John 2:13-22

This passage occurs in the RCL Lent Season, Year B, most recently late February 2024.  It also occurs in the Narrative Lectionary Year 4 Epiphany season.
 
Summary:
There is a great play on words in this section that our English translators (perhaps through no fault of their own!) cover up.  Jesus uses five different terms to describe the temple complex.  The most challenging distinction is between "house of market" and a "house of God."  I do not think our churches are in danger of becoming marketplaces, even those with Starbucks in their lobbies.  I still think when it comes to Sunday morning, these are the two options, two alternative worlds we live in:  a house of market, where we have to work, pay bills and shop or a house of God, where we can rest, receive God's grace and give thanks.

Key words - two small ones and then a big one!
φραγελλιον ("whip", 2.15) The word here for whip will be used against Jesus in Matthew and Mark.  It is worth reflecting on, Greek aside, why Jesus is so angry.  What is the abuse against which Jesus so rallies?

λυω ("free"; "destroy", 2:19)  The word here for destroy actually means to loosen (remember the basic verb conjugation charts?). It also means to destroy, but an interesting idea.  How does Jesus death set him free?  He is almost commanding them to free him!

Temple:  Five for one!
There are five words used here for temple:
ιερον (2:15):  The word hieron (rough breathing mark means its English equivalent starts with an "h") This word comes into English as hierarchy.  It refers to the whole temple complex, including the whole cultic and sacrificial system.  It is interesting to note that all the animals being purchased were for sacrifices.  Any system of sacrifice inevitably leads to priestly power, abuse and money; in short, hierarchy.

οικος του πατρος μου (house of my father; 2:16)  Jesus here identifies his relationship to God and the temple.  If it belongs to his father, it belongs to him too.  What does it mean for something to be God's house?  How might we look at church differently if we saw it as God's house?

οικος του εμποριον (house of market; 2:16)  German has a nice word:  Kaufhaus, in which the word for shopping center contains the word house.  Since we don't in English, the writers drop it and say, "market" instead of the literal "house of market."  While our churches today may not be a house of market, I wonder if this really is the alternative to church:  a few more hours to purchase things on TV, at the mall or on the internet; a few more hours to work; a few more hours to pay bills.

A rant I wonder if I could pull off in a sermon:  εμποριον, or market, is a place where things are exchanged; it is a place of transactions.  I wonder if Jesus is rejecting, not simply money or even abuse of money, but finally is rejecting the whole notion of sacrifice.  Sacrifice is about transaction, not transformation!  In the house of God; in the person of Jesus; in the true temple, there is transformation!

ναος  (temple; 2:19)  This word properly refers to the actual sanctuary, as opposed to the entire court.  (Ie the place where the people worshiped and the priest made sacrifices).

σωματος (body; in nominative:  σωμα; 2:21)  In the Gospel of John, in spite of how "spiritual" everything seems, there is no escaping the bodily death and resurrection of Jesus!  Finally, the place of sacrifice, the place of worship, the dwelling of God is in Jesus body.  Jesus had already alluded to this at the end of chapter 1 when he said that angels would descend on him, referring to Jacob, and calling himself, indirectly, Bethel, the house of God, the earthly portal to heaven.

2.16 Jesus switches words here from the narrators "temple (hieron)" to "oikos" (house).  He also switches from a house of merchants to a house of God.

2.20 Jesus now switches to the word "ναος " (naos, temple) which means building that is a dwelling place of the holy; Paul tells us in 1 Cor that we are a "naos." Then John inserts that Jesus is talking about the temple of his body (somatos). In short, Jesus is shifting away from talking about a place of worship to a house of God to a dwelling place of God to finally himself.

Mark 1:9-15

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary during Lent, Year B (Most recently Feb 21, 2024).

Summary:  At first glance, this pericope plays well into the emerging Liturgical emphasis on Baptism during Lent.  Mark connects baptism, lent and repentance together.  So why not go along?  Well, for starters, my sense is that most preachers will end up using Baptism to water down repentance, rather than use repentance to give shape to what Baptism means for daily living.  Secondly, Mark is quite vivid in his portrayal of evil, as the Greek in this passage underlines.  Jesus' Baptism does not give him a free pass on the fight against sin, death and the devil.  Neither does our Baptism.  In six verses we have the betrayal of John, a 40 day war in the wilderness and the heavens being torn in two.  That should be enough to make us cry out:  "Return to the Lord Your God."

Side note:  I'd much prefer for the Easter season to be about Baptism.  As it is, especially in the year of Mark-John, you get the oddest bunch of lessons and Jesus is baptized, it seems, three or four times.  I am old school when it comes to Lent:  Sit with your sins for six weeks.  Beg for mercy.  Don't boast in your Baptism but with fear and trembling work out your salvation.

Key words that show the intensity of this passage:

σχιζω ("tear"; 1:10):  This word comes into English as "schism."  It appears twice in Mark's Gospel:  now and at the end when the temple curtain is torn at Jesus' crucifixion.  As Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me, the wall between God and humanity is destroyed.  This early in the Gospel, the wall here exposes its holes.

παραδιδημι ("betray"; 1:14) This verb will come back into Mark's Gospel when Jesus is betrayed by Judas. In fact, we say this word each week in our communion liturgy: "On the night in which he was betrayed..."  This verb serves a double purpose: It lets us know why Jesus got into ministry in the FIRST place...and the FINAL place, the real FIRST place anyway.

εκβαλλω ("cast out"; 1:12) The Spirits casts Jesus into the wilderness. This is the same verb that will describe Jesus casting out demons. It is not a pretty term. Jesus gets hurled into the wilderness!  Also worth recalling that whenever Jesus goes into the wilderness he is not escaping but going where the demons dwell...

Worth noting is that both Luke and Matthew change Mark's wording here (or perhaps Mark changes their wording).  Regardless, it is uniquely Mark that Jesus is cast out.

διακονεω ("serve"; 1:13):  What is interesting here is actually the tense of the verb:  imperfect.  In fact, the whole sentence is in the imperfect, strongly suggesting that all of these actions are on-going and occurring at the same time.  While Jesus is fighting the devil, he is with the beasts and angels are there helping him.  It was an intense time of total spiritual warfare in the wilderness.  The image is of the boxer in one corner with his people attending him to give him energy to go back in and fight.

κηρυσσω ("proclaim"; 1:14) Mark loves this word, using it more than any other author. This makes sense -- for Mark the disciples are a bunch of sinners who don't do much right, so at least they should proclaim what Christ has done!  This word is not in the perfect tense, however, it builds off of the perfect tenses used with the verbs "arrived" and "fulfilled." We are simply announcing what God has done.  That said, proclamation also has a future effect.  Whenever proclamation happens, amazing stuff ensues.  In other words, proclamation is not a mental, but a deeply spiritual activity that raises the dead, turns the sinners heart and makes the devil and his minions mad as hell.

ευαγγελιον ("good news"; 1:14) This word is rather difficult to interpret in the Gospel of Mark. It is never really defined, but Jesus refers to its importance in connection with death (8:35) and salvation (16:15). The Gospel opens by declaring that the whole book is about the Gospel, but it is worth us considering, especially as we head into a year of preaching from Mark's Gospel, what we claim to be our own and Mark's understanding of the Gospel.  As I wrote earlier in this post, the disciples don't do a lot right in Mark's Gospel. But yet in our story this week they drop everything they have to follow Jesus. God's Word still achieves its purpose in spite of human limitations.

μετανοεω ("repent"; 1:14) This word sort of drops out of Mark, almost suggesting that it drops out of Jesus' own ministry as he discovers the limitations of the disciples. Another way to think about this is to consider the Greek meaning of the word, which literally means "new mind." Stories later in the Gospel -- Bartimaues or the woman anointing Jesus -- show someone whose life is transformed by Jesus. So it may not be explicit, but the repentance continues. In Lidell-Scott's ancient (and secular) Greek lexicon, repent means to change one's mind or purpose. We often put repentance together with sin, a fine thing, but perhaps we need to consider that repentance means often more than simply a struggle against temptation, but a paradigm shift, a transformation of our whole outlook, if not way of life and even being. Jesus is one whose power and even charisma compel us to switch our worldview, our words and finally our actions.

Mark 9:2-9 (Transfiguration)

This passage occurs as the Transfiguration passage for the RCL Year B, most recently February of 2024  .

Summary:  The key to understanding this story is the number six (in Greek, "hex").  In the Bible, six connotes imperfection; Jesus even dies on the sixth day.  Mark says these events took place after six days and like everything else on the sixth day, it might be wonderful but it is incomplete.  In this story we have incomplete disciples (in number and maturity); incomplete atonement; incomplete ministry of Jesus; if not the law and the prophets themselves revealing their limits as unable to raise the dead.   The whole story is a foreshadowing for the cross and resurrection. 

OT Connections
For this weeks "key words" I have focused on OT connections!  Take your pick:  Exodus or Genesis.  It is all there...

εξ ("six"; there is a rough breathing mark, making it "hex" as in "hexagon"; 9:2).  This is the only time Mark records something as happening "six" days later.  So what happens on the sixth day?  Well, on the 6th day Jesus died on the cross!  Recall the OT:  On the sixth day humanity was created.  Very good (like Transfiguration).  But final?  No.

σκηνη ("tent"; 9:5)  As a child, I heard the word "tabernacle" with a bit of religious awe.  It simply means a tent made into a temple where God dwelt.  At the end of Exodus, you can read about the Tabernacle and the "tent" presence of God, which hosted God's glory.  You can go in all sorts of directions here:  Peter wants to start up old-time religion here; Peter wants to pin Jesus down; Peter, well, just doesn't know what to do.  

It is interesting that the Lord does provide a tent, as a cloud (νεφελης, 9:7) descends (επισκιαζουσα, 9:7) upon them.  In the book of Exodus (40:29), the cloud of the Lord descended (same words) onto the tabernacle and the Glory of the Lord filled it so much that Moses could not enter.  But now in Jesus, the glory of the Lord is both hidden and revealed in that the disciples (and Moses) can both see it but also be in its presence. 

αγαπητος ("beloved"; 9:7)  This hearkens back to another mountain scene, where Abraham takes his beloved son up a mountain to sacrifice him.  Actually, when it says Jesus "led" his disciples up the mountain  (αναφερω (9:2)), the word also means sacrifice.  It is the same as the word used in Genesis 22, as in Abraham leading Isaac up the mountain to be sacrificed.  There is a subtle play on the Old Testament idea of sacrificing beloved sons on a mountain here; but again, this story is all about being incomplete...

One other little note of foreshadowing:
λευκος ("white"; 9:3)  We will not see white again until the resurrection garden with the angels!

The purpose of the church?

There is the word μονος (monos, alone) in verse 9:2 and 9:8.  Luke and Matthew use this word once in their transfiguration account as well.  Here is my provocative hot take:  The leaders in the church are almost never comfortable with Jesus alone.  We always want to build something instead of letting Jesus do his thing, alone, yet with us.

I was also struck by the disciples questioning (συζητουντες, 9:10) the matter (λογον, 9:10) - they are questioning the word together in light of the promise of resurrection.  That is what Jesus wants us to do - not build buildings, but spend time pondering the significance of who he is and what he will do.

Grammar question 

Does anyone know why the word "we" (ημας) in 9:5 is in the accusative and not nominative?  The English translators leave it in the accusative by making it "it is good for us to be here" but in this is not really what is going on in the Greek.  In the Greek, the word ημας is the subject of the infinitive phrase, "we to be" and in Greek the subject of infinitive phrases takes the accusative.