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| Mark the Evangelist by Frans Hals |
I was pretty surprised to read that Jesus ate meat. At least according John Mark who is credited with writing the Book of Mark. However, maybe since John Mark ate Meat he just assumed that Jesus would eat it, too. Who knows. I would have thought Jesus would be a vegetarian. The Book of Mark was written 30-40 years after Jesus lived, so it's hard to determine what is true and what is heresay. It could be that in Mark when it says that Jesus sat down to meat, it just mean't he sat down to dinner. I also think that maybe food was so scarce back then that people ate whatever came their way. To be able to choose your diet seems to me rather a luxury from a prosperous society.
[Mark 2:15 "And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him."]
In the Old Testament is a story (quite possibly apocryphal) about how God originally made man to be a vegetarian, but man wanted to eat meat so badly that God relented and said "Well, okay. I'll give you that." I paraphrase. [one can only paraphrase God--or Jesus.]
Another astonishing thing I found in reading Mark: often after Jesus heals a person he tells them not to tell anyone of what he just did. As if he wants to keep it a secret, but, of course, they do tell everyone and the word gets out. I wonder if Jesus said not to tell anyone only because he knew that would make them do the opposite. Maybe Jesus was the first person documented to use reverse psychology. It's impossible to believe that he didn't know men's minds well enough to know that they were going to tell people no matter what he said. [Mark 8:36 -- And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it:]. I've just found out that this only occurs in the Book of Mark. In Luke, Jesus doesn't say that at all. It's just the same story told at different times by two different men.
For me, the biggest message of the Book of Mark is how the mind controls the body, which is something I've always thought anyway. In Mark, Jesus heals people by getting rid of their demons (a metaphor for sin and guilt). He actually kills their demons, which is just another way of saying by making the person understand that their sins have been forgiven, it removes the guilt from their mind. This removal of guilt is what heals the body. All through the Book of Mark it says that Jesus killed the sick person's mental demons and then the person was healed of their physical affliction. As soon as Jesus healed the person's sick mind, their body was healed. People with healthy minds are always physically healthier than people with sick minds.
In the Book of Mark it also tells about how Jesus sent out his disciples to teach and to heal people. I think this shows that anyone can learn how to heal people. Jesus certainly wasn't alone in religious history for being able to do this. It's just a matter of realizing that the mind can control the body. That the spiritual can be more important than the physical, but a person must believe this in order for it to be true. And having demons means that a person is so full of sin and the resulting guilt that he can't believe that.
[Mark 3:14-15 "And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, [15] And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils"]
Another thing I learned about Jesus from Mark was that Jesus had a rather liberal attitude about keeping the sabbath. (Mark 3:24 -- And the Pharisees said onto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? [picking and eating corn]). [3:25] And he said onto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? (Mark 3:27 - And he said onto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: [28] Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.) This also indicates that Jesus could read. I don't know if that was common for a carpenter in his day or not, but I have my doubts. However, maybe because John Mark could read, he made the assumption that Jesus could, too.
The Book of Mark wasn't written until at least 40 years after Jesus died. It would be impossible to quote Jesus exactly after that amount of time, and yet the New Testament is full of Jesus's quotes as though these were his exact words. People didn't go around writing down everything that Jesus said. There is so much in the Bible that is out of time sequence do to the fact that it was written so much later after the fact. It would be like writing a story that took place in the 1950's and talking about people consulting their computers.
Another important point that the Book of Mark makes is that a whole person doesn't need a physician. Obviously, because a spiritually well person also has a healthy body.
Jesus Renames People
Mark 3:16-17
"And Simon he surnamed Peter; And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:"
The above reminds me of the American Indians who gave names to people like "Thunder Cloud" and "Little Feather," etc. Buddhists and Catholics (but not Protestants) do the same thing. When Catholic women become Nuns, they often take on a new name. It must be a common trait of all religions to do that. People like having a moniker to indicate that they have undergone a big change from what they were before. People can't keep things to themselves. They have to show the world, because, I believe, we are social animals. However, I always thought it a symptom of spiritual superiority when people didn't care what other people thought about them or have a need to impress other people.
