On the Move

If you want to look at Jesus you have to be prepared to take a journey. Jesus simply can't be treated as an interesting museum piece, static, frozen in time for all to view at their leisure.

No, Jesus was on the move. Mark's Gospel soon has Jesus moving on to somewhere else, apparently often leaving crowds, fans and supporters behind. In the first three chapters alone just look how many times moving on/out/up/back figures in the story.

Yet this dynamic nature extended to those he interacted with too. He was moving, and he wouldn't allow others to remain static either. He calls to follow, he sends the cleansed-leper on his way, he commands the paralysed to walk, he gets Levi to round up his (dubious) mates and so on.

To encounter Jesus requires and inevitably leads to movement. Karl Barth wrote that theology must follow the living God. Yes if we are to understand God, we are going to have to be on the move.