By the authority of his word and the power of his name

“And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” (Mark 6:7)

If we had nothing but Mark 1-5, and in it nothing but examples of Jesus exercising his authority, how therefore should we assume that Jesus authorized his apostles to do their initial work around Galilee?

The same way he:

  • Healed the man with an unclean spirit in the synagogue
  • Cleansed the leper
  • Healed the paralytic
  • Called Peter the fisherman and Levi the tax collector to be disciples
  • Healed the man with a withered hand
  • Calmed a storm
  • Demanded demons to shut up
  • Cast demons out into pigs
  • Healed Jairus’ daughter

What is the pattern of Jesus’ authority? What is the natural reading of “he gave them authority”?

By the authority of his word and the power of his name.

Interesting that in the few examples of touch, one (with the leper) is significant because it is unexpected (Jesus was contagious, not the leper!), or gentle and tender (with Jairus’ “sleeping” daughter). We have already learned by this point that Jesus doesn’t *need* to touch anyone.

If Jesus can cast a demon out by his words, he can can cleanse a leper by his words, and if Jesus can heal (and forgive!) the paralytic by his words, he didn’t need to touch Jairus’ daughter.

The least of these

Contrast:

“I am a special kind of Christian, the elite kind; not like *those* other Christians. I am defined by how I stand out among them, and I have no affection for their weak. I have nothing but embarrassment over them, and I am not eager to be one in mind with them, nor am I willing to be publicly shamed by association with them.”

vs.

“The least of Christians are my equal brothers, coheirs of the same inheritance, better men than I in blind spots of my own, especially to be loved when weak, all the more worth associating with when lowly, to be served with loving wisdom when ignorant, and not characterized by their worst. God distributed gifts to them that I do not have, and I am mutually encouraged by their faith. God chose the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and those are my people, since their savior is my savior, their God my God.”

“A plausible harmony of the accounts and sequence of events” of the resurrection

From Craig Blomberg’s Jesus and the Gospels, p. 413:

(1) A group of women come to the tomb near dawn, with Mary Magdalene possibly arriving first (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1; John 20:1).

(2) Mary and the other women are met by two young men who in reality are angels, one of whom acts as the spokesman and announces Jesus’ resurrection (Matt 28: 2-7; Mark 16: 4-7; Luke 24: 2-7).

(3) The women leave the garden with a mixture of fear and joy, at first unwilling to say anything but then resolving to report to the Eleven remaining apostles (Matt 28: 8; Mark 16: 8). Mary Magdalene may have dashed on ahead, telling Peter and John in advance of the arrival of the other women (John 20: 2).

(4) Jesus meets the remaining women en route and confirms their commission to tell the disciples, with the reminder of his promise of meeting them in Galilee. The women obey (Matt 28: 9-10; Luke 24:8-11).

(5) Peter and John meanwhile have returned to the tomb, having heard the report by Mary Magdalene, and discover it to be empty (John 20: 3-10; Luke 24: 12).

(6) Mary also returns to the tomb after Peter and John have left. She sees the angels and then Jesus, although at first supposing him to be a gardener (John 20: 11-18).

(7) Later that afternoon, Jesus appears to Cleopas and his unnamed companion on the road to Emmaus and, in a separate incident, to Peter (Luke 24: 13-35).

(8) That same Sunday evening, Jesus appears to the Ten (the Eleven minus Thomas) behind locked doors in Jerusalem (Luke 24: 36-43; John 20: 19-23).

(9) A week later he appears to the eleven at the same venue, with Thomas now present (John 20: 24-29).

(10) Further appearances take place over a forty-day period, including in Galilee, with over five hundred seeing him altogether (Acts 1: 3; John 21; 1 Cor 15: 6).

(11) A climactic commissioning in Galilee instructs the disciples to spread the news throughout the world (Matt 28: 16-20).

(12) Perhaps only shortly thereafter, Jesus gives his parting instructions to await the coming Holy Spirit and ascends into heaven (Luke 24: 44-53; Acts 1: 4-11).

Keys to harmonizing the resurrection accounts (my thoughts, not Blomberg’s).

  • Mary Magdalene separates from other women at some point. Either on the way to the tomb, or at the tomb (before the angels are encountered), or on the way to tell the disciples (before Jesus appears to the women).
  • Matthew 28:2-4 is a flashback. The earth quakes and angel descends earlier in the morning, frightening the guards. By the time the women arrive, an angel is inside the tomb. It is from within that he says, “See the place where they laid him” (Mark 16:6).
  • The women initially don’t tell anyone (Mark 16:8), but then decide to (Luke 24:10).
  • Parts of the story are simplified or consolidated. Simplification: one angel is noted instead of two otherwise specified. Consolidation: the women “told these things to the apostles” (Luke 24:10). This consolidates Mary Magdalene reporting to Peter and John, and the other women reporting to the rest of the disciples.
  • “The sun had risen” (Mark 16:2) could anciently mean essentially: at dawn.

Counterintuitive facts about the Bible’s textual reliability

  • The more textual variants we have, the more manuscript evidence we have with which to track textual reliability.
  • The more major translations we have, more angles (translation philosophies) we can benefit from when trying to absorb meaning.
  • The more one looks at the Greek, the more one realizes how modern English translations are great and textual variants are mostly boring.

Four quotes on excellence in the ordinary

“To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.” (Henry J. Heinz)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” (Aristotle)

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” (Annie Dillard)

“The strength of a man’s virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but by his ordinary life.” (Blaise Pascal)

Added:

“Do little things as though they were great, because of the majesty of Jesus Christ who does them in us, and who lives our life; and do the greatest things as though they were little and easy, because of His omnipotence.” (Blaise Pascal)
“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself” (Thomas Watson)

Waiting our turn

The smelling salt of Blaise Pascal:

“Let us imagine a number of men in chains, and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows, and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of men.” (Pensées)