The Gospel of Mark

The Gospel of Mark

Class 4

February 8, 2003

A New Social Order: The Markan Healing Stories

In this class, we will discuss the stories and the implications of the miracles involving nature, healing, and raising the dead.

Nature Miracles	Healing Stories	Resurrections
Calming the storm 4:37-41	Possessed man in synagogue 1:23-26	Jairus’ daughter 5:22-24, 38-42
Walking on water 6:48-51	Peter’s mother-in-law 1:30-31
Feeding of 5000 6:35-44	Man with leprosy 1:40-42
Feeding of 4000 8:1-9	Paralyzed man 2:3-12
Withering fig tree 11:12-14, 20-25	Man with shriveled hand 3:1-5
	Two Men from Gadara 5:1-5
	Woman with bleeding 5:25-29
	Canaanite woman’s daughter 7:24-30
	Deaf mute 7:31-37
	Blind men 10:46-52
	Boy with demon 9:17-29

The Texts (and the Context)

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 (This is logion 20 in the Gosp of Thomas). The chapter ends with Jesus calming the storm when he and the disciples were in the boat on the lake of Galilee.

Mk 5

Here Jesus does more healing of the ill. First, a man with a bad case of demonic possession (a legion of demons) approaches Jesus. Jesus casts the demons into a herd of pigs, and the pigs run into the lake and drown. The man tells all in the Decapolis. Second, a young woman with bleeding comes up behind Jesus and touches her cloak (the daughter of Jarius in Luke). She is healed, and Jesus knows she had enough faith in him that she didn’t even have to speak to him (“woman, your faith has healed you). Third, Jesus raises the daughter of Jarius from the dead (she died just moments before Jesus got there). Some think that these stories have so much detail that they might have been personal stories related to Mark by Peter.

Mk 6

Jesus returns to Nazareth, and is not welcomed as the Messiah. He says that he is a “prophet without honor.” Jesus then sends out the twelve (2 by 2). John the Baptist is beheaded, and Jesus feeds the 5 thousand. After the people had been fed, Jesus dismisses the disciples and tells them to sail across the lake to Bethsaida. Jesus walks across the water and they see him. They are amazed at this, because, according to the Gospel, “their hearts were hardened” (Mk 6:52).

Mk 7

The Pharisees see some of Jesus’ disciples eating with unclean hands, and accused all of them of not following traditional (Mosaic) law (the halakhah). Jesus rebukes them saying that they have “let go the commands of God, but have held onto the traditions of man” (Mk 7:8). In 7:11, when Jesus is explaining that things cannot defile man, but only man can let defilement out, he introduces the term “qorban” (corban). This is a term meaning the personally uttered oath of giving of something to God (such as in “I’ll be damned …”). Next, Jesus heals the daughter of a Gentile woman. In this passage the word “children” refers to the Jews; “food” to the benefits of Jesus’ ministry’ and, “dogs” to the Gentiles. This not surprising, because Jesus did not spend a lost of time ministering to the Gentiles. Next Jesus heals a deaf mute by putting spittle on his tongue and sticking his fingers in the man’s ears.

Mk 8

Here Jesus again feeds a crowd of 4000 with loaves of bread and a few fishes. This appears to be a parallel passage to Mk. 6:30-44.

Remember 2 Kings 4:42-43:

Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How am I to set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ”

After feeding the crowd Pharisees question Jesus and ask for a sign from heaven (how impertinent!) Jesus denies them. Later, Jesus travels to Bethsaida, where he heals a blind man by applying spit to his eyes. In verses 14-21 Jesus uses an analogy to yeast to illustrate that a small amount of corruption can produce a big effect (like yeast in dough). In verses 8:27-37, Peter tells Jesus that he believes that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus also foretells of his passion and death. In this conversation, Jesus says that His way in a sinful word is that of suffering. Peter begins to rebuke Jesus, but Jesus rebukes Peter by calling him ‘Satan.’ This is the only time anyone is the NT is referred to as Satan.

An Examination of a Cycle To Illustrate

Mark’s View of the Inclusivity of the Kingdom of God

Jairus’ daughter	5:22-24, 38-42

Woman with bleeding	5:25-29

Feeding of 5000 (Jews)	6:35-44

Canaanite woman’s daughter	7:24-30

Feeding of 4000 (Gentiles)	8:1-9

Jesus’ Travels into Gentile Territory

The Decapolis and the Outlying Areas of Northern Judea[1]

What do the Miracle Stories Do for Mark’s Storytelling?

The first section of Mark, tore down the sacred traditional but oppressive social institutions.

The miracle stories offer a symbolic world view of a new set of social practices. It was Mark’s hope that this view would attract and maintain converts. [2]

What do the Miracle Stories Tell Enlightened People Today?

[1] Barker, K., Burdick, D., Stek, J., Wessel, W., Youngblood, R. The New International Version Study Bible. Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, 10^th Ed., Copyright Ó 1995. p. 1946.

[2] Ched Meyers. Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus. Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY, 2000. 186.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of educational, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who may have an interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site or e-mail for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Except for the graphics from Zondervan Publishing, this publication is copyrighted. Except as permitted by the Copyright Act, no part of it may in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any other means be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or be broadcast or transmitted without the prior permission of the publisher.