Step 2 - A Turn in the Process

Doubting Doubt

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The Process

Step 2 – A Turn in the Process

 

  Towards the very beginning of the section “The Dawn of a Process” I said that this project originally started as an attempt to examine and explain the behavior of John the Baptist in prison as recorded in Matthew 11:2-3 and also in Luke 7:18-19.  What followed was my account of the things that led me to want to investigate those passages.

  By and by I got to the point where I presented my alternative explanation to the notion that those passages proved conclusively that John the Baptist doubted.  It was not an exhaustive study that I did by any stretch of the imagination but it made a basic case that there is sufficient reason to think that maybe John did not doubt after all.

  Although that was the original intended subject of this study it then took a turn when I was asked by Pastor X, “What about Mary?”  Please follow me:  In a nutshell, I said to Pastor X that maybe John did not doubt.  By way of an answer he said,

To me, if Mary could struggle with the identity of Jesus, I suppose John could too.

 

  With that reasoning, then, my approach to the next part of this project is to say then that if Mary did not struggle with the identity of Jesus, I am supposing that John did not either.  While my examination of John the Baptist’s behavior was not at all exhaustive, my examination of Mary’s behavior is extensive, at least it is extensive for me as an amateur.

  However, to anyone who may be reading this, it is with great emphasis that I want to recall to you that this project led me to something completely different from what it started out to be.  In my study of the question “What about Mary?” I was taken to suspect that there is something else at work.

  But even that wasn’t the end of it.  Even beyond that I discovered that there is something of far greater importance, something that makes the questions about either John the Baptist or Mary pale in significance.

  Therefore I must repeat once again to anyone who may be reading this, it is with great emphasis that I want to recall to you something that I said in my Preface:

“Suddenly I realized something.  This is teaching me something far greater than anything I ever expected.  This is teaching me something much more important than the subject I started with.”

 

  So then, dear reader, if it is to teach you this same message, perhaps I should continue to relate to you how my study progressed.

 

  This now brings us to our study of Mary and the brothers of Jesus and the event that we read about in Mark 3 where we will focus on verses 20 and 21.

  At the risk of being overly repetitive, the assignment presented to me by Pastor X was that to explain John the Baptist’s behavior I would need to be able to explain the behavior of Jesus’ family in Mark 3:21, specifically that of Jesus’ mother Mary.  I will now proceed to do that.