GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
MARK 1:28 Focusing on the Important
Focusing on the Important
Way back in my sixth-grade elementary school days at Emerson School—which no longer exists—in Granite City, Illinois, Miss Banks had the class stand around the room. She wrote a few words on a sheet of paper, and she then whispered the sentence into a student’s ear. That student in turn whispered the sentence into the ear of the next student, and so on around the room. The last student then wrote what he heard on the board, which was nothing like Miss Banks’ sentence. As I recall, the teacher was trying to illustrate how information changes as it passes through history.
After Jesus’ lesson in the synagogue, the lesson’s interruption by a man with an unclean spirit, and the eviction of the unclean spirit: “Then the report about him went out at once everywhere into all the surrounding area of Galilee.” (Mark 1:28) Without newspapers, newsmagazines, or (gasp!) the internet social media, “the report” about Jesus spread through the whole region of Galilee, not just the city of Capernaum. Given the results of Miss Banks’ experiment, there’s cause to wonder how the report changed as it went from ear to ear. With the human curiosity about unusual phenomena, it’s likely the report focused on the unclean spirit’s eviction rather than Jesus’ lesson. It is probable that Jesus’ lesson was of greater importance than the confrontation with the unclean spirit, but maybe not as sensational. Oh, I’d like to know more about the lesson.
MHmm, now that I think about it, I don’t remember Miss Banks’ sentence, but I remember the experiment. Now I wish I had a copy of the sentence, and I would like to have a transcript of Jesus’ lesson. Neither St. Mark nor St. Luke (4:31-37) recorded the lesson; they both focused on the eviction of the unclean spirit. Maybe that’s an illustration of not recognizing the really important information until it’s pasted.
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