Reading Backwards through Mark
Zen Lessons 2025 4 20: Mark 1
Though Jesus appears out of nowhere, he may have apprenticed with John. Though his presence, or rather, that of the Holy Spirit is embodied fully there needs to be a ritual cleansing after being born. And quickly his mission, or rather, that of the Holy Spirit, hits the road.
In a way, I see the “turning Hebrew Jesus into Greek” began with Paul. Even though Paul distorted Jesus, and later power politics distorted (and deliberately mistranslated) Paul (especially with regards to the role of women), in between all that are the gospels. Mark’s Jesus is a god among men in a recognizably Greek way, like Dionysis becoming divine after arriving from the East, or Zeus appearing as a hungry stranger begging for relief, or Athena taking form as Mentor, guiding Telemechus towards reuniting with his father, Odysseus.
And like Athena Jesus springs forth fully formed, ready for action. Like Dionysis, Jesus disrupts the convenient order with tremendous force. And like Zeus his message is straight from deep within the eternal order, a message to be ignored at great peril.
But he isn’t a local rabbi or a temple elder.
1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus the annointed son of God as it is written in Isaiah who wrote "I send a messenger ahead of you, a voice of one calling out in the desert who says "Prepare the way of the Lord, of Adonai, and make his paths straight." John the immerser appeared in the desert preaching the immersion of repentance for the remission of wrong doing. The entire land of Judah, all its people, came to him and were immersed by him in the Jordan and confessed their wrong doing. Clothed in camel hair, a belt of hide about his waist, he ate merely locusts and also scooped out sweet honey from the hive. "After me will come someone more powerful than I, I am not fit to stoop down and tie his sandals and untie the strap of one of his sandals. "I immerse you in water, but he will immerse you in holy spirit" 2. At the end of the gospel at the moment of the lonely, excruciating (literally!) death of Jesus, the curtain that divided the everyday from the inner sanctum suddenly tore in half. After his immersion, the sky opens, God is well-pleased. It was time for further purification. There "He was among the wild beasts and the angels attended to him..." and soon after was ready to gather his followers, all of whom would prove utterly incapable of understanding. It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth near Galilee and was immersed in the waters by John. He emerged from the water and saw the skies tear open and the spirit like a dove descended upon him and a voice from the skies spoke: You are my son whom I love, with you I am pleased. At once the spirit drove him to the desert where for forty days he was tested by the Accuser. He was among the wild beasts as the angels attended him. John was arrested. Jesus came to Galilee to preach the gospel of God. The hour is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent your wrong doing and believe. Jesus again went by Galilee and saw Simon and Andrew, those fishermen, casting nets into the sea. Come follow me and i will make you fishers of people. At once they dropped thier nets and followed him. A little farther on he saw Jacob and John, his brother, mending nets. They immediately left their father in the boat with the hired hand and followed him. They came to Capernaum on the Sabbath and Jesus spoke at the temple He taught as one who has authority not merely of books. All the sudden a man possessed appeared and shouted "What are you to us, Jesus of Nazereth, did you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are, God's 'holy one'!" Jesus rebuked him and silenced him and demanded he come out of the tortured man. All were amazed. "Where does this authority come from?" Word spread and went out everywhere in the countryside of Galilee. 3. Miracles follow miracles, Jesus must retreat to countryside as his healing draws people and infuriates the local authorities. As soon as they left the temple the went to the house of Simon. Andrew, Jacob, and John came along. Simon's mother had a fever and they told Jesus. Holding her hand, he raised her. The fever left her and she served them. At dusk all the sick came to the door, even those possessed by demons. Jesus cured many and expelled many demons and the town gathered at his door and he expelled many more even as he would not let them speak because they knew him well. Early that morning when it was still darkness Jesus got up to go to a desolate place to pray. Simon went looking for him and found him, saying "Everyone is looking for you!" Jesus said Let us go elsewhere, to surrounding town so i may preach there, too, as it is for this I came. And he went and cast out demons and preached in the temples. 4. A leper came to him, begging on his knees. "If you wish to, you can make me clean. Filled with pity Jesus outstretched his hand and touched the man. I wish to, now be clean. Once the leprosy went from him and he was made clean, Jesus warned him sternly: Tell no one. Say nothing. Only go show yourself to a priest and give this cleansing prescribed by Moses as a testimony. But the man was excited and spread the word and Jesus could no longer go into town. So he kept to desolate place and they came to him from everywhere. And so it begins, the first lines of the earliest of the four canonical gospels. When i was an older child, the Good Friday mass, the mysteries, fascinated me. I wanted more mystery. I wished for the drama and music and inwardness of that subdued mass. I know I also resisted it... I think my parents had mixed feelings about all the ceremony. As I got older... it seems the mass got more tacky, as if it was retreating from the mysteries themselves. I drifted away. What were those mysteries? Christian belief lives and breathes mystery... decent Christians have ceded public life to the very worst people, and those people are souring the goodness and weirdness that lay at the heart of things. Jesus tried to point to this, but got killed, and got swept up in the wild transcendent escapism of the eastern Roman empire. Maybe over the next weeks, inspired again by my old Catholic life, we can write about the mysteries in Zen, how Zen invokes mystery.