The structure of the third sentence above is quite interesting. "Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet."
This is reminicient of the passage a few weeks ago, where Jesus, having walked most of the way on the water, steps into the boat with his disciples, and immediatley the boat arrived where it was headed.
Mark is sort of known for his immediately(s), the message he is trying to share is entirely too important to wait on, but in this case it almost seems like something else is at work. Like the Spirit is moving through *gasp* Gentile territory telling those who need to see him that Jesus is there immediately upon his arrival. It is a moment where the will of the Father overcomes the will of the flesh and Jesus, as tired as his human body must have been, was faithful and he talked with the woman and eventually cast the demon out of her daughter.
I wish I was as tuned into the Spirit as this Gentile woman. I wish that the author of my life had to spend a lot of time coming up with clever ways of saying "immediately." But often it is a struggle to hear the still soft voice among the sundry distractions. Often, as I've said here before, God has to reach out with a 2by4 to get my attention. May God open my eyes and ears and mind and heart to his Spirit this day so that I too might rush immediately to where he calls.
1 comment:
Good old "euthus". I was so drawn to the that Greek for immediately that I did a pretty good word study on it a little while back (and may have already mentioned this to you). Euthus is used something like 60 times in the New Testament and 42 are in Mark. Not all are translated "immediately"- sometimes we get "at once" or some other close approximation.
What I found the most interesting is the way Mark uses the word. Euthus does not show up until Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water. He then is "immediately driven into the desert". From that moment on, immediately falls every third or fouth line it seems until Jesus is handed over by the chief priests deliver Christ to Pilate. Then, euthus is never mentioned again.
In other words, Mark is in a big hurry to get us to Christ's sacrifice and then wants us to linger at the foot of the cross . . .
Good stuff, my friend. Hope you are having fun with the kids!
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