Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
Jesus returned home to Nazareth and did his teachings like normal. People recognized him and said he was just the carpenter son of Mary. Why should we listen to him. He did a few healings and then took off.
Not much to say here except they explicitly said he is a carpenter, which I don't remember from Matthew. Not a big deal, just thought it was interesting.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles
Jesus sent his apostles out 2 by 2. He gave them authority over unclean spirits. He told them to take nothing on their journey except a staff, no bread, bag, money. Wear sandals and not to wear 2 tunics. They cast out many demons and healed the sick.
Why are they apostles now? They were disciples before right? What is the deal with that? Do they become apostles when they get power? Did this happen in Matthew and I didn't notice?
The Death of John the Baptist
Basically Herod did not want to kill John the Baptist, but Herodias did. He told her he would give her anything she wanted and she asked for John's head on a platter, so he was obligated to kill John. He didn't want to do it but felt honor bound.
Really strange story.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
Jesus and his apostles tried to get away from the crowds by going to a desolate place, but it didn't work, people saw where he was going and got there before he did. He taught them for a while and everyone got hungry. The disciples said Jesus should send them to town but he said he should feed everyone. They discovered they had only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, he said a blessing and spread the food around. It fed everyone and there were 12 baskets full of food left over.
Jesus Walks on Water
Jesus told the disciples to get in the boat and leave before him. He dismissed the crowd and went up a mountain to pray by himself. When he was done he saw that the boat with his disciples was out at sea already and there was a storm so their progress was slow. He want on water intending to go past him, but they saw him and thought he was a ghost and were scared. So he went to the boat and calmed them down. When he got to the boat the winds died down. They didn't understand the loaves or the wind and "their hearts were hardened".
Now it is disciples again, is it just 2 different words that mean the same thing? what is the deal with that?
In the Matthew version of this story Peter walks on water with Jesus, this time it was only Jesus. Seems like an important detail to leave out.
The last thing I quoted was that their hearts were hardened. This means they were upset or they were afraid or something like that right? Why would they feel this way? They are afraid that he is performing miracles, but they performed miracles earlier in the chapter. This makes no sense to me.
Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret
Jesus heals a huge number of people.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth. In my notes I have it listed that this is the only part of the bible where Jesus is described as a carpenter. I did a quick search for the word carpenter. I got three results. In Matthew they describe him as the carpenter's son and there is one instance in Isiah (nothing to do with Jesus). I also wonder how his own town, that presumably watched him grow up, could doubt him. This makes me wonder if all the people who knew him growing up doubted him, how is someone who has never even seen him supposed to believe him? Lastly, my only other comment here is the mention of his four brothers and two sisters. What is up with that? I've heard people try to explain this away by saying “well, its not a reference to physical brothers, but more like you and I are 'brothers in christ'”
ReplyDeleteJesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles. Pretty minor, but the differences in what he said here in the gospels as far as “what to take.” In Mark, he says take a staff, but nothing else. In the other gospels, its just nothing. Again, minor, but I think if I was only told to take one item on a journey, I'd probably be able to recall that item later.
Matthew 10:10; “no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. ” Basically, nothing.
Luke 9:3; “And he said to them, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.” Again, don't take anything, no mention of going barefoot.
Luke 10:4 “ Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. ”
Jesus Walks on Water As I understood it before, I thought that their hearts being hardened was a reference to them not believing, but as I've gotten older I started to think about “by whom?” Like when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, it was by God, which to me is really devious and messed up. That's my interpretation anyway.
I don't think the "brothers in Christ" thing works. It doesn't make sense, why would they name 4 random people like that? It is pretty clear to me that it is supposed to be actual siblings.
ReplyDeleteThem not believing just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. If it was me and you on a boat and we saw a guy walking on water toward us, sure, I would not believe what I was seeing, I would assume I was being tricked in some way. I would investigate and try to figure out what was really going on. But these guys? They have been travelling around with Jesus watching him perform miracles. Why would they be so inclined to not believe their eyes here?
Yeah, I agree on both your points. In my translation, particularly the two unnamed sisters. I lived for two years in a town with 1600(?) people or so. Not sure what the population was after the last census was taken. I imagine in a small town, if you were in the scenario where you were describing another local to another local you would be more likely to name family members than their circle of friends. I really wouldn't know why bring them up if it wasn't important. This last part is hersay and I never did any research myself on it, so take it worth a grain of salt, but I've heard that there are some apocryphal documents that report on Jesus' youth. If that WAS the case, you'd think people would remember him and not doubt him. But that's making an assumption.
ReplyDeleteThe doubting thing, if I saw someone pull all the sorts of crazy things Jesus did that I felt couldn't be explained James Rnadi style like the loaves and fishes, I'd be more likely not to doubt. Then again, Darren Brown fools me every time. But unlike Jesus, he lets you know that its a trick.
That is a good point about darren brown. But suppose he didn't tell people that it is a trick. Suppose there were some guys following him around, you would assume that it is because they believe him. It would be strange if they stopped believing him for one trick given that they believed his other ones so much that they decided it was worth following him around. It certainly wouldn't be impossible or anything, but it would be odd.
ReplyDelete