Analyzing Joseph Ascenzo's 'Crisis Of Meaning'

Essay Number Two – Crisis of Meaning – Joseph Ascenzo - 17431098

How can episodes such as Jesus walking on water, and his withering of a fig tree, be taken seriously today? What is their status in Mark’s narrative?

Evidence is the key to all arguments, it determines if an event is logical, and controls the human minds train of thought. Without some sort of evidence, it would surely be impossible and improbable to believe that a divine spirit did truly exist, and this is where the notion of faith versus belief enters the human mind. How can people of the twenty – first century believe in a spirit, with no proof that it actually did exist? The answer to the question will vary from individual to individual, however one thing is certain,
The episode appears three times, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, and yet again surprisingly not in John. As a devout Christian follower and believer, it is common knowledge that the apostles were practically with Jesus at every moment, as they made note of everything which we now read as The Holy Bible. However, why then are the events of the apostles dissimilar? This creates a big problem for non – followers of Christianity as it makes the religion look like it cannot be based on facts, as the events are the same, but the way in which they happen are disparate. The events are not mythical, according to followers of Christianity anyway, but they will always be hard to comprehend as how can anyone have so much power to create an episode which will never happen again. Joseph Campbell gets it right when he says we should “place metaphor at the center of our exploration of Western spirituality. Jesus Christ curses a fig tree for being unfruitful, literally. The next day as Jesus’ disciples approached the fig tree it had withered away. This episode is very difficult to understand because there is not one exact reason on why Jesus cursed the tree. Was it because there were no figs on the tree? And even if that were the reason, this is God that we are talking about, surely he would know if it would be fig season or not. The answer on why he did this is still unanswered to this day, and their continues to be many illogical and irrational answers. With miracles come questions, and with questions come answers, and in this circumstance, there are so many questions which are still to this day unanswered. Having faith in a god provides a sense of self to the individual, it makes them feel safe knowing that there is