Mark: 3

We now come to the final section of Mark.  Mark’s Gospel has been called a Passion story (chaps. 14-16) with an extended introduction (i.e., chaps. 1-13).  Clearly the climax of the Gospel is Jesus’ death and resurrection (14:1-16:8).  Let me highlight a few things.

On the night Jesus was betrayed a woman comes to where he and the disciples are staying, and she anoints him with expensive perfume (Mark 14:3).  While some of the disciples were indignant of such “waste,” Jesus reveals the true symbolism of her actions: viz., she’s preparing him for his impending burial (Mark 14:8).  Clearly for Judas, enough is enough: Jesus is not who he thought he was (unlike the Chicago Bears), so he decides to make a quick buck-and-a-bit and betray Jesus (Mark 14:10-11).  During their final Passover meal together, Jesus again predicts his death and resurrection, as well as his disciples’ falling away during the moment of trial (Mark 14:26-31). 

Afterward, we get a window into Jesus’ inner turmoil when he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray (14:32-42).  Despite knowing the outcome of what lies ahead, Jesus nevertheless agonizes over the path he must walk, and even seeks support from his three lead disciples (Mark 14:32-34).  When he is arrested (with Judas the betrayer leading the way), his disciples flee and deny knowing him—just as he had predicted (Mark 14:50-52, 66-72).

The Jewish council charges Jesus with blasphemy and consequently, condemn him to death (14:55-65).  It’s important to see that the religious leaders condemn him of blasphemy (Mark 14:61-64), a charge which Jesus never rebuffs.  Some people claim that Jesus and his earliest followers never believed that he was divine—it was only much later that Christians asserted this.  Not true!  The Council asks him, “Are you the Christ/Messiah?”  Jesus answers by quoting Dan 7:13 (Mark 14:62), and implicitly identifies himself as the “Son of Man” in Dan 7:13-14—a figure who in Daniel is worshiped (rightly) as God.  To claim to be that Son of Man is blasphemy . . . i.e., if you’re not God.  If Jesus didn’t think he was God, he could have easily set the record straight: “Hey, you guys misunderstand me!  I’m not saying that I’m God—only that God has sent me to teach the way.”  If he had said something like that then he couldn’t have been charged with blasphemy.  But he didn’t.  He didn’t b/c his accusers correctly understood his claims: Jesus was claiming to be God, which is blasphemy—that is, if he wasn’t God.

So the Jewish council hands Jesus over to Pilate, who was appointed by Rome to be the political leader of the Jews, and he ends up sentencing Jesus to death (15:1-15).  After a tremendous amount of scourging Jesus is crucified (15:16-41).  There’s irony in the Passion narrative.  For example, Jesus is frequently called the king of the Jews (Mark 15:2, 9, 12, 26, 32), but the people who witnessed the event were only being sarcastic; the reader of Mark, however, knows better: Jesus truly is the King of the Jews (and then some!).  The inner curtain of the temple is torn in two (15:38), which symbolized the impending judgment against the temple: the temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.  The tearing of the temple curtain also symbolized the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice: the former ways to gain access to the holy of holies has been abolished; there is now but one way: Jesus (cf. Heb 9:11-12).

Remember how the Gospel began?  “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1).  The title, “son of God” now comes full circle: the Roman centurion who witnesses Jesus’ death on the cross confesses, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (15:39).  There are a few things to note here.  First, the man who makes this confession is a Gentile.  Jesus came to the Jews, but aside from Peter’s semi-private confession of Jesus as the Messiah, the first person to profess publicly that Jesus is the “Son of God” is a Gentile and not a Jew.  Second, he makes this confession not based on Jesus’ teachings, nor on his miracles, but based on the way Jesus died: presumably, in contrast to the loud misery in which people died by crucifixion, Jesus dies with a great deal of dignity and inner strength.  Third, it’s significant that a Roman centurion confesses Jesus to be “the son of God” (Mark 15:39).  If you remember in a past blog entry (“Background Check”), I talked about Roman Imperial Theology; one of the planks of RIT is the belief that the Roman Emperor was the son of God.  This Roman centurion—a soldier who faithfully served the Emperor and the Empire—now confesses that it is Jesus, a Jew, who is actually the son of God!  Fourth, this confession is all the more significant if Mark seeks to address Christians in Rome, who are being persecuted by the Roman Empire.

Then comes the resurrection . . . which we’ll look at next.