Week 3 Essay: The Gospel of Mark

Jesus teaching his disciples. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

This week, I read the King James Version of the Gospel of Mark. I had read this book of the Bible before in various small group settings, but had only previously read it in more modern versions. I chose the unit this week because I was interested to see how the different translation lends a new interpretation of the scripture. Historically, the King James text has been the most widely printed and distributed version of the Bible, so I wanted to see how scholars of the Renaissance and beyond might have studied it.

As I was reading, I'll be honest--I had some difficulty with the language (older versions of English have never been my forte, and even though I like Shakespeare's work and similar styles, I do not necessarily understand everything). To counter this, I just referred to another version that I had on hand. I appreciated the way the Un-Textbook was set up: there were no verse numbers--and, understandably, it would be very time-consuming to insert every single number throughout the book--but it was broken up into chapters, so if I got confused with the diction, I could read the same passage in another translation with relative ease.

If there was one book in the Bible that I would have picked to be a reading unit, it would have been the Gospel of Mark. At the heart of this text are all of the fundamental principles not only to be a good follower of Christ, but also to be a kind person and to have success in life in general. Obviously, Jesus's parables are meant to teach spiritual lessons, but even on a non-religious level, he preaches about generosity, the perils of envy, and the value of hard work.

For someone who has never read the Bible before, this may not be the best choice for a reading unit; admittedly, the Christian culture has a lot of jargon that is derived from the Bible, and especially with the older language, it may be a bit difficult to understand at times. However, if one were interested in religious studies, this would be a good bet to gain more insight into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and to learn about the foundation of Christian beliefs.

Week 3 Storytelling: The Sons and Their Harvest

A farmer sowing his seeds. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

An aging farmer had three sons, and as he felt like he did not have much longer to live, he wished to pass on his wisdom and his land to his sons. He fairly divided up the land into three equal parts and gave a plot to each of them, instructing them to do their best to maintain the soil and have good harvests.

The youngest son did not have much experience with farming, as his brothers had always been called first to help on the land. He tried his best to sow and till the seed, but got frustrated easily and did not finish the job. Eventually, he simply let the land be, and weeds and thorns grew up and crowded the land, overpowering the fruit. At the end of the year, he had harvested barely anything and was very disappointed in his crop.

The second brother fared slightly better than the first. He knew what to do in order to produce a plentiful harvest, but the land that his father gave him had several trees on it. The trees drew all of the nutrients out of the soil and made a rocky foundation. The crop grew quickly soon after he planted his seeds, but when their roots went deep enough into the soil, they died because of the lack of nutrients. The second brother saw that there was nothing he could do--although he tilled the soil day and night, there was no way to make the land healthy again. He became frustrated at the rapid growth and withering of his fruit.

The third brother, however, had a much better yield. His land was dense and had good soil. He worked tirelessly, constantly digging up and turning over the soil. After he sowed his seeds, he watched as his crop multiplied. Day after day he picked his crops, noticing that he had more than either of his brothers or any of his neighbors. Looking at his harvest, he realized the hard work that was necessary to produce much fruit.

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Author's note: When I read the parable of the sower in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, I equated the sower to a farmer planting his seeds to harvest a good crop (a fairly understandable and self-explanatory likening). The original parable that Jesus preached is about a sower spreading his seeds, with mixed results--some seeds fall on barren land and cannot grow, others land in rocky soil so their roots could not grow deep and they eventually wither away, and still others are planted in good soil and flourish. Here, Jesus tells his followers that their spreading of God's Word will similarly bring both fruit and frustration.

I wanted to retell the story in a different way, so I looked up stories about farmers. Because Jesus's parables are meant to teach lessons to his followers, I wanted to incorporate another story that also intends to give its readers a lasting moral, so I searched in Aesop's fables and came across the story about a farmer and his sons. In this, the farmer is ailing and on his deathbed, and he wishes to pass on his land to his sons and make sure that they have a good harvest. He tells them that there is a treasure hidden somewhere on the property and that it could be theirs if they find it. They dig frantically and find nothing, but the next year, the land yields an abundance of crops because the land was thoroughly tilled. The moral here is "Industry is itself a treasure."

The overall theme that I wanted to get across was the blending of these two stories: from a biblical point of view, it can be said that the spreading of God's Word can take a lot of effort--it does not always fall on accepting ears and it takes a lot of investment to make faith work. Even from a non-religious point of view, though, the lesson of reaping what one sows is a good reminder to all to be diligent in every goal that one may have.

Bibliography:
The Gospel of Mark, chapter 4
King James Bible (1611).
Found in the Un-Textbook.

The Farmer and His Sons
Aesop's Fables, illustrated by Milo Winter. 1919.
Source: Project Gutenberg.

Week 3 Reading Diary: The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Mark

Reading Diary A:

Mark 1
In this chapter, John the Baptist encounters Jesus, the son of God. Throughout this first chapter, the reader immediately sees Jesus perform many miracles, such as releasing an evil spirit from a man's body, healing the "sick and demon-possessed" (Mark 1:32 NIV), and making a leper clean. This is a perfect introduction to Jesus's life--it accurately represents the practical servitude he has for his Father in healing His people and spreading His word.

Mark 2
I love the story of Jesus's healing of the paralytic because it is a good message to Christians about having faith in God to do virtually anything. The men in the story are not deterred by a crowd where so "many [are] gathered together, insomuch that there [is] no room to receive them," and have enough diligence to carry their friend on a mat all the way up to the roof, and proceed to cut a hole in the roof, just so they can get their ailing friend in Jesus's presence. And, "when Jesus saw their faith," he healed the man completely so that he could walk out of the house completely healthy. This is an especially good lesson for spiritual leaders: that they may be persistent in serving the Lord and have faith that they can change lives.

The reader consistently sees Jesus leading by example throughout his life. When he is questioned by Pharisees for eating with sinners and tax collectors (who, in those times, were seen on a similar level as sinners), he preaches a message of love and explains that he is in the world to heal the broken, not to save those who are already righteous.

Mark 3
In this chapter, Jesus begins to show his affinity for speaking in parables, or stories used to demonstrate spiritual morals. The reader will see in the next chapter that he uses these copiously to show his followers how to think and behave.

Mark 4
The parables in this chapter speak to all followers of Christ, but some pertain especially to leaders in the church. The story of the sower is an example of this. Jesus states that a leader must spread the word of God extensively, but warns that some preaching will inevitably fall on deaf ears--the lesson here is to be persistent and to spread love, so that no matter how the word is received, they will at least have had the love of God demonstrated for them.

Jesus also tells his followers to be a light in the world (or a "lamp on a stand"). He implores them not to hide their faith, but to spread it to others. He also assures them that if they have an inkling of faith the size of a mustard seed, then God can use them to multiply and do great works.

Mark 5
Jesus as a healer certainly is a convicting thing for anybody to read about! In chapter 5, a demon-possessed man and a woman who had had an illness of the blood for twelve years approached Jesus at a desperate time in their lives. They had great faith, and in the end, Jesus was able to heal them because of this.

Mark 6
This chapter discusses John the Baptist's beheading, then goes on to tell about the miracles that Jesus performed. The reader sees that Jesus, with faith, can multiply five loaves of bread and two fish into a full meal for five thousand men (and, some believe, all the women and children who were with them, totaling about 15,000 people). Jesus's followers also see him walk on water in a storm and are terrified, thinking that he is a ghost, but he calms their fears and then calms the waves and wind. Throughout this book, Jesus tells his followers to have faith, and only then can they do the extraordinary with God's help.

Mark 7
During the time that Jesus lived, the Pharisees were a group of people who believed in God, but some of them did not necessarily believe that Jesus was the son of God. They went through all the motions of loving their Lord, but did this out of fear instead of love for their Father (my campus pastors would call this "head knowledge" instead of "heart knowledge"). Jesus calls them out on this and rebukes them in this chapter.

Mark 8
This chapter is pivotal in Jesus's life. One of the most important things about it is that Jesus predicts his own death towards the end of the chapter--that Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, would betray him. He assures his followers that whoever gives up his own life to pick up Jesus's cross will be rewarded with eternal life in Heaven.

Mark 9
The last part of this chapter is a very convicting passage. Jesus rebukes all sin and encourages those who sin to cut off all temptation in their lives--for example, if a person's hand causes them to sin, then they should cut it off because it would be better to enter Heaven maimed than to go to Hell with both hands. Obviously, with a modern-day interpretation of scripture, He is not necessarily telling people to literally cut off their limbs, but to eliminate the source of sin.

Reading Diary B:

Mark 10
This chapter is a collection of practical teachings by Jesus for everyday life. He discusses divorce, the upbringing of children, and materialism, and how people should act with each of these cases to demonstrate God's glory.

Mark 11
This is also known as Jesus's triumphal entry--when Jesus enters Jerusalem, his disciples go before him and bless his name as he rides a colt, and everyone declares Him to be his Lord. Later on, however, Jesus's authority is questioned as he waits in the temples. He responds that John's baptism was from Heaven, and so He has the authority from Heaven to perform his good acts.

The remainder of this Gospel is an account of Jesus's prediction of his death, the last supper, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. These are quite possibly the most important parts of the Bible for a follower of Christ. In some schools of belief, to be a true Christian, one must proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God and the Lord and Savior. He must declare that Jesus died and, three days later, rose again to join his Father at His right hand in Heaven.