Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily
gospel. Exegesis podcast.
Thanks for listening today. We have a shorter episode.
So I just wanted to take a couple of minutes at the start
of today's episode to share with you some feedback that's come in
about the ministry. So firstly, I just wanted to
welcome those of you who are new to the podcast.
If you've only been listing for a little while, particularly
those who have found this podcast through the taken read.
Virtual Catholic conference, which was on recently.
I know many people started listening to this podcast as a
result of hearing about the ministry through that.
So you're very welcome and I hope you're getting some things
out of it. So here's some quick reviews
that have come through about the podcast on iTunes.
And if you're one of these people, thank you so much for
leaving a positive review. So, we have here, one from j.c.
music. One, two, three.
They said the practice of exegesis the results of which
are skillfully revealed to us by this podcast.
Has the potential to bring us closer to the meaning of
scripture. And thus to the mind of God,
this podcast seems to have that goal as its aim and I have found
it to be helpful in setting. So thank you so much for that
review. We have another review here from
father, Timothy who says this podcast does a great job of
helping us understand the gospel of mass.
Thanks be to all those who work on it from BB mule this is a
great daily in-depth analysis of the daily Gospel reading.
Things a wonderful way to get a better understanding of the
Bible and how to understand it. Thank you so much for these
reviews. That's exactly the goal of this
podcast I'm helping Catholics and help other people understand
the literal sense of the gospels.
What did the original authors mean?
And I think this is an area where there needs to be more out
there. And so if this podcast is
helping you understand, the literal sense of scripture
better than that is great. One more of you here from t f
bar, they said I'm so thankful for all the hard work that goes
into producing and sharing. These podcasts Bible, passages
are always presented in a thoughtful way and the teacher
strives to get at the literal meaning of the text.
I'm not a Catholic but I'm richly blessed from this way of
teaching. God bless you.
So it's always interesting to hear when we have some
non-catholic listens to the podcast who are still getting a
lot out of it. So thank you so much for
listening. So thank you so much to all of
you who have left reviews on iTunes, or on Tube.
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I just wanted to finish this by reminding, you about the patreon
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The only way you can keep going is from your support and it does
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exegesis episodes of the podcast.
So there's some parts of the gospels that are never read at
Mass so you'll never hear an exegesis of them on the normal
podcast, but you can get access to all of those bonus podcasts
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have heard a verse by verse exegesis of every single verse
of the four gospel. So that is available to you on
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Commentaries that I'm doing through the catechism of the
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So, if you want to learn the Catholic faith, Better.
If you've always wanted to study the catechism in-depth then that
resource might be a good one for you.
All of the information about the patreon page is in the show
notes. Thanks once again for your
support, please keep this ministry in your prayers and
let's get into today's episode. Hey, you again everyone and
welcome back to our podcast, where we take a look at the
Gospel reading from today and we want to try and get at the
literal sense of the text. What was the original reader or
original author trying to convey to his readers.
So what was Mark in this case, trying to teach his first
century audience, we're looking today at Mark chapter 3 verses 7
to 12 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the Lakeside and
great crowds From Galilee followed him.
From Judea Jerusalem, idiom mayor trans jordania and the
region of Tyre and sidon great numbers who had heard of all he
was doing came to him and he asked his disciples to have a
boat ready for him because of the crowd to keep him from being
crushed. For he had cured so many that
all who were Afflicted in any way were crowding, forward to
touch him and the unclean spirits whenever they saw him,
would fall down before him and Shout.
You are the Son of God, but he warned them strongly not to make
him known. Okay, so the context here is
important as we've just heard over the last couple of days
Jesus has just had a couple of confrontations on the Sabbath
day. Remember the last one was in the
synagogue with the man with a withered hand.
And this particular scene we're looking at May well have
happened on the same day because it starts by saying Jesus
withdrew with his disciples. So what's going on here is Jesus
is getting out of town to get some space, withdrew implies.
He wants to get Why? So that's the plan he may be to
have a bit of privacy or maybe to teach his disciples in
private and they go to the lake side which is the Sea of Galilee
and Jesus does a lot of his teaching from there.
That's just on the very edge of the town that he was just at.
Now, this is interesting for because Scholars have noticed
that if you look at Jesus, General travels in Mark and
where he moves from, and where he moves to eventually.
So, it's from this point on from chapter 3 onwards in Mark, Jesus
becomes a bit more elusive. He tends to stay out of the
synagogue's, from now on, and he travels back and forth across
the lake, most of the time often at night time.
So we get the impression that he's trying to avoid the crowds
in this part of the world from now on.
But great multitudes From Galilee, followed him.
So Galilee remember is the state of Israel that Jesus lives in.
So people are coming from all over that region to see him and
also it lists a whole lot of other states of Israel that
people are coming from. So Judea Jerusalem, idiom a, a
trans jordania and the region of Tyre and sidon.
These are all other states or neighboring territories of
Israel. Many of these people would be
Gentiles tyre and sidon in particular, a gentile areas so
we don't just have juice here. We have people from all over the
world or this part of the world coming to Jesus these regions.
Some of them are quite a long way away so more than 100 miles.
So several days journey people are coming to see Jesus and to
be healed. He's become quite Famous by this
point. So, he tells his disciples in
verse 9 to have a boat ready because of the crowd to keep him
from being crushed. So Jesus thinking is that if
he's on the boat, he can still teach the crowds, he's on the
boat and they're on the shore and he can still teach them, but
he's not going to be crushed and it's quite a good idea.
We don't know whether he actually does that.
In this case, the text doesn't tell us if he gets on the boat
in the end but certainly late in his ministry.
He does do that. He teaches the crowds from the
boat. Verse 10, for he had cured so
many that. All who are afflicted in any way
were crowding. Forward to touch him.
So, everyone is coming to him. Everyone wants to be cured.
And there's this kind of mass surge Mass crowd coming forward.
Probably people are less interested in who Jesus is and
they have more interested in what he can do for them.
But that's understandable because many of these people
would be desperate for healing probably having gone years of
illness without being healed. And in this case it appears that
people are just being healed. Just from touching Jesus just
from physical contact and Jesus is allowing that to happen.
So if you can imagine, if you've ever been to the Vatican or even
just a rock star or something, where well, this massive crowd
is surging forward to touch the famous person and you're kind of
getting crushed in the process. That's pretty much what's going
on here, often in pictures of this.
We get you know, picture of a peaceful crowd sitting quietly
and listening to Jesus. It's actually like a mass crowd
that's pressing in and crushing crushing everyone.
Verse 11, we are introduced to an more unclean spirits.
So an unclean spirit is a Jewish term for an unnatural A
supernatural being or also called a demon in the Gospels.
Jews didn't fully understand what these were, but later
Christian Church, teaching tells us tells us that these are
Fallen Angels, their bad angels and they presumably need to
inhabit a body in order to be effective.
So that's where we meet them in the gospels.
They've taken over people's bodies.
Whenever they saw him, they would fall down before him.
So, presumably, this means the body's there inhabiting a
falling down before Jesus. Now, it's not a sign of worship.
In this case, it's a sign of submission to Authority as you
would fall down to a King and they share out.
You are the son of God. Now, Jesus hasn't told anyone
this yet. It's very early in his ministry,
he hasn't said to anyone. I am the Son of God but these
demons being supernatural creatures.
They recognize that Jesus is the son of God, this is quite
interesting because it tells us the demons, you know, having
inhabited, the spiritual realm in a lot of ways, they know God
better than people do. They know.
And they understand that there is in fact, a son of God.
Probably. They might have even seen him
working in heaven or something like that.
But most Jews struggle to believe that there's a Son of
God. But the demons know that even
though they don't, you could say they don't worship God.
They know full well that there is a Son of God, so they have
their theology, right? You remember later in the Book
of James James says, even the demons believe and tremble.
So they know about God and they know that he has a son. so
they're shouting his name here, they're shouting at Jesus, you
are the Son of God and some Scholars think that By doing
this, they might be trying to acquire Mastery over.
Jesus there was a common view with that time that by using
someone's proper name or secret name, you could gain control
over them. So maybe the demons are trying
to get control over Jesus by saying you are the Son of God
that's possible as well. Verse 12 but Jesus warned them
strongly or another translation says he strictly ordered them
notice. Jesus is giving orders here to
the demons. That tells us he has Authority
30 or over them, which makes sense because he is the son of
God. And he tells them not to make
him known. Why?
Why does Jesus not want his identity known at this stage,
will Jesus has a timeline of how he want thing wants things to
go. And he knows that if his
identity is revealed too early, there could be a bit of mass
hysteria people all think that he's a literal King because they
believe the Messiah is going to set up a literal Jewish Kingdom
and wipe out the Romans. And he knows that if word gets
out, that he is actually the Son of God, could all get a bit too
crazy too soon. So at this stage, Jesus wants
his true identity kept quiet. Although later on, he does allow
it to be revealed. and apparently his command works,
when Jesus commands the demons, Do not make me known yet,
apparently they submit and they don't do that.
So that's our passage today Jesus on the shore there with
the crowds coming to him. There's one catechism passage
here which is in 1504 and that's in the section about Christ as a
Healer it says often. Jesus asks the sick to believe
he makes use of signs to heal spittle and the laying on of
hands mud and washing the sick. Try to touch him for power came
forth from him and healed them all.
And so in the sacraments Christ continues to touch Us in order
to heal us. So that that's a really
interesting teaching of the church.
There it takes scenes like this one in Mark 3 where people are
literally being healed just by touching Jesus and the church
teaches us that basically the same thing happens in the
sacraments particularly in the Eucharist and the anointing of
the sick, we also can be touched by Christ and be healed.
Okay. A bit of a shorter podcast
today. Hopefully you learned something
new and we'll see you again tomorrow.