“they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
– Mark 16:18
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel about snakes? Have you ever held a snake? Would you like to have a snake as a pet? When your grandpaa was a kid, your grandpaa when he found a garter snake would put the snake in one of the basement window wells of the farmhouse where your grandpaa grew up in with his dad and ma. Your grandmaa never wants to have anything to do with snakes. A black snake this summer crawled up on the front porch of the house where your grandmaa and grandpaa live in in Gainesville, Georgia. Your grandmaa and grandpaa did not know that there was a blacksnake on their porch until your Uncle Don and Aunt Connie arrived with Roi. When your grandmaa went to open the door to let your Uncle Don, Aunt Connie and Roi into the house, your Aunt Connie yelled for your grandmaa to not to open the door as . . . your grandpaa used a rake to carry the blacksnake down the street before letting the interloper slither away. A nest was built this summer – possibly by a pair of eastern phoebes, on the top of a porch column that is located outside the front door of the house where your grandmaa and grandpaa live. Your grandpaa thinks that the blacksnake was attracted to the site of the nest; that the snake instinctively knew that there was a possibility that one of the baby birds might just fall out of the nest and . . . when your grandmaa and grandpaa spent nine months in Edinburg, Texas – to study Spanish at Rio Grande Bible Institute and Language School, a snake somehow managed to get into their cement block apartment. The snake could either have been a bull snake or a rattlesnake. When your grandmaa spotted the snake, the snake was under the couch that was in the sitting area of their apartment. While your grandpaa was doing what he could to encourage the snake to leave the apartment, your Aunt Connie stood on a chair while your grandmaa took off for a neighbor two doors away to . . . ask your dad what he did. The snake got to the front door just as the portly neighbor opened the front door. As the neighbor was asking where the snake was, the snake was crawling between his legs. When the snake crawled into apartment 13 – which is the apartment’s number where your grandmaa and grandpaa were living with your dad and Aunt Connie, your grandmaa and grandpaa needed a lot more monthly support than what they were receiving. Your grandpaa decided to send a prayer/news letter from Bruno Bullsnake to the mailing list that he and your grandmaa have that explicitly explained the financial needs that your grandmaa and grandpaa had that led South America Mission – the mission that had accepted your grandmaa and grandpaa to be field team missionaries, wanting your grandmaa and grandpaa to spend their time visiting family, friends and churches to raise the budgeted support amount that they needed instead of continuing to study Spanish at Rio Grande Bible Institute and Language School. Bruno Bullsnake’s first letter more than doubled the amount of monthly support that your grandmaa and grandpaa were receiving. Guys and gals today – 33 years later, (now 48 years later as of today’s editing of this missive) still remember Bruno Bullsnake.
Snakes are mentioned in Mark 16. Even though your grandpaa firmly believes that what is found in the Bible is inerrant, your grandpaa wishes that the last twelve verses of the last chapter in the Mark Book had not been added. What is said in just one of the verses – verse 18, “they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”’ has become the core belief of some Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals. These Christ-follower fellowships of guys and gals handle rattlesnakes as part of their church services – believing that if a guy or gal is bit by a snake, that that the guy or gal will not die. Your grandpaa believes that this an extreme faith application which . . . your grandpaa believes that the verses that end the Mark Book were added by someone other than Mark after Mark had completed his personal documentation of Jesus’ life. Your grandpaa is convinced that Mark carefully researched what he personally had not witnessed regarding Jesus’ life on planet Earth. The Mark Book is a succinct compilation of just Jesus’ life experiences. Handling snakes and/or drinking poison were not a Jesus thing.
The footnotes for this chapter mention that it was about 6:00 P.M. Saturday evening when Mary Magdalene, Mary – James’ ma, and Salome left for the tomb where Jesus was buried. These three gals had bought some spices that they were planning to use to anoint Jesus’ body. Mark says in his Mark Book that the three gals went very early to the tomb where Jesus was entombed – like just after sunrise, to . . . so – a Bible commentator thinks that it was in the evening when the three gals headed for the tomb where . . . do you normally apply Biblical truths literally or do you believe that there are rare cases – such as the verses that end this chapter, where verses should be treated with a healthy skepticism as to their absolute voracity. A beautiful, slithery creature – in the period of the Garden of Eden, became Satan’s temptation currier. When Adam succumbed to the pride spirit, the devious serpent became destined to be a stomach crawler forever. The Bible – to your grandpaa, has so many other verses in it to factually apply in underpinning a personal theology that is centered on God’s unmerited grace coming alongside the mustard size faith that a guy, gal or kid is given when . . . the ‘snake’ is taken out of play when Jesus is accepted by the guy, gal or kid.
Mark 16 (1101)