5

7. (To have Direction) Avoid bad actions

6:1-30

native place of him

Herod kills Baptist

7:17-23

house - from the crowd

What comes out defiles

6:1-30 And he went from there and came into his native place. His disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue. And the people on hearing him were astonished saying. “Where did this man come by these things and who gave this wisdom to him? And how did these powerful deeds done through his hands come about? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they were offended by him. And Jesus said to them. "A prophet is not dishonoured except in his native place and amongst his relatives and in his household. And he could not do any powerful deed there except for laying hands on a few sick people and healing them. And he marvelled at their unbelief.

And he went teaching in the villages in cicuit (that is surrounding there, still in his own country). And he called to himself the twelve and began to send them forth, two by two. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them saying that they should not take anything except a staff, not bread, nor a wallet in their girdle. But they should only have sandals and should not put on two tunics. He said to them. “Wherever you enter into a house, remain there until you leave the area. And whatever place does not receive you or hear you, go out from there and shake off the dust from under your feet as a testimony to them." And going forth they proclaimed that men should repent. They expelled many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Now King Herod heard about Jesus, for his name was becoming well-known. Some people said John the Baptist had been raised from the dead and this explained his powerful deeds. But others said he was Elias. Yet others said he was one of the prophets. But on hearing about him Herod said. "He is the one whom I beheaded, John, for he has been raised."

Herod himself had sent for and had seized John. He bound him up in prison because of Herodias his brother Philip’s wife. Herod had married her and John had told him “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Now Herodias had a grudge against him (John) and wished to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing him to be a just and holy man. So he kept him safe. He was very perplexed on hearing him yet gladly did so. As it turned out on Herod’s birthday there were festivities being held. A supper had been made for his courtiers and the chillarchs and the chief men of Galilee. And the daughter of Herodias entered dancing. The latter pleased Herod and those reclining with him greatly. The King said to the girl. “Ask me whatever you wish and I will give it to you.” And he swore to her. “Whatever you ask for I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And going out she said o her mother. “What should I ask for”” And the latter said. "Ask for the head of John the Baptist." Coming in quickly to the king the girl asked saying. "I want you at once to give me the head of John the Baptist on a dish." And the king was greatly grieved. But because of the oaths and because of those reclining with him, he did not wish to reject her and say no. And so immediately sending for an executioner the king gave the order to bring the head. Going out the executioner beheaded him (John) in the prison. He brought the head back on a dish and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother. On hearing about this his disciples went and took the corpse and put it in a tomb.

And the apostles assembled and reported to Jesus everything that they had done and taught.

7:17-23 When he went into a house away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable. And he said to them. "Are you so undiscerning that you do not understand that everything from without, on entering into a man cannot defile him because it does not enter into his heart but going into his belly and into the drain, as with the purging of all foods?" And he said. "The thing that comes out of a man is what defiles him. It comes from within. For it is out of the heart of men that evil thoughts come, as also fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, greedinesses, iniquities, deceit, lewdness, the evil eye, blasphemy, arrogance, foolishness. All these evil things come forth from within a man and defile him."

5. (To have Direction) Value personal contact

5:21-34

Other side of sea

If I touch even his garments

7:31-8:9

Sea of Galilee, Decapolis
- spitting he touched the tongue

5:21-34 Crossing over the sea in the ship again, to the other side, there was a great crowd assembled. He (Jesus) was by the sea. One of the synagogue chiefs, Jairus by name, on seeing him fell at his feet. The latter beseeched him greatly saying. “My daughter is at the point of death. Come in order that you can lay your hands on her and that she may be healed and live.” And He went with him. A great crowd followed and pressed upon him. Now there was a woman who had a blood flow constantly over twelve years. She had suffered many things from physicians in order to be cured of this. She had spent all her money on them and had not been improved but rather had become worse. On hearing about the things Jesus had done, she came into the crowd behind him and touched his garment. She had said. “Even if I touch his garments I shall be healed.” And immediately she did this, the cause of bleeding within her was stopped. She knew that in her body she was cured from the problem. And immediately Jesus, knowing within himself that power had gone out from him turned in the crowd and said. "Who touched my garments?" And the disciples said to him. “You see the crowd pressing upon you and you say, “Who touched me?” And yet He looked round to see who had done this. And the woman fearing and trembling and knowing what had happened to her, came and fell before him and told him the truth. And he said to her: “Daughter your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be cured of your problem.”

7:31-8:9 And going out again from the district of Tyre, he came through Sidon to the sea of Galilee in the midst of the district of Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and speaking with difficulty. And they besought him that he would put his hand upon him. And taking him away from the crowd, privately he put his fingers into his ears and spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven he groaned and said to the man “Ephphatha” which means “Be thou opened.” And the man’s ears were opened and immediately the bond of his tongue was loosened and he spoke correctly. And he (Jesus) ordered them to tell nobody. But as much as he ordered this, they proclaimed all the more about it. And they were extremely astonished, saying. "He has done all things well, both the deaf hear and the dumb speak."

8:1 In those days there was a great crowd which did not have anything to eat. And calling his disciples to him he said. “I have compassion on the crowd because now they have been with me three days and they do not have anything to eat. And if I send them away fasting to their homes they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from afar.” And his disciples answered him. “Who can feed these people in the desert?” And he asked them. “How many loaves do you have?.” They said “Seven.” And he told the crowd to sit down on the ground. And taking the seven loaves he gave thanks. He broke these and gave them to the disciples so that they could hand them around. And they served them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. Blessing these he (Jesus) told them to serve them as well. And the crowd ate and were satisfied. And when the fragments of food were collected they filled seven baskets. Now the crowd consisted of about four thousand people. After this He dismissed them.

As with the matching paragraph there are two separate stories being recorded here. The ‘touching’ theme of the second story, matches the ‘touching’ theme at the start of the paragraph's pair.

Even though there appears to be two stories above there does not appear to be a definite change of place so the two are put into the one paragraph.

In both these cases Jesus felt power go out of himself.

6. (To have Direction) Believe in own power

5:35-43

House of Jairus (privacy)

- daughter rises

7:24-30

House in Tyre (privacy)

- daughter cured

5:35-43 While he was still speaking some people came from the synagogue to its chief saying. “Your daughter has died. Why do you trouble the teacher.” But Jesus overheard what was being said. He said to the synagogue chief. “Do not fear, only believe.” And he did not allow anyone to accompany himself except for Peter and James and John, the brother of James. They came into the house of the synagogue chief and he (Jesus) saw an uproar. There were men weeping and crying aloud. And entering in he said to them. “Why do you make such an uproar and weep. The child did not die but is asleep.” They laughed at him. But he put everyone out. Then he took the father and the mother of the child as also the disciples with him and went in to where the child was lying. And taking hold of the child’s hand he says to her. “Talitha koum”, which is understood to mean “Maid, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and walked. She was twelve years of age. And the people around were greatly astonished. And He ordered them that nobody should know about this. Then he told them to give her something to eat.

7:24-30 Rising up from there he went away into the district of Tyre. And entering into a house he did not want people to know to know he was there. But this could not be hidden. Immediately a woman who had heard about him, and whose daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by race. She asked him if he would expel the demon out of her daugther. And he said to her. “Let the children be satisfied first. It is not good to take the bread of the children and to throw it to the dogs.” But she answered and said to him. “Yes Lord. And yet the dogs under the table eat from the crumbs of the children.” And he said to her. “Because of your saying this, go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” And going way to her house she found that her child had been laid out on the couch and the demon had gone.

There is an obvious parallel between the house/places here and the curing of a young daughter. There are also obvious contrasts. Jesus is readily willing to help the daughter of the chief of the Synagogue, but does not appear to want to help the Syrophoenician woman who is of a Greek background. At the same time there is a contrast between the mockery that is meted out to Jesus by the friends of the Synagogue chief and yet the readiness on the part of the Syrophoenician woman to accept what could be seen as an insult from Jesus.

7. (To have Direction) Avoid bad actions

6:1-30

native place of him

Herod kills Baptist

7:17-23

house - from the crowd

What comes out defiles

And the apostles assembled and reported to Jesus everything that they had done and taught.

It may appear that the two hooks being used to link these two paragraphs are not an obvious match. But in both cases, Jesus moves from a public realm into his own private space. In the first instance he returns back into his own native place, where he grew up. In the second paragraph he retreats from a crowd into a house where he can be in private with his own disciples.

One could ask why the account of Herod’s beheading of John the Baptist should be linked in here with the failure of Jesus to win the support of his own relatives and townsfolk. Why in turn should these episodes be linked in with teaching in the matching paragraph which is claiming that it is what people do that defiles them.

One can recall that in the very opening pair of paragraphs in Mark’s gospel Jesus is highly critical of some of his family members. Perhaps it is because of this criticism that there is a deliberate link made on the part of the writer between his own family and native place and another family which was better known at the time but which was (also?) dysfunctional.

The sickening act of Herod in serving up the Baptist’s head has an obvious link in with the matching paragraph about uncleanness coming out of a man’s heart. The link becomes more obvious still when we consider the fastidious rules that over-observant Jews had about what they ate and how. The hypocrisy of the rules is also shown when we reflect that in an earlier pair of paragraphs here the Pharisees and the Herodians were plotting together on how to destroy Jesus and his new teaching - as if they had the all answers on how to live!

To continue, it would appear that Mark the writer is pointing out that a group of people whose way of life is based on one or other systems of Law or of Order, can indeed tip into the extremes of the other type of society. When this happens there are the worst results of all. This argumentation may appear somewhat convoluted here. But it is important to note that the gospel writers were aware of this type of potential social problem.

Indeed this type of social problem prevails at the present time and in the immediate past. At times Christianity is criticised for its inadequacy in dealing with and warning against such a problem. Consider, as discussed in previous versions of Reality Search, the disaster of the Nazi regime in the mid twentieth century. On the one hand there was a society which went to the extremes of idealism. They tried to wipe out the Jews whose society was and is based upon law. But what they took as a tool for this was a factor associated with the law-based society, that is, family and race. They then idealised the Aryan race and used this as the excuse to try to wipe out the race of Jews.

8. (To have Direction Don't overstress formality

6:31-45

desert place

multiplies loaves

6:54-7:16

country

eating with unclean hands

6:31-43 And he said to them. "Come away with just yourselves, privately to a desert place and rest awhile." For there were many people coming and going and they did not even have the opportunity to eat. And they went away in the ship to a desert place privately. Yet many people saw them going and knew their destination. People from all the cities around went there quickly and were there when they arrived. And getting out of the boat he saw a huge crowd of people. He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. Now it was getting late and his disciples approached him and said. "We are in a desert place and it is late. Tell them to go away to the fields and villages around so they can buy food for themselves." But he, answering said to them. "Give them something to eat yourselves." And they said to him. "We need to go away and spend two hundred denarii on loaves of bread in order to feed them." And he said to them. “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And as they knew already they said. “Five and two fish.” And he instructed the people to sit down in companies on the green grass. And they reclined in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves and gave these to the disciples that they might set them before the people. And he divided the fish, which were given to all. And all the people ate and were satisfied. And they took up the fragments and filled twelve baskets from the leftovers. There were five thousand males that had been eating the loaves. He immediately told the disciples to get in the ship and go over to Bethsaida while he dismissed the crowd.

6:54 -7:16 As they came out of the ship they were immediately recognised. People came from all around that country and began to carry those who were ill on pallets to wherever they heard that he (Jesus) was. And wherever he went into villages or into cities or into the country or the market places they put those who were sick there, and besought him and they might even be able to touch the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched him were healed.

7:1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes, coming from Jerusalem assembled near him. And they saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is unwashed) hands. Now the Pharisees and Jews in general do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands according to the tradition of their elders. Nor do they eat after coming from the market places unless they sprinkle themselves with water. There are many other things related to washings, for example of cups and utensils and bronze vessels. And so the Pharisees and the scribes questioned him (Jesus). “Why do your disciples not behave according to the tradition of the elders but instead eat with unclean hands?” And he said to them. “Isaiah prophesied well concerning you. It has been written about hypocrites. "This people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far away from me. It is in vain that they worship me, teaching things which are the commands of men." Leaving the commandment of God, you hold instead to the tradition of men.” And he said to them. “You well set aside God’s commandments so that you can keep your tradition. For Moses said. ‘Honour your father and your mother. And, the one speaking evil of his father or mother should die”. But you, you say, If a man says to his father or to his mother ‘Whatever you may profit by me is Korban (set aside for the temple) then such a one is allowed to go without doing anything for his father or for his mother. By doing this you are annulling the word of God through your tradition. And there are many other similar things that you do." And calling the crowd to himself again, He said to them. "Listen to me and understand. There is nothing outside a man which entering into him can defile him. But the things coming out of a man, that is what defiles him."