Jesus as the Word is the ultimate lossless coming together of ‘word’ and ‘action’

The leaders challenge his authority once again on the ‘forgiveness of sins’ but JEsus backs it up with action.

The first ministry Jesus and his newly appointed disciples encounter is a demon-possessed person. What’s with demons and healing in Mark? Jesus is Savior, and it is the nature of the Savior to go to places where evil has taken over, where the shadow of darkness is sucking life and spirit out of people. Jesus not only proclaims Good News, but He carries the Authority and power to bring life to places of death.

As John is “handed over” for death, the transition now is to Jesus and his ministry: the proclamation of the Good News of the Kingdom, which is near/has come. Mark highlights the urgency of the call of the Kingdom as Jesus calls his first disciples. In what ways do we recognize the urgency of Jesus’ call in our lives? What will we drop to follow him?

John prepares the way for Jesus, who now enters the scene in Mark. Who is this Jesus? Baptized and honored Son of God. He now comes to proclaim the Good News. What is the good news?

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,

their young will lie down together,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy

on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Entrenched in a patriarchal society and married to the "Alpha Man," Vashti risks privilege and position and even her life to stand up to power and say "no" to sexual objectification and abuse by her husband. Her refusal upsets the fragility of the male ego which threatens the entire power structure of the Kingdom. We don't know what happens to Vashti, but we point to a hero who does not get the attention deserved in traditional Biblical interpretations. This is actually a common strand in the witness of Scripture--that women in the margins are uplifted in God's narrative to central figures contra the hierarchies of power.

Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Jesus is not white. Decolonizing how White Supremacy has determined what is sacred and what is profane. Who is righteous and who is pagan What is beautiful and what is deformed. I have grown up with a layer of whiteness on top of my Bible on top of my spaces of worship.

One of the modernist, Western lenses by which Scripture has been interpreted in the American Church is that of radical individualism. The word “Oori” in Korean means “we,” and is used more often within a collectivist/group mindset. We should consider that many of the cultures from within which the Scriptures were written were more collectivist than they are individualist. What does this mean for our reading of Scripture and our living out as the church?