I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 1-3.

    We know from the Dead Sea Scrolls that John the Baptist was similar to members of the group known as Essenes (a Jewish sect of the time). However, what we know of the Essenes suggests that they were more isolationist than John. They tended to withdraw from the rest of society and form isolated communities. While John separated himself from society, he engaged with society in order to call for people to repent. The Gospel writers tell us that John proclaimed that the Messiah would come shortly and declare John as the one the prophets had foretold as immediately preceding the Messiah. Further they told us that John pointed out Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus actively rooted His ministry in the teachings of John. This is an important understanding. John the Baptist was a preacher of repentance distinctly based in Judaism. Jesus intentionally started His ministry as an extension and expansion of John’s. This is important because, by starting his account of Jesus’ ministry with John the Baptist, Mark is declaring that Jesus taught a form of Judaism.

    Having said what I said what I said about Mark clearly and intentionally rooting Jesus and His teaching in Judaism, Mark also clearly stated that Jesus was doing something new. THis is made clear by Jesus’ response to questions about His disciples fasting. Jesus compares His teachings to new cloth and to new wine and the practices and traditions practiced by John’s disciples and the Pharisees to old clothing and old wine-skins. We can easily make too much of this distinction, since, before making that comparison, Jesus declared that His disciples would fast in the future. We get a better idea of what Jesus meant by referring to His teaching as new wine and the practices of the Jews of His day as old wine-skins from the two stories which followed. In those stories Jesus addressed the application of Sabbath Laws to the human situation. It is never wrong to do good. A modern example comes to us from the Las Vegas shooting incident. A man found a truck with the keys in it and used it to transport wounded victims to the hospital. Technically, he stole the truck, but when things were over the owner just wanted his keys back (and asked how the people taken to the hospital were). We should act as the man who helped others and react as the man whose truck was “stolen”.