The Gospel of Mark

Class 3:

Jesus’ Political Proclamation:

An Attack Against the

Imperial Social Order in Capernaum

2 February 2003

Review of the Outline

Part One: The Presentation of the Servant (1:1-2:12)

The Forerunner of the Servant (1:1-8)

The Baptism of the Servant (1:9-11)

The Temptation of the Servant (1:12-13)

The Mission of the Servant (1:14-2:12)

Part Two: The Opposition to the Servant (2:13-8:26)

The Initial Opposition to the Servant (2:13-3:35)

The Parables of the Servant (4:1-34)

The Miracles of the Servant (4:35-5:43)

The Growing Opposition to the Servant (6:1-8:26)

Review of the Text

Mk 1

In Mk 1:14-19, Jesus calls Simon and his brother Andrew, and later, James and his brother John.

The Jesus Seminar feels these are post epiphany recollections of an appearance story moved up as enlistment stories.

In Mk 1:21-1:28, Jesus teaches in the synagogue with authority; his authority is made known by his driving out of evil spirits from people in whom the spirits say that they know who Jesus really is (“you are the Holy One of God.”). Jesus drives out these spirits to keep the Messianic secret.

There are many miracle stories compressed into these few short lines. In Mk 1:44, Jesus tells the leper he has just healed to go to the priest and offer the sacrifices prescribed in the Torah.

C. Bryan says that this shows Jesus’ reverence of the Torah. But, since Jesus knows He was responsible, isn’t Jesus in fact almost showing contempt for the law?

Alternatively, Jesus was trying to get the man to go to the rabbi, show him his healing, reverence the Torah, and proclaim Jesus as the wonder-worker, so that the rabbi would see that Jesus was the manifestation of the Messiah as foretold in the Torah.

Mk 2

This chapter begins with the healing of a paralyzed man. Pharisees (“teachers of the law”) heard Jesus tell the man that his sins were healed (not his specific illness), and they thought Jesus blasphemer. Jesus then tells the man to get up (i.e., that his physical illness was healed). The people were amazed.

In Mk 2:13-14, Jesus calls Levi (aka, Matthew) to be a disciple. Jesus’ special attention to the tax collectors (ie., Mk 2:16), drew the scorn of the Pharisees. He retorts that it is they who need him, not the righteous (Mk 2:17).

In Mk 2:18-22, the parable of the bridegroom (ie., Jesus) is written. At the end of this chapter, Jesus tells about Abiathar who ate consecrated bread, saying that Man was not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath for man.

Mk 3

The chapter begins with the question of healing on the sabbath. He heals a man with a withered hand. This enrages the Pharisees, who now plot with the Herodians against Jesus (Herodians are Jews loyal to Herod and Rome). Jesus’ popularity grows, and the crowds grow larger.

Mk 3:20-30, Jesus has a misunderstanding with his family about Jesus’ ability to drive out spirits. It’s unclear whether the family sent to Jerusalem for them, but somehow some Pharisees or scribes from Jerusalem accuse him of being an agent of Beelzebub. He makes the point that if he were evil, he could not drive out evil spirits. Jesus goes onto say that he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven

Adam Clarke says about this “Even personal reproaches, revilings, persecutions against Christ [are] remissible; but blasphemy, or impious speaking against the Holy Spirit was to have no forgiveness: i. e. when the person obstinately attributed those works to the Devil, which he had the fullest evidence could be performed only by the Spirit of God. . . . Here the matter is made clear beyond the smallest doubt-- the unpardonable sin, as some term it, is neither less nor more than ascribing the miracles Christ performed, by the power of God, to the spirit of the Devil.”

The chapter ends with the statement from Jesus that “whoever does God’s will” is the brother or sister of Jesus.

Mk 4: The Nature of the Kingdom

Here Jesus tells several parables: (1) the parable of the farmer sowing his crop (the seeds can fall on good soil or poor soil, or rocky soil, etc.); (2) the lamp under the bushel basket; (3) the growing seed; (4) the mustard seed. The chapter ends with Jesus calming the storm when he and the disciples were in the boat on the lake of Galilee.

Analysis

By the end of Chapter 4, most of the main characters have been introduced.

Opposers of Jesus’ ministry:

· The scribes

· The Pharisees

· The Herodians

· Jesus’ kin

· The Jerusalem Authorities

Confused by Jesus

· The disciples

Those with variable literary function:

· The crowd

The Messianic Mission

and the Meaning of Jesus’ Symbolic Action

Jesus challenged the social, imperial, and religious orders

Jesus the exorcist confronts the Capernaum synagogue (“Holy One of God” makes Jesus on par with Elisha). Jesus confronts the demons of the scribes of the synagogue.

Next time we will discuss the miracle stories in depth, but for now let’s just acknowledge that 1^st century hearers put a lot of stock in miracle stories and healers.

Symbolic Action

Jesus the healer begins a mission that will symbolize the social order of the kingdom of God. All of this is to bring freedom and liberation to the impoverished, oppressed, and marginalized in Palestinian society.

Symbolic Space

Jesus moves:

Synagogue (3:1)

Sea (3:7)

Mountain(3:13)

House (3:13)

Sea (4:1)

This provides geographic sphere of influence AND engagement and withdrawal as mechanism of Jesus’ ministry.

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