Monday, March 25

Read Jeremiah 7:1-5 & 7,11,12-14 and read all of Mark 11-12. 

Look for the arguments and agreements of “authorities and people.” Do you see a similarity between the almost execution of Jeremiah and the words and deeds of Jesus in the temple?  In Mark 11:15-16, note carefully the four actions that Jesus takes in the temple. Which do you think is more appropriate— to say that Jesus “cleansed” the temple or shut down the temple? For a clue read the beginning of the story of the fig tree cursed in Mark 11:12-14. Then read the incident in the temple in Mark 17:15-16.

Tuesday, March 26

Read Mark 11:20-21. Learn what happened to the fig tree. Is the fig tree’s failure to produce fruit a cipher for the temple? Tuesday is a day of questions: Should taxes be paid to Caesar?

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Read Mark 12:13-17. Is God the God of the Living or the God of the Dead?

Read Mark 12:18-27. What is the greatest commandment?

Read Mark 13:1-37. Learn the importance of Tuesday’s events and get information about the little apocalypse and its similarity to the book of Daniel via the Old Testament.

Wednesday, March 27

Recall what we said at the start of Chapter 2 about Mark's use of frames as a literary device for placing two subjects in dramatic interaction with one another so that readers should use them to interpret each other. There, on Monday, the two subjects were the symbolic destruction of the fig tree for not producing fruit and the symbolic destruction of the temple for not producing justice.

That literary contrast between the framed unit and the framing ones is between believer and traitor, but the depth of that Markan juxtaposition requires an understanding of what each person achieved within the sequence of Mark's story about Jesus. It is, after all, easy to see why betraying Jesus represents the worst action possible, but why does anointing Jesus imply the best?

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One footnote. As so often happens when Matthew and Luke are faced with a Markan intercalation, they simply erase it by running the two frames together without any centrally framed unit between them. For example, Matthew unifies the cursing and withering of the fig tree as a single incident. 

Thurday, March 28

Mark’s story of Jesus last week moves towards its climax. On Wednesday, Jesus had been anointed for burial by an unnamed woman follower and betrayed by one of the twelve. On Thursday, the events set in motion on Wednesday unfold. In the evening, Jesus eats the Passover and final meal and speaks the “words of institution” that become the Eucharist. 

 

Read Mark 14:12-25.  Jesus prays for deliverance in Gethsemane and is betrayed by Judas and denied by Peter, and abandoned by the rest. 

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All this happened before day break on Friday.

Read: Mark 14: 43-46
Read Mark 14: 53-65
Read Mark 14: 60-61

The trail is not about the person of Jesus, but about the kingdom of God.  
Read Daniel 7 in the Old Testament for an understanding of Mark’s Gospel in Chapter 14.

Friday, March 29

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When Friday dawns, Jesus will be handed over to the Roman governor and the end — and the begging — are near.