October 19th, 2024

Time marches on. This Sunday is the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, and it has as its Gospel reading Mark 10:23-31. With the writings of this website, we have also focused on the Gospel according to Mark. Since we recently went through that entire account, we have been going back and looking at one of the most interesting things about that account. All four Gospel accounts use the historical present (where a past-tense verb is expected, but a present tense appears; incidentally they are the verbs below that are in capital letters), and each account uses the historical presents in a significantly different way.

Feel free to consider this crazy, but with these most recent writings, an attempt is being made to connect the historical presents in these gospel accounts to the four living creatures who are part of the Lord’s throne (with a throne being a sign of the king’s authority and glory). The ramifications of the special God who came down to his creation is found in the very special fact of having four gospel accounts that are designed to work together and give four different perspectives of this saving action. This is much like the four sides of a throne working together to give a special person a nice place to sit, and the idea is for that special person to look very nice in that position as well, with that perspective of that person being different from the four sides of that throne.

Traditionally the Gospel according to Mark has been connected to the living creature of the lion. And as a lion, Jesus is tough. So far, he has been thrown out into the wilderness, to be with the wild beasts, as well as to be with Satan. He starts to have a ‘base’, a territory, and that is Capernaum. And then, while in Capernaum, he was called to help someone, Peter’s mother-in-law to be exact (and the word ‘immediately’ is connected to the calling). And he heals her. (And would you believe that the word used to raise her by the act of simply the holding of her hand is closely connected to the word for power?). Now what is next?

The following historical present happens after there is an impromptu ‘synagogue’ at the door of the house where Jesus was. The whole city was at the door. And he healed lots of people. Early the next morning Jesus went out to a ‘desert’ place, the same word that was used for the location where the Holy Spirit threw him out.

Here is a literal translation of the Greek from Mark 1:36-39:

And they hunted down him, Simon and the ones with him, and they found him, and THEY SAY to him, “All are seeking you.” And HE SAYS to them, “Let us go elsewhere into the neighboring towns, that also there I may proclaim, for into this, I came out.” And he came, proclaiming into the synagogues of them, into all the Galilee, and the demons throwing out.

Now who is getting thrown out? This is why Jesus came out.

It is certainly interesting to hear that Simon and the ones with him hunted Jesus down. You may not have known that this verb, ‘to hunt down’, is only used here in the New Testament.

What is encouraging is that, to get an idea of the meaning of this word, it appears very frequently in the Old Testament. It appears in Genesis, when some of Abrahams’ descendants are getting chased. In appears in Exodus, when the nation of Israel is getting pursued by the Egyptians.

You may not wish to do such a thing, but what follows are all the times that this word which means ‘hunted down’ appears in the Greek translation of the Psalter; and you may wish to look them up. And you may note that it usually is a negative thing. (But is not the cross seen as a negative thing as well?) Jesus helps to get our perspective back on what is good and bad. He was hunted down. (He was the focus of such terrible schemes, he was conspired against, sought after, hounded, pursued, persecuted, condemned, etc.). He was killed. He was raised again. And all of that is a very good thing for us.
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Psalm 7:5; 18:37; 23:6; 31:15; 35:3; 38:20; 69:26; 71:11; 83:15; 109:16, 31; 119:84, 86, 150, 161; 142:6; 143:3 (It should also be noted that Psalm 143 has this as its title in the Septuagint [the Greek translation of the Old Testament]: “A Psalm of David, when his son pursued him.”)