Mark 9:30-37

This passage is found in the Revised Common Lectionary Year B (Most recently: Sept 22, 2024) 
 
Summary:  "Serving others" sounds like an exciting idea in high school - volunteering is "in" these days.  But serving others is actually quite difficult.  Jesus even ups the ante by commanding that we should be servant to all!  Here is what I find beautiful and hopeful in this passage:  Jesus follows this command to serve everyone by touching one particular person.  A reminder that service to world means service to individuals, often the very individuals the world forgets.

Key Words:
διακονος:  ("servant", 9:35)  The meaning of this word has come under great fire in the last generation.  Some background:  In post-Vatican II Catholicism and post-Holocaust Protestantism, there reemerged a strong desire and need for the church to serve the needy. (Not that this had ever gone away totally!)  This lead to surge in the interest of what it meant to "serve" under various forms, offices and theology related to "διακονος."  διακονος came into English as "deacon"; this office, often started or renewed in Western churches, came to embody the need for the church to serve the poor, especially those outside of its walls.  Often this idea of serving others became discussed and conceived of as a ministry born of the Word, perhaps sustained by the Word, but not tied to proclamation of the Word.  A generation or two later, some, including the previous Pope, have become concerned that we have replaced the ministry of the Word with charity.  If you research "Collins diakonia" you can read all about it.  Within the Lutheran context a rather pointed and academic article is here: http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/donfriedministry.pdf

The word διακονος does have a variety of meanings, from "waiter" as in someone who waits on tables, but also someone who acts as an agent on behalf of someone.  In Mark's Gospel the word describes angels and women who attend to Jesus.  In this way, Mark's usage attests to the idea of service to the needy, but the service always involves Jesus.

Without being overly argumentative, you can assert this: διακονος did not simply mean service to the poor but also service on behalf of Christ.  This week's passage shows a beautiful example of what διακονος might entail:  bringing the least in society to the arms of Jesus.  I think this is a challenge for any congregation and ministry -- how do we serve the needy, not just as a service agency, but in a way that leads them to Christ's embrace?

παιδιον ("child", 9:36, 37)  The word here can mean "kid" but can also mean "child" (as in my kid) or "slave."  In our culture, we have seen this passage almost exclusively in light of the idea of "my child," a precious offspring of someone.  We live in the era of "intense parenting" in which parents devote great resources to raising their children, often in smaller families.  However, the social context of the Gospels ought not to be lost -- children did not have great social status and were not the focus of parental energy.  In this sense, Jesus is acting toward the "least", namely, the people without voice, vote, income or status.

εναγκαλισμενος ("hug", 9:36 and 10:16)  This word is only used twice in the whole New Testament, both times in Mark!, when Jesus takes children into his arm.  This is also a reminder of what it means to welcome someone in the name of Christ, to bring them close enough that you can see their beauty, but also their warts, stinky breath and dirty fingernails.

Less important, but interesting

ηγνοουν ("be unaware", from αγνοεω, 9:31)  This word is literally: agnoeoo, which comes into English as "agnostic."  The disciples were agnostic toward the Word.  A reminder that Jesus words about death and resurrection have always been puzzling.

Grammar:  "αν"
This word is nearly impossible to translate.  It sort of means "if" but not really.  It is best just to learn all the ways in which it is used (ie, consult a grammar aid when you come to it).  In verse 37, it is used with ος, which always gets translated "Whoever."  This might not make sense, but this combination is a bit like:  "Who, who?,..." to make a "whoever."

Mark 8:27-38 (Confession of Faith)

Over time I've worked on three posts related to this passage.
- First, a smattering of Greek tid-bits that will one day become a more coherent post
- Second, an investigation into the brilliance of Mark's Greek tenses
- Third, an reflection on Mark's Greek to highlight the nature our confession (This post!)

I also have a longer post on this passage from Matthew's Gospel  that goes into more detail on Caesarea Philippi and the claim of Messiah.

Summary:  Mark masterfully uses Greek to emphasize the dramatic nature of our confession of Christ.  Our confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, will consume our life and finally consume us.

The Greek behind Jesus' question:
* Use of tenses: Mark carefully selects his tenses in this passage. When Jesus asks the question, he is using the imperfect tense, which implies repeated action.  Jesus repeatedly asks them:  "Who are people saying that am?" and "Who do you say that I am?"  In our life, we will repeatedly be asked who Jesus is.
* Use of pronouns:  In Greek, the verb conjugation contains the subject pronoun.  Thus, it is not necessary and it used primarily for emphasis.  Here Jesus adds in the pronoun "You"; as if to say, "You - I mean you -- who do you say that I am?"  In our life, we cannot simply say, "Christianity teaches XYZ" but each will have to say, "I believe..."
* Use of a town name:  Mark could have just told us about this confession, but he adds in the detail of its location.  Casearea Philippi was a major center of pagan worship:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_Philippi

To put all these together, Mark lets us know about the confession of faith:  Where it will be done (in the face of paganism), when it will be done (again and again), and who will do it, we the disciples of Christ.

The Greek of Jesus demand:
* Play on words: οπισω ("after", verses 33 and 34).  Jesus has just told Peter to get behind him.  Now he commands Peter once again to get behind him.  Earlier Peter was told to get behind Jesus and become a fisher of men (8:33).  The invitation to get out of the boat (kind of fun and scary) leads to the invitation to die (very scary).
* Use of tenses:  The verb tenses are helpful here -- deny (απαρνησασθω) and carry (αρατω) are in the aorist tense, but follow (ακολουθειτω) is in the present tense.  Following Jesus is an on-going task.  So, to the Greek it probably sounded like: "If any of you want to follow after me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and day-after-day follow me," (Okay day-after-day is a bit of a Lutheranism...)
* Use of verbs:  To translate απολλυμι in verse 35 as "lose" is perhaps one of the most watered down translations possible. The verb can mean lose but more likely it means destroy (as in Herod wanted to destroy the child). Something more active is called for here than simply misplacing our life.  (2024 addition:  Perhaps the fact that the word means both lose and destroy is fitting.  Few people seek to destroy their lives, but we can through our choices end up pretty lost pretty quickly).

2024 add on:  I find it interesting that both the words shame and honor show up in this passage

• ἐπαισχύνομαι - "upon-shame" meaning "ashamed", vs 38
• ἐπιτιμάω - "upon-honor" meaning "assessed", ultimately rebuked, vs 30, 32 and 33

I acknowledge that I was trained to see things within a sin-guilt-forgiveness framework, but I am coming more and more to understand how much of the world sees things within a shame-honor framework.  Peter believes that Jesus will bring shame to himself (and Peter!) by following his path.  Jesus shames Peter for thinking incorrectly.  

How much shame do we endure for things that actually don't matter?  How much more shame should we feel for the things that actually matter!  What does it mean to have honor restored by Jesus, in the case of Peter, but also our lives?

Grammar: Accusative cases in the infinitive
8:27 and 8:31 contain infinitive clauses.  Notice how the subject is in the accusative?  This is especially complex in 8:27

Mark 8:27-38 (Study of tenses)

Over time I've worked on three posts related to this passage.
- First, a smattering of Greek tid-bits that will one day become a more coherent post
- Second, an investigation into the brilliance of Mark's Greek tenses
- Third, a Tour de Force (haha!) on Mark's Greek to highlight the nature our confession

This is the second.
 
Summary:  Mark offers us a Greek 101 clinic in the power of verb conjugation.  He changes tense, voice and mood to portray key concepts.  Alas, because he writes in Greek (as opposed to English) he needs no helper verbs or adverbs, but rather can show mood/tense/voice through endings, which to us are very complicated.  Too often we throw in the towel when it comes to parsing verbs, but come along for the ride in these passages and discover Mark's point, adroitly conjugated:  We must always confess Christ; suffering will happen, no matter: Jesus is Lord.

Key concepts relating to verbs:
Tense: 
The tense of the verb in Greek not only indicates when the action occurred (past, present and future) but also the nature of the action (on-going or discrete event).  English also offers this distinction:  "I was running" implies something slightly different than "I ran."  In English, we normally need a helper verb/adverb to convey both the timing and nature of the event; Greek simply adds letters before or after the verb, much the dismay of the student. 

The present tense in Greek suggests an on-going nature of the action.  The aorist tense suggests a one-time event.  Grammar books sweat over these distinctions because in everyday usage, it is sloppier than this.  That caveat aside, a good example of this distinction is found in verse 34:  If anyone wants to follow me, they must deny (aorist) themselves, take up (aorist) their cross and follow (present) me.  The idea being that following Jesus is an on-going event, whereas taking up the cross was a discrete event. 

Theological disclaimer:  These verbs might make us move into decision theology; I don't think the point is that we only get one cross to bear in our lives or that we only have to make one choice to follow Christ.  The point here, which needs interpretation, is that Jesus points toward an event of denial, an event of taking up a cross and then an on-going activity of following him.

The imperfect tense connotes on-going action in the past.  In verse 27 and 29 Jesus asks his disciples "Who do you say that I am?"  The verb ask is in the imperfect tense, suggesting that Jesus asked this question multiple times, almost like he was walking around and in their faces.  They respond (aorist):  "Elijah...etc"  However, when Peter confesses "You are the Christ" the tense is present, suggesting that Peter said this more than once and that this confession will be on-going.

To drive this all home:  We are always asked and must always confess Jesus as Lord.

Voice: 
English has two voices, passive and active.  Passive means you got it done to you; active means you do it.  Greek has a third, middle, but this is rarely used and more just makes everything complicated because it was used by Homer.  By the time of Jesus, generally the middle voice is less common. 

Anyway, in vs. 31 Jesus discusses his suffering, arrest and death and the entire thing is in the passive voice, meaning he is not the agent, but the one having the action done to him. 

This helps shed light on picking up our cross.  Jesus does not find his cross, but rather it comes to him.  In life, to quote, however vaguely, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we don't need to find our cross, we simply follow Jesus and it comes to us.

The verb rise (αναστημι) is active, suggesting that Jesus has the power, even over death, to raise himself!  The cross will come, but resurrection is on the wings...

Mood: 
English and Greek have a bunch of moods for verbs.  They can be infinitives, indicatives, imperatives, participles...and subjunctives.  Subjunctive in Greek means different stuff than in English, but the basic idea of subjunctive would be "hypothetical."  In vs. 35 and 38 Jesus uses the words ος εαν to mean whoever and in vs. 35 uses ει to mean "if." 

While I want to reassert my caution about simply saying subjunctive = hypothetical, Jesus makes it clear that following him is not necessarily automatic.  There is something unsure and uncertain about our willingness to follow.  Jesus does not say we have no hope of following him; nor does he say all will follow him.  Obviously choice and faith are a tricky matter.  We can debate how to put these together; we cannot debate that Jesus uses the subjunctive and in this case, this means following Jesus is an uncertain reality.  (And yes, I did phrase that ambiguously).

Mark 7:24-37

This passage occurs in the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, most recently September 8, 2024
 
Summary: Okay, this passage is really hard.  Mark goes out of his way to show how much "other" this woman is.  What do we make of this?  That Jesus is less compassionate or (gasp) more bigoted than we are today?   I don't think we want to go there; although many do enjoy speculating in this direction!  Luke dropped this story, unable to stomach it; I think many of us want to drop it as well.  But Mark included it, so here we have it.  A few possibilities for preaching

• Jesus entered a world with real cultural divisions, not the new creation.
• We have to be persistent in prayer.
• Sometimes when working with people of another tribe/race/nationality, it can feel like even God is opposed to us; this is not the case.
• If you can find a common language, you can solve all sorts of problems.
• Jesus did ultimately consider gentiles in his family, but this was not the natural state of affairs.

Again, the Greek offers no easy way out of this passage.

Key words:

Τορου (Tyre, 7:24) First reminder that we are away from Jewish territory. To give an example of how "bad" it was for Jesus to be there, recall the words of  Matthew 11:22 "But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you."  We almost wonder if Jesus wanted it kept secret that he was there because a good Jewish Rabbi should not have been going in that direction!

What is interesting is that in spite of all the cultural differences, they still speak a common language...

ερχομαι (απερχομαι and also εισερχομαι, numerous forms "ερχομαι" which means to go, 7:24)  There is a lot of movement in this text -- variants of ερχομαι are used throughout the text. The first movement is out into Tyre (απερχομαι ); then in to the home (εισερχομαι); the demon goes out; the woman leaves the house; the demon again has gone out; Jesus leaves the town.

Note on Greek:  ερχομαι is a very common verb, but it often appears in its aorist form: ηλθεν, or as a participle or with attached prefixes (απο (away) εισ (into)).  Learning to recognize the myriad forms of this verb can definitely speed up one's Greek reading.

ελληνις ("Hellenic" (note the rough breathing mark over the "e"; meaning "Hellenic" or "Greek"), 7:26). For what is worth, the word Gentile should not be used here, but Greek should. (εθνη is not the word used; ελληνις is).  It is odd that such an amount of information is given about the woman.  Mark wants to drive some that this person is the embodiment of "other."

ηρατω (imperfect form of ερωταω, "beg/ask" 7:26)  What is significant here is that this verb is in the imperfect -- she was continuing to beg.  Jesus did not respond to her first request, it seems.  Keep praying folks...

χορτασθηναι (from χορταζω, meaning "feed", 7:27) The word here for feed is χορταζω.  This word will be used in chapter 8 to describe Jesus feeding all of the gentiles...So here Jesus says he ain't gonna feed the people...but shortly after this, this is exactly what he is doing.  Which means, that when Jesus feeds the gentiles in chapter 8, Jesus is considering them children!

εβαλεν (aorist form of βαλλω, meaning "throw", 7:33)  The word translated as "put" as in "put" his fingers is βαλλω which means throw or cast.  This is normally used as a verb to describe Jesus "casting" out the demon.  In this image he casts his fingers into the man.  Kind of gross!

εστεναξεν (from στεναζω, meaning "groan", 7:34)  It is hard to say whether Jesus "sighs" here in frustration or effort.  This word will appear in some other powerful verses in the New Testament:

• Romans 8:23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
• 2 Corinthians 5:4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Cross-cultural ministry -- working with people who are different -- can be hard work!!  A happy ending?  The woman is recorded as going back to see if the child was okay.  Someone actually followed up with this woman to learn if the healing occurred.  Somehow she became part of the family through this experience.