Nuances MK 3.7-4 PDF

3:7-10 The crowds that follow Jesus In between key episodes and teachings, Mark interweaves passages about the crowds that follow Jesus. These passages serve to balance the picture of a few Jewish leaders plotting against Jesus with the picture of the large Jewish crowds who push to be close to him....

3:7-10 The crowds that follow Jesus In between key episodes and teachings, Mark interweaves passages about the crowds that follow Jesus. These passages serve to balance the picture of a few Jewish leaders plotting against Jesus with the picture of the large Jewish crowds who push to be close to him. 3:11 The unclean spirits that proclaim Jesus “Son of God” Throughout the Gospel of Mark, the unclean spirits recognize Jesus’ holiness, and even before he commands them to leave, they feel instantly displaced by his presence. We have already heard one such spirit cry out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” (1:24). It is part of Mark’s irony that he shows the unclean spirits to have such clarity about Jesus’ identity, while he shows the human followers of Jesus to be confused and uncertain. The fact that Mark shows them calling Jesus “Son of God” should not be taken as a proclamation of Jesus’ role in the Trinity, because that doctrinal formulation was not arrived at until the fourth century. Rather, Mark is indicating that the spirit world saw Jesus clearly as God’s image. (There is an early Jewish tradition that when God showed the angels the first human being, they saw God’s reflection so clearly that they knelt in worship.) 3:12 “He warned them sternly not to make him known” Much has been made by some readers of Mark over the repeated way he shows Jesus trying to silence those who recognize his holiness. This has been interpreted by some to mean that Jesus wanted to keep his identity hidden, and this theory is referred to in some books as “the messianic secret.” but such an interpretation assumes that Mark is simply recording what Jesus said and did; it gives no credit to Mark as a shaping author and theologian. If, on the contrary, we assume that Mark has a theological purpose in mind, then we will hear these admonitions to silence differently. They serve two theological functions. First, by showing Jesus repeatedly asking others not to talk about his holiness or his ability to heal, Mark sets Jesus off from the typical hero who demands recognition of his powers. Second, Mark makes the spread of Jesus’ reputation even more significant because it grows in spite of him. 3:13-19 The third calling of disciples As the last of a triad, this calling should be read in connection with the other two (1:16-20; 2:13-17). As we noted before, in the first calling episode, the disciples appear to be saints responding in an ideal way, but in the second calling scene, it is clear that Jesus is seeking out sinners. This time Mark expands upon the scene by suggesting the purpose of Jesus’ calling and by giving us the names of those called. Mark tells us that Jesus “appointed twelve” in order that “he might send them forth to preach and to have authority [or power] to drive out demons.” When Mark describes Jesus ascending a mountain to do this, he evokes the memory of Moses; when he emphasizes the number twelve, he evokes the twelve tribes of Israel. He thus implies that Jesus’ gathering and sending forth of twelve followers is an act in continuity with Jewish tradition. The actions of preaching and casting out of demons are in continuity with the prophets. Some of the names of the twelve are also significant. Peter, James, and John are the three whom Jesus will take to see the raising up of a child (5:37), his transfiguration (9:2), and his distress in Gethsemane (14:23). They also are given different names, always a signal in the Hebrew bible of an inner transformation. Yet at the end we are also given the name of his betrayer. So Mark, in giving us a list of names, is giving us more than practical information. He is confirming what he suggested in the first two calling episodes, namely, that Jesus’ disciples are a mixed lot, with one who would ultimately betray him and others who would ultimately be transformed by him. The reappearance of these four in other episodes of Mark’s Gospel is worth tracking. 3:20-21 “He is out of his mind” Once again Mark links episodes with a comment about the crowds pressing in on Jesus, this time to the point where no one could eat. Mark then comments that Jesus’ relatives (literally, “those who were close to him,” so perhaps his disciples) “set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” The Greek word that is translated “out of his mind” literally means “out of himself”(ecsase); it is related to the Greek word for “ecstasy,” on which we have commented before (see 2:12b). by using it, Mark suggests that Jesus has a more heightened consciousness than those around him. 3:22-30 Satan, forgiveness, and the holy spirit By quoting the protests of the scribes to Jesus’ exorcisms, Mark presents more of Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness. The scribes say that Jesus himself must be possessed by Satan in order to drive out demons. Implicit in their statement is the idea that good and evil are so distinct and opposite that the “good” person should not go anywhere near “evil” persons. This thought is a logical extension of the idea that if Jesus were truly a person of God, he would not eat with sinners. Jesus refutes this point of view in several ways. First he asks the common sense question, “How can Satan drive out Satan?” He goes on to make the observation that “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand” (3:23-24). Next he uses the analogy of “the strong man”: “but no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (3:27). Some interpretations of this analogy assert that “the strong man” is Satan, and Jesus is the one who ties him up. but this would turn Jesus into a plunderer as well as a violent enforcer of his will—roles that violate everything we know of Jesus’ teachings. Rather, it makes more sense to see that the violent intruder is Satan, and “the strong man” is the normally good person who is bound and robbed by him. This view is borne out by Jesus’ final words here about forgiveness— that “all sins and all blasphemies” will be forgiven except the blasphemy “against the holy spirit” (3:29). What Jesus means by “the sin against the holy spirit” has been puzzled over for centuries. The problem probably arose from capitalizing “holy spirit” and then assuming that “the sin against the Holy Spirit” was a special offense. but Mark would not have been thinking in terms of a Trinitarian formula. He would have been using “holy spirit” to mean simply God’s spirit, as it appears in Psalm 51:11: Cast me not out from your presence, and your holy spirit take not from me. The clue to Jesus’ meaning here lies in the final explanation Mark gives: “For they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit’” (3:30). By means of this explanation, Mark stresses the opposition between an “unclean spirit” and God’s “holy spirit.” As Psalm 51 attests, it was common Jewish belief that every human being naturally possesses God’s holy spirit. Jesus is teaching that the opposite of this state, that is, possession by an “unclean spirit,” is thus unnatural or pathological. The “blasphemy against the holy spirit” is the denial of the fact that possession of God’s holy spirit is every person’s natural state. There is therefore no clear cut division, such as the scribes have implied, between good and evil persons; There are only people in varying states of pathology or wellness. So Jesus, by driving out the unclean spirits, can restore people to their original wholeness. Sinners are invaded and bound by Satan; Jesus sets them free. 3:31-35 Jesus’ “brother and sister and mother” In the final section of chapter 3, Mark shows Jesus redefining the meaning of family. Mark first shows the crowd around Jesus using the conventional meaning of “family” as those who are related in blood. Mark sets up this usual understanding so that he can present Jesus’ unconventional teaching that “whoever does the will of God” is his “brother and sister and mother.” This statement does not, of course, denigrate his blood relatives but simply elevates the essential quality of their kinship with him. Mark initiates here what will become a growing theme in his Gospel, namely, that people cannot be labeled according to prefixed assumptions; they can only be defined by what they do. So no one can presume who constitutes a member of Jesus’ family according to some external criterion. Jesus’ brothers and sisters are simply those who act like him in relation to God and others. Later in his Gospel, Mark will show that this existential relationship with Jesus also applies to discipleship. JESUS AS WISDOM TEACHER Mark 4:1-41 4:1-34 The three seed parables Parables are common to the style of the Wisdom writings, so it is in keeping with Mark’s presentation of Jesus that he shows him teaching by means of them. It helps to know that in Jewish tradition a “parable” was a set form with a set purpose, not just an illustrative story. Most often it was a succinct way of suggesting what God, or God’s kingdom, is like. And very often it formed this comparison by weaving together small pieces or echoes of Scripture. The suggestive analogy that emerged was one that interpreted the bible passages at the same time that it used them to point to God’s kingdom. The rabbis described parables as “making handles for the Torah,” meaning that parables were intended to open up the meaning of the bible—to help people “get a handle” on it. Because parables were generally considered interpretations of the bible, it was common practice for Jewish teachers to place several parables on the same theme next to each other so that the student could reflect on different possibilities of meaning. It was said that they placed them together “like pearls on a string.” So when we see three parables on seeds placed together, we should assume that they are intended to be read in relationship to one another. This interrelated reading becomes even more urgent in view of Mark’s habit of expressing himself in triads. 4:3-9 The parable of the sower This parable is based on the common biblical image of God as a farmer sowing his seed. For example, in Isaiah 55:10-11, God says: For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it. And underlying the poetic description of Genesis 1 is a similar image of God creating the whole universe by his word alone. God has only to say “Let there be light” and “there was light” (Gen 1:3). In these passages, God is a sower and his word is the fertile seed that creates the world. In the parable that Mark shows Jesus telling first, the sower’s seed is only partially successful. Unlike God’s word in either Genesis or Isaiah, the seed does not entirely “achieve the end” for which God sends it. It is thwarted by birds (4:4), by “rocky ground” (4:5), and by “thorns” (4:7). Only when it falls on “rich soil” does it produce fruit (4:8). This divided result is at odds with the purpose of the creator in Isaiah and in Genesis. The vocabulary used to describe these results, moreover, intensifies the division. The birds “consume” the seed (4:4); the sun “scorches” it, so that it “withers” (4:6); the thorns “choke” it (4:7). On the other hand, the seed that falls on good soil yields a superabundant harvest—“thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold” (4:8). The clearcut and exaggerated difference in results suggests an apocalyptic scenario—that is, a frightening view of the end time in which all people are revealed to have been predetermined to either eternal damnation or eternal bliss. Is that the teaching of Jesus here? We need to suspend our judgment until we have read the other two seed parables. 4:26-29 The parable of the seed that grows by itself This parable is unique to Mark’s Gospel. If we read it in connection with the first seed parable, we find that it offers a picture so opposite that it is comic. In this scenario, the seed is so fertile it sprouts no matter what. even while the farmer sleeps, the seed goes on growing, “he knows not how” (4:27). The words suggest something that has its own rhythm “night and day” (4:27)—and cannot be stopped. Indeed, the phrase rendered here as “of its own accord” is literally in Greek “automatically” (4:28). on automatic, the seed grows larger and larger until “the harvest has come” (4:29). The first parable would make us wary and worried about our final destiny. This second parable reassures us that all shall be well. This kind of uncalculating trust in God suggests the wisdom that “the Preacher” arrives at in ecclesiastes, when he says: One who pays heed to the wind will not sow, and one who watches the clouds will never reap. Just as you know not how the breath of life fashions the human frame in the mother’s womb, So you know not the work of God which he is accomplishing in the universe. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening let not your hands be idle: For you know not which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out well (Eccl 11:4-6). The first parable presents the scary, apocalyptic view of an end time in which souls are predetermined to eternal bliss or damnation. The second presents the reassuring perspective of Wisdom that in spite of our limited ways, God is making all things work together for good. This perspective is further emphasized by the fact that the line about wielding the sickle to cut the ripe harvest (4:29) actually echoes a passage in the prophet Joel where the harvest is sin and the sickle represents God’s vengeance (4:13). Joel is giving the harvest imagery an abnormal, almost perverse meaning. Mark is reversing this reversal and turning the harvest imagery back into something positive and good. As the middle parable, this second one is the key to the meaning of the triad. To understand the fullness of what Mark is presenting here as the teaching of Jesus, we need to look at the last one. 4:30-32 The parable of the mustard seed The mustard seed as “the smallest of all the seeds” was proverbial in Palestine. What grows from it, however, while large for a plant (about eight feet), is not very tall in comparison with a tree. So the oft-repeated interpretation of this parable, that it is about a tiny seed growing into a huge tree, is misleadingly simplistic. Jews in Mark’s audience would have been struck by several other aspects of this parable. First, they would have been surprised that anyone would have bothered to plant the mustard seed at all because it was so common. Mustard seed bushes grow all around the Lake of Galilee. Second, in the description of branches large enough to give shade to “the birds of the sky,” they would have heard a direct echo of passages in ezekiel and daniel. This echo, in fact, would have given them the real clue to the parable’s meaning. In ezekiel, God plants “a noble cedar” so grand that “beasts and birds dwell in its shade” (ezek 17:22-23). In context, this grand tree is clearly a symbol of the davidic kingdom. In the book of daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar asks daniel to interpret a dream that includes this description of a tree: I saw a tree of great height at the center of the world. It was large and strong, with its top touching the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, providing food for all. Under it the wild beasts found shade, in its branches the birds of the air nested; all men ate of it (Dan 4:7b-9). The tree echoes the forbidden tree of Genesis 2, while its heaven reaching top and nourishing of all flesh suggest “the tree of life” sealed off in the Garden. by means of these echoes of ezekiel and daniel, the parable connects the common mustard seed plant with david’s kingdom and with the tree of life in the first Garden. The real surprise in the parable is not the shift from small to large, but the paradoxical joining of the common and the ordinary with the divinely appointed grandeur of david and the divinely created nourishment of the original Garden. Through this imagery from the bible, the parable suggests that the kingdom of God is analogous to something very common transformed into something grand and divinely life-giving.