Twist family Bible study: the Gospel of Mark

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I did have fun, you'll have to check out the video I posted of my partners in crime.

I remember my granny would experence miricles sometimes, having her knees healed, and she would walk just fine out of that tent revival but the next day she could not get out of bed. Mind over matter.

[injest]

I wonder if maybe it WAS mental illness, Wayne. So many people with mental illness use the term to describe what it feels like..

I know sometimes when I come out of a bout or intense episode I feel it was as if there was a presence or shadow on me...I can see in ancient times people thinking it was a 'demon'

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I am fond of classifying infatuation a demon.

[Wayne]

"its coming! its coming!" forever and it never getting here.

Yeah for me the concepts of "at hand" and "the time is fulfilled" would really not allow for a delay of 2000 years or more.

If by "time is fulfilled" he meant that long a wait, then I would have little hope of understanding anything else he might say.   

I'm willing to keep the possibilities open if something else becomes evident, but for me, for now, it sounds like he meant that the change was already there.

Sort of a first century age of Aquarius ...   

[Wayne]

she would walk just fine out of that tent revival but the next day she could not get out of bed.

   Yeah, we don't have long-term followup information on these healings, so we should probably be aware of that ...

gotta run for now ... chapter 2 tonight?     

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I can try.

[Wayne]

   Hey all! Sorry a little late this evenin what with dinner and homework ...   

OK so Mark chapter 2. Here's the Cliff notes from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_2

Actually the inverse Cliff notes - the Wikipedia entry is several times longer than the chapter.

Basically Jesus goes back home to Capernaum on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, and everybody wants to get healed!

He heals a paralyzed man - "rise, get up and walk"

He brings on a tax collector as a disciple. The name Levi is given - this may be the same person as Matthew but that's not for certain. I have the impression that tax collectors were viewed as a sort of collaborator with the oppression of Rome. So it was pretty edgy for Jesus to be bringing them into the fold.

[Wayne]

The analogies about new cloth and new wine may have some twists to them ...

New cloth is probably better than old cloth.

But by contrast, old wine is better than new.

In the corresponding phrases in Luke (chapter 5:36-39) Jesus goes ahead to say that you're probably going to say "the old wine is better."

So he seems to be saying if for you the old way is like old wine, better than new, then that's fine, go with that.

But for some people, the new way is like new cloth, better than old, so that's what he's working on.

[Wayne]

He states that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. This may sound blase' to some modern readers but might not have been easy for everyone to agree with. Observing the Sabbath was pretty close to the core of the Jewish experience.

You know those Ten Commandments - if even those are subject to question, then things could get out of hand ...   

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I like how Jesus told that leper at the end of th elast chapter not to tell no body and bam, look what happened.


Now in 2:5 he is addressing the paralytic man and telling him his sins are forgiven, and it was the sins holding him back. He rose and took his pallet and left.

Was he sining by pretending to be paralyzed?