The Scorn of the Indolent Rich
Mark chapter six comes right after chapter five. Now that may seem obvious to us, but we must keep in mind that all chapter and verse designations in the Bible are largely arbitrary and are there only to aid us in studying and analyzing the texts. And that storyteller Mark as editor of the gospel could have placed this story of Jesus going home to teach in his hometown Nazareth, on the Sabbath in some other part of the story, but chose to put it right after several healing stories: 1) healing a man possessed by demons in Gentile territory, 2) a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for twelve years, and 3) the twelve year-old daughter of Jairus, a leader in a synagogue, who was believed by many to be dead. All this involved two trips in a boat across the Sea of Galilee. Many people, Jews and Gentiles alike, were radically amazed at their encounters with Jesus. And yet, as he told the woman, it was not him, but her faith that made her well. Her ragged determination against so many obstacles to try, perhaps as a last resort, to just touch the hem of Jesus’s garment, believing that that may finally grant her some of God’s mercy and relief. Perseverance furthers equals faith, hope, and charity.
After all of that, storyteller Mark tells us that Jesus goes home to Nazareth, a small village of Jews amidst some Gentile settlements west of the Sea of Galilee. As he goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as he has done throughout the first six chapters of Mark, he teaches. People know who he is: the Son of Mary. Again, that may strike us as obvious, but the normal practice would be to say that he was Yeshua ben Joseph, the son of Joseph. Mark, however, has already told one and all in the opening verse of his Good News that this Yeshua is the Son of God. After first being “astounded” at his teaching, it seems the neighbors among whom he grew up are having none of that. Isn’t this, they say, ‘“the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.”’ This guy is just one of us. Who does he think he is? [i]
Imagine. After perfect strangers on both sides of the Sea were amazed at his presence among them, and the astonishing fact that he would bring God’s mercy, compassion and love to people as different as a demon possessed man chained up in a tomb, a ritually impure woman with a flow of blood, and an elite community leader like Jairus, the people who know him better than anyone else are offended at whatever it was he was saying that Sabbath morning in his hometown! Perhaps to indicate to those of us pondering these texts just how absurd this is, Jesus shrugs it off as just another day at the office for prophets in Israel throughout the ages, and storyteller Mark offers this hilarious aside: “And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.” That’s all! He just brought God’s mercy, love and compassion to a few sick people! And now, we are told, it is Jesus who is astounded, we might say radically amazed, at his friend’s and neighbor’s unbelief.
I believe I can speak for myself and any number of my colleagues in ordained ministry in Christ’s One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, had we had a Sunday morning like Jesus had in his hometown, we would most likely spend the next week or two commiserating with one another, or making an appointment with the bishop or a spiritual director to figure out what to do next. Not Jesus! He is immediately off to teach in other villages, evidently practicing what he is about to teach his disciples whom he sends off two by two to preach the Good News, giving them authority over unclean spirits, to cast out demons, and bring people to a new sense of wholeness grounded in God’s mercy, love and compassion for one and all. But, if they are to be rebuffed as he had been at home, to shake the dust of their sandals and move on to the next village! A gesture, which later Jewish texts suggest, was customary for Jews returning to the Holy Land from visiting pagan territories so as not to bring back even a particle of “uncleanness” with them. [ii]
In this instance, it is possible to construe that the disciples would be consigning those communities that had rejected the Good News to the unclean demonic world. Which may sound primitive and even bizarre to us “moderns,” unless we were to understand that for storyteller Mark, demons are often understood as allies of Rome, and diseases as foes that seek to weaken the body of Israel. With this understanding, it is possible to see those in the gospels who are blind or unable to speak as maladies caused by the subjugation to the foreign Empire of Caesar, he who would be God, and of Rome. In this light, Jesus and his disciples can be seen as trying to help others see and speak out against the injustices, lies, and violence of those who would occupy and rule the land of their ancestors. Jesus instructs his disciples to work with urgency to speak out and act on God’s desire for health, wholeness and happiness for all people. [iii]
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the struggle against just such a brutal and unjust empire of Apartheid often said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Or, listen to the psalmist in Psalm 123 who concludes, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, for we have had more than enough of contempt / Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, and of the derision of the proud.”? The “indolent rich” often being those who make concessions to and become allies and perpetrators of the empire. Empire, which is never viewed as a good thing in the Bible. Pharaoh, Babylon and many of the kings of Israel are repeatedly chastised by prophets like Jesus, often not ending well for the prophets themselves. Yet, their pronouncements are preserved to inform future generations of what God and his Son, Jesus, expect of those of us who follow Christ in terms of loving our neighbors.
It does not take much textual analysis or imagination to see where Mark is propelling the story, and its meaning for us today. Jesus demands our urgency in preaching the Good News and caring for others. All others. It does not take much analysis on our part to imagine what Jesus would think of the recent decision to criminalize homelessness by our Supreme Court; rather than treat the causes of homelessness, create more affordable housing, and treat our fellow citizens with the care, mercy, compassion and love Jesus instructs all of us who would be his disciples to do. Like the woman with the flow of blood and Jairus the leader of the synagogue, we need the kind of faith that perseveres over any and all obstacles to freedom, wholeness and healing thru Christ.
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; for our common life depends on how we treat the least and most vulnerable living beside us. Amen.
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