Jesus' Travels

 

The Texts

 

Mk 8

 

Here Jesus feeds a crowd of 4000 with loaves of bread and a few fishes.  This appears to be a parallel passage to Mk. 6:30-44,[2] but the location indicates it is a Gentile audience.  After feeding the crowd Pharisees question Jesus and ask for a sign from heaven (how impertinent!)  Jesus denies them.  Later, Jesus travels to Bethsaida, where he heals a blind man by applying spit to his eyes.

 

Mk 9:30-50

 

In 9:30-34, the disciples are walking toward Galilee, they stop in Capernaum.  Along the way they talked among themselves as to who among them was the greatest.  Jesus asks them what they had discussed, and they fall silent.  Mark records Jesus predicting his passion (although not crucifixion), and then tells three pericopes:  (1) “they had discussed with one another who was the greatest,” to which Jesus answers that those who are the “servant of all;” (2) the pronouncement of “he that is not against us is for us;” and last (3) “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire” (RSV). 

 

Mk 10

 

Jesus is moving from Capernaum to the South toward Jerusalem.  Jesus delivers 5 pronouncements dealing with personal attitudes and interpersonal interactions:

 

The Teachings of Jesus (Mk 10)

 

On Divorce         10:1-12	Jesus says that if a man or woman divorce and remarry, they commit adultery.  Later Rabbinic law (or interpretation) held that only men could initiate divorce.  This feminist comment may have been added by latter editors.
On Children         10:13-16	“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
The Rich Man and Eternal Life         10:17-27	“You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
On Riches         10:23-27	“There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
The Rewards of Discipleship         10:28-31	Persecutions.  The “first will be last, and the last first.”

 

 

Mk 11

 

Here begins the story of the 3 day ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem (according to Mark).  In Mk 11, the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem upon a colt that has never been ridden is described (see Zec 9:9 for the origin of this prophecy).  In Mark 11:13 there is an interesting comment about Jesus cursing a fig tree (“And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”)  Jesus cursed the figless tree and when they passed the tree again (Mark 11:21), the story continues, “And Peter remembered and said to him, "Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.”  The parable has been interpreted to mean that since fig trees should have fruit when they also have leaves, Jesus rejected (ie., God rejected) what pretends to have fruit, but does not.

 

Upon arrival in Jerusalem, Jesus clears the Temple (note that this is in contrast to the Gospel of John).  The clearing of the Temple may have been a prophetic enactment of the destruction of the Temple which was to occur in 70 A.D. 

 

One interpretation of this is that Jesus’ actions may have been the fulfillment of Jeremiah:  Jer 7:11-14:  “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the LORD.  Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.  And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.” (RSV) 

 

Also note Jer 18:1-10:  “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  ‘Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.’  So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.  And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.  Then the word of the LORD came to me:  ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? says the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.  If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it.  And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it’.”  (RSV)

 

In Mk 11:27, the authority of Jesus to teach/preach is questioned by the “teachers of the law and the elders.”  Jesus answers them with a question:  Was John the Baptist’s Baptism from God or from men.  This vexes them, and so he does not answer their question as to on whose authority he heals, teaches, and preaches.  The answer lies in Mk 12:1-12 (see below).

 

Mk 12

 

This begins with the parable of the wicked husbandman.  This is a midrash on Isaiah 5:1-2 dealing with the religious stewardship of the “guardians” (the Sadducees perhaps ? ).  The guardians have failed in this stewardship, so God will send a messenger (or servant) to the people.  And, in the end time, Mark 12:9-11 states, “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not read this scripture: ‘The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”  Some have interpreted this as the superseding of Israel; by Christianity, but it could also simply refer to religious stewardship. 

 

In Mk 12:14-17, the issue is raised of rendering unto Caesar what is his.  The tax referred to is a special capitation tax (based on the census), and not a general tax.  The rabbis did not object to general taxation.  But, the rabbis objected to the fact that the tax harmed the poor and that the coinage used to pay it had the image of Caesar on it with the word, “divine.”  Jesus’ response is brilliant:  to give idolatrous coinage to the government that supports idolatry is no sin!

 

In Mk 12:18-27, the Sadducees come to Jesus with another question:  Whose wife will it be after the resurrection if 7 brothers marry her in an act of Levarite marriage.  Jesus’ answer is that in the afterlife there is no marriage; that the dead will be like “the angels in heaven.”  More important, however, is that in verse 26, Jesus speaks directly to the concept of resurrection.  He says that the experience of the communion with God requires the resurrection (this is the Pharisaic view, and not the Sadducean one).

 

In Mk 12:28-34, Jesus describes the major commandment - which is directly from Deut 6:4-5 (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”) and Lev 19:18 (“You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”  (both known to Jesus at the time, and not a new concept at all).

 

In Mk 12:35-40, Jesus teaches that the Christ is the son of David, but also more:  He quotes Ps 110 indicating that David’s superior (his lord) is in fact God (or the Messiah). 

 

In Mk 12:41-44 (the story of the widow who gave all that she had into the Temple treasury), Jesus points out at least one difference between true and false religion. 

 

 

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Appendix Material

The lifeline below represents an amalgamation of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, and is excerpted from the Zondervan NIV Study Bible. [3]

Jesus' Lifelife - Part 1

 

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