Beginning St. Mark's Gospel

Homily for Sunday, June 2, 2024
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
Mark 2:23-3:6

Two are often better than one.  Where, for example, would Meriwether Lewis be without William Clark? Would Frida Kahlo have become the artist she became without Diego Rivera?  Could Martin Luther King Jr. have been the leader he was without the support of Coretta or of Ralph Abernathy?  Or to what extent was Marie Curie helped in her discoveries by her husband Pierre?  Or how much was Einstein’s theory of relativity indebted to the work of his first wife, Mileva Marić?  And where would Nelson Mandela be without Desmond Tutu, or Gandhi without Nehru, Lennon without McCartney, Astaire without Rogers, or Abbott without Costello?  Two are often are better than one because the dynamism of a partnership often exceeds the sum of the parts.

Today marks our annual Spring shift back to the Synoptic Gospels.  Since the First Sunday in Lent (way back in February), our Gospel lesson has come from St. John.  But today we pivot to St. Mark, and – with the exception of a few weeks in July and August (when we return to St. John) – from now until December our Gospel will come from St. Mark.

Before we go further, a sidebar about the so-called “Synoptics…”  The Synoptic Gospels are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  They are called “Synoptic” because they share a “common vision” of the life of Jesus. The word “Synoptic” comes from the Greek:  “syn,” meaning “with” or “together,” plus “optic,” seeing.  Matthew, Mark and Luke “see” the story of Jesus in a way that is similar to each other, but that is different from John.  

With its rhythm alternating between John and the Synoptics, the lectionary creates a dynamism that is greater than the sum of its parts.  As the dynamism of, say, Lennon and McCartney was dependent upon them being two distinct individuals, so the dynamism of the lectionary is dependent on John and the Synoptics being distinct from each other, which they decidedly are.  For example, whereas John is marked by Jesus’ long speeches, in the Synoptics Jesus tends to speak in short bursts.  Whereas in John because of those long speeches Jesus sometimes can be difficult to understand, in the Synoptics Jesus’ teachings tend to be more straightforward. Whereas John is set primarily in Jerusalem and in the context of the Temple, the Synoptics for the most part are set in small towns in Galilee and often feature the local synagogue.  In John Jesus goes to Jerusalem three times,in the Synoptics only once.  John contains no parables; the Synoptics are filled with parables.   In John Jesus does not cast out demons, in the Synoptics Jesus casts out many demons. The list could go on...

And yet – just as the differences between, say, Lewis and Clark, or Martin and Coretta, or Lennon and McCartney set up a dynamism that was creative beyond the sum of their parts – so do the differences between John and the Synoptic Gospels help to set up a dynamism that makes the duo of John and the Synoptics a powerful conveyer of Jesus’s invitation to us to be his disciples.

For example, the Synoptics give us the infancy narratives – and what would Christmas be without the angels and shepherds, and Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger?  But John gives us his magisterial  opening prologue, “In the beginning was the word…” – in the Christmas season we read both. The Synoptics tell us that if we wish to become Jesus’ disciples, we must take up our cross and follow; but John tells us that to be Jesus disciples we need only to “believe” – both are true.  In the Synoptics Jesus teaches a right attitude toward money; John, in the story of the foot-washing, offers an example of humble service – Christian discipleship requires both. The Synoptics more than John tell us about the importance of caring for the poor; but it is John who gives us Jesus’ commandment that we are to “love one another as I have loved you” – it helps to hear both.   The Synoptics tell the importance of being peacemakers and of forgiving one another;but underlying the entirety of John’s Gospel is the Passover, which in the Hebrew tradition is the ultimate rite of peacemaking and forgiving –  I find it helpful to hear both.

This may be a little simplistic, I know, but what the Synoptics tell us is how we as Jesus’ disciples are to live, and what John offers is how we as Jesus’ disciples are to pray, how we might be in our relationship with Jesus. If the Synoptics give us the practical, John gives us the deeper meaning.  If the Syntopics give structure to our discipleship, John adds depth.  Both are needed; the one without the other is impoverished.  Together, John and the Synoptics form a dynamism that powerfully convey Jesus’ invitation to more fully see him, know him, love and follow him.

As we find ourselves on the cusp of several months of hearing from St. Mark’s Gospel, I invite us both to look ahead to what Mark has to tell us – Mark has much to offer – and I invite us also to remember our time in John, the depths and riches that John showed us.  Pope John Paul II, in speaking of the Eastern Orthodox and the Western Church, said that the Church is healthiest when it breathes through her two “lungs” of East and West.  So, too, are we healthiest when we breathe through the lectionary’s two “lungs” of John and the Synoptics.  I pray that in the coming months we may have the grace to breathe in Mark as fully as we breathed in John, and that the dynamism arising from our hearing and praying with the two will help us to better see, know, love and follow Jesus.

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