The Salt Blog reminds us this Sunday we are ending our Trek through Mark’s Gospel this week Mark 13:1-8 , Nov 17. We began the year of Mark through 1st Advent, Dec. 2023 Mark 13:24-37 in the same chapter
Salt places Chapter 13 context –“ It’s Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples before the passion overtakes him, and in that sense is a kind of “farewell discourse.” The temple will be destroyed and desecrated, Jesus says. A time of great suffering will follow. But then (and here he clearly, intentionally echoes the voices of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Amos) new signs will appear, and the Child of Humanity will arrive and make everything right
Two of themes of Mark Gospel ‘ – 1. Mark records more miracles of Christ than any of the other Gospels. Jesus proves his divinity in Mark by the demonstration of miracles. 2 The Gospel of Mark also reveals Jesus the Servant. The overriding theme of the Gospel of Mark is to show that Jesus came to serve. Mark 10:44-45 …”and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many
The Salt Blog reminds us this Sunday we are ending our Trek through Mark’s Gospel this week Mark 13:1-8 , Nov 17. We began the year of Mark through 1st Advent, Dec. 2023 Mark 13:24-37 in the same chapter
Salt places Chapter 13 context –“ It’s Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples before the passion overtakes him, and in that sense is a kind of “farewell discourse.” The temple will be destroyed and desecrated, Jesus says. A time of great suffering will follow. But then (and here he clearly, intentionally echoes the voices of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Amos) new signs will appear, and the Child of Humanity will arrive and make everything right
Two of themes of Mark Gospel ‘ – 1. Mark records more miracles of Christ than any of the other Gospels. Jesus proves his divinity in Mark by the demonstration of miracles. 2 The Gospel of Mark also reveals Jesus the Servant. The overriding theme of the Gospel of Mark is to show that Jesus came to serve. Mark 10:44-45 …”and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many
When we see destruction which this week is the temple, Herod the Great began building the Jerusalem Temple (the third such temple in Jewish history) in 20 BCE, and it wasn’t completed until about 80 years later, in 63 CE, just seven years before its destruction by the Romans — and so it was under construction in Jesus’ day
SALT says put the destruction in perspective. Even at this time “God is at work turning the world upside down (or rather, right-side up!), serving all, restoring health, freeing captives, doing justice. So for the love of God, take heart — and come be a part of the movement.”
The scriptures in November are about being watchful and thus being alert even in the midst of catastrophe.
Why “ first, to avoid the ways of idolatrous religion — even and especially “in my name,” Jesus says! — because it distorts and “leads us astray”; second, to discern how our current struggles may in fact be “birth pangs” leading to new life; and third, to notice the signs of hope and wonder all around us every day. In this sense, the upshot of apocalypse is mindfulness. As Jesus puts it at the end of this apocalyptic chapter, in the very passage with which we began one year ago: “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake!”
As Trinity Episcopal in NY notes we have to place ourselves in those who really need hope.
“To really hear it, we have to listen from a position of desolation, chaos, and bewilderment; we have to listen alongside the traumatized soldier, the displaced refugee, the pregnant teenager, the addict and his heartbroken family, the activist discouraged by a significant setback.”
What is the Good News that is part of the Gospel – “What good news, exactly? In short: God is on the move, sometimes in deeply hidden ways, such that even now, a new era is dawning. Though the obstacles ahead may appear as indomitable as 35x18x12 blocks of stone — in truth, the last shall be first, the hungry shall be fed, and the mighty shall fall, for the God of love and justice is turning the world around. Though Roman armies desecrate the temple, ruining the sacred heart of the world (not just in first-century Palestine, but also here and now) — in truth, the God of grace will rescue, restore, and rebuild. Indeed, from this apocalyptic angle of vision, even our struggles today can be reframed in light of what’s to come, as “birth pangs” portending new life, Mark 13:8.