Mar 2:20But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

Christ uses fasting, going without eating, and mourning the loss of someone as closely connected ideas. This is seen more clearly in the verse related to this in Mat 9:15 (discussed here). The the physical loss of giving up food is connected with the emotional loss of losing a relationship. Happiness depends on our relationships and our physical and mental well-being. All three parts of life are closely connected.

All three parts of life are also temporary because much is hidden from us in this life. Though Christ promises to be with us on all days (Mat 28:20), he also recognizes that he is not physically apparent (Mat 26:11) as he is in life. To be alive is to have nothing permanently: not satisfaction from hunger or satisfaction from our relationships. Even the most perfect relationships are marked by absences.

Notice that Christ does not refer to people moving through time, but the times (in this case the "days") as moving toward us and then away from us. We are like God in the sense that we are in essence timeless and eternal, but we are placed in the path of time, in lives of temporary things: our bodies, our thoughts, and our relationships are all temporary. Our actions and choices are temporary. All of these things move, but at our core we are still, centered, unmoving. We experience life as a parade of days. It is the stream we are lost in, the water that we must be pulled from in order to wake up and turn ourselves around.

"Will come" is from erchomai, (erchomai) which means "to start," "to set out," "to arrive at," "to come" and "to go." It generally refers to any kind of motion. It is a little like we use the phrase "he is on his way," which can mean either that he is coming or going with no direct reference to coming to or going from the position of the speaker.

"Shall be taken" is apairô (apairo), which means "to lead off," "to lift off," "to carry off," "to remove," "to get rid of," and "to lead away."

Mar 2:19 Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
Alternative: Is the wedding party strong enough to diet when the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they are not capable of going on a diet.

Fasting is a form of penance, a way of making up for past sins. Even in our secular age, dieting is a form of penance. Eating, of course, is a form of celebration. In Christ's use of symbols, a wedding feast is the only symbol for celebration. It is also one of his analogies for the kingdom of heaven.

In an earlier post on the analogous verse in Matthew, I wondered who the bride to Christ's bridegroom was. After going through all of Christ's words in Matthew, I find myself thinking that Christ's real bride was life, existence, and self-awareness. The good news that Christ brought is that human death is an illusion, that we are really eternal creatures, and the burdens and mistakes of this life are only temporary. This life is meaningful because it affects our eternal life, but this life is not all that there is. This is good news indeed.

This theme of happiness and joy is of course the traditional Christian theme of the Christmas season, but it seems somewhat muted in much of the Gospel because of the emphasis in translation of the Gospels is sin, evil, and repentance. Yet, in reading the Greek, such harsh language is never used. Christ talks about mistakes, burdens, and turning around. The language of the Gospel writers uses the classical Greek words for evil rarely.

As the scribes and Pharisees of Christ's own time, too often today's religious leaders find their own interests rooted in creating fear rather than joy among believers. This means emphasizing the laws and obedience to the rules. Christ didn't have much patience for this line in the religious leaders of his own time. It is hard to believe that he would judge today's religious leaders any less harshly for their focus on sin, evil, repentance, and obedience rather than joy and loving one another. The English translation of the Gospels is, of course, heavily influenced by the traditional religious viewpoint that Christ is criticizing.

Christ announced his mission as wanting us to believe that there is a reward for bringing good news. We are here reminded that his role as a healer and, in Mark thus far, his healing of the possessed man, the leper, and the paralytic are occasions for happiness not sorrow. Christ's telling the paralyzed man that he has been freed from his errors is also an occasion for celebration.

Seen from another point of view, all of Christ's acts thus far in Mark are designed to demonstrate that the burdens of this life, even the errors we make, are purely temporary. We are given life to make the most of it. While we cannot do that if we continue to make errors, the idea is to turn around and leave our errors behind, to live in a new way, an way that is eternally meaningful and not meaningful only in terms of this life.

"Can" is from the verb, dunamai (dunamai) which means "to have power by virtue of your own capabilities," "to be able," and "to be strong enough."

"Bridechamber" is from numphôn (numphon), which means "bridechamber" and refers to the temply of Dionysus and a word related to what is sacred to nymphs.

"Bridegroom" is from numphios (numphios ), which means "bridegroom" and "son-in-law."

"Fast" is from nêsteuô (nesteuo), which means "fast" and "to abstain from."

Mar 2:17 They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Alternative: The strong have no need of a healer, but the bad have. I set out not to summon those observant of the rules but those who err to change their minds.

In the narrative, Christ has healed three times at this point in Mark so his statement is perfectly in context with the action thus far.

Christ here divides humanity not once but twice.

He says some people are "whole" while others are "sick" or, in a more direct translation, "strong" and "bad." Interestingly, the Greek word used for "ill" here has much more the sense of "evil" than the world usually translated as "evil" in the Gospels. While the word can mean physically ill, this is not its usual use. The contrast with "strong" conveys the idea that evil is a form of weakness, a sickness of the spirit like the sicknesses of the mind, body, and relationships that Christ has already addressed in the three healings he has performed thus far.

He also says that some people are righteous while others are sinners, or, translating more directly, those observant of the rules and erroneous. In setting up this dual dichotomy, Christ tells us that observing the rules is the same as being strong, that is, that following the rules is difficult while ignoring the rules is easy. Virtue, in the sense of following the rules Christ is talking about, isn't easy nor is it mean to be. However, making bad choices and errors, though it may be easier, leads to a type of spiritual sickness.

While none of us are perfect, Christ does say that some people are strong and virtuous and were before his coming. He did not introduce virtue to the world but to spread it to those who are weak and sick. Strength is not a permanent condition for anyone. Even the strongest fall sick. Similarly, virtue is not a constant. Even the most virtuous people make mistakes. So we all need Christ. The question is one of when.

Christ would agree with those who say his teachings are for weaklings. The real question here is if those who think they are strong are truly the strong. The test Christ proposes is simple: do you obey God's rules or do you make mistakes. The honest will admit that they fall into the latter category as often as the former. Interestingly, those who accuse the religious of being weak are also those most likely to think of virtue itself as a weakness. Christ the healer would diagnose them to be among those that are the most ill and the most need of healing.

Letting Christ into our lives is an admission of weakness, and admission that we need Christ and healing. We may admit this only in times of need, but Christ can only help us if we recognize that we need help. Since we are drowning in a sea of illusion, we often don't recognize our need, but the need is always there, especially with those who least recognize it.

Note hear that the word translated throughout the Gospels as "kingdom" also means "rule" and "reign." When Christ talks about observing the rules, these are the rules he is talking about. "Observant of the rules" means not only that you keep the rules, but that you recognize what they are. This is the hardest task when talking about God's laws. Some of these laws are easy to recognize but others are subtle and mysterious. For example, it is not only easy but unavoidable to observe certain laws of nature, like gravity, in one sense, but observing what gravity really is and how it really works is very difficult. Everyone obeyed the law of gravity until Newton, but Newton was the first to really observe what that law was. The same is true for all of God's laws. You can obey them without really observing them and understanding them. It is the understanding that is difficult.

"They that are whole " is from ischuô (ischuo), which means "to be strong in body," "to be powerful," "to prevail," and "to be worth."

"Need" is from chreia (chreia ), which means "need," "want," "poverty," "a request of anecessity," "business," "military service," "a business affair," "employment," "familiarity," "intimacy," and "maxim."

"Physician" is from iatros (iatros), which means "one who heals," "physician," and "surgeon."

"Sick" is from kakos (kakos), which means "bad," "mean," "base," "ugly," "ill-born," "evil," "worthless," "sorry," "pernicious," and "ill."

"Come" is from erchomai, which means "to come" and "to go." It means "to set out" and "to arrive at." It is a little like we use the phrase "he is on his way,"or "to be under way," which can mean either that he is coming or going with no direct reference to the position of the speaker.

"Call," is from kaleô (kaleo), which means "call," "summon," "invite," "invoke," "call by name," and "demand."

"Righteous" is from dikaios (dikaios) which means "observant of rules," "observant of customs," and "observant of duty." Later it means "well-balanced," "impartial," and "just." In Matthew, it is first translated as "the just" and later always as "the righteous."

"Sinners" is from hamartôlos (hamartolos) which means "erroneous," and "of bad character."

"Repentance," is from metanoeô (metanoia), which literally means "to perceive afterward," "to perceive too late," "to change one's mind," "to change one's purpose," and "to repent."

Mar 2:17 They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Alternative: The strong have no need of a healer, but the ill have. I set out not to summon the virtuous but the erroneous to change their minds.


"They that are whole " is from ischuô (ischuo), which means "to be strong in body," "to be powerful," "to prevail," and "to be worth."

"Need" is from chreia (chreia ), which means "need," "want," "poverty," "a request of anecessity," "business," "military service," "a business affair," "employment," "familiarity," "intimacy," and "maxim."

"Physician" is from iatros (iatros), which means "one who heals," "physician," and "surgeon."

"Sick" is from kakos (kakos), which means "bad," "mean," "base," "ugly," "ill-born," "evil," "worthless," "sorry," "pernicious," and "ill."

"Come" is from erchomai, which means "to come" and "to go." It means "to set out" and "to arrive at." It is a little like we use the phrase "he is on his way,"or "to be under way," which can mean either that he is coming or going with no direct reference to the position of the speaker.

"Call," is from kaleô (kaleo), which means "call," "summon," "invite," "invoke," "call by name," and "demand."

"Righteous" is from dikaios (dikaios) which means "observant of rules," "observant of customs," and "observant of duty." Later it means "well-balanced," "impartial," and "just." In Matthew, it is first translated as "the just" and later always as "the righteous."

"Sinners" is from hamartôlos (hamartolos) which means "erroneous," and "of bad character."

"Repentance," is from metanoeô (metanoia), which literally means "to perceive afterward," "to perceive too late," "to change one's mind," "to change one's purpose," and "to repent."

Mar 2:14 Follow me.

Christ doesn't ask those he has cured to follow him. He has cured three people and each of them were told, in a variety of ways, to get on with their lives. Instead he asks the tax collector, Levi Matthew, who was working at the time and we assume successful.

Christ is teaching that there is an certain order to our priorities. If we are mentallhy confused, estranged from our families, or having health problems, our first priority is getting our lives together. We look to him for healing, to be made clean so that we can get on building our lives.

However, once we have our lives together, have a family, a career, we cannot get lost in them. We must think about our spiritual life, which is the purpose of our temporary lives. The spiritual path is not for those who cannot cope with every day life. It is the next step for those who realize that there is more to life than our everyday life.

"Follow" is from akoloutheô (akoloutheo), which means "to follow," and "to go with." It also means "to be guided by" and means following a leader as a disciple.

Mar 2:9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, [Your] sins be forgiven you; or to say, Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?
Mar 2:10 But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,
Mar 2:11 I say unto you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go your way into your house.
Alternative: What is easier to keep saying to the paralyzed, "Mistakes are left behind," or to say, "Wake up and lift up your mattress and walk around? But so you see that the power of the son of man on earth is to let loose mistakes, I say, "Wake up and take your mattress and go away to your house."

Christ is addressing us all as "the paralyzed." His message in Mark so far has repeated the idea that we are drowning, possessed, and rotting. Here he adds the further idea that we are paralyzed. Like someone paralyzed, we worry about words and the past instead of waking up, acting, and getting back to our relationship with one another.

Notice the pattern. These three cure stories cover the three areas that of our lives that Christ repeats again and again: the mental, the emotional, and the physical. The possessed man was handicapped mentally. The leper was the social outcast, cut off from relationships. Here, the paralyzed man is physically handicapped.

Christ here is again demonstrating that words and ideas must lead to action and action to relationships. Words that enable action have power. In this case, Christ's words lead to the paralyzed man being able to walk. Where must he walk to? He must return to his home, that is, to his family. Note that the leper was not sent home because to be welcomed back into society, he had to go through the cleansing ritual. So he was sent to the priest. Our words and thoughts about past mistakes serve no purpose. It is what we do from now on that matters.

What is the paralyzed man instructed to do? First, he must wake up, come alive mentally. Then he must pick up his mattress. The man's mattress is what keeps him comfortable while talking no action. When he actually takes action, it become a physical burden. Then, he must go home, get back to his relationships.

As with the man cleansed leprosy, Christ tells him to go away, to get on with his life. He asked none of these three men to stay with him and learn more. In having their ability to act and live in society returned to them, they have what Christ provides. It isn't the knowledge. It is the understanding that life is more than it seems and that we must take advantage of our ability to live.

Notice that nowhere so far is Christ preaching that these men must believe in God or believe in him. He is preaching the belief in the rewards of bringing good news to others, being productive in our lives, creating value for others. Faith is important, but Christ was definitely not a faith healer, asking people to believe so that they may be cured.

As in the other Gospels, religious authorities, the scribes, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. In curing the leper, that priest played an important role of cleansing the man for his return to society. Here, however, we see the fault of religious leaders, worrying more about what is said than what is accomplished through action.

"Whether" is from tis, which can mean "someone," "any one," "everyone," "many a one," "whoever," and so on. In a question, it can mean "who," or "what."

"Easier" is from euphulaktos (euphulaktos), which means "easy to keep," or "easy to guard."

"Say" is from the word epo, which means "to speak" or "to say" (from epos, which means "word').

"To the sick with palsy" is from paralutikos (paralutikos) which means "paralytic."

"Arise" is from egeirô (egeiro), which means "to awake," "to rouse," "to stir up" and "to wake up."

"Take up" is from airo, which primarily means "to lift," and also means "to raise up," "to take up," "to raise a child," "to exalt," "to lift and take away," and "to remove."

"Bed" is from krabbatos (krabbatos), which means "couch," "mattress," and "pallet."

"Walk" is from peripateô (peripateo), which means "to walk up and down," "to walk about," and "to walk about while teaching."

"Know" is from eido (eido), which means "to see," "to examine," and "to know." Not to be confuses with another word translated as "to know," gignôskô (ginosko) which means "to learn to know," "to know by reflection or observation," and "to perceive."

"Power" is from exousia ( exousia ), which means "control," "the power of choice," "permission," "the power of authority," "the right of priviledge," "abundance of means," and "abuse of power."

"On" is from epi (epi), which means "upon," "at," "by," "to," "over," "against," "in the time of," and "for."

"Forgiven" is from aphiêmi (aphiemi), which means "to let fall," "to send away," "to let loose," "to get rid of," "to leave alone," "to pass by," "to permit," and "to send forth from oneself." This is the same word that is translated as "leave" and "forgive" in the New Testament.

"Sins" is from the Greek hamartia, which means "to miss the mark," "failure," "fault," and "error." Only in religious uses does it become "guilt" and "sin."

"Go your way" is from hupagô (hupago), which means "to lead under," "to bring under," "to bring a person before judgment," "to lead on by degrees," "to take away from beneath," "to withdraw," "to go away," "to retire," "to draw off," and "off with you."

Mar 2:8

Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

Alternative: Why do you calculate these things in your hearts?


For Christ, feeling is the realm of relationships. The heart is Christ's metaphor for our feelings regarding our relationships both our personal relationships and our social position. (In an earlier post, we discuss the concept of desires of the heart as opposed to desires of the belly.)

In this specific situation, the scribes were attacking Jesus to defend their position as religious authorities, but if we take the narrative away and look at this line in the larger context of this chapter of Mark, a different message emerges.

First, Christ tells us to let go of our errors, leave our mistakes behind us.

Then he asks us to think about it: why do we try to justify ourselves and attack our opponents? What does all our mental gymnastics win us? When we use our thoughts to justify our emotions, we accomplish nothing. Christ is making the order clear. We use our thoughts and ideas to chose our actions. Our actions should determine our feelings and relationships. When we try to form our relationships without actions, it is meaningless.

The previous command about letting go of our mistakes, or as regularly translated, being forgiven of sin is about the same thing. We cannot let our mistakes drive our emotions and thoughts. We must let them go. Worthless actions and bad habits must be abandoned in action, thought, and feeling.

In the next verse, Christ will demonstrate this idea in a tangible way. Words lead to action leads to relationship.

"Reason" is from dialogizomai, which means "to calculate exactly," "to add up account," "to debate," and "to argue."

"Heart" is from kardia, which means "heart" and which we discuss in a larger Greek context here.

Mar 2:5 Son, your sins be forgiven you.
Alternative: Child, your errors have fallen away.

Our modern sense of sin, guilt, and forgiveness is not the sense of the Greek words used in the Gospel. The choice of words is extremely significant because most of the reason that people criticize Christianity today is because they see it as harshly judgmental. Christ's words do not have that feeling at all in the original Greek.

The word translated as sin, hamartia, and all associated words, carries the sense of failure and error but not the sense of intentional wrong-doing. In Greek, the Gospel writers would use the many words related to alitria (sinfulness)--including alitoxenos, alitêrios=sinning, alitainô=sinful, aleitês=sinner, adikeô=sinned, alitros=sin, sinner, sins, alêtheia=sincerity--which all carry more of our modern sense of sinning and wrong-doing. Similarly, the word translated in the Gospels as Christ talking about "evil" means "burden" and "worthless." In Greek, another word, kakia, seldom used by Christ's, means evil in the sense of malicious.

In a similar vein, the word translated here as "forgiven" is used very broadly in Greek and the Gospels for a number of different ideas. It basically means to get rid of something. A number of other word for letting go and loosening can also be use to mean "forgive," but this was not a common idea in the Greek. The word for "give," didômi was used more commonly for giving pardon or condoning an action.

"Son" is teknon (teknon), which means "that which is born," "child," and "the young."

"Sins" is from the Greek hamartia, which means "to miss the mark," "failure," "fault," and "error." Only in religious uses does it become "guilt" and "sin."

"Forgiven" is from aphiêmi (aphiemi), which means "to let fall," "to send away," "to let loose," "to get rid of," "to leave alone," "to pass by," "to permit," and "to send forth from oneself." This is the same word that is translated as "leave" and "forgive" in the New Testament.

Mar 1:44 See you say nothing to any man: but go thy way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Alternative: See that you say nothing to no one. Instead go away, reveal yourself to the priest, and pay for your cleansing what Moses ordered as proof to them.

Christ again repeats the idea of being silent and going away that we saw in Mrk 1:25. Christ knew that the leper would not heed his direction, but Christ wanted to take a stand again broad, public, anonymous communication. The cleansing that Christ is bringing is a personal, private awareness not a social movement. Cleansing changes society one person at a time.

Why does Christ want the leper to show himself to the priest? Because the law of Moses commanded a specific ritual upon the healing of a leper (Lev 14:2). Such a healing was to be followed by a ceremony of cleansing that involved several sacrifices over several days time, along with certain good, public health practices, such as saving, washing, and washing clothes. The end of the disease was separated from this cleansing, which allowed time to pass and proved to the public that the victim was clean and could be welcomed back into society.

So we have two cleansings, the real physical one and the second social one, bringing the victim back into society. Christ provided the real healing, but the second one depended upon the traditions of the people involved. Christ did not come to change those traditions. Rather his job was to put them into perspective.

We learned from the beginning of Matthew that Christ saw our temporary life on earth as consisting of three components: the physical, the mental, and the emotional. The emotional components involves our relationships with one another, both personal and social. For Christ, all three components were important as part of a process.

Words, that is the intellectual part of life, affect the physical and social. Words and ideas can improve our lives. Learning can alleviate suffering. Christ's words here heal the leper. But the power of words has a limitation: they should not be used to change emotions. Emotions and relationships must depend on actions, in this case, the actions dictated by tradition. Thought (words) directs action. Action directs feeling. Feelings direct thoughts. Spirit (or information) must direct all of these components. As productive as words are in the intellectual world, they are destructive in the emotional world. Our emotional relationships should depend on actions, not words. Our relationships should not be based upon what happens moment to moment but upon what happens over time.

Ideas can physically change our lives in a moment, but our actions over time are the proof of our healing and feeling.

What would Christ think of public religious healings held for show? What would Christ think of the instant verbal professions of healing for the crowd? All we can say is that this is is not what he recommends here.

"Say" is from the word epo, which means "to speak" or "to say" (from epos, which means "word').

"Nothing" and "any man" are from a repitition of the word mêdeis (medeis), which means "nobody," "no one," "not even one," "naught," "good for naught," and "nothing."

"See" is from horaô (horao), which means "to see," "to observe," "to look," "to take or give heed," "to look out for," and "to see visions."

"Go your way" is from hupagô (hupago), which means "to lead under," "to bring under," "to bring a person before judgment," "to lead on by degrees," "to take away from beneath," "to withdraw," "to go away," "to retire," "to draw off," and "off with you."

"Priest" is from hiereus (hiereus), which means "priest," "sacrificer," and "diviner."

"Show" is from deiknuô (deiknuo), which means "to bring to light," "to show forth," "to show," "to point out," "to make known," "to prove," "to display," and "to offer."

"Brought" is from prospherô (prospero), which means "to bring to," "to add," "to apply to," "to present," "to offer," "to contribute," "to pay," and "to bear in addition."

"Commanded" is from prostassô (prostasso), which means "to place," "to post," "to attach to," "to command," "to prescribe," "to enjoin," and "to order."


"Witness" is from marturion (marturion), which means "testimony" and "proof."

Mar 1:41 I will; be clean.
Alternative: I want you to be cleansed.

What does Christ want us to be cleansed of? How does he want us to "turn around" (Mat 1:15)? What water does he want the Apostle's to pull us out of as "fishers of men" (Mat 1:17)? What change is he heralding (Mat 1:38)?

First, Christ came to put our suffering in this life into a large perspective. Our temporary suffering in this life is not only temporary, but it serves a purpose. Christ came to awaken us to that purpose and the meaning of human suffering. As certain physical constants in the universe are necessary for life to exist, evil and suffering are necessary conditions for a meaningful life. Christ is truly saying what he means: though suffering is necessary we can be cleanse of its burden.

There are two kinds of evil: suffering cause by nature (sickness, disaster, death), the kind of suffering that Christ is dealing with here, and evil caused by the actions by humans. If evil actions by humans were not possible, we would have no meaningful choices. If no suffering (ours or that of others) resulted as consequence of our decisions, all choices would be equally good and therefore meaningless. First, Christ wants us to be cleanse of our misconceptions that by doing evil we can somehow gain from it. Any short-term gain becomes a long-term loss.

This brings us to the suffering Christ is addressing here, the suffering that is cause by the nature of things, disease, aging, and eventual death. If there were no natural suffering, we would have no reason to care for one another and no incentive to learn more about the world and how it works. Awareness of death itself puts our life into a greater perspective. As Christ says in the Beatitudes, those who mourn on being "summoned," summoned to a greater awareness.

Christ wanted us to focus on what our suffering demands of us: caring for one another and learning about the world. Like children complaining that their parents won’t let them eat candy for every meal, we have to realize that this world has suffering of both types as necessary conditions for our freedom and growth. Christ wants us to be cleansed of our misconceptions about life. He wanted us to realize that our choices involve real freedom and real consequences.

"I will" is from thelô (thelo), which means "to be willing," "to wish," "to ordain," "to decree," "to be resolved to a purpose" and "to desire."

"Be clean" is from katharizô (katharizo), which means "to clean," :to clear the ground of weeds,""prune away," "to remove dirt," and "to remove impurities." It is also used to describe the removal of the inedible parts from grain (winn0wing), clearing weeds from a field, pruning a plant and so on.

Mar 1:38 Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.
Alternative: We carry on into the towns that are close so that I be a herald there too: because I came out for this.

Christ doesn't describe himself as a preacher. He describes himself as a herald. He is heralding the beginning of a new age. Everything his says makes it clear that he understood his pivotal role in human history.

Even when the Gospels were written, it was not clear that Christ's teaching would go onto change the thinking of the world, but he clearly understood this from the beginning. While those who worked with him and wrote his story thought that he was the herald of the end times, judgment day, Christ himself talked about the advent of the kingdom and the end of an age.

Strangely enough, Christ also knew that he could accomplish this change without traveling to the capitals of Asia and Europe. Here we see that his decision to work within his region. During his whole life, he never travelled more than thirty miles from where he was born. He left it to the apostles to travel to the reaches of the known world.

The question is why?

His life was a message to us all. These words are aimed at us today. Being a missionary is not about going to far away places. Few are called to travel far. We are called to be a witness from whereever we are, to those who are near us.

This is consistent with Christ's message about loving your "neighbor." What counts is how we treat each other face-to-face, person-to-person. Christ did not want us to love our neighbors as some distant, vague abstraction. We do not discharge our responsiblities simply sending money to to a distant charity that helps the anonymous, faceless "needy" or, must worse, thinking we are being righteous when we vote for laws and lawmakers that force faceless crowd to pay to help these faceless needy. This type of distant, arms length self-righteousness that ignores each person's individuality is exactly the opposite of what Christ taught in word and deed.

His message is simple here. You can change the world. You can do it from where you are. I am reminded of Christ's first words in Matthew to John the Baptist, where he says that we must accept things as they are now, the duties that are in front of us, in order to have everything end in perfection.

"Let us be go" is from agô (ago), which means "to lead," "to fetch," "to carry," "to bring," "to take with one," "to draw on," "to bring on," "to lead towards," "to lead on," "to manage," "to guide," "to draw out," "to keep [a date]," and so on.

"Into" is from eis (eis), which means "into," "to," "towards," "in regard to," "to the limit of," and "up to (some time)."

"Next" is from echô (echo), which means "to have," "to hold," "to possess," "to keep," "to have charge of," "to keep," "to maintain," "to hold fast," "to bear," "to keep close," "to keep safe," and "to have means to do."

"Preach" is from kêrussô (kerusso), which means means "to be a herald," "to officiate as an herald," "to be an auctioneer," "to make a proclaimation as a herald," "to proclaim," "to announce," "to preach," and "to teach publically."

"I came forth" is from exerchomai, which means "to come or go out of " or "to come out."

"Therefore" is two words. The first is eis (eis), which means "into," "to," "towards," "in regard to," "to the limit of," and "up to (some time)." The other word is toutô (touto), which means "from here," "from there," "this [thing]," or "that [thing]."

Mar 1:25 Hold your peace, and come out of him.
Alternative: Shut up and get out of yourself.

This line is address to a man "with an unclean spirit" (pneumati akatharto - literally "foul breath" and "impure breath of life"). In reading the narrative, the nature of an "unclean spirit" can be interpreted many ways, from possession by a demon to simply having a seriously troubled mind. After this command, the phrase that describes what happens next can be translated,. as it usually is, as the spirit coming out of him, or as saying that "the man convulsed, cried out, and came out of it," which I think is closer to how we would describe this today.

Our goal here is thinking about all of Christ's words as though they were address to us today. Taking Christ's words out of the narrative, they clearly have a deeper message to us.

Christ is telling us to stop talking, both out loud and in our heads, and to come out of ourselves. He is telling us to stop being consumed by the every day issues of our lives. He wants us to look at our lives from the perspective of being an eternal spirit rather than a temporary being in a singular life.

Christ's statement to the Apostles about being "fishers of men" suggested this idea. Their job or rather our job, is to pull people out of the sea, or, as Shakespeare described it, "this sea of troubles." We want to encourage each other to come out of our selves, stop being so caught up in our problems and egos, and come to our senses, seeing the greater reality of our lives.

Why is being quiet important? You know before I even write about. When we are talking to others or worrying inside our heads, we are drawn into the moment and away from the eternal. Contemplation is always quiet, both quiet of mouth and quiet of heart. It is in stillness we sense the eternal.

In stillness, we can reflect on our unique position in the world, our existence at the center of our own reality. We can see the great conflict in existence. In the great scheme of the world, much less the near infinity of time and space, our particular lives seeming so insignificant. At the same time however, we are all we know. Your self-awareness is all you truly know. From your perspective, the only self-awareness you can know is your own. From your awareness, you infer mine, but you can know my self-awareness directly. Each of us, from our individual perspectives, are at the center of everthing and in control of nothing. What happens to us each from moment to moment is at once all important subjectively while seemingly meaningless objectively. Where is the truth: in our importance or our insignificance?

This quiet contemplation of the paradox at the core of our existence leads either to God or to insantiy. Yet, in our day-to-day interaction with each other and in listening to the chatter of our minds, we are distracted from it. We have other issues to deal with. Yet, in getting lost in the temporary distractions, we find another kind of insanity: our denial of our unique self-awareness.

"Hold your peace" is from phimoô (phimoo), which means "to muzzle," "to be silent," and "to be put to silence."

"Come" is from exerchomai (exerchomai), which means "to come or go out of " or "to come out."

"Out" is from ek, which means "out of," "away from," "from," or "by."

"Him" is from autos (autos), which means "the same," and the reflexive pronouns, "myself," "yourself," "himself," "herself," "itself," or the oblique case of the pronouns, "him," "her," and "it." It also means "one's true self," that is, "the soul" as opposed to the body and "of ones own accord."

Mar 1:17 Come after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Alternative: Follow me and I will prepare you to become sailors of mankind.

As I pointed out in the look at the similar verse in Matthew, (Mat 4:19) the terms translated as "fisher" is more commonly used to simply mean "sailor" or "seaman." However, looking more closely at the other terms that specifically mean "fisherman," they are not as common as halieus and another term, nautês, is much more commonly used to refer to a "sailor." As always, I prefer to think that both ideas, that of being both a fisherman and a sailor are intended.

What does it mean to be sail upon the seas of humanity? It means not being tied to one place or group. It means to move where the wind (the real meaning of the Greek word for "spirit) takes you. It means to be at the mercy of the weather but to have a course and a purpose. No one wanders the sea as one might wander the desert.

A "fisher of men" for me is a somewhat more clumsy metaphor but it works on another level. It means catching men, or as they did in Galilee, in nets, and pulling them from the sea. If we think of the sea as a metaphor for the world of men and the air as the world of the spirit, it means bringing them up from a limited world to a bigger world. Before Christ, all men were under water, lost in the depth. The role of the apostles was to pull them from the depths, up to the light. Of course, the fish would die out of water, but the men would be reborn.

This metaphor gives more meaning to the symbol of baptism. Though the term in Greek means being dunked in water, the real rebirth here is the rising from the water, rising from the depths. It isn't a ritual washing, but a coming out of the depths into the air.


"Come" is from deute (deute), which means "come here" and "come hither." It is an imperative form, indicating a command.

"After is from opisô (opiso), which means "back," "behind," "hearafter," and in the special case with deute as here, "follow me."

"I will make" is from poieô (poieo), which means "to make," "to produce," "to create," "to bring into existence," "to bring about," "to cause," "to render," "to consider," "to prepare," "to make ready," and "to do."

"Become" is from gignomai (ginomai), which means "to become," "to come into being," "to be produced," and "to be."

"Fishers" is from halieus (halieus), which means "one who has to do with the sea," "seaman," "sailor," and "fisher."

"Men" is from anthrôpos (anthropos), which "man," and, in plural, "mankind." The use here is in plural.