What you are about to read in this blog is not another translation of Mark’s Gospel. It’s not even a paraphrase. It’s a work of the imagination. Hopefully, an informed and ‘godly’ imagination, but imagination never-the-less.
I am quite unapologetic in admitting this, because I don’t believe imagination is a bad thing. Applying imagination to the ancient texts of the Gospels, especially if that imagination is checked and informed by scholarship, can help open up its meaning. It’s dangerous and fraught with risks, no doubt, because imagination can run away with itself and will no doubt be biased by the writer’s inbuilt and often unrecognised perspective. But then, what writing isn’t? I, at least, don’t pretend to anything else. I’ve just let my imagination free in the hope of opening up the Gospel in a new way.
Let me tell you how these writings came about. Many years ago now, I was struggling to write a sermon on the healing of Jairus’s daughter, found in Mark Chapter 5. I was struggling because, as I tried to think and write, Jairus kept interrupting. I could not shut him up! He was annoyingly insistent and determined to tell his story. In the end I realised the only way to get on, was to write down what this voice in my head was saying. I did so with relief, pushing the finished article aside while praying ‘Lord, please help me write my sermon now!’ It was one of those occasions when the Lord answered straight back: ‘You’ve already got your sermon’. And I realised he was right! The way this monologue spoke to people, even reducing a formidable old Yorkshire-man in the congregation to tears and helping him to find some healing for his own bottled up grief at the loss of a daughter, proved the point.
Not every chapter in this blog came that easily. One or two of the early ones did indeed come as a piece, almost as auto-dictation, as the character’s story-telling filled my mind. All I did was write down what they said. Most, however, took a lot more working-on than that. And all were subject to a lot of checking and assessment after writing. These narrations are certainly interpretive rather than exegetical, but I tried not to allow myself too much freedom of movement away from the original text into complete and fanciful make believe (A trait it’s very easy to fall into in imaginative writing).
The key word needed to understand these monologues is ‘sermon’. They were written and delivered originally as sermons. That means they do not set out to simply retell the gospel narrative, but also to interpret and apply it. The mechanism used to enable this, is laid out in my originally naming of these pieces ‘Morning-after Monologues’. The character speaking describes not only what happened but, more importantly, what it means to them. In setting a a gap of only one day, I did not allow the character too much benefit of hindsight. That way they, and we as hearers, are not channeled or constrained by later events. We come at any particular narrative with a freshness that enables us to ask again, what does this scripture mean to me?
Sometimes, even I was surprised by what these characters came out with. This style led me to insights into the text which I’d never seen before, and I doubt I ever would have seen if approaching the text in a purely exegetical way. For instance, in Mark Chapter 3, there is a wonderfully affirming passage where Jesus declares that all who do his Fathers will are his mother and brothers. Nice, hey?… but not if you tell that story from one of Jesus’s actual brother’s point of view. Follow that through and you see a family rift that none of the synoptic gospels ever record being healed over. That came as a shock to me, raised with a picture of Jesus and Mary playing happy families all the way through. The Bible does not tell us that! Rather It depicts Jesus being part of a dysfunctional family, torn apart by this encounter. Clearly there was reconciliation at some unknown point, as Mary and Jesus’ brothers play a significant part in the Jerusalem church after his resurrection. This may be a sign of hope for any broken family, but it challenges the idea of the Holy Family I had grown accustomed to,
On another tack, presenting the gospel in this way has enabled me to see how one passage is sometimes linked to others. Hence a single monologue may cover several chapters of the actual gospel, revealing deep themes that thread throughout them.
It is also worth commenting that the choice of the character speaking clearly effects the direction of thought. Telling the story form a different characters perspective, as I experimented with several times, certainly revealed new angles. Nothing surprising there! The message of Christ crucified, as St Paul said, can be foolishness to some, a stumbling block to others, but also the very power and wisdom of God to those who will see it. [2] I hope that God, through the Holy Spirit, uses these monologues to reveal a new perspective and to open eyes and hearts o Gods power and wisdom in a new and living way. Where space has required me to select only one character’s reflection on a passage, then let it be known that not all that is to be said has been said. As John Robinson, Pastor to the Pilgrim Father’s said: The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his word.
One final preface: I never set out to write the whole gospel in this style. Over the years I wrote quite a few individual monologues and people urged me to publish them. Eventually I took time out to bring them together in book form, but the collection simply did not gel. As I prayerfully considered this, the words ‘Marking the Moment’ came to me as a title for these ‘morning after meditations’. These words also gave a bigger framework to work to and huge challenges in terms of ‘writing to order’ and setting passages that may not translate easily as reflective monologues into this style. I hope it proves worthwhile and that, not my writings, but the Gospel itself, speaks to your heart.
Nick Stanyon January 2021
[1] For this reason I recommend always reading these monologues alongside the scripture passage they are based on.
[2] 1 Corinthians 1: 23-24
Marking The Moment 