Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily gospel. Exegesis podcast. Thanks for listening today. We have a shorter episode. So I just wanted to take a couple of minutes at the start of today's episode to share with you some feedback that's come in about the ministry. So firstly, I just wanted to welcome those of you who are new to the podcast. If you've only been listing for a little while, particularly those who have found this podcast through the taken read.
Virtual Catholic conference, which was on recently. I know many people started listening to this podcast as a result of hearing about the ministry through that. So you're very welcome and I hope you're getting some things out of it. So here's some quick reviews that have come through about the podcast on iTunes. And if you're one of these people, thank you so much for leaving a positive review. So, we have here, one from j.c. music. One, two, three.
They said the practice of exegesis the results of which are skillfully revealed to us by this podcast. Has the potential to bring us closer to the meaning of scripture. And thus to the mind of God, this podcast seems to have that goal as its aim and I have found it to be helpful in setting. So thank you so much for that review. We have another review here from father, Timothy who says this podcast does a great job of helping us understand the gospel of mass.
Thanks be to all those who work on it from BB mule this is a great daily in-depth analysis of the daily Gospel reading. Things a wonderful way to get a better understanding of the Bible and how to understand it. Thank you so much for these reviews. That's exactly the goal of this podcast I'm helping Catholics and help other people understand the literal sense of the gospels. What did the original authors mean? And I think this is an area where there needs to be more out
there. And so if this podcast is helping you understand, the literal sense of scripture better than that is great. One more of you here from t f bar, they said I'm so thankful for all the hard work that goes into producing and sharing. These podcasts Bible, passages are always presented in a thoughtful way and the teacher strives to get at the literal meaning of the text. I'm not a Catholic but I'm richly blessed from this way of teaching. God bless you.
So it's always interesting to hear when we have some non-catholic listens to the podcast who are still getting a lot out of it. So thank you so much for listening. So thank you so much to all of you who have left reviews on iTunes, or on Tube. Or you've told other people about the ministry, logical Bible study is a small Ministry. So we rely entirely on your list and support. There's no marketing department, there's no other Ministries or parishes, which financially
support this ministry. So if we want the ministry to grow, if we want to do more things, we rely on you. Please tell other people about the ministry, who might be interested in the Bible or learning more about the Catholic approach to scripture. Please share it with them. I'd also love to hear from you about what you're learning about this. Where you first heard it.
And also, any questions you have about any of the episodes, you can always send those through two logical Bible study at gmail.com or you can leave and leave a voice message. And there's a link for that in the show notes. I just wanted to finish this by reminding, you about the patreon page for this ministry. As I said, this ministry is purely listener supported the only way it can grow. The only way you can keep going is from your support and it does take a bit of time and preparation.
And there are some costs to make this Ministry run. So we'd really appreciate your financial support and you can do that through the patreon page. And if you do that, there's actually some really good exclusive content that's available to you. So if you become a supporter at $10 a month or more you'll get access to all of the bonus exegesis episodes of the podcast.
So there's some parts of the gospels that are never read at Mass so you'll never hear an exegesis of them on the normal podcast, but you can get access to all of those bonus podcasts through the patreon page. So that eventually, you will have heard a verse by verse exegesis of every single verse of the four gospel. So that is available to you on
the patreon page. And also if you're willing to give $20 a month or more which really helps the ministry out, then you can get access to the paragraph by paragraph. Commentaries that I'm doing through the catechism of the Catholic church. So there's audio recordings where we break down the catechism, much like we do with the Bible in these episodes here. So, if you want to learn the Catholic faith, Better.
If you've always wanted to study the catechism in-depth then that resource might be a good one for you. All of the information about the patreon page is in the show notes. Thanks once again for your support, please keep this ministry in your prayers and let's get into today's episode. Hey, you again everyone and welcome back to our podcast, where we take a look at the Gospel reading from today and we want to try and get at the
literal sense of the text. What was the original reader or original author trying to convey to his readers. So what was Mark in this case, trying to teach his first century audience, we're looking today at Mark chapter 3 verses 7 to 12 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the Lakeside and great crowds From Galilee followed him.
From Judea Jerusalem, idiom mayor trans jordania and the region of Tyre and sidon great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him and he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd to keep him from being crushed. For he had cured so many that all who were Afflicted in any way were crowding, forward to touch him and the unclean spirits whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and Shout.
You are the Son of God, but he warned them strongly not to make him known. Okay, so the context here is important as we've just heard over the last couple of days Jesus has just had a couple of confrontations on the Sabbath day. Remember the last one was in the synagogue with the man with a withered hand. And this particular scene we're looking at May well have happened on the same day because it starts by saying Jesus
withdrew with his disciples. So what's going on here is Jesus is getting out of town to get some space, withdrew implies. He wants to get Why? So that's the plan he may be to have a bit of privacy or maybe to teach his disciples in private and they go to the lake side which is the Sea of Galilee and Jesus does a lot of his teaching from there. That's just on the very edge of the town that he was just at.
Now, this is interesting for because Scholars have noticed that if you look at Jesus, General travels in Mark and where he moves from, and where he moves to eventually. So, it's from this point on from chapter 3 onwards in Mark, Jesus becomes a bit more elusive. He tends to stay out of the synagogue's, from now on, and he travels back and forth across the lake, most of the time often at night time.
So we get the impression that he's trying to avoid the crowds in this part of the world from now on. But great multitudes From Galilee, followed him. So Galilee remember is the state of Israel that Jesus lives in. So people are coming from all over that region to see him and also it lists a whole lot of other states of Israel that people are coming from. So Judea Jerusalem, idiom a, a trans jordania and the region of Tyre and sidon.
These are all other states or neighboring territories of Israel. Many of these people would be Gentiles tyre and sidon in particular, a gentile areas so we don't just have juice here. We have people from all over the world or this part of the world coming to Jesus these regions. Some of them are quite a long way away so more than 100 miles. So several days journey people are coming to see Jesus and to be healed. He's become quite Famous by this
point. So, he tells his disciples in verse 9 to have a boat ready because of the crowd to keep him from being crushed. So Jesus thinking is that if he's on the boat, he can still teach the crowds, he's on the boat and they're on the shore and he can still teach them, but he's not going to be crushed and it's quite a good idea. We don't know whether he actually does that. In this case, the text doesn't tell us if he gets on the boat in the end but certainly late in his ministry.
He does do that. He teaches the crowds from the boat. Verse 10, for he had cured so many that. All who are afflicted in any way were crowding. Forward to touch him. So, everyone is coming to him. Everyone wants to be cured. And there's this kind of mass surge Mass crowd coming forward. Probably people are less interested in who Jesus is and they have more interested in what he can do for them.
But that's understandable because many of these people would be desperate for healing probably having gone years of illness without being healed. And in this case it appears that people are just being healed. Just from touching Jesus just from physical contact and Jesus is allowing that to happen. So if you can imagine, if you've ever been to the Vatican or even just a rock star or something, where well, this massive crowd is surging forward to touch the famous person and you're kind of
getting crushed in the process. That's pretty much what's going on here, often in pictures of this. We get you know, picture of a peaceful crowd sitting quietly and listening to Jesus. It's actually like a mass crowd that's pressing in and crushing crushing everyone. Verse 11, we are introduced to an more unclean spirits. So an unclean spirit is a Jewish term for an unnatural A supernatural being or also called a demon in the Gospels.
Jews didn't fully understand what these were, but later Christian Church, teaching tells us tells us that these are Fallen Angels, their bad angels and they presumably need to inhabit a body in order to be effective. So that's where we meet them in the gospels. They've taken over people's bodies. Whenever they saw him, they would fall down before him. So, presumably, this means the body's there inhabiting a falling down before Jesus. Now, it's not a sign of worship.
In this case, it's a sign of submission to Authority as you would fall down to a King and they share out. You are the son of God. Now, Jesus hasn't told anyone this yet. It's very early in his ministry, he hasn't said to anyone. I am the Son of God but these demons being supernatural creatures.
They recognize that Jesus is the son of God, this is quite interesting because it tells us the demons, you know, having inhabited, the spiritual realm in a lot of ways, they know God better than people do. They know. And they understand that there is in fact, a son of God. Probably. They might have even seen him working in heaven or something like that.
But most Jews struggle to believe that there's a Son of God. But the demons know that even though they don't, you could say they don't worship God. They know full well that there is a Son of God, so they have their theology, right? You remember later in the Book of James James says, even the demons believe and tremble.
So they know about God and they know that he has a son. so they're shouting his name here, they're shouting at Jesus, you are the Son of God and some Scholars think that By doing this, they might be trying to acquire Mastery over. Jesus there was a common view with that time that by using someone's proper name or secret name, you could gain control over them. So maybe the demons are trying to get control over Jesus by saying you are the Son of God
that's possible as well. Verse 12 but Jesus warned them strongly or another translation says he strictly ordered them notice. Jesus is giving orders here to the demons. That tells us he has Authority 30 or over them, which makes sense because he is the son of God. And he tells them not to make him known. Why?
Why does Jesus not want his identity known at this stage, will Jesus has a timeline of how he want thing wants things to go. And he knows that if his identity is revealed too early, there could be a bit of mass hysteria people all think that he's a literal King because they believe the Messiah is going to set up a literal Jewish Kingdom and wipe out the Romans. And he knows that if word gets out, that he is actually the Son of God, could all get a bit too
crazy too soon. So at this stage, Jesus wants his true identity kept quiet. Although later on, he does allow it to be revealed. and apparently his command works, when Jesus commands the demons, Do not make me known yet, apparently they submit and they don't do that. So that's our passage today Jesus on the shore there with the crowds coming to him. There's one catechism passage here which is in 1504 and that's in the section about Christ as a
Healer it says often. Jesus asks the sick to believe he makes use of signs to heal spittle and the laying on of hands mud and washing the sick. Try to touch him for power came forth from him and healed them all. And so in the sacraments Christ continues to touch Us in order to heal us. So that that's a really interesting teaching of the church.
There it takes scenes like this one in Mark 3 where people are literally being healed just by touching Jesus and the church teaches us that basically the same thing happens in the sacraments particularly in the Eucharist and the anointing of the sick, we also can be touched by Christ and be healed. Okay. A bit of a shorter podcast today. Hopefully you learned something new and we'll see you again tomorrow.