The Sundays after Epiphany, 2021
With Advent we began a new church year and turn our attention from Matthew to the Gospel of Mark. Mark was written during the crisis that exploded into rebellion, war, and the Roman conquest that carried off the treasures of the temple and innumerable slaves whose sale built the Coliseum. Mark’s Gospel is filled with urgency. The time is now for decisive action. Where Matthew is concerned to teach Jesus’ followers the way of life that comports with Jesus, Mark’s is a world where demonic forces are met by heavenly power.
Mark’s is a world where demons are silenced and evil thrown down. Mark’s Gospel has a breathless urgency. There are no wasted words, no time for clever wordplay – no time even for careful grammar. It was an oral story someone wrote down with all the features of a public telling of the dramatic work of God and the breaking of death’s hold on the world.
It’s hard to keep that breathless quality when we break Mark up into little pieces and read them seven days apart, but we will still hear it. Immediately Jesus will go down into the water to be baptized by John. Immediately, the heavens will be torn open and the Spirit will come upon him. Immediately the Spirit will drive him out into the wilderness to battle Satan. Immediately James and John will leave their nets to follow him. And immediately, as he teaches in the synagogue, a demon possessed man will cry out.
“Have you come to destroy us?” the demon will cry out, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus will silence it and cast it out.
Immediately after leaving the synagogue, Jesus will enter Peter’s house and heal his mother-in-law. When sabbath is over the whole town will bring all their sick to Jesus and they will be healed. The town will want to hold on to this wondrous healer but he has work to do and, in the morning, he is off to the other towns of Judah.
The Sundays after Epiphany in Mark’s Gospel are rich with drama, and the assurance that God has come to save. Not even death will hold back the hand of God.
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© David K Bonde, 2020, All rights reserved
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chersonesos_-_Apostol_Andrey.jpg ; Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons