Questions About Mark's Gospel
This last Sunday in worship, a small performance group presented the first half of “the Good News According to Mark.” Our text is taken straight from the Bible. Two narrators share the narration, one person plays Jesus and three persons take all the rest of the speaking roles, ranging from John the Baptist, to disciples to townspeople to Pharisees to Pilate and Herod.
On Monday, I received an e-mail from a parishioner that said the following:
I really enjoyed the presentation on Sunday morning and have two questions:
1. Why didn't Jesus want the miracles told?
2. Why did he tell the disciples to "shake the dust off your feet as a testament against them?"
I decided to share my response with a wider audience, because the questions point to some of the deeper themes that Mark works with. So here is my response to that parishioner’s questions, and perhaps yours as well:
You ask, "Why didn't Jesus want the miracles told?"
Scholars have noted for years that one of the themes of Mark is what is called "the Messianic Secret." Jesus seems to be at pains to tell people not to spread the news about him, or to toot his horn for him. There are various possible reasons for this:
His mission was to bring people into a new relationship with God. He begins his ministry by saying that the Kingdom of God is at hand, so repent and believe in the Good News. As Jesus manifested the love, mercy and compassion of God, healings were a natural outcome. However, humans naturally focus on the wonder of miracles, and eagerly seek out healing. The focus then becomes the healings of Jesus rather than the new life in God that Jesus came to teach - the Kingdom of God. Of course, what do we focus on even today? His miracles, as if they were the sole proof of his divinity, and as things we want. We are still like the first century people. Which is why Mark is timeless.
Connected with that is another strong theme in Mark: how the disciples and religious leaders and other followers who should get it don't get it. Continually Jesus is scolding his disciples for their behavior or their misunderstanding his teachings, or just plain incomprehension of his message. A climax of this misunderstanding occurs on the mountain when Jesus is transfigured. Peter stammers out something inappropriate ("... because he didn't know what to say.") and a voice surrounds them and says "this is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Listen. "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear." Instead of rushing headlong into forming all our precious opinions about Jesus and his teachings, arguing what this or that means, who is right and who is wrong, we need to stop and listen. If it's all about our own opinion, then we don't get it. We are like the pharisees who argued against Jesus and we are like the disciples who tried to further their own agendas and interpretations. Listen. As in Shema Yisroel, adonai elohenu, adonai echod, "Hear (obey, consider deeply, apply to your life) O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
The story inexorably leads to the cross (which we will see this Sunday). Jesus teaches his disciples this plainly. The people would like to make him a military messiah, or want to project upon him all their own expectations and ideas. they don't see him for who he is and what he brings. the people who can see are actually blind, and those who are blind, when the encounter Jesus one on one are enabled to see. Repeatedly stories of the "blindness" of the disciples and religious leaders are paired with stories of Jesus healing those who are blind, as if Mark was saying in the words from the play "Butterflies are Free:" "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
Ultimately faith is not about what we believe. Not at all. Faith is about in whom we believe. In whom we place our trust. Like children. The basic experience of a child is to trust their parents. to trust that the sun will rise each day. that the earth will always be beneath them. that their needs will be met. Thus so many of Jesus' teachings are not focused upon his might and power, but on the faith and trust of the person being healed: "your faith has saved you. Your faith has healed you. Because of your faith, your daughter is healed." All the arguments and fights and wars over creeds and doctrines and belief systems are totally wrong and are what the writer of 1st John calls "anti-christ." When we do this, we still don't get it. Mark is written to us, for us and about us. {sigh}
Your second question is "Why did he tell the disciples to "shake the dust off your feet as a testament against them?"
Another good question. I have a suspicion, and this is just a suspicion, that it is related to his continuous plea, "those who have ears to hear, let them hear." I think he explains this in his parable about the sower and the seed. Very few of Jesus' parables are ever explained. This parable not only appears in the three Synoptic Gospels (the first 3), this is also one of very few that have an explanation attached. Not everybody gets what Jesus is about and what the Kingdom of God is about. The disciples didn't entirely get it, but nonetheless they were sent out to preach about it and demonstrate it. Some people would reject the message, some would receive it but quickly fall away, some would accept it for a while and then get swallowed up by the worries of life. But some would receive it gladly and would be fruitful in their acceptance. If a town rejected the disciples' teaching, then they essentially also rejected Jesus, he says. This can be frustrating, especially to those disciples who are zealous for Jesus. Resentment and anger could mount. Jesus is perhaps saying, "If they don't accept what you bring, just leave that town to its own decision. Don't take the rejection along with you. Don't harbor ill will towards them. Shake it off and leave it behind, like the dust on your feet."
We are gifted with free will. All of Jesus' teachings are grounded in the gift of free will choice. Jesus came to demonstrate a life infused with the presence of God. But we have to make the choice to accept that life and live it as well, or to go our own way.
No offense, but I think you may have missed the most important part of the messianic secrete. Everyone, in the time of Jesus, was look for a political king, and that was not Christ specif role at that time. You have to read it in it's historical cultural context and the backdrop helps you understand the picture that your trying to identify. Who were the disciples expecting Jesus to be? What were the people expecting this Jesus to do? The original question... why did Jesus tell people not to tell of His great miracles? Easy, He didn't want people to believe He was someone He was not, and He didn't want to reveal Himself until it was time for the great sacrifice. Look at what happens when the people do tell of what He did, even when He charged Him not to. They would look for this Jesus and give Him a hard time.
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