Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says about Mark 6:3 "Mark 6:1-6 tells the story of Jesus’ rejection by the congregation in his hometown of Nazareth. Luke tells the story much more completely, but Mark has one interesting statement worth looking at. In Mark 6:3, when the crowd is discounting Jesus’ authority, they cite his family connections. They name his brothers and mention his sisters and ask, “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” That is what the older and most reliable manuscripts say. In later editions, and some lesser English translations, this verse says, “Isn’t this the son of the carpenter and of Mary?” The implication, of course, is that Mark is identifying Jesus as a carpenter, a manual laborer. Matthew and some later translations of Mark seem reluctant to identify Jesus as a common tradesman. In his brief account of the temptation story, Mark says that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Matthew and Luke soften it to say that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Mark is the Gospel that tells of Jesus sighing, looking at the rich young ruler with love, being tired and needing rest, feeling pangs of hunger, and marveling at their unbelief. Mark wasn’t afraid to show the very human side of Jesus. By the time Matthew and Luke came to write their Gospels, they seemed to feel a need to lessen the emphasis on Jesus’ humanity. Matthew and Luke also tell of Jesus using children to illustrate the proper attitude toward the Realm of God, but only Mark tells us how Jesus took them into his arms. (Mark 10:13-16) According to Mark, when the disciples get caught in a storm, they have to awaken Jesus who is in the back of the boat asleep on a pillow. Such details give us a powerful glimpse of the human Jesus. They also are evidence that Mark perhaps is recording many of the stories as they are told by an eyewitness. Neither Peter nor Mark seems to feel the need to sublimate Jesus’ humanity. Mark’s witness is less to Jesus who is the Son of God and more to Jesus who is the Human One (Son of Man). Mark was the first Gospel written. With the passing of time, the Church seemed so determined to convince the world of Jesus’ divinity that we were in grave danger of losing Jesus’ humanity. That has a major spiritual impact, because, while I can worship the divine Christ, the human Jesus calls me to live as he did with compassion and forgiveness and as a servant."
Rev. Michael Piazza in Liberating Word says about Mark 6:3 "Mark 6:1-6 tells the story of Jesus’ rejection by the congregation in his hometown of Nazareth. Luke tells the story much more completely, but Mark has one interesting statement worth looking at. In Mark 6:3, when the crowd is discounting Jesus’ authority, they cite his family connections. They name his brothers and mention his sisters and ask, “Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” That is what the older and most reliable manuscripts say. In later editions, and some lesser English translations, this verse says, “Isn’t this the son of the carpenter and of Mary?”
ReplyDeleteThe implication, of course, is that Mark is identifying Jesus as a carpenter, a manual laborer. Matthew and some later translations of Mark seem reluctant to identify Jesus as a common tradesman. In his brief account of the temptation story, Mark says that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. Matthew and Luke soften it to say that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Mark is the Gospel that tells of Jesus sighing, looking at the rich young ruler with love, being tired and needing rest, feeling pangs of hunger, and marveling at their unbelief. Mark wasn’t afraid to show the very human side of Jesus. By the time Matthew and Luke came to write their Gospels, they seemed to feel a need to lessen the emphasis on Jesus’ humanity.
Matthew and Luke also tell of Jesus using children to illustrate the proper attitude toward the Realm of God, but only Mark tells us how Jesus took them into his arms. (Mark 10:13-16) According to Mark, when the disciples get caught in a storm, they have to awaken Jesus who is in the back of the boat asleep on a pillow. Such details give us a powerful glimpse of the human Jesus. They also are evidence that Mark perhaps is recording many of the stories as they are told by an eyewitness. Neither Peter nor Mark seems to feel the need to sublimate Jesus’ humanity.
Mark’s witness is less to Jesus who is the Son of God and more to Jesus who is the Human One (Son of Man). Mark was the first Gospel written. With the passing of time, the Church seemed so determined to convince the world of Jesus’ divinity that we were in grave danger of losing Jesus’ humanity. That has a major spiritual impact, because, while I can worship the divine Christ, the human Jesus calls me to live as he did with compassion and forgiveness and as a servant."