Marginal Christianity

01.    Mark1:1-20 (Part 1) Mark 1:1: Title (1:1) Israel in exile heard these words through the prophet Isaiah: “How beautiful upon the mountains      are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news,      who announces salvation,      who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The “good news” Isaiah announced as promise Mark proclaims as fulfilled. Fulfilled in Jesus Messiah, Son of God. In fact, he apparently created the genre of “gospel” as an account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfilment of God’s story with Israel and the world. The word “gospel” refers to an announcement of an event that changes things in the wider public world. That’s what it meant when the Romans used this word to announce a great military victory, the accession of a new emperor, or the birth of an heir to the sitting emperor. Mark believes that the world has been changed by who and what happened...

We always have to come down from the mountain. That’s an inescapable truth in following Jesus. In fact, having the mountain-top experience of all mountain-top experiences has only confused and complicated James’, Peter’s, and John’s sense of following him. And these kinds of experiences often have the same effect on us. We want to stay there and freeze the moment making it our spiritual experience all the time. At least our trio has the excuse of going through this before the resurrection of Jesus, which he intimates will help clarify what this mountain-top moment really means (v.9). And this time Jesus’ injunction to silence is kept. Probably because they knew they did not know what he meant by “rising from the dead,” so they had nothing to tell anyone (v.10)! If we don’t understand the source, we can always consult the interpreters. Jesus’ inner three turn to the “scribes” to raise the matter with him. “Why must Elijah come first?” they ask. Jesus answers “to restore all t...