A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Proper 21B and 22B
The text: Mark 10:1
This week’s gap is a bit of stage direction and set relocation:
He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.
— Mark 10:1
and it’s impact is direct and straightforward. Jesus is heading back to the home country and into the region of his ultimate destination: Jerusalem.
location
This also serves as a reminder that they haven’t been in Judea for a couple of chapters and are now heading back to the land of their people. They have served people outside the tribe—and the disciples have struggled with their own sense of mission.
Is it fair to say this feels a lot like church sometimes? When we get interested in things that don’t really line up with the teachings of Jesus—so we have to figure out if “being a good person” and following the rules of tradition are as important as or the same as following Jesus.
What the disciples have just experienced is significant—and totally absent from most of the conversations I ever have had about scripture.
the crowds
Have you ever wondered how these crowds find Jesus? I often look past them, like they are always there and inevitable. But they aren’t. Jesus ditches them and leaves. And it isn’t like they find him again. Other crowds find him.
Perhaps the common vision of the crowds is that they are like groupies, like Deadheads following the Grateful Dead all over the country. But that isn’t how Mark’s gospel reads (though it is how John’s reads, to be honest). Jesus ditches a crowd and sometimes that crowd catches up. And sometimes they get to the other side of the sea and a different crowd comes looking for a miracle.
The fact that there are crowds is the constant. The people in the crowds are not. And I wonder if the constant influx of hangers-on ought to impact our vision of the gospel. Especially when it comes to people coming in this late in the game, when Jesus is heading to Jerusalem. When they are unwittingly following a man to his death.