Fast Foward

January 27, 2009, 7:04 am by dc-agape.

Mark 1:10-28

We will just fast forward to Jesus’ 33 year.  I say his 33^rd birthday because we know that he was born in the 6BC and started his ministry in 27AD.  So he was 33 when he was baptized by John the Baptist.  I will not discuss the differences in each gospel about this event, but when I reach this story in the other gospels I will use this one as a comparison.  Mark writes that immediately after being baptized YHWH tells the crowd that this is his son and the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus.  As soon as the Spirit enters Jesus he is sent out into the desert.  In one quick sentence he is tempted by Satan, but at the same time he is attended by angels.  How can the temptation of Satan be that bad if you have angels attending all your needs?  Jesus couldn’t even forget that he was the Son of Man if he had angels attending him while Satan tempted him.

When his 40 days of “temptation” were over and John the Baptist was in prison, Jesus went into Galilee.  But Nazareth was in Galilee, so basically, Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River and back to Galilee.  So Jesus traveled over 63 miles south to somewhere near the Jordan River within 20 miles east of Jerusalem and back to the Sea of Galilee.  The round trip would have taken at least 8 days, just to get baptized by John the Baptist right before he was imprisoned by Herod. 

While he is traveling near the Sea of Galilee (or maybe it was the Lake of Gennesaret, or maybe the Sea of Tiberias) he calls his first disciples.  They were actually fishing, out on the Sea (or Lake) at the time he calls them (at least in this version).  His first disciples are Simon and Andrew.  A little bit later he calls James and John the sons of Zebedee.  Obviously, people knew who he was because all four of these men stop working immediately to follow him.  In fact, James and John leave their father in the boat.  I wonder how the family reunion was after that. 

Jesus travels around the Sea of Galilee from the Jordan River to Capernaum (about 27 miles).  While he is in Capernaum he enters a synagogue and teaches with great authority.  We know that it is with authority because a man stands up to him and tells him he is the “Holy One of God”.  Jesus calls the evil spirit that knows he is the “Holy One” out of the man.  The man certainly could NOT have known that Jesus was the “Holy One” even though Simon, Andrew, James, and John knew that they should follow Jesus and give up their day jobs in the process.  We also know that evil spirits do not exist and cannot be exorcised, but that’s beside the point. 

From Mark’s perspective, these are the first days of Jesus’ ministry.  Everyone knows that YHWH loves him in verse 11.  Simon and Andrew know to leave everything behind and follow him in verse 18.  James and John also know to drop everything and follow him in verse 20.  Yet an unknown man in Capernaum is possessed by an evil spirit because he knows the same thing as these other men.  This is pure logic, we must know that an imaginary evil spirit exists because of this experience and Jesus can control it!

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