nunblog: Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We've reached the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray:

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this, until Jesus comes again in glory.

Open my mind today to the gift of life and truth your Word offers me through the Church. By your Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom and strength to put this Word into practice and to become, myself, a presence of Jesus for people who are looking for you.

Jesus, eternal Word and Son of the Father, live in me with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Matthew 28 and Mark 1-2.

Do you remember how much trouble the "chief priests and the Pharisees" went to in having the tomb of Jesus secured? They even risked ritual contamination (which would not allow them to continue to celebrate the rest of Passover week) in order to ask Pilate to provide extra security at the burial site until "the third day" was good and done.

As if.

There is no historical record of the resurrection itself: it happened "behind closed doors" (John 20:19) (well, behind that massive stone), "in the secret recesses of the rock" (Songs 2:14), in the deep mystery of the Trinity: "Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father" (Romans 6:4). What Matthew records for us are the aftershocks on earth, and the graced moments when the Risen Jesus, in a human nature now alive in an entirely new way, chose to reveal himself to specific disciples. The entire mystery of the Resurrection is the culmination of the Gospel. It is the high point of Divine Revelation. It is the "picture" of the redemption Christ won for us: we are meant to participate in the same new kind of life that Jesus revealed on Easter. No matter what kind of death we undergo, our very bodies are created to be conformed to the risen body of Jesus. This is what Baptism points us to. And Matthew's Gospel ends by delivering to us the very formula by which we are baptized: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

With the Gospel of Mark, we read a second version of the fulfillment of the promises to Israel's ancestors. From the ancient Church historian Eusebius, who cites the first-century witness Papias (a native of Phrygia who knew St John), we learn that Mark was St Peter's translator. According to Papias, Mark's Gospel reflects the stories St Peter himself told about the Lord. Mark writes in a quick, terse, you-are-there style. One of his favorite words seems to have been "immediately." Many Jewish customs are explained in a way that can help Gentile readers understand the context of Jesus' teachings and miracles.

Something to notice: When Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan, the heavens are "torn open" and the Spirit, like a dove, descends. The same Greek word for "torn open" will reappear at the moment of Jesus' death. Only this time, it is the "veil" in the Temple that is torn "from top to bottom" (a physical impossibility). Early on (in Exodus and then 2 Chronicles) we read the detailed instructions for the weaving of that veil, which depicted the cosmos, but especially heaven. The Letter to the Hebrews will tell us that the real "veil" which is the meeting point between God and humanity is the flesh of Jesus. But now that Jesus has died and risen, God and humanity are perfectly reconciled in one Body. All of that is packed into Mark's choice to put the same Greek word at the beginning and end of his Gospel. It helps us recognize that by our own baptism, we "pass through the veil" and come into life-giving union with God.

Start reading Matthew here and Mark here.

For additional background

As we begin the Gospel of Mark, you might want a companion volume for this short Gospel, since we will speed through it in a week.

In his "For Everyone" series, the Anglican Scripture scholar N. T. Wright has prepared the most readable version around, wrapping his chatty (but highly informed!!!) commentary around his own translation of the Gospel text. You couldn't ask for anything more approachable.

I am happy to recommend this volume of The Four Gospels in an edition directed to young readers and their parents. The text of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in the New Revised Standard Translation is accompanied by FAQs that a middle-school reader might ask (or, to be honest, anybody reading the Gospels for the first time). The footnotes were prepared by a team of Scripture scholars for parents and guardians, making the book ideal for family Bible reading.