Julie Swannell writes: It's the last day of May already, and we are wrapping up our study of the Gospel of Mark.  What an inspiring journey it has been.  For those of you who are able to come along, we will be hosting an in-house discussion in the Reading Room at 61 Ernest St, Margate next Monday June 4
(the same day as Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in Boston) between 12 noon and 1pm.  If you can't make it in person, let us know and we may be able to include you via teleconference or Skype.

As you may know, as we read, we were looking for answers to some questions and what follows here are the results of my reading.  Your answers may be quite different.  We are grateful for all who have participated - either by reading or writing - over the month.  Watch this space tomorrow for news of our new book for June!

Mark's audience:
In "The Reforming Power of the Scriptures" Mary Trammel and Bill Dawley tell us - "Writing in approximately AD70 about the time that Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem, he (Mark) spoke urgently to the Jewish Christians in his community.  He entreated them to stand firm in the faith.  The Gospel of Mark was probably addressed to readers living outside of Palestine and was intended to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God." p. 37

Healings:
As I have reviewed this Gospel in a paperback edition I have of the Bible, I've numbered Jesus healing works.  So let me now gather them up.  I wonder if you found the same healings!  I noticed that Jesus ministry comprised teaching, preaching, and healing.  And perhaps it's always in that order.  First there's the teaching and learning, then the public discourse - these two elements perhaps prepare the individual then the collective thought; then the result of changed thought is the third element, healing.

The twenty-one healings presented here are described in three stages -
   1. the scene;
   2. Jesus response;
   3. the result.

1/ Mark 1: 23 -  Scene: in the synagogue a man who was quite disturbed and was yelling out
Jesus reponse: He spoke directly to the "error" (disturbance): "Hold thy peace & come out of him."
The result: Healing plus a general response of amazement at Jesus authority and commanding tone

2/ Mark 1: 30 - Scene: Simon's mother in law sick and feverish
Jesus response: He extended his hand to her and lifted her right up out of the fever.
The result: She was able to "minister" to them. (The Greek word for minister is diakoneō
which means "to attend to anything that may serve another's interests".  Note that this same word is translated "serve" in Acts 6: 2 - KJV.)

3/ Mark 1: 40 - Scene: Galilee (area w. of Sea of Galilee); man with leprosy, pleading for healing
Jesus response: His heart went out to this man as he reached out to him and said "be thou clean".
The result was that he was completely healed and so off he went to the priest, as the law required, to report his new status as free of leprosy.

4/ Mark 2: 3 - Scene: Capernaum (n.w. tip of Sea of Galilee) in a house packed with people; 4 fellows make a hole in the roof so their paralysed friend, whom they have lifted up onto perhaps a stretcher, can get to see Jesus.
Jesus spoke directly "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."  At the same time, he was aware of the thought surrounding his patient (the man's friends plus the hoard of other people including "certain of the scribes) and argued on behalf of the man's innocence.
Result: The man got up and walked to the general amazement of all, who gave God all glory.

5/ Mark 3: 1 - Scene: a man with a deformed hand in the synagogue (Jewish place of worship designed for Scriptural instruction and prayer)
Jesus asked the man to step forward and to stretch his hand out, while also challenging the threatening, hard-hearted attitude of those watching: "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil?"
Result: The man's hand was fully restored.

6/ Mark 3: 10 - Scene: crowd of people plagued with troubles at the shore of the Sea of Galilee
Jesus healed many.
Result: The "unclean spirits" were thwarted.

7/ Mark 4: 37 - Scene: Sea of Galilee. The disciples - many of whom were seasoned fishermen - are alarmed when a sudden storm almost sinks the ship, while Jesus sleeps!
Jesus rebukes the wind & says to the sea "Peace, be still."  And to the disciples "Why are ye so fearful?"
Result: a great calm + "absolute awe" (The Message) of the disciples

8/ Mark 5: 1 - Scene: Jesus and disciples have come by sea to Gadara (on a bold headland 5.5 miles s.e. of s. side of Sea of Galilee with the sea in full view) and are met by a madman who lives at the burial ground there.
Jesus response: "Come out of the man thou unclean spirit."  Then "What is thy name?" Then Jesus despatches the unclean spirits into the sea.
Result: The man is completely changed and is now sitting, clothed and in his right mind, at Jesus feet. This caused quite a stir in those parts.

9/ Mark 5: 22 - Scene: Back on the w. coast of Sea of Galilee; Jairus (a ruler of the synagogue i.e. he presided at the services) was desperate for Jesus to heal his 12 year old daughter who was dying.
Jesus response was to follow him to see the girl.  On the way they received news that she had died already, but Jesus calmed the father down and told him it would be OK.  It was pretty chaotic at Jairus' house, but Jesus assures them she hasn't died.  Finally with just his immediate disciples plus Jairus and his wife, he takes the girl's hand and tells her to arise.
Result: Complete recovery and great astonishment!

10/ Mark 5: 25 - Scene: Enroute to Jairus' house (above) Jesus was being thronged when a woman who'd tried everything to try to cure her health issues over the past 12 years, came up behind Jesus and touched his clothes, thinking that this would cure her.
Jesus responded by turning around in the crowd and asking the person who had touched him to identify themself.  He knew something had happened.  When the woman came forward he said to her "Daughter,thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague."
Result: The woman was obviously healed and Jairus would have witnessed this healing as they hurried on to his house to help his sick 12 year old daughter.

11/ Mark 6: 1 - Scene: In Jesus hometown synagogue, the offended townsfolk couldn't believe that one of their own, and a carpenter at that, could be teaching them such things with such authority.
Jesus response: "A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house."
Result: He healed just a few people here and went off teaching in other villages.

12/ Mark 6: 7 - Scene: The disciples are sent out to teach, preach and heal.
Jesus told the disciples that they had power over unclean spirits.
The result was healing!  And things started to get busy e.g. verse 31 "they had no leisure so much as to eat".

13/ Mark 6: 32 - Scene: When Jesus and the disciples retreat to a remote location but are caught up by a crowd of more than 5000 people, the disciples suggest sending them away. 
Jesus response was to love the people: first he spent time teaching them, then he suggests the disciples give them dinner, sharing their apparently meagre supplies.  Next he got the crowd to sit down in orderly rows while he gave gratitude for the food at hand.
Result: Everyone was satisfied and each of the 12 disciples ended up with a basket of left-overs.

14/ Mark 6: 47 - Scene: Jesus was alone on the sea shore (he had been in the mountains praying) and noticed the disciples were in trouble, trying to row in a fierce wind.
Jesus response was to walk to them on the sea, assure them he wasn't an apparition, and get onboard. This all happened about 4 o'clock in the morning.
Result: The wind stopped blowing and the disciples couldn't get over what had just happened!  They still hadn't figured out how all those people had been fed (healing #13) or what it signified in their discipleship.

15/ Mark 6: 53 - Scene: Genneseret (just south of Capernaum on the n.w. coast of the Sea of Galilee) and in villages, cities, and in the country.  People were desperate to catch up with Jesus.
Jesus response was to heal them; sometimes all they did was touch him.
Result: Mark doesn't record any result, but what do you think resulted from all this?

16/ Mark 7: 25 - Scene: In someone's home in the region of Tyre and Sidon (in the north, on the Mediterranean coast), Jesus was apporached by a Syrophoenician Greek (i.e. not Jewish) woman whose daughter was ill.
Jesus response was perhaps to test her authenticity and sincerity by telling her to wait her turn (his mission was with the Jews) and to know her place.  Jesus marvelled as she held her ground and with humility and great pathos suggested that even crumbs of comfort would do.
Result: The little girl was completely healed and the disciples had witnessed yet another grand example of Christian healing. 

17/ Mark 7:31 - Scene: Jesus leaves the coastal area of Tyre and Sidon and travels across the Jordan River to the Decapolis area to the s.w. of the Sea of Galilee.  Here a man who was deaf and couldn't speak clearly approached Jesus.
Jesus response was to take him away from the crowd and, using gestures the deaf man could follow, spit and touched the man's tongue.  He then said "Be opened".
Result: The man could now hear and speak.  There was great astonishment.

18/ Mark 8: 1 - Scene: Still in the Decapolis area, three days had passed, there was nothing for the crowd to eat, and they were all a long way from home.
Jesus response was to suggest the disciples figure out how to feed them all, sharing whatever they already had.  He told the crowd to sit down and then he gave thanks for the 7 loaves and a couple of fish which he broke up and gave to his disciples to share around.
Result: About four thousand people were satisfactorily fed and then sent off home, while the disciples collected seven baskets of left-overs!

19/ Mark 8:22 - Scene: Bethsaida (n.w. tip of Sea of Galilee - w. of Capernaum) where "they" brought a blind man to Jesus
Jesus response was to take him by the hand and lead him out of town, where he spit on his eyes and touched them and then asked the man what he could see.  When he told him he couldn't clearly distinguish people yet ("I see men as trees walking"), Jesus repeated the treatment.
Result: The man saw clearly.  Jamieson, Fasset and Brown's "Commentary on the whole Bible" suggests that "peraps the one operation perfectly restored the eyes, while the other imparted immediately the faculty of using them."

20/ Mark 9: 17 - Scene: Just after the transfiguration which may have occurred in the high mountains of Caesarea Philippi which is over 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, at about the same latitude as Tyre to the west - Jesus, Peter, James and John were back down from the mountain now and they saw a big crowd which included some scribes (at first: those employed to write what was dictated to them; later: professional interpreters of the law) who were quizzing (and perhaps twitting) the rest of the disciples.  A distressed father addressed Jesus as Master (Teacher) and explained that the disciples had failed to heal his dumb son, who exhibited abnormal behaviour, as if possessed by a devil - which Jesus was to see for himself when they brought the child to him.
Jesus responded first to the disciples apparent lack of faith, then he asked the boy's father how long this problem had been going on - maybe to discern his sincerity - and assured him that "all things are possible to him that believeth" (take note disciples).  Noting the man's genuine desire to do whatever was needed ("Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief"), and seeing the commotion of the crowd, Jesus could "rebuke the foul spirit" and charge the "dumb and deaf spirit" to come out of the boy, who he took by the hand as he lifted him up.
Result: The patient was gloriously healed; the disciples learnt not to swallow the picture of disease in front of them nor to stop praying until the case is taken care of.

21/ Mark 10: 46 - Scene: Just outside Jericho (regarded as the oldest city in the world, and situated at the southern end of the Jordan River about 5 miles n. of the Dead Sea and 17 miles from Jerusalem) Jesus and his disciples saw a blind beggar called Bartimaeus calling out for help from the side of the highway (Greek hodos - a travelled way, a road). 
Jesus response was to stop still and command that the man be called over.  The crowd now encouraged Bartimaeus to get up and go, so he tossed away his old cloak and went, whereupon Jesus asked him to clarify his request. 
Result: Bartimaeus could now see and he became one of Jesus followers.


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