The Gospel of Mark is believed to be the oldest of the gospels and is in many ways in tune with the modern era. The gospel is brief and to the point, ‘earthy’ and has an ‘authentic’ feel to it. It has more than one ending each of which has significance to the modern reader. The ending generally preferred at Mk 16:8 gives us an ambiguous ending, which to the modern mind may be viewed as exciting. The ending forces us to think about what ultimately happened. The alternative ending (Mk 16:9-20) is ‘strange’ to the modern rational mind with its emphasis on the centrality of ‘signs and wonders’ in mission not ‘preaching’ and rationality.
The text has a number of actors who are given a voice by the author who also vocalises their thoughts, concerns and feelings. The main actors in the text are the narrator; John the Baptist; God; Jesus, his family; his followers and the Disciples, with key individuals and sub-groups given prominence in the story; Demons ; sundry people with whom Jesus interacts with; religious powers (e.g. Pharisees, priests, scribes and Sadducees) and earthly powers (e.g. Herod and Pilate).
Jesus challenges a response from these actors, and us the reader, with the phrase
“But who do you say that I am?” (Mk 8:29)
Like the actors, how we respond to this question will determine whether we are in the Kingdom of God or in the Kingdom of Satan/The World, whether we are followers of Jesus who will be persecuted with him or whether we will be on the side of the enemies of Jesus.
It is difficult to imagine that anyone would come to know Jesus first through reading a gospel or hearing a gospel. Both the modern day reader and the ancient reader/hearer probably knew the broad outline of the story of Jesus before being formally introduced to Mark’s story. As such we have a ‘God-like’ viewpoint and role in observing the story, we know the essential elements before the characters do and we know the ending. We know people are making wrong choices as the story progresses in a linear fashion. However, I believe the disciples stand in for us in the story. They clearly struggle with the significance of what Jesus is doing, who he is and where he is going. They are weak, they lack faith, are hard-hearted and ultimately are cowards when the crunch comes. Although it is not directly stated we could read into the text that if these people failed then our weakness is even more understandable and we like them can ultimately be forgiven. Though not stated Grace rather than Works wins the day in Mark’s gospel.
There are two key themes in the gospel. The centrality of the Cross and Jesus’ true nature being revealed by his ‘Signs and Wonders’ ministry. The ‘Signs and Wonders’ of Jesus defines Jesus’ supernatural nature, they thus challenge the reader. Rejecting the ‘signs and wonders’ is tantamount to a reject of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, i.e. Mk 3:29-30. Accepting Jesus as just a ‘Good Teacher’ is not enough if we follow the logic of the text. It is interesting to note that the longer ending of Mark also emphasises the validity of ‘Signs and Wonders’ in the Church’s mission and from a modern perspective could be taken to validate the experience of the Pentacostal/Charismatic movement.
Having discussed the gospel at a macro-level it is worth looking at the story at the micro-level. In order to do this I will focus on the Jesus actor in the story as the whole story ‘hangs’ around this thread.
The writer of Mark is not interested in the background of Jesus. He has a family (a Mother and brothers are mentioned Mk 3:31) who think he is mad (Mk 3:21) but his true nature is revealed to him by God (Mk 1:11). Only God, Jesus, Satan and the demons know who he truly is. However, his’ Signs and Wonders’ and his transfiguration ultimately reveal who he is, though only to a select group of initiates who still fail to grasp what Jesus is doing. Although the gospel could be interpreted as suggesting that Jesus was ‘adopted’ by God or ‘possessed’ by the Holy Spirit, the author of the text refers to Jesus as an individual rather than him being the conduit of ‘Godness’. Jesus is presented as both divine and at the same time ‘earthy’ – the author says he was ‘angry’ (Mk 3:5), ‘distressed’ and ‘troubled’ ( Mk 14:33). The author clearly paints Jesus as both human and divine.
Jesus is introduced at Mk 1:1 as ‘Son of God’, though what this means comes from our knowledge of the term outside of the gospel. Immediately a quote from Isaiah is used and the term ‘Lord’ is also added to Jesus (Mk 1:3). Jesus is the central character throughout the gospel and is always in charge of his destiny, apart from two events – being driven by the Spirit (Mk 1:12) into the wilderness and at Nazareth where he calls himself ‘Prophet’ and he is unable to do ‘no mighty work there’ (Mk 6:5). Mark is clearly wanting to show that Jesus is not a ‘failure’, the crucifixion was not a mistake or a miscalculation, even the failure at Nazareth is moderated by saying that he healed a few sick people there (Mk 6:5). Jesus repeatedly mentions his rejection by the elders of Israel, his death and resurrection. Mark clearly wants the reader to know that the shocking end of Jesus was no mere mistake – it ‘must’ happen and was part of God’s plan all along. One could imagine that the gospel writer is heading off our negative preconceptions of Jesus’ end. Again accepting Jesus as a ‘wise person’ whose teaching is worth following despite his inglorious end is not an option that the writer wants to portray.
Jesus is often contrasted against other actors in the gospel. The first person he is compared to is John the Baptist. John the Baptist does not conduct exorcisms, healings or other miraculous acts in the story. Both Jesus and John called for repentance. John disappears from the story during Chapter 1 with his arrest being noted and is introduced again during Chapter 6 when the manner of his death is announced. One could be forgiven for reading into the text that a similar fate should be expected for Jesus, earthly powers are fundamentally against the Kingdom of God.
The majority of the gospel seems to be a collection of vignettes about Jesus and his activity. There is only a vague sense of how these events are connected. Events are connected by linking words like ‘and immediately …’, ‘And he …’, ‘And as he…’ ‘Again…’ etc. This gives an impression of time though it could be argues that the events could be connected up in different ways. The lack of a scale for the amount of time passing can be illustrated at the transition at Mk 1:15 which is the first speech of Jesus in the gospel and the calling of the disciples at Mk 1:16. Why would people immediately follow him unless his ministry had been active for some time? The majority of the gospel is a collection of incidents where Jesus either shows great wisdom or great power.
The gospel writer uses Jesus to illustrate the correct attitude the Christian community should exhibit when persecuted. The reaction of the disciples to persecution, and Peter in particular, falls short of Jesus’ example. At Mk 14:50 the disciples run away at the first sign of danger, they fail the test of Mk 13:13 ‘And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.’ The author is clearly concerned about persecution (e.g. Mk 10:39) Jesus’ response to the authority of the world is to remain silent (Mk 14:61, Mk 15:5) and only when directly challenged as to his status does he give a reply (Mk 14:62, Mk 15:4). The final words of Jesus in Mark is the first line of Psalm 22, the astute reader on reading the Psalm will see that for Mark scripture was being fulfilled on the cross.
The disciples in Mark’s gospel are far from being saints in training. They are witnesses to important events, signs and teachings yet they constantly seem to misunderstand Jesus. Interestingly when rebuked by Jesus (Mk 16:14) one manuscript has the following quote from the disciples:
And they excused themselves, saying, “This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not permit God’s truth and power to conquer the evil [unclean] spirits. Therefore, reveal your justice now.” (Mark 16:14 study note from NLT study bible)
Thus it is possible that we should understand the disciples misunderstanding to be ultimately a consequence of them being under the power of Satan, Peter is particularly singled out for being under the control of Satan at Mk 8:23. Mark’s gospel is saturated with the theme of demonic activity in the world and demonic possession of people. Jesus’ passing of Satan’s temptation at Mk 1:13 allowed Jesus to bind the ‘strong man’ at Mk 3:27 allowing Jesus to plunder Satan’s House (This World) of people to inhabit the Kingdom of God. It could be argued that the word ‘plunder’ means that there is not a free choice in entering the kingdom.
The disciples in Mark start out well, they leave everything behind to go and follow Jesus. They have an intimate relationship with Jesus and are given privileged information and instruction (Mk 4:11). However, they always seem to have doubts and are afraid (Mk 4:40), in a sense they know Jesus but fail his test of faith in him based on his ‘signs and wonders’. Despite this Jesus trusts them to go out on mission (Mk 6:713) and they cast out many demons, which indicates they are successful on one level. However, a little later on at Mk 6:52 it is said that
‘they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.’
Later at the high point of confessing Jesus as the Messiah it again goes ‘wrong’ for the disciples when Peter is rebuked for rebuking Jesus, they fail to understand Jesus time and time again about his death and resurrection (Mk 9:32). The disciples have a number of bad points with regard to ‘power’. The disciples argue with scribes when they failed to heal a demon possessed boy (Mk 9:14-18), they argue about who is the greatest amongst themselves (Mk 9:33-37), they try and prevent other people using Jesus’ name to cast out demons (Mk 9:38-40), two of the disciples try and get privileged positions in the kingdom (Mk 10:35-45) and the disciples are indigent when Jesus is anointed (Mk 14:4). It could be argued that from the moment they heard that Jesus was the Messiah things went downhill leading to betrayal either directly as Judas and Peter do of Jesus (Mk 14:10 and Mk 14:71) or abandonment (Mk 14:50).
It is interesting to note that the disciples ‘fail’ Jesus at the end and the women ‘fail’ Jesus in that they do not tell anyone of the message of the young man at the tomb. In the longer ending of Mark, Mary tells the disciples and they fail to believe her (Mk 16:10-11). Eventually Jesus rebukes the disciples for their ‘hardness of heart’ and unbelief before he gives them the Great commission. We can only assume that Jesus forgave his disciples weakness which is an example of grace. Thus we can draw from Mark’s gospel that the Christian community is expected to be brave in adversity, though those that are weak may still be redeemable like the disciples.
In summary, Mark’s gospel is a sophisticated story that has had considerable thought put into its construction. Mark’s gospel paints a picture of The Kingdom of God entering the demonic realm and redeeming a portion of Mankind that follow him. Like Jesus, the redeemed should expect persecution and death whilst on Earth.
Bibliography
The Standard Bible Society (2001), The English Standard Version, Wheaton, IL.
Tyndale House (2008), The New Living Translation Study Bible, Carol Stream, IL.