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This is all about gentle thoughts and gentleness in action, lack of anxiety about anything or anybody, meditation and action or activities that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:4-9).

There is or should be, no confidence in the flesh and an impossibility of attaining a righteousness based on the law (Philippians 3:3-6).

A righteousness based on the law is garbage and a loss, however a righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith – that is Christ. Gaining Christ and being, found in Him, his sufferings, crucifixion and resurrection (Philippians 3:7-11).

While we are alive, in the flesh, we cannot and have not achieved or obtain this righteousness and have to continuously strive towards this heavenly state of being (Philippians 3:12-14).

Putting everything in perspective, suffice it to say that it is possible to perceive all these in a different light, even in such a situation, God will and does bring clarity. The important or essence is to live in Christ, according to Christ, and not as an enemy of the sacrifice of Christ, destined for destruction, with the filling of the stomach as a god and their glory is in their shame, totally focused on earthly matters, instead of heavenly matters and kingdom, a membership or citizenship that is prechosen or selective, sanctified and annotative by the King Himself, who has everything under His control (Philippians 3:15-21).

 

All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor. — Esther 3:2

While Esther is looked upon as the official hero of the story for saving her people, the Jews, it was her Uncle Mordecai who laid the groundwork for that salvation.

In Esther chapter 3, as Haman ascended to power, Mordecai alone refused to bow to this evil man. From there, the story took twists and turns that ultimately led to Haman’s own destruction. But it was Mordecai’s courage to stand up to Haman that brought about the elimination of evil and salvation for the Jews.

The festival of Purim, the Jewish holiday that commemorates the story of courageous Queen Esther. This year, Purim is celebrated at sundown March 9 to sundown March 10.

It’s not always easy to stand up for the truth. It is not easy to fight against long-held prejudices. But knowing that men and women of faith have done so before us, gives us strength to make our own courageous decisions.

As renowned British statesman Winston Churchill said, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities … because it is the quality which guarantees all others.” In a world that seems to have lost its moral compass, it is imperative that we teach our children how to navigate and follow a faith-based journey through life with courage and determination.

History is filled with individuals who had the courage to take a solitary stand against popular thinking and changed our world for the better.

Abraham taught the world about monotheism, justice, and kindness in spite of the prevailing ideology of idolatry, hostility, and immorality. Moses challenged Pharaoh, the leader of the greatest power of his time, broke the yoke of Egyptian slavery and walked the Israelites to freedom. Jael, a woman, had the courage to kill Sisera, the commander of the army of Jabin, king of Canaan, the wicked enemy of Israel, even though her own people were in an alliance with him.

Free your mind, do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”, be strong and courageous (Deuteronomy 31:6), be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:8-9), The devil is not a lion that can devour, he is LIKE a lion, and that is the truth, take a stand for the truth. There is only One Lion, the Lion of Judah, the Messiah, that is Jesus Christ, He is the way and the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Truth.

Permissive will is the opposite perfect will. Permissive will is the will of man, what man wants. It is sometimes allowed by God. Deficient in firmness or control. An indulgent on the part of the Executor or the One who allows the action to take place.

In situations where requests are made to an authority for an action to take place, and subsequently the request is granted, then there is case of permissiveness or permissive will.

However, when the granting authority has or expresses a contra-will, or counter will, to that of the so-called permissive will, then the contra-will or counter will, is known as the “perfect will”. When the granting authority is God, then, this is the perfect will of God, or simply put, the will of God. An example of the so-called permissive will versus the Will of God can be gleaned in the scriptural account in the book of Exodus, chapter 32, where we have God on one hand with His will and Moses on the other hand requesting from God or expressing his will to God. In verses 9-14; “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

From this account, it seems that God permitted Moses’ will to take place, however the perfect will of God ALWAYS takes place at the end of the day, when the scriptural account is further examined in the book of Numbers chapter 14, we found out that, the will that God initially expressed in Exodus chapter 32, finally takes place in Numbers 14:29-35; In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. 30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ 35 I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

Requesting from God is fine, however, but as our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us how to pray in “Our Lord’s prayer”, May the Will of God be done in our lives. His will is perfect and will always be done, in any and all cases. Amen.

The Lord Jesus was on His way to Galilee with His disciples. He had not taken the usual route for a Jew of His day—across the Jordan at Jericho, north along the east side of the river, then back into Galilee. Instead, He said that He had to go through Samaria (John 4:4). The disciples did not understand that, but they went along without grumbling. They would soon learn why it was necessary to go that way. There were thirsty souls who were ready to receive Him.

It was during that trip through Samaria that Jesus taught one of the most basic truths about God found anywhere in the Bible. Picture yourself at a well by the side of the road near the little village of Sychar and listen to our Lord’s conversation with a Samaritan woman, a rather unsavory character, to say the least. She had been married five times and was at that moment living with a man to whom she was not married.

Jesus had worked the conversation around to spiritual things and was responding to the woman’s comment about where people ought to worship: “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:21-23). It was at that point in the conversation that Jesus said something about God which had never been clearly stated before. The truth was apparent from what had been revealed in the Old Testament, but it had never been put into plain words. “God is spirit,” He declared, “and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

God is spirit. There is no article in the Greek text before the word spirit, and that emphasizes the quality or essence of the word. Furthermore, the word spirit occurs first in the sentence for emphasis. The literal idea would be something like, “Absolutely spirit in His essence is God.” Jesus did not leave any doubt about this truth. God is spirit!

But what does that mean? Some have a strange idea about what a spirit is. That is particularly true of children. To them spirits mean ghosts. Two children were talking about ghosts. The five-year-old said, “Did you know that God is a ghost? He’s the Holy Ghost.” His four-year-old brother answered with great theological insight, “Yes, but he’s like Casper, the friendly ghost” (a popular television cartoon character of the day). Is that really what it means for God to be spirit? Let us examine what it does mean, as well as how it applies to our lives.

 

It is quite obvious that a spirit is alive. Our God is not an inanimate object, like a pagan idol with a mouth that cannot speak, eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, and hands that cannot accomplish anything (cf. Psalm 115:4-7). He is alive. The very word spirit also means “breath,” and breath is the evidence of life. Throughout Scripture He is called the living God (e.g. Joshua 3:10; Psalm 84:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).

But a spirit is also a person, not an impersonal force which acts without purpose or reason. I read in the newspaper that the British Columbia Appeal Court has ruled God to be a nonperson. A suspect was observed by hidden camera praying, and in his prayer he admitted that he was guilty. The court ruled that privileged communication, which would be inadmissible in court, must take place between two people, but that since God is not a person, comments made to Him are considered to be admissible evidence.

The judges who rendered that decision would seem to be rather unfamiliar with God’s revelation of Himself. The essential nature of personality is self-consciousness and self-determination, and God has both. He is conscious of His own being. He told Moses that His name was, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). Only a person who is aware of Himself could make that statement. He also has the freedom to choose His own course of action according to what He considers best. He demonstrated it when He subsequently told Moses to return to Egypt, gather the elders together, and inform them that the nation was about to be delivered from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:15-17). An impersonal force does not speak and give logical directions like that.

God also has the basic characteristics of personality—intellect, emotions, and will. He thinks, He feels, and He acts. And that is good news. Because He is a living person, we can get to know Him personally and communicate with Him freely. If He were an inanimate object or an impersonal force, there would be no hope of a personal relationship with Him.

 

Just about everybody knows that a spirit cannot be seen. We cannot even see a human spirit. The most intimate of friends cannot see each other’s spirit and none of us can see God. Paul called Him “the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and “the King eternal, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17).

John assured us that “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). Mortal men have seen visible manifestations which God used to reveal Himself to them and to communicate with them, as when God the Son took human form in a Bethlehem manger. But they have never seen Him fully in His spiritual being. There is no way they could. Spirits are invisible.

Rather than spooking us out, that can be a very comforting truth. Because God is invisible, not only can we know Him, but we can know Him apart from our physical senses. We do not have to see Him or feel Him to know Him. We have spirits too, you see. God is spirit, but we have spirits housed within our physical bodies. And when our spirits are made alive toward God through the new birth, we have the capacity to commune with Him in our spirits, anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstances.

Communion with God does not depend on external things because it takes place internally in the spiritual part of our being. That was the point of Jesus’ comment to the woman at the well. Since God is spirit, we must worship Him in spirit. Worship is not primarily a matter of physical location, surroundings, form, ritual, liturgy, or ceremony. It is not a matter of creating a certain kind of mood or atmosphere. It is a matter of spirit.

Worship is the response of our spirits to God’s revelation of Himself. It is difficult for us to grasp this truth since our spirits live in physical bodies and our physical bodies inhabit a physical universe. Our occupation with the physical makes us try to put our relationship with God into that same realm. We want to be inspired to worship Him by lavish cathedrals, great art, pleasant sounds, lovely aromas, and beautifully worded liturgies. Our human natures cry out for religious symbols, images, and pictures to help us create a mood for worship.

We think we have to be in a church building and follow certain prescribed procedures. God says, “You cannot reduce me to physical things that can be experienced with your senses. I dwell in the realm of spirit and that is where I want to meet with you.” Physical things may direct our attention to God, particularly things He has made. But we meet with Him in our spirits. We can enjoy Him riding to work in the car, pushing the vacuum cleaner through the living room, walking from one class to another, or anywhere else. We know Him and enjoy Him in the spiritual realm, apart from the physical senses.

The major thing we learn about God as spirit is that He is immaterial. By that we do not mean He is insignificant or unimportant, but rather, incorporeal. He does not have a body. Jesus reaffirmed that fact to His frightened disciples shortly after the resurrection. When He entered the room in His glorified body, they thought they had seen a spirit. He calmed them by saying, “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Spirits do not have bodies.

This seems to present a problem, however, since Scripture does refer to God at times as though He has a body. For example, it mentions His hand and His ear (Isaiah 59:1), His eye (2 Chronicles 16:9), and His mouth (Matthew 4:4). Theologians call these anthropomorphisms, a word meaning “human form.” They are symbolic representations used to make God’s actions more understandable to our finite minds. But God has no material substance and He is not dependent on any material thing. He dwells in the realm of spirit.

That has some pertinent implications for our lives. If we know, love, and serve a God who does not have material substance, that should diminish our interest in material things. And that would make us different from the people around us, wouldn’t it? We live in a culture that continually tries to feed our desire for the things money can buy and the security money can provide. It is nearly impossible to escape that influence. Yesterday’s luxuries become today’s necessities. And the more we get, the less it satisfies. If we ever get everything we want, we will find that none of it brings any real contentment.

Our knowledge of God is so inadequate we find it difficult to believe that material things cannot satisfy. We keep trying to acquire more and more simply because that has become our way of life. We continually ask ourselves, “How can I invest this money so it will make me more money?” There are literally hundreds of thousands of millionaires in our country, many of whom are Christians. Their Christian friends sometimes invite them to meetings to tell folks how God has blessed them. They seem to be equating God’s blessing with net worth. But that does not seem to be consistent with a God who is spirit.

God is not opposed to money. He allows us to earn the money we have. He gives us the health, the strength, the brains, and the opportunities to acquire it. But a God whose being is spirit cannot measure blessing in terms of bank accounts, investment portfolios, or land holdings. He measures it in terms of inner peace, contentment, satisfaction, meaning, purpose, loving and joyful relationships with other people who have eternal souls, as well as a meaningful relationship with Himself. Money cannot buy those things.

There are people talking about how much God has blessed them who know very little of what true blessing really is. Unfortunately, they confuse many of God’s people who are not wealthy and leave them feeling as though God doesn’t love them or care about them. It would be more helpful to testify about how little satisfaction money and material things can bring compared to the satisfaction which a personal relationship with God brings. Some unbelievers make lots of money too, but that does not necessarily mean that God’s blessing is on their lives. If money is the measure of blessing, then the crime syndicates and drug traffickers must be blessed above all. A God whose being is spirit does not measure blessing by the amount of material things we possess.

Neither does He measure security in terms of how much we have stored up for the future. He can wipe out million dollar reserves as quickly as hundred dollar reserves (or ten dollar reserves, if that is closer to your financial situation). He wants us to find our security in Him, not in money or material things. He wants everything we have to be available to Him. He may not ask for all of it, but He has the right to do so if He so desires. He asked everything of a rich, young ruler, and that misguided man gave up the opportunity to receive eternal life because he was afraid of what discipleship would cost him (Luke 18:18-27). God would like us to be willing to give up any possession, any investment, anything he asks, and to trust Him fully with our future. We will be able to do that as we get to know the God who is spirit.

The most important question we should be asking is not, “How can I invest my money to make more money?” or even, “How can I provide greater financial security for myself and my family?” A better question might be, “How can I use my spendable income and my available capital to glorify the Lord, to advance His cause, and to help others in need?” God gives us our money. To some He gives more than others. Nothing in Scripture would forbid modest savings or investments. But the clear emphasis of God’s Word is that money is not primarily to store up or spend for our own comforts. It is to use for God’s glory.

That is the emphasis of Christ’s parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21). That man hoarded riches for himself, but God never let him live to enjoy them. God said he was a fool, and his soul was required of him that very night. After telling the story Jesus added, “So is the man who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). To be rich toward God is to invest what we have over and above our needs for the salvation of souls, for the spiritual strengthening of God’s people, and for the alleviation of human suffering. That is real blessing and real security.

The Lord Jesus summed up this subject beautifully in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). We can read that, nod our agreement, then go right on laying up treasures on earth. Do you know why that is? It’s because we have not gotten to know God very intimately. We have not fully learned that, while He is interested in material things and while He can provide all that we need, He Himself is spirit, and the things on the top of His priority list relate to the spirit. Are you giving as much attention to developing your spiritual life as you are to increasing your net worth?

Shortly after the Sermon on the Mount the Lord Jesus gave His disciples an opportunity to put His instruction into practice. He sent them out to minister two by two without money or extra supplies (Matthew 10:9-10). They learned that when they put His work first, He takes care of their physical needs. We have opportunities to put His instructions into practice as well. There are needs all around us. How will we respond? Those who intimately know the God who is spirit will give more and more of their attention to the spiritual realm and, consequently, demonstrate a growing willingness to share their material substance with spiritual ministries and people in need. In that, the God who is spirit will be glorified.

Honor may be defined as an individual’s awareness of his own worth, as well as its public claim and the recognition of this claim by others. Of these three elements (awareness, claim, and recognition), the third is the most important, since, in the end, it is public recognition that determines a person’s honor. Others say who is honorable and up to what point (Bordieu: 211).

One of the most distinctive features of the first-century Mediterranean world is its constant search for honor, recognition, and praise. Some philosophers even considered philotimia (love/desire/search for honor) as the quality distinguishing human beings from animals:

In Jesus’ world there were two ways to obtain honor: to receive it from those who could bestow it or to earn it by one’s own actions. Honor received from others is ascribed honor, while acquired honor is earned by one’s own efforts. The former was by far the more important. As a rule it came by virtue of the family one was born into, for family was the store of shared honor (Guijarro 1998:117-25). It could, nonetheless, be bestowed by those invested with authority. On the other hand, acquired honor was earned by an individual’s own actions, either by competition among equals or as a response to benefits received (Malina & Neyrey 1996: 27-29; Malina & Neyrey 1991: 27-32).

The Gospel writers often refer to Jesus’ honor. Most of his actions, especially his teaching and miracles, are understood as acts of beneficence by the people, who in turn respond by giving him praise and recognition (people are astounded; his fame spreads out, etc.). We can glimpse Jesus’ increasing honor by looking at the response of the Pharisees and other religious or political groups (Saducees, Herodians), who perceive Jesus’ increasing honor as a threat to their own honor, and therefore call his actions into question. The controversies, so prevalent in the Gospels, are actually honor contests in which Jesus is victorious. But Jesus’ actions and underlying claims would not have been possible if he did not previously enjoy some kind of ascribed honor. In Mark’s view, this honor does not come from Jesus’ natural family; it derives from his intimate relationship to God. Therefore, the main goal of the beginning of his account is to reveal the origin of Jesus’ ascribed honor. In Jewish society, God was the supreme source of all things, and so, the source of all honor. Therefore, the words pronounced by the heavenly voice confer upon Jesus the highest conceivable ascribed honor. These words are the culmination of all previous statements, and with them the revelation of Jesus’ identity reaches its climax.

This way of presenting Jesus is called for by the cultural values of the society where the author of the Gospel and his audience lived. In a society based on honor, only those born in an honorable family are eligible to become public figures. If an individual born in a lowly family claims this kind of leadership, his authority and his actions are easily ascribed to an evil spirit, unless an extraordinary event empowers him to do so. Jesus, born in a low-status family of artisans, has no legitimacy as a public figure. If he is God’s Son, however, his legitimacy is unquestionable (Malina & Rohrbaugh: 17 7).

1. MacVann and E. van Eyck have used V Turner’s typology to better grasp the ritual process described by Mark in his presentation of Jesus. According to V Turner, the ritual process has three steps: separation, liminality, and aggregation. Separation involves being dettached from the normal course of life by being distanced from those people with whom a person lives and going to a place and time different from the normal ones. Liminality is the threshold state of those being initiated, who have been separated from the normal course of life. In this intermediate state the initiand is dispossessed of his former status and somehow must die to achieve his new status. During this ambiguous period, the common attributes of initiands are stressed, originating a peculiar social bond that Turner calls communitas. Finally, aggregation involves the incorporation of the initiand to society with the new status he has achieved through the ritual process. In this ritual process, along with the initiands, there are an elder, who plays the role of mystagogue, and a number of ritual symbols, which play an important role at different points in the process (Turner 1969:94-130; McVann 1991:335-341).

The liminality of this stage may be perceived in the ambiguity of Jesus’ status and in the new relationships he establishes. Although the voice from heaven declares he is God’s Son, his identity will not be totally clear until his testing period ends; therefore, ambiguity is a mark of this entire period. As in other ritual processes, along with this ambiguity, there is a communitas, namely, a new set of relationships based on fundamental common characteristics. Whereas during this period Jesus has no relationships with other human beings, he interacts with beings belonging to another realm of existence. The Spirit comes upon him and becomes his guide (elder), for he is the one who leads Jesus into the desert. The voice that comes from heaven declaring Jesus as God’s Son also belongs to this supernatural realm, where both Satan and the angels-with whom Jesus relates in the wilderness-live. Usually, the communitas is intended to create new relationships among the initiands, thus cancelling all differences among them. In Mark’s narrative, however, Jesus establishes these relationships with beings belonging to a kind of mesocosmos, showing that this is Jesus’ true place, for he is not a human being like others. This is what is meant by the statement, “You are my beloved child”; which reveals Jesus’ true identity.

Jesus’ relation to the Spirit and his confrontation with Satan in this early stage of the Gospel prefigure his later confrontations with evil spirits. Mark gives his readers a key to understand the meaning of the exorcisms, which Jesus himself will explain in the controversy begun by the Pharisees who had come from Jerusalem (Mk 3:22-30). When confronting demons, Jesus acts with the power of God’s Spirit, and his exorcisms are therefore a sign of a deeper confrontation (Guijarro 1999: 125-27). As we have previously seen, the account of Jesus’ baptism and temptations may have been influenced by the accusations raised against him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. In presenting Jesus as he does, Mark would be answering these accusations and vindicating Jesus’ honor as God’s Son, endowed with power over the spirits.

The figure of the holy man is common to many preindustrial societies. This figure has its own distinct features. in each culture, due to different social patterns; yet it is possible to identify a number of common elements that allow us to characterize this figure from a social viewpoint. Anthropologists have studied especially the figure of the shaman as the prototype of a holy man. A shaman is defined by his ability to reach and control the spiritual or divine realm in favor of the community he belongs to.

A few years ago, M. Borg suggested (43) that “;the initiation sequence in the spiritual world (baptism), followed by the temptation or testing in the desert has surprising similarities with the information we possess about charismatic figures in different cultures.”; In his corresponding footnote, Borg points out several works dealing with shamanism (53, n 17). His suggestion has been recently assumed in an explicit way by P Craffert and J. J. Pilch.

Taking into account the various ways a shaman is presented in different cultures, Craffert uses the expression “;shamanic complex”; to refer to the general typology of this social figure. According to him, this typology “;is made up of a configuration and some features (e.g., experience of altered states of consciousness) and some social functions (such as healing, mediation, prophecy, exorcism and possession of spirits) flowing from such experiences”; (324). Pilch considers of the greatest importance the fact that the shaman is able to enter into an altered state of consciousness (106).

The moment of his call and initiation is of great significance in a holy man’s life. Given the social relevance of this character, the process by which a person reaches the condition of holy man is highly ritualized and is performed by means of a status transformation ritual. Now, this status transformation ritual shows remarkable similarities with what we find at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. Therefore, by comparing Mark l:l-15 with the holy man’s call and initiation we may throw further light upon our inquiry.

Pilch (107) identifies six distinct features in the call of a shaman: (1) contact with the spirit (through possession or adoption); (2) identification of the possessing or adopting spirit; (3) acquisition of the necessary ritual skills; (4) guidance by the spirit and a real life teacher; (5) growing acquaintance with the possessing or adopting spirit; and (6) all this within the frame of ongoing experiences of altered states of consciousness. These features appear mainly in the baptism narrative, which may be taken as the moment of Jesus’ call. The vision after his baptism and his temptation in the desert after a long period of fasting are typical forms of altered states of consciousness. This is the appropriate environment for the initiation of a holy man (Craffert: 334). Moreover, Jesus’ testing in the desert is the confirmation of his successful initiation (Pilch: 108-09).

While the voice heard after his baptism defines Jesus in kinship terms (Son), all other references describe him in political terms. Both Messiah (Mk 1:1) and Lord (Mk 1:3) are clearly political designations. We must also see as a political reference the expression “the Stronger One”; (Mk 1:7), used in Mark 3:27 to depict the situation of a ruler suffering the attack of a pretender to the throne (Oakman:114-17). The beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee also has political connotations, since his preaching refers to the coming of a “kingdom”; and should therefore be seen as political religion. As B. J. Malina has shown on several occasions, in Jesus’ world there was no independent religious system-only domestic and political religion. Jesus’ preaching clearly belongs to the latter category, for it is addressed to all Israel and announces God’s coming as a king for his people (Malina 2001: 16-24). The apparent contradiction between these two ways of understanding Jesus’ relation to God vanishes when we realize that kinship expressions were commonplace in patronage relationships. In first-century Mediterranean society, as well as in other agrarian societies, patronage relationships were the basis of those social relations taking place outside the family, that is, in the political area. In this sense, they could be used by the evangelists as an analogy, easily understandable by their addressees.

Although patron-client relationships were the basis of the patronage system, these relationships were often indirect, maintained by means of a broker. They were characterized by the exchange of favors and benefits between people belonging to different social levels. Usually the patron offered his clients material help or some other kind of benefit in return for faithfulness, information, and above all, for the public recognition of his honor. Jesus’ relationship to his disciples and to the crowd, as described in the Gospels, shares many features with this type of relationship. Jesus grants them the benefits of his teaching and healing. In return, they give him their support and faith and publicly proclaim his honor (admiration, fame). However, Jesus cannot be seen as the patron from whom these benefits come, for God was the only patron in Jewish political religion. Jesus plays the role of broker between God/patron and his people/clients (Malina 1998: 11-18). This understanding of Jesus’ relationship to God agrees with the expression declaring Jesus the Son of God, often translated as “in you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). The verb eudokeô used here often refers to the confidence of a patron, who grants his favor to a client or a broker (Neyrey 1998: 38). This statement about Jesus is related, therefore, to his condition as a divine intermediary, enabling him to announce and to bring about God’s patronage by his actions (Malina 1988: 9-18; Van Eyck: 201-10; Malina 2001: 31-35) (Guijarro, 2003).