As you are reading, are you thinking: Much of this sounds vaguely familiar, but somehow different too? --I thought so. Yes, many of these stories you have heard before, in the gospel of Matthew. But sometimes Mark lifts up his own details and that makes the stories his own.
So, what did you notice in reading Mark, chapters 6 - 8? I couldn't help noticing the two stories about Jesus feeding large crowds (5,000 people and 4,000 people, respectively), and how, at the end of the second story, his disciples are really confused about bread. They have forgotten to bring bread with them on the boat, and they take Jesus too literally when he tells them, "Beware the yeast of the Pharisees." Actually, I am noticing that the disciples misunderstand Jesus a lot of the time.
No parables in this section of scripture, but a teaching about what makes people "unclean" and what does not. It's not so much what we take into us that makes us unclean, but what comes out (and though Jesus is talking about the evil thoughts and actions that come out of our heart, the comparison he makes to what comes out of us is pretty -ahem- earthy).
Jesus again has problems in his hometown. Everywhere else, people are saying, "He does everything well," but in his hometown, where everybody knows his family and can name his brothers, they are skeptical. "Isn't that the way?" Jesus says (on the one hand). But on the other hand, he says he's shocked, shocked by their unbelief. He's powerful, but not so powerful that he can do great things if people don't trust him.
Regarding a couple of healings:
I notice that when Jesus heals a man who is deaf, that hearing and speaking go together. Both his ears and his tongue are opened. This may seem obvious to you, or it may make you think: hearing the gospel, and speaking grace are linked as well. If we can't hear good news, we can't possibly share it. And when we do hear good news, we can't NOT share it.Here's my favorite little-known story: In chapter 8, Jesus heals a blind man. What is interesting is that the first time Jesus prays and puts his hands over the man's eyes, he says, "Well, I can see people, but they look like trees walking." So Jesus' prayer only half healed the man. (That's such an interesting description of fuzzy sight....) Then Jesus prays again, and he can see everything clearly.
You will find this story only in Mark.
The fuzziness is, of course, all over in Mark. Just after this healing, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah. He gets it! but, not quite. He certainly doesn't get that Jesus should have to suffer in any way. Right before this story, the disciples are in a boat and Jesus is talking about all the bread he multiplied and all that was left over, while the disciples are worried that they have no bread with them. His words to them, "And you still don't understand?" Fuzziness all over.
But here's what I like about this story: it fits my experience about how I come to "understand" Jesus and who he is. I don't get it all at once. Jesus does "something" in my life, but I'm sort of fuzzy about what it is, and it takes awhile for it to become clear. It reminds me of something I heard about deaf people who have surgery (cochlear implants) to improve their hearing. After the surgery, they aren't suddenly better. Their ears have to be trained to interpret the sounds they are hearing.
I realize that there is much more in these three chapters: the death of John the Baptist, the sending of the disciples, the cost of discipleship, the Syro-phoenician woman. What did you see and hear as you read today? What is fuzzy and what is clear? (And isn't it nice to know that it's all right for some things to be fuzzy?)
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