Mark

prior contents next

I chose to start with Mark because this account is the simplest.

We start at 0,0 and notice that the crowd pushes the environment to 1,1. This is a consistent pattern that is reproduced through out the four gospels. While soldiers tend toward conflict the crowd initially pushes on both dissonance and conflict simultaneously. The danger in this approach is that this is the path that leads to chaos.

Pilate then alters the environment only slightly and gives Jesus the opportunity to talk. In verse 15,2B Jesus moves the situation towards alignment. What finally became clear to me as I went through this exercise is that Jesus was consistently pushing towards alignment. The exceptions follow a pattern that I will explain when we get to Luke’s Gospel.

In verse 15,5 Jesus takes us to a transforming state and yet nothing happens. The situation waivers a bit and finally in 15,8 we learn that Pilate has been transformed. Pilate had a change of heart. Every one of these accounts has at least one point of transformation. What I think is significant in Mark’s account is the passage of time between 15,5 when we reached the peak of the transforming state and 15,8 when we are told that the transformation has occurred. I feel like we resist alignment and we resist transformation. But perhaps that is too harsh. Pilate needed time in the transforming environment before he could change his mind. Students need time in a transforming environment before they can learn concepts. We need time to elapse before we can change.

In Mark 15 verses 13 and 14 we see a pattern that replays over and over in these four accounts. The crowd pushes towards chaos and Pilate negotiates them back to tranquility. Pilate’s preferred conflict resolution style is smoothing. Diminish the dissonance and diminish the antagonism. Perhaps that was a skill that was essential to survival in the imperial and autocratic order of Rome. We will see later just how good he is at this skill.

And then we end this story in 15,15 with a weak state of alignment. I was at first baffled when I found that John ended his account in alignment. As I allowed that data to percolate in my mind I finally realized the beauty of all this. The crowd thinks they have finally got Pilate to give them what they want. History has written of Pilate as a weak administrator who gave in to the demands of the crowd. What I had not seen until I began this analysis is that the alignment that occurred was not just Pilate aligning with the will of the crowd. The alignment that occurred includes Pilate, the crowd and Jesus. The negotiations that occur in three of these gospels lead to an alignment to proceed with the actions that Jesus knew prophets had foretold hundreds of years earlier. In those three gospels the point in time when the decision is made to proceed with the crucifixion is during a time when the environment is one of alignment as indicated by a positive dissonance and a negative antagonism. Again, the exception is Luke.
This is a composite image of four diagrams. The first diagram shows a zigzag upward line from 0,0 to 5,0. There is a picture of a butterfly underneath the top end of the line. The label on this diagram is Mark 15 1 to 5 Peak. The next diagram has a zigzag line that starts where the first diagram ended and ends up at 4,0. The label on this diagram is Mark 15 5 to 8 Transformation. The next diagram has a zigzag line from where the prior diagram ended to 0,0. There is a picture of a mountain under the bottom end of the line. The label on this diagram is Mark 15 8 to 14A Tranquility. The four diagram has a bent arrow that starts at 0,0 and ends at 3,-1. There is a picture of the earth above the end of this line. The label on this diagram is Mark 14A to 15B Weak Alignment.

prior contents next