Mark Chapter 6:

Jesus teaching in the Temple (Mark 6:1-2)


Joseph the Carpenter, Georges de La Tour (Mark 6: 2-4)


Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .
Matthew 11 – John the Baptist has “heard in the prison the works of Christ” (vs 2)and he sends two his disciples to ask, “Are you he that should come, or should we look for another?” (vs 3) Jesus sends them back saying, “Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (vs 4,5).


Michelangelo Caravaggio


Richard Strauss


Loaves and Fish; Calming the Sea, Part II

Mark 4 and 5: Why are you so fearful? . . . Be not afraid, only believe.

In Act I, Scene V of Hamlet, the title character says to his friend, Horatio, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy."

The Improbable Story of Alcides Moreno

Alcides Moreno



The Amazing Val Thomas


Faith and Medicine:

“Many studies done over the years indicate that the devout tend to be healthier. But the reasons remain far from clear. . . .(T)he most controversial research focuses on ‘intercessory’ or ‘distant’ prayer, which involves people trying to heal others through their intentions, thoughts or prayers, sometimes without the recipients knowing it. . . .

San Francisco cardiologist Randolph Byrd, for example, conducted an experiment in which he asked born-again Christians to pray for 192 people hospitalized for heart problems, comparing them with 201 not targeted for prayer. No one knew which group they were in. He reported in 1988 that those who were prayed for needed fewer drugs and less help breathing.

William Harris of St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City and colleagues published similar results in 1999 from a study involving nearly 1,000 hear patients, about half of whom were prayed for without their knowledge. . . .

‘I don’t see how you could quantify prayer - - either the results of it or the substance of it,’ said the Rev. Raymond Lawrence of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. ‘God is beyond the reach of science. It’s absurd to think you could use it to examine God’s play.’. . .

‘There’s nothing we know about the physical universe that could account for how the prayers of someone in Washington, D.C., could influence the health of a group of people in Iowa - - nothing whatsoever,’ Mr. Sloan (Richard Sloan, behavioral researcher at Columbia University).”

Rob Stein, Sunday, March 26, 2006

Mark 4 - of seeds and seas

Parables are simple, memorable word pictures that survive oral tradition easily. They are narrative in form but figurative in meaning. The rhetorical purposes of parables are to inform, convince, or persuade the audience. Christ’s stories were crafted to appealed to the young and old, poor and rich, and to the learned and unlearned as well.

“A fact of great significance is that Jesus our Lord saw in the entire world around him the analogies between earthly and heavenly things. His mightiest teachings were related to a farmer planting wheat, fishermen casting nets, the lamp, the bed, the bushel, the candlestick, the hen and little chickens, the yoke, pruning grape vines, patching old clothes, making bread, a son leaving home, a merchant seeking pearls, a shepherd finding the lost sheep, searching for a lost coin, lighting a lamp, sweeping the house, etc.” (Coffman) Often we find Jesus speaking to the masses in parables, and later, secretly or in private, explaining (or at least attempting to explain) everything to his disciples.









So why does Jesus use parables? Stephen L Harris avers that Jesus used parables because they provoked thought and interaction with the listeners. Because of the parables'ambiguous content, audiences had to become more active in the processing of the narrative. James Burton Coffman notes several reasons why Jesus taught in parables. “(1) He did so in order to fulfill prophecy. (2) He did so to confound the spies of the Pharisees. (3) He thus challenged his disciples to greater spiritual discernment. (4) The Hebrew people were familiar with that method. (5) It made his teachings easier to remember. (6) The parables were interesting in the highest degree. (7) They contained the dynamic teaching of Jesus in language which was unsuitable to the court-charges the Pharisees were anxious to make against him. In short, he, by this method, taught those who wished to know the truth and confounded those who sought to oppose him. In the literature of all the world, there is nothing to compare with the parables of Jesus.”

Paradoxes of Christ in Mark 1-3

What is a Paradox?
Greek – Paradoxos, conflicting with expectations.
1. a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.
2. one exhibiting inexplicable or contradictory aspects.

the same water that hardens the egg, softens the carrot.

Famous Paradoxes:
Zeno’s Paradox via the parable of the Tortoise and Achilles.


Liar’s Paradox: This sentence is a lie.


Visual Paradoxes:

Young Woman/Old Woman Illusion


M. C. Esher





Paradoxes of Christ in Mark 1-3
Public Jesus and Loner Jesus

Public Jesus:
1:28 – And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
1:32-33 - And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door.
1:37 – And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.
2:2 – And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no not so much as about the door.
3:8-11 – And from Jerusalem, and from I-dumae’a, and from beyond Jordan; and theyu about Tyre and Si’don, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him. And he spake to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. For he had healed many; insomuch that they pressed upon him to touch him, as many as had plagues.
3:32 – And the multitude sat about him.

Loner Jesus:
1:35 – And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there he prayed.
1:44 – And he saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man.
3:7 – But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.
3:12-13 – And he straightly charged them that they should not make him known. And he goeth up into a mountain.

Messianic Jesus and Rebel Jesus

Messianic Jesus
1:1 - . . . the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God
1:11 – And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
1:24 - . . . thou Jesus of Nazareth . . . thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

Rebel Jesus
2:15 – And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also with Jesus . . .
2:23-28 – And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath say that which is unlawful? And he said to them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and hungered, he and they that were with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

The Gospel of Mark, Overview

icon – lion; traditionally a powerful animal of action; predatory; alert, watchful (medieval bestiary notes that lions sleep with their eyes open); king of the jungle

Considered the first literary portrait of Christ. Probably written around the late 60's or early 70's A. D. and draws from the oral tradition of the early church. Mark is interesting in that it begins en medias res, with John the Baptist on the move, "a voice crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord.'" By verse 10 of chapter one, Jesus is getting baptized and moving straight away into his temptation and the beginning of his ministry; the gathering of disciples, preaching, healing the sick, casting out devils, and taking on the established authorities. In other words, the text begins with a roar which is echoed by the lion icon associated with Mark's gospel.

Two sources of the Lion image as linked to Mark.
1: Legend of St. Mark and his father encountering two lions and escaping via prayer.
2: The lion image may be a reference to Mark's paradoxical depiction of Christ throughout the text. Christ is referred to as the Lion of Judah in other scriptures (Revelation 5:5 - And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof; Rev. 5:4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.") But while the powerful imagery of the lion does match the power and action of Christ in the initial chapters of Mark, it creates tension in the later chapters of Mark as Christ chooses not to use his power to avoid the passion of the cross.

Lion in St Mark’s square, Piazzetta at Venice








C. S. Lewis draws from Mark's paradoxical depiction of Christ as both powerful and passive Lion in his Chronicles of Narnia series. Specifically, in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis presents Aslan, the lion, as an incarnation of Christ in the world of Narnia.

What does Jesus look like?

Who do men say that I am? Mark 8:27

A heroic figure... not wholly to blame for the religion that's been foisted on him.
Ezra Pound


Jesus was a brilliant Jewish stand-up comedian, a phenomenal improviser. His parables are great one-liners.
Camille Paglia



Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
John Lennon


Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.
Mikhail Gorbachev


If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be-a Christian.
Mark Twain