While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. Why do you think the woman did this? The oil she used was expensive, incredibly...
3. Mark 14:3a
posted by DJL
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper…. Simon the Leper. Truth be told, we don’t know much about Simon the Leper. He is mentioned only in Mark and Matthew (26:6-13). There is a Simon the Pharisee in Luke’s story who also hosts Jesus for dinner when a woman anoints Jesus...
2. Mark 14:1-2
posted by DJL
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’ Fear. It’s amazing how powerful...
1. Mark 14:1
posted by DJL
You’re probably familiar with the original “scary story” beginning: “It was a dark and stormy night…” Mark doesn’t begin his story of Jesus’ Passion with those exact words, but he nevertheless strikes the same ominous, foreboding note: It was two days before the Passover and...
Preview of the Passion
posted by DJL
Tommorow we begin our detailed look at the Passion of Jesus according to St. Mark, a journey that will take us through the 40 days of Lent. I thought that a final word of preparation would be in order; in a sense, a preview of the Passion in which we will immerse ourselves. Martin Kähler, a German biblical scholar who lived and wrote at the turn of the twentieth century, once called Mark “a passion narrative with a long introduction.” When you read through Mark up to chapter 14, the start of the “passion narrative” proper, you get a sense of what Kähler meant. Jesus predicts his death and resurrection at several points. The tension...
Mark in a Nutshell
posted by DJL
As fast-paced as it is brief, the Gospel According to Mark feels a little more like the evening news than it does a biography. Indeed, Mark’s story comes across as a crash course in the essentials about what it is to be a follower of Jesus. And what a course! Read through the gospel...