as someone anointed to do God's work, not a savior of the world. And calling himself the son of God is no different than you and I claiming to be children of God.
Christopher, I was your prisoner, Christopher.
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2 comments:
I had been waiting for this! Yeee!
I am a little confused as to how you came about your interpretation of the false prophets and messiahs passage in Mark? How did you draw your conclusions. (Obviously, I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong, I just genuinely want to know.)
Is there anyone around here who's 'almost got it right'? If so, they'd be cool to meet up and hang out with.
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