Looking back on last week's scripture (Mark 3:12-19) and ahead the scripture we are reading for this week, it is striking how out of the box Christ is. We see it in Mark 3 ranging from the choices of his disciples (that Mark pointed out yesterday) to some of his teachings that shake the status quo. It's not really surprising that his family worries that he's "out of his mind" (Mark 3:21).
When reading this and other accounts of Christ's journey at this point, I often wonder if those close to him and the Pharisees that witnessed his teachings thought of him as a Quixotic character, with a band of misfits following him around. It must have seemed ludicrous to them that such a unassuming group and their leader could claim any kind of authority considering their station.
Gordon Lightfoot's song "Don Quixote" is an interesting view into this character most took to be a clown – full of bombast and visions of grandeur. But Lightfoot also uses Quixote as a vehicle to show all he is observing in his travels – "the children of the Earth who wake to find the table bare," "the soldier with his gun who must be dead to be admired."
It must have been frustrating for Christ's disciples to be taken so lightly, and I often wonder if Christ himself sometimes felt he was traveling around "in vain to search again where no one will hear."
Hope you enjoy the song