Mark 6

Well, I was gonna skip this chapter
to try and get caught up,
but I can't resist a comment or two.
(and what's the hurry, anyway? Who's setting the pace?)

As a designer, I deal with patterns every day.
Being a pattern-recognition kinda guy,
I can't help but wonder when I see them in the scripture.
Are they intended?

The pattern for today is twelve.

I notice that Jesus called twelve disciples.
The woman had been bleeding for twelve years.
The dead girl was twelve years old.
They picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread.

Does it mean anything?
I dunno....
Why bring it up?
I dunno....

I searched the gospels for other twelves:

Jesus was twelve years old when he taught in the temple.

Most every other twelve is in reference to the disciples,
including this (when he was speaking just to them):

Mat 19:28 Jesus said to them,
"Most assuredly I tell you that you who have followed me,
in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory,
you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

and once at the end he said:

Mat 26:53 Or do you think that I couldn't ask my Father,
and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?

(Which I guess is not really a twelve since it is "more than twelve").

You know, back when I was reading Matthew
the verse 19:28 about the twelve thrones
didn't really mean anything to me.

But now that I think about it, it means one of two things:

Mat 19:28 Jesus said to them,
"Most assuredly I tell you that you who have followed me,
in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory,
you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

If he was speaking in general:
1) that all of us who follow Jesus will sit on one of the thrones, judging one of the tribes.

Or if he was speaking directly to the twelve disciples,
and each would sit on a throne:
2) Judas himself, being present and one of the twelve,
will sit on one of the thrones!

1) I don't know if I want to be a judge,
and it doesn't seem like he was speaking in general anyway.
2) Judas as one of the judges?
Could there be a third possibility?

Anyway, So where was I going with those
three main twelves in a row boom.boom.boom?
woman.child.bread?

well, nowhere really...

Maybe it is senseless to highlight something
with no insight or meaning to make it relevant, huh?
So I'll just lay all this aside and shut up now.

-=-=-

(later...)

I still haven't taken the time to search through the scriptures
for all the accounts of unclean spirits and demonizing,
but I notice here another mention of it:

Mar 6:7 He called to himself the twelve,
and began to send them out two by two;
and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

Interesting.
He "gave them authority".

Implying that without it,
no matter how faithful or hopeful we are,
no matter how good we as christians are,
unless it is given to us, we ain't got it?

and something occurs to me about those demons.

When they they entered the animals,
the animals immediately committed suicide.

Makes you wonder if demons had ever tried demonizing
animals before.
And if so, don't they talk to each other?
"Don't try it, it will be the end of you..."

Or maybe that is the goal!

Maybe every demonized creature is suicidal!

Mankind just invents countless ways of going about it,
some of them excruciatingly slow and painful.

man just doesn't have the decency
to run to the nearest cliff and jump off it
like a pig does.

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