The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Acts 22:3-16

Paul addressed the people in these words:“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well. On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’ My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’ Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus. A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’ ” 

After a long missionary journey that took him through Asia Minor and into Greece (52-54 A.D.), St. Paul resolved to return to Jerusalem in time to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost there.  On the way there he and his companions, among whom was St. Luke, who provides us with eyewitness testimony in his Acts of the Apostles, were welcomed by the Christians of various towns.  Coming to Jerusalem, however carried some risk and those who loved him warned him about going there, for the Jewish leadership hated him and would be looking for him.  Indeed, his return to the city occasioned a riot so that the Roman authorities had to get involved.  At first mistaken by them for an Egyptian rebel, Paul identified himself as a Jew and as an educated man born in a city where Roman citizenship was conferred upon birth.  This established, and with the Romans confused about the cause of the riot, Paul persuaded them to allow him to speak to the people in their own language (whether Aramaic or Hebrew).  They did allow him, and the first reading for the Mass of the Feast of his Conversion is taken from that address, which St. Luke vividly recalls for us.

The story Paul tells of his Conversion is familiar to us, at least in its outline.  As Saul of Tarsus, a trained Pharisee, he breathed out murderous fury against the first Christians, who were converted Jews.  He saw them as blasphemers and as traitors who had made a mere man their God.  He saw himself as an avenging angel, an agent of God, delivering punishment on these men, women, and children.  His description of himself in these terms helps us to understand something of the attitude and actions of the Pharisees who schemed against Jesus during his lifetime.  This dark self-portrait also increases our amazement at Paul’s conversion and at his relentless devotion to Christ ever afterwards.  He went from approving the brutal murder of St. Stephen and subsequently “binding both men and women and delivering them to prison” so that they might also be stoned, to writing rapturously, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1, 21).

To change from a committed persecutor to one who embraces what he formerly hated is astounding to those who look on, and meditating upon the basic facts of Paul’s Conversion allows us to marvel at what he must have experienced.  We have all benefitted from his Conversion through his widespread preaching of the Gospel and from the theology which he set forth in his Letters, itself the result of divine revelation.  We pray for the conversion of the world and that all people will experience something of what Paul did so that they may bear joyful witness of the One for whom Paul lived and died.

 Monday in the Third Week of Ordinary Time, January 24, 2022

I had a rough time of it at Mass on Sunday evening but I’m doing better now.  Thanks for your continuing prayers!

Mark 3:22-30

The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

The opening of today’s Gospel reading is a little difficult to understand.  Who is Jesus summoning, for instance?  The crowd or the Pharisees?  It seems, though, that this is a continuation of the story of Jesus in Peter’s house in Capernaum, and a great crowd gathers to hear him teach.  His relatives in Nazareth hear rumors of what he is doing and they come up to take hold of him.  Pharisees have also come down from Jerusalem to listen to him and make a report to the authorities there, as they had reported previously on John the Baptist.  To this point they have formed a very hostile opinion of him and would even like to kill him in conjunction with the Herodians.  Jesus has made very serious claims about himself and, though he has backed them up with miracles, the Pharisees despise him.  He is not one of them and has in fact challenged their self-assumed position as the people’s teachers to the point of showing that they are worse than useless.  

The Pharisees try to discredit him, but the problem of the miracles, which many have seen, remains.  They attempt to explain away the miracles with a wild accusation: “He is possessed by Beelzebul . . . by the prince of demons he drives out demons.”  (“Beelzebul” was the name of an ancient Canaanite deity, later used by the Jews for the devil).  The Pharisees cannot claim that the healing of the sick, the injured, and the deformed, and well as the exorcisms, did not occur; that Jesus performed these is incontestable.  But what they claim is that the supernatural power required for performing them comes from the devil.  The absurdity of the idea and the willingness of the Pharisees to promote it tells us a great deal about them.  It is not the Lord Jesus who is “out of his mind” as his relatives fear, but the Pharisees, whose malice has run so rampant that this seems feasible.  And, an invention of utter desperation, it fails to catch on with the people.  Their desperation brings to mind the image of the priests of Baal (that is, “Beelzebub”) in 1 Kings: 18, 28: “They cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till they were all covered with blood.”

As Jesus spent some days in Peter’s house at this time, perhaps the Lord allowed the Pharisees to slither back to Jerusalem to make their report to their masters, as he does not argue with them here.  Little would be gained by such a direct confrontation anyway: those particular Pharisees were past converting.  Instead, the Lord takes the opportunity of their departure in order to teach the people, for they truly wished to learn.  And so Jesus calls them together and teaches: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”  He does not address the accusation made by the Pharisees, which is unworthy of serious discussion, but he uses the subject brought up in the accusation to explain that the devil’s reign over the world is finished.  First, if Satan is driving out Satan, there is civil war in hell which will lead to the devil’s overthrow.  Second, if miraculous works are being performed on the earth, it is because God is showing the signs that he has “bound” the devil and is putting an end — “plundering” — his dominion.  That is the meaning of, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.”

“Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”  The ascribing of God’s work to the devil is a sin against the Holy Spirit.  It is a most malicious act.  The Pharisees did this two thousand years ago.  It still goes on today.  

We see here how patient Jesus is with sinners.  He could have made a fearful example of the Pharisees when they accused him of being possessed and of wickedness, but he did not.  He let them go.  They would have until the end of their lives to seek forgiveness and convert, just as Judas would be given many chances to walk away from his evil deeds.  He did not come to condemn the world but that it might live (cf. John 12, 47).  

 The Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 23, 2022

I’m doing better, as of even moment, Saturday afternoon.  Fewer coughing fits and my appetite is returning.  Thanks for your prayers!  

Luke 1:1–4; 4:14–21

Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us, I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The Gospel reading for today’s Mass is taken from two distinct portions of the Gospel according to St. Luke.  The first portions consists of the first four verses of the Gospel which constitute a preface to the Gospel itself.  The second portion, which I have separated from the first, is taken from that fourth chapter of that Gospel.  Maybe the people who reformed the lectionary in the 1960’s under the aegis of Vatican II thought that as the preface introduces the Gospel, so the verses in chapter four introduce the preaching of Christ.  At any rate, the preface is very interesting because here we have the Evangelist speaking directly to his readers — the original readers being Greek Christian converts like himself, probably living in and around Antioch in Syria.  Writing between the years 50 and 60 A.D., he may have known of St. Matthew’s Gospel produced ten to fifteen years earlier, though at the time existing only in its original Hebrew form.  Meanwhile, St. Mark was writing his Gospel in Rome.  St. John’s Gospel is usually thought to have been written last of all, but judging from internal evidence it could not have been written much later than Luke’s.  All this to say that if a Greek Christian residing in Syria or Asia Minor between the years 35 and 50-60 A.D. had wanted to read about the life of Jesus Christ, he would have been out of luck.  The Apostles who had seen and heard Christ preached mainly to their fellow Jews, as we see from the Acts of the Apostles and from their Letters.  Men such as Barnabas who preached mainly to their fellow Gentiles had not seen or heard Christ themselves.  They might know something of his life — especially about his Passion, Death, and Resurrection — but their preaching emphasized the meaning of what the Lord did and not it’s details.  We see this in Paul’s Letters to Gentile converts living in Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome.  

Mark and Luke saw the need for a written account of the Savior’s life for the Gentiles who had not seen him with their own eyes, as John would say he and those reading his Gospel had seen the Lord.  And while Mark’s Gospel comes across a bit as dictation taken down — a student frantically trying to write down every word his teacher is saying — Luke has looked at and considered some written sources that already existed, and benefits from talking to many men and women who knew the Lord, including his Mother.  That Luke uses sources and testimony is easily seen in his Greek, which is often written with a heavy Hebrew accent, so to speak.  He tells us in his preface that “many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us.”  St. Jerome speculated on what these narratives were and concluded that they no longer existed in his day.  But neither did they gain acceptance as Scripture in the Apostolic Church in their own time.  Probably these narratives were notes on the final days of the Lord, lists of his appearances after the Resurrection, notes on his teachings, and lists of his miracles.  Perhaps the words of Jesus that have come down to us from outside the Gospels are from such documents.  The best known of these is quoted by St. Paul in Acts 20, 35: “The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Others are found scattered in the works of the early Fathers.

Luke emphasizes the importance of “those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us.”  From the Letters of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles we know that Luke had plenty of opportunity to get to know those who knew Jesus.  He must have known Peter, given the details that he provides about him in the first chapters of the Acts, which he also wrote.  He also gives the names of people with whom the Lord interacted which were not known by the other Evangelists telling of the same event, indicating that he must have known them.

Also important for Luke was giving an orderly account, that is, one with a solid chronology as its framework.  This was much more important for a Greek than for a Jew, who saw chronology as a secondary concern.  And so Luke says, “we too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you.”  We see this, for instance, in his placing the visit of the angel to Zechariah the Priest before the visit of the angel to the Virgin Mary, even though the latter is more important and could have been placed first for that reason.

Through his conscientious attention to the early sources, the eyewitnesses, and to chronology we are assured of the accuracy of what Luke is able to relate “so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received.”  As St. Peter writes, “For we have not by following artificial fables made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Christ: but we are eyewitnesses of his greatness” (1 Peter 1, 16).

 Saturday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 22, 2022

Mark 3:20-21

Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

This little story is found only in the Gospel of St. Mark.  Scholars want to combine it with another story Mark relates for us a few verses further down in 3, 31-35, in which the Lord’s Mother and brethren came to him and could not see him because of the crowd.  On that occasion, the Lord taught that his true brethren were those who did the will of God.  

Since Mark refers to “the” house (Hebrew and Greek, unlike Latin, have the definite article), we can understand Peter’s house in Capernaum is meant.  Like others in that time and place, it would have featured a walled enclosure with a courtyard, and the house situated in the middle of it.  This would not have meant much room, and most if not all of the cooking would have been done outside.  The whole property seems to have been filled on this occasion since “the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.”  The people had come to listen to the Lord, as evidenced by the fact that Mark does not tell us he cured anyone.  Now, the tense of the verb Mark uses here is that of the present, as in “Again the crowd is gathering.”  His use of the present denotes a continuous action, so from this we can see that the crowd regularly gathered in this way, every day.  From the fact that the main meal of the day was served in the mid afternoon, we can also see that the crowd persisted for some hours when it did gather: the Lord and the Apostles had no chance to eat at the proper time.

Down in Nazareth, some twenty miles away, his people heard of this and considered it a problem which they needed to solve: “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him.”  Who were these people?  As Mark tells the story, they are “his own”, or, literally, “the ones of him”, a Hebrew idiom which we see, for instance, in John 1, 11: “He [the Word] came unto his own: and his own received him not.”  “His own” could mean family, friends, relatives.  In our western culture, we exalt the individual, but in the culture of the ancient Middle East, the family, town, or region was primary, and a person was only a member of these.  He or she exemplified the virtues and other characteristics.  This might extend even to such things as dress and manner of dancing, as is on occasion still seen in Europe.  When “his own” determined from rumor or witness that one of “their own” reflected badly on them — “He is out of his mind” — they felt strongly that he had to be brought home.  Note that they would not have been thinking of the Lord’s well-being but of their own reputation among the Galilean towns, which was never very high.  We recall, for instance, how Nathanael remarked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1, 45).

“He is out of his mind.”  The Greek text is tricky here.  The verb is ex-í-steh-mi, from which our word “ecstasy” comes.  The Greek word can mean “to astound”, “to amaze”, but it can also mean “to be insane”.  We do not have a parallel text for this verse in the other Gospels with which to compare it.  Other Evangelists use the word in other passages, though.  St. Matthew uses it to describe the general reaction of people to Jesus: “And all the multitudes were amazed, and said: Is not this the son of David?” (Matthew 12, 23)?   St. Luke quotes the two disciples on the way to Emmaus as telling their companion (the Lord, whom they do not recognize, “Certain women also of our company astounded us” with their witness of the empty tomb (Luke 24, 22).  Based on these examples, we could translate the verse as, “He is astounding [others].”  This would actually be fitting for Mark who, more than the other Evangelists, emphasizes the ironies to be found in the life and times of the Lord Jesus.  According to this idea, the Lord’s people come from Nazareth incensed that he is giving the town a bad name (which it had long before the Lord lived there), for he is astounding others (with his words and works).  We could even support this by quoting the Lord when he returns to Nazareth and voices the thoughts of the people there, “As great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum, do also here in your own country” (Luke 4, 23).  That is, “Astound us!”  The Fathers, though, understand the verb to mean “He is insane”, as it can be literally translated, “he is beside himself”.  Perhaps we can understand the verb in both senses: he is astounding others with his words and works, and he is insane for doing so.  The Venerable Bede comments: “For since they [his relatives] could not take in the depth of his wisdom, which they heard, they thought that He was speaking in a senseless way, wherefore the Gospel continues, ‘for they said, He is beside himself.’ ”  as if to say, It is so much easier to say that God is crazy than to say that I am.

 Friday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 21, 2022

I think I’m doing better, not coughing as much.  The COVID test came back negative so this is probably “only” pneumonia.  I’m being good taking my prescriptions.  I really appreciate your prayers!

Mark 3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the Twelve: Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

“Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him.”  This can be better translated: “Jesus ascended the mountain and summoned those whom he was desiring and they departed to him.”  The sense is that the Lord told his disciples to stay at the foot of the mountain while he mounted it by himself alone.  We learn from Luke 6:12 that “he went out into a mountain to pray: and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God”, and that in the morning of the next day he called his Apostles to him.  The calling of the Apostles from the midst of the disciples is presented to us as a ritual.  The Lord goes upon a height and prays.  In the morning, as the sun is rising, he calls out the names of those “whom he was desiring”.  From the mountain, he calls out each name, perhaps saying, “James, son of Zebedee, come up here, etc.”  each Apostle would have begun the climb of this broad and tall mountain (the upper reaches of which would have soared over seven thousand feet above the ground).  The climb would have made arduous work and taken some time.  It would have been much easier and faster if the Lord had descended the mountain and then summoned the Apostles by name.  But the ritual is impressive.  We can imagine the Lord’s voice, though perhaps not seeing him, echoing out from the summit, calling each name, pausing before calling the next, the summoned disciple then beginning the long climb.  And this is more than a calling up, as though the Lord wanted this disciple for a particular reason.  The Greek, “whom he was desiring” is in the imperfect tense.  Each of the called men was one whom he wanted as his own.  “They departed to him.”  The Greek verb here means more than that they “went” to him, but implies that they departed from someone or something in order to be with someone or something else.  These men are giving up their lives down below in order to be with Jesus in the heights in response to his specific summoning of them.

“He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles.”  The Greek word translated here as “appointed” actually means “to do” or “to make” and is used in the Septuagint to translated the Hebrew ah-sah’, which is used to describe God’s creation of the universe in Genesis 1.  Thus, the Lord “made” them to be twelve, or “caused them to be” twelve.  He creates a unity here of these men struggling up the mountain to him.  They have him alone as their goal and as their Master.  We note their labor in coming to him, leaving all else behind, and in so doing see the exercise of their free will.  They want to be with him.  They are willing to leave all behind.  They are willing to make the climb.  By this time they have been with him at least a year and they have made their decision.  This is no impulse of theirs.  “Whom he also named Apostles”.  The Greek apostolos means “one who is sent”, “envoy”, or “ambassador”.  It is unclear whether the Lord told them that they were his “ambassadors” at that time.  This is an official position at a ruler’s court and would have been held only by the most trusted and competent people at a ruler’s disposal.  Their word is his word.  They are entrusted with missions in which they are to act on the ruler’s behalf.  This is something much more than a “disciple”, a “student”.  Humanly, we can see this action as a deliberate response by the Lord to the very recent accusation by the Pharisees that his “disciples” had broken the Sabbath Law.  The Lord had shown his rejection of their self-assumed place as Israel’s leaders and now invests twelve of his closest disciples with his authority.  The Lord further distinguishes himself from the Pharisees, who each had their own disciples, but did not dare call them their “envoys” or “ambassadors”.  Yet, the Lord does not act out of spite.  It while be a while yet before he sends them out on their first mission.  They have much to learn first.  

 Thursday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 20, 2022

My in-person doctor appointment this morning turned into a video one.  I’ve been prescribed various medications.  I also was sent to get another COVID test, the results of which have not yet been shared with me.  I’m doing a little better.  

Mark 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him. He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases were pressing upon him to touch him. And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” He warned them sternly not to make him known.

According to St. Mark, after the tumult with the Pharisees, to whom he revealed himself as the Forgiver of sins, the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Reviver of Israel, Jesus led his disciples back to the Sea of Galilee, perhaps near Capernaum.  It is worth noting that, according to the Gospels, most of his preaching and miracles took place in the string of towns that hugged the sea.  Using a map of the area as it was in Roman times, we can trace his movements on the sea’s western edge.  He did work in Judea too, but apparently only on the occasions when the Jews went up to Jerusalem for the holy days.  He also made a couple of excursions across the Jordan in the east and into Syrian territory to the north and west.  But by and large, at least according to the Gospels, he stuck to a small corner of Galilee.  This might seem odd for one who showed himself to be the Son of Man.  We might expect him to spend a great deal of time in Jerusalem.  Even his own Apostles wondered about this.  As St. Jude asked, during the Last Supper: “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14, 22).  The Lord’s answer was one the Apostles would only understand after the Holy Spirit came to them: “If any one love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him” (John 14, 23).  That is, the believer Carrie’s Christ within him wherever he goes and so the Lord “goes” to people he could not have reached during his brief lifetime on earth.  It is also true for us poor children of Eve that we are more easily converted by the disciple than by the Master because while the Master overwhelms us, we perceive the disciple to be more like us.  Also, the greatest miracle the Master performs is that of conversion.  The devoted love of the converted disciple for the Master moves us and makes more sense to most of us than the love of the Master, which is beyond our understanding.  The infinite love of our God for such as we leaves us gaping, but the seeing return of this love by one who experiences it leaves us craving to have this too.

“Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.”  The Lord, by staying in the hinterland, draws all people to himself, and that is a sign for the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to consider.  In a way, this also answers Jude’s question: the Lord does reveal himself to the world, but he does not need to go out to it since it is very willing to go out to him.  Many came to him, motivated by the desire to regain their health.  These suffered from chronic ailments and crippling conditions, and they endured great difficulties in finding him and traveling to him.  But they went, knowing him to be their only hope.  This gives us food for thought.  To go to him now requires overcoming our inertia, our daily routines, and our pride, but he is to be found easily by us in the Holy Scriptures and in the tabernacles of our churches.  The sick yearned to touch him, even slightly, to be healed.  We are touched by him in the reading of the Scriptures and in prayer before the Sacrament.  It is the same One with the same love and the same power and eagerness to heal.

“And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God.’  He warned them sternly not to make him known.”  The unclean spirits themselves wonder at his power, though they did not yet how true it was that he was the Son of God.  This too, provides food for thought.  Even the demons acclaimed his power while the Pharisees denied it.

 Wednesday in the Second Week of Ordinary Time, January 19, 2021

I’m still sick, but I’ll finally get to see a doctor on Wednesday morning.  Please keep praying for me!

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

It seems in this reading that Mark is continuing a narrative he began with his telling how Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath.  It would help to explain the end of the reading in which the Pharisees are so antagonized that they are willing to league themselves with the Herodians in order to destroy Jesus.  Just prior to today’s reading, the Pharisees, who had accused the Lord’s disciples of breaking the Sabbath, were reduced to silence by the Lord insisting that he was the Master of the Law rather than subject to it.  The Pharisees were aware of the miracles he had performed and could not argue against this, though they boiled within themselves.  Now, in today’s reading, the Lord and his disciples have crossed the grain field and entered a town, the name of which we are not told, though undoubtedly it was situated in Galilee.  Since it was the Sabbath, the Lord followed his custom of going to the synagogue in order to teach, commenting on the Law and the Prophets.  

“There was a man there who had a withered hand.”  Alternatives to “withered” include “parched” and “dried up”.  Evidently, he did not suffer from leprosy or he would not have been permitted inside.  The hand was useless though.  We see this verb used in Mark 11, 20: Jesus cursed the fig tree that had no figs though it was the season for them, and the tree is said to have “withered” as a result.  The direct style Mark employs here: “Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand” makes it seem that the Lord came purposefully to this synagogue on this day specifically to cure this man of this condition.  “He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come up here before us.’ ”  Jesus wastes no time but addresses the man, who has presumably stood in the back among the crowd.  The Greek tells us that Jesus actually said, “Stand up in the middle.”  And then the Lord addressed the Pharisees, probably sitting in places of honor in the front: “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”  This might be better translated, “to save a life or to kill it”.  Now, this is a curious question.  Jesus equates the healing of the hand, which he clearly intends to do, with the saving of a life.  Conversely, he equates taking no action with “killing” this life.  The Pharisees do not know what he is asking, or sees his words as a trap, and they do not respond.  

“Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart.”  The English does not do justice to what Jesus did.  The Greek says that Jesus looked around “with wrath” or “passion”.  This is the same wrath with which he will condemn the wicked at the end of the world.  His furious reaction to the hardened hearts of the Pharisees may seem a little overblown when we consider the bare facts, but something more is going on here.  The man’s withered hand signifies Israel while the rest of the man signifies the Gentiles.  It is “withered”, as the fig tree will be withered because it has become dead in sin and faithlessness.  This is also signified by the hearts of the Pharisees themselves, which are “hardened” — withered and useless.  The Lord would restore life to the hand — to Israel — but the Pharisees would prevent him.  We can see from this what the Lord means when he equates the healing of the hand with “saving a life”, whereas not acting allows it to remain dead — “kills” it through inaction.  And just as the Lord turned with anger from the unrepentant Israel in the days before he suffered, so here he turns with wrath from the teachers so many in Israel preferred to him.  But the Lord continues to feel compassion for the man and he heals his hand.  The Lord does not need the Pharisees in his plan to save the world.  Their hatred for him renders them useless for this purpose.

“The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.”  Ironically, the Pharisees answer the Lord’s question to them by going out to plan his Death even as he heals the man’s hand.  Their anger and envy have reached such a pitch that they become entirely irrational and they join with the detested Herodians in order to destroy him: they join with the forces that killed John the Baptist.  They would kill him themselves but they want political cover.  Of course, the miracle means nothing to them.  It often happens with us that we become so hardened in our opinions that any fact that contradicts them or does not support them becomes a personal attack that must be crushed. 

People of that sort are very difficult to pray for, let alone to convert, and they may prove dangerous to believers.  But as the Lord died for them too, we pray and give good witness, striving to be our Lord’s faithful instruments in the redemption of the world.