Some weeks I feel like I have to stretch to find something interesting to blog about in this week's Come Follow Me reading, but this week there is so much I won't be able to cover it all.
First of all, I am beginning to have more respect for the Gospel of Mark. I had always thought of it as the abbreviated gospel, since it is the shortest and usually most free from commentary. We don't see much "thus we see," in the book of Mark. Even though Mark is a "just the facts" kind of writer, I was impressed with the way he arranges his narrative to each principles.
My first example is in Mark 8, starring in verse 22. A blind man approaches Jesus and asks to be healed. Jesus takes him out of town and then spits on his eyes and asks what he could see. He said he saw men, as trees walking (v.24). Then Jesus put his hands on his eyes again, and he can see clearly.
Immediately Mark recounts Jesus' question about "Who do men say I am" (v. 28) and Peter declares, "Thou art the Christ." (v. 29). In vs 31, it says that Jesus "began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and ...be killed and after three days rise again." Peter can't handle it, and rebukes the Lord, and then Jesus rebukes Peter.
I don't think that the story of the blind man and the story of Peter were put together by accident. The healing of the blind man is the only account of someone being healed in stages. I think is foreshadowed Peter's progression. In vs 29 Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ. He is beginning to see, just as the blind man could see a little after his first administration. But Peter is not yet seeing things clearly because he rebukes Jesus when Jesus says he must die. Just as the blind man regained his sight in steps, Peter was coming to understand Jesus' mission in steps.
The next major story is the mount of Transfiguration. So much of this story harkens back to the Old Testament Tabernacle. The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God on Earth, and when God was present it was overshadowed by a cloud. We see the same elements here. Peter suggests building tabernacles for the three exalted beings. The cloud is there representing the presence of God. Where as the Old Testament Israelites were not able to go into the holy of holies when the cloud was over it, this time, Peter, James, and John were invited into the cloud and heard the voice of God. For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, there is a bunch of temple imagery here.
Finally I want to jump to Matthew 16: 16-17. Jesus asks the disciples whom men think he is. They respond that people think he is John the Baptist or one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks whom they think he is. Peter responds by declaring "though art the Christ." Jesus says "flesh and bone hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven." Several podcasters mentioned that "the coasts of Caesarea" where this exchange takes place was a center of pagan worship. One interpretation of the phrase "flesh and blood hath not revealed it.,," is that it is referencing the pagan practice of killing and animal and looking at its entrails to divine the future. If there were, indeed, people in the city offering to divine a prophecy through this kind of augury, it was no wonder that Jesus said that "flesh and blood" (i.e, the flesh and blood of dead animals used in augury) was no source of true revelation.
So there are my favorite tidbits from this week. Like I said, there was much more I could have written.
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