IMMEDIATELY: Chap 1
A Slant Reading of St. Mark’s Gospel
Chapter One
It begins with the Locust-and-Wild-Honey-Man
stalking out of the desert
in camel-hair skins
and shattering 400 years
of prophet-silence
by announcing
that the Jewish King
had finally arrived —
but not quite yet:
Yet still
they come — rushing
out to the desert to see this
Locust Eating Prophet,
and blurting out sins
he could do nothing about:
Look, he says to them:
I can’t cure you
I can only wash you
But Sin-Magician is here:
the one prophesied
over a thousand years ago
The powerful one
whose sandals I can’t even stoop
to untie
And so they rush out to him
from the river to the sea
confessing their sins
“I’ve plunged you in the water”
said Locust Man, “but he’s going to plunge you
in the Holy Spirit” —
A Holy Magic
to change you
from the inside out
II
Things move fast in St. Mark:
After 400 years of silence
There he is — it seems
A “handyman”
from the Nazareth ghetto
asking Locust-man to wash him
And as soon as he does
Heaven supposedly rips open
and a voice booms out
that the Yahweh-God is back
and this handy-man
is his Son — The Sin Magician himself
But then he suddenly disappears
into the Desert
for 40 days
returning trembling and skinny
after fasting with wild beasts
and fighting Lucifer
III
And immediately he cries out:
It’s time!
Yahweh’s Kingdom is arriving
And heads for the lake
to recruit some fishermen:
Simon and Andrew
telling them to quit
because now they must fish
for men — and wouldn’t need nets
(I don’t know who they thought he was —
but they just drop the nets
and follow him)
He then sees James and John
in Dad’s fishing boat
(But ignores Dad)
and tells his sons
to drop their nets too
and follow him
(We strangely hear
nothing from Dad
about this)
IV
So he and the four fisher-recruits
hike up to his home-town —
a tiny fishing dump called Nazareth,
enter a synagogue
on the Sabbath
(always on the Sabbath)
And immediately
(always Immediately)
he begins to preach
It starts well:
Everyone is amazed at his teaching
and his authority (whatever that means)
But (yes, immediately)
A man with a demon recognizes him
and screams out
I know you!
You’re that Sin-Magician John was jabbering about!
You are trying to destroy us!
But Sin-Magician ignores the man
and tells the demon to go to Hell
Which he does — immediately of course
To everyone’s shock
And (yes, immediately)
Sin-Magician goes viral
through all the Galilean fishing towns
that same day
(and still in chapter one)
V
And immediately
(Yes, still chapter one)
He bails the synagogue
and goes to Simon’s house
(with Andrew and James and John)
where his sick mom-in-law shivers with fever
And Sin-Magician enters her room
(with Simon and Andrew and James and John)
and just lifts her out of bed
And
(immediately)
She starts cooking for them
And
(immediately)
the whole village turns up at Simon’s door
Not for food
Not for forgiveness of sin
But for demon-extermination
VI
Very early next morning
(same chapter though)
Jesus sneaks out to the hills
finds a lonely place
and breathes
a sigh of relief
But they
(Simon and the fishing posse)
Run after him, crying
Everyone is looking for you!
Oh really Simon? What a coincidence!
I was just looking for everyone too —
that’s why I snuck out before the sun rose!
And Sin-Magician sighs:
We have to go to other towns too
I can’t let Capernaum hog me like this.
VII
So He goes to every synagogue
in every town
around Lake Galilee
telling demons
— again
to go to Hell
VIII
And there a leper
drops at His feet
crying:
If you want to, you can do it!
I want to!
says Sin-Magician
And (Immediately)
Leper blabs the news
to Everyone
and Everyone
mobs him
(again)
And again
he hides
out in the desert
And again
they hunt
him down
carrying lepers
mothers-in-laws
and drug addicts
And this
(Truly)
is the end of chapter one.
CHAPTER 2:
Eventually
Sin-Magician returns to Capernaum
and hides out at Simon-house
But word spreads again — fast
and soon Simon-house is mobbed
— again
with lepers, mothers-in-laws, addicts, cripples
(and lawyers — this time)
So He flings open the shutters and doors
and preaches to them —
till word gets out
that men are clambering
up Simon-house roof — this time
hauling up a cripple —
still in his bed
And ripping open the roof
to lower him down
right before Sin Magician’s feet
But the story gets stranger:
and its hard to tell it straight
as tree-branches
and beams
and chunks of clay
come crashing
down
around Sin-Magician
and the cripple
And coppersmiths
and cantors
and carpenters
stare up
incredulously
through the mangled roof
But in that cacophony
Sin-Magician points down
to the cripple sprawled before them
and cries out
what only He
could cry out:
Cripple, be clean!
Your crimes against God
are gone!
And as the din and dust settle
cognizant dissonance slowly festers
into angst
and angst into anger
as the Magician’s words congeal
into first-degree heresy
And sin-sayers
and Sadducees
begin to seethe
But He turns to them
and politely asks:
Would it be easier
and more pleasant for you
if I had said
“Be healed? “
And behold
they are
silent
And Sin-Magician turns away,
looks back down
upon the cripple,
then cries out
(more to them
than to the bed-ridden man):
Rise and Walk!
And Cripple rises
picks up his bed
and walks out before them
II
Back at the beach
Sin Magician
(with crowd in tow)
finds Levi
sitting there
in a tax-collection booth
Follow me
He says
and Levi
abandons booth
and follows
Him
(and that’s all he wrote)
And they —
Levi and his posse
of collection agents
and prostitutes
and gang-bangers
recline at “his house”
(Whose house?
St. Mark
only says “his house”)
But word
gets out
to the Legalists
about this
strange confluence
of collection agents, prostitutes, and fishermen
And they subpoena
Simon and Andrew and James and John
(and Levi) — and ask:
Why does your Magician “recline”
with sinners
and collection agents?
But He
answers them
and says
Did you not know
That I am
The prophet for bad people?
III
Later
others point out to him
that John’s disciples fasted
and the Legalist’s disciples fast
But yours
are always eating and drinking
That’s because
Sin Magician says
I am
And therefore
they eat
and drink
But when I go
they will
mourn
And he told them a story
about New wine
which cannot be kept in old bottles
IV
Again on the Sabbath
(always on the Sabbath)
His disciples were caught plucking corn
How dare they pluck
on the Sabbath?
The Legalists cry
Because,
Sin Magician answers
I am
The Sabbath
I am
their Rest
And I am
Greater
than the Sabbath
For
I am
here
CHAPTER 3:
The Withered Hand
And now behold
His grief and anger:
(emotions recorded only by Mark)
over the withered hand
of a brick mason
sitting alone
in the front row
of a synagogue
behind a bevy
of Sadducees and Legalists
waiting there —
in silence
for the Magician (and defendant)
to arrive
and blow it
through his weakness:
mercy
and compassion
And when He enters
the silence continues
as thick as the Law
and as mangled
as the withered hand
before them
And He simply asks them
if it is legal
to do good
or not
to do good
on the Sabbath?
And again
there is
silence
And he stars at them —
incredulously
and only Mark then adds:
(Deeply upset
at their hard hearts
he was filled with Anger)
And commands
the man
to straighten his withered hand
and immediately
the hand
un-withers
And when the Legalists
see and hear
his gasp of joy
Their faces contort
with righteous wrath
and rising
They leave
to rally the Romans
under Herod the King
to stomp out
this upstart
magi do-gooder.
II
But Jesus goes back to the beach
followed by a gaggle of Galileans,
Judeans, Idumeans, Transjodanians
,
Tyrenians, and Sidoneans
who threat to engulf him
with their needs
Get the boat ready!
he hollers to his disciples
or we will be crushed
Yet Mark says nothing more
about the boat.
He only says
that He heals them
that the sick push forward to touch him
that evil spirits came out of them yelling:
You are the son of God!
and that he replies
Shut up! Tell no one who I am!
And then-
He escapes again
to the top of a mountain
and calls out
just 12
to follow him
to be with him
and to throw
out demons:
Simon (called Peter)
Jimmy and John (the sons of Thunder)
and then the “others”:
Andy, Phil, Bart, Matt, Tom,
Jim, Thad, Simon
and Judas (who betrays him)
111.
And then, says Mark,
They go to “the house”-again
where they are crushed — again
by so many people
that they cannot eat-again
So word gets out
To his family
who tries to rescue him
because he was “out of his mind”
Then “experts” arrive
who explain to his family
that he is, unfortunately,
“possessed by Beelzebub”
who gave him this power
to cast out demons.
IV
So Sin Magician sits down
and “speaks to to them in pictures”
which only some can understand
And all the while
his Mum and family keep waiting for him
outside “the house”
Until finally the crowd
tell him: Your Mum and family
are, apparently, still waiting for you — outside.
Who is my Mum? asks Sin Magician
(they just stare at him)
And he stares back — and utters:
Here is my Mum! –pointing around the circle
And my bros
And my sisters
CHAPTER 4
Mark says nothing more
about Sin-Magician’s Mum and family
and heads back to the sea
without them — apparently,
and is so mobbed — again
he has to preach
from a boat.
Except this time
He tells stories —
so that they will hear
and hear
but never understand
And look
and look
but never see
Otherwise — he says to his disciples
they might
repent and I would then
be obligated
to forgive them
(And his 12 mates stare at him
too afraid to tell him
that they, too,
do not understand his stories)
II
That evening
they cross to the other side
of Lake Galilee
into a fierce storm
which fills the boat with water
But the Magician was fast asleep
And only Mark then adds:
“with his head on a pillow”
And “with his head on a pillow”
they begin to panic
and shaking him awake
they cry out to him
“why don’t you care?”
and up he staggers
and grumpily shouts out
to the wind and waves:
“Silence! Shut up!”
All quotations from NT Wright Translation
