Mark 2:1-12 and windows and doors

This is a curious coincidence — my husband and I have watched several movies lately that revolve around doors as magical things. And then here is a door in verse 2 of this biblical story (Mark 2:1-12) — “So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door….” It seems as if, from various lectures and a tiny bit of google, that generally houses in Jesus’ time and place did not have windows, and they wouldn’t have had glass like we think of windows. But doors, yes. Doors let in light and air! Doors kept danger out at night. Doors are kind of magical aren’t they? You are one place, then you are another when you open the door and step out (or in).

In this case, for there to not be any more room even in front of the door, that meant there were a lot of people around! It was packed!

And the magical thing really was Jesus “was speaking the word to them.” I like the translation “preaching” better — Jesus was preaching! And I would capitalize “the Word” — he was speaking the Word! Wow! If I had a chance to ride on a time machine, this is where I would go, that hot, packed, aromatic incredible moment where Jesus spoke the word.

I imagine that Jesus would speak the truth, wiser than anyone else. I imagine he used stories from the Torah and so on. But the Gospel of Mark doesn’t say! At all. This is not a story about what Jesus said. This is a story about what Jesus does.

So there was no more room, but — then more people came! What is going to happen next? Stay tuned!

FTGOG

Matthew 14:22-33 and the crowds

Let’s look at the start of this story — verse 22 of Matthew 14:22-33 — Jesus stayed on land in order to dismiss the crowds. Now “crowds” are always around, it seems, and generally they are amazed but not necessarily believers or followers of Jesus (or even necessarily Jewish). So who are these crowds?

Well a lot happens before this story! These crowds are most likely the “five thousand men, besides women and children” from verse 14:21 that were fed amazingly from five loaves of bread and two fish. That’s a big crowd. They were there because they followed Jesus, when Jesus was just trying to be alone (verse 13). Jesus wanted to be alone because he got the news that his cousin John had been killed by Herod (verses 14:1-12). John the baptizer got Herod riled up. People who rile up the powers that be can — lose their heads. Plus, reading between the lines, but I think that John, who leaped in his mother’s womb when his mother greeted and welcomed Jesus’s single, poor, scared, determined mother Mary, was close to Jesus. They were only six months or so apart in age.

So Jesus wants to be alone for moment, pray, collect himself, mourn his cousin — but he has compassion on the crowd who need him (verse 14).

Could the crowds have been dangerous? Was Jesus sending the disciples off on the boat just so he could slip away from the crowds and go pray? Or maybe both? But the disciples think they are seeing a ghost (verse 26) — could that be a sign that Jesus had been in danger?

Ghosts must be ancient indeed!