A. Mark 1:1-13 The Beginning of the Good News

Mark 1:1 The Title

The beginnings and the endings of stories are important because they send us signals as to what we need to know if we are to make sense of the story. Mark doesn’t have a dust jacket with author blurb and a summary of the story and reader comments. It doesn’t have something that says “This is the Gospel of Mark”: that gets added much later.

What it does have is a short sentence that harbors a host of allusions: beginning of the gospel about Jesus Messiah Son of God.

Before the word ‘gospel’ became a Christian word for a story about Jesus (mid 2nd century) it was used for a story proclaiming the glories of a god-emperor. The Emperor Augustus is honored in a proclamation by the Provincial Assembly of Asia Minor with these words “… the birthday of the God [=Caesar Augustus] has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel concerning him ..” 'Gospel' was also used for the good news of victory in battle and for significant turning points in the history of the world. Mark could well be saying that his story is significant news and it is about Jesus rather than Caesar. Paul had used ‘the Gospel’ as a cipher for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1ff.) as the author of the second part of Isaiah had used it to gather up the hope of the exiles (Is. 61:1ff).

Here, Jesus is the subject of the Gospel, rather than the author: the good news is about Jesus (an objective genitive). In Mk. 1:14 Jesus is the one who proclaims the good news (in the sense of Isaiah 61:1) rather than the one who is proclaimed (as by Paul)

Mark is saying that to appreciate the beginning of the gospel about Jesus we need to go back to Jesus’ baptism by John and his proclamation by the divine voice. Subsequent gospel writers will push back this “divine moment” to his conception (Matthew & Luke) or even to before the beginning of all time (John). “Beginning” evokes the bereshith (“in the beginning”) of Genesis 1:1. I don’t think it is merely saying this is the first of the gospels or that this sentence marks the start of the book/story we know as “Mark”

For us as readers or hearers of the story, mention of a “beginning” evokes a question about its ending: where will it all go, and will it ever end? As second or third time readers of Mark we know that Jesus’ commitment to go up to Jerusalem (8:31) has tragic consequences in his Passion. We know too that this is a story without end. There is no resurrection appearance but a relayed call to go on to Galilee where Jesus has already gone (16:7). As readers we know all this because we have gone through this before. We too, live in the absence of Jesus.

The gospel of Jesus Christ Son of God is not a biography of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the proclaimed one, a god-like figure who lords it over the spirits of the deep (6:47-52) and of whom the crowds say: “What is this? A new teaching — with authority he commands the unclean spirits and they obey him” But here, in the title, this extraordinary figure is described in functional terms as the perfect human figure, the anointed king, the obedient son of God, on a special mission for God. “Jesus Christ” will become almost a proper name. (In our day it will become a phrase used by people who struggle with the rudiments of the English language and with the concept of walking upright.)

So this is how the real story, the real gospel, begins. Not with Caesar Augustus but with the anointed Jesus.


Mark 1:2-13 The Prologue

The privileged position of the readers, particularly those of us who are “in the know” because we are no longer first-time readers, is now established.

The mother of all connections is set up here.

• It is written in scripture is a mixed quotation from Exodus 23:20 (the messenger before your face), Second Isaiah (40:2, the voice crying in the wilderness) and Malachi (3:1, the messenger and 4:5-6, the one coming is Elijah) rather than a single quote from a single Isaiah.
• Elijah is a candidate to return since he never died; Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2)
• Mark is fascinated with Elijah: he returns on stage in the transfiguration story (9:2-8) in company with Moses, whose departure is shrouded in mystery (Deuteronomy 34:6). Post-transfiguration discussion (9:9-13) confirm that Elijah is the coming one and Elijah has already come
• John is the coming Elijah to whom “they did whatever they pleased”. The identification is confirmed by John having the hairy dress of the prophet (Zechariah 13:4) and wearing Elijah’s belt (2 Kings 1:8)
• Jesus is the more powerful one who is coming after John. The strategic connection between John and Jesus awaits us: John’s arrest – Jesus’ preaching – John’s death – Jesus’ going up to Jerusalem. They will “do what they want” with John and then with Jesus. As readers (let’s call ourselves ‘second readers’) of Mark we can’t help ourselves: we know that John, and then Jesus, is arrested and ‘handed over” to the authorities and that the same fate awaits us as we take up his cross and follow him. Much awaits us!

Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee is baptized (i.e. dipped) by John. This is one very special example of the hyperbole of verse 6: “the whole region of Judaea and all the Jerusalemites”. Three special events form a part of the baptism of our main character Jesus in his first scene.

• Immediately (that’s not the special event: that is the first case of Mark using this word to create a sense of urgency) he saw (who saw, the Baptist or Jesus?) the heavens ripped open. We second readers (as we are now known) have just finished reading about the veil of the Temple being ripped open (15:38 – the word is not used elsewhere in Mark. Once again, in his baptism we see his death. This occurs while he is going up (cf. his going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die)
• The dove-like Spirit descends on him. Why “dove-like”? Don’t know! The presence and power of the Spirit of Creation will drive him, minister to him and empower him.
• The voice (of God) speaks from heaven. The voice of God proclaims him as the “beloved son” here: the voice of the centurion will acknowledge him as “truly God’s Son” at the second ripping (15:39)

The prologue has been set in the “wilderness”. This is more a scriptural evocation rather than a geographic designation.

• Where God formed his chosen people
• Where God was alone with his “beloved one” (Hosea 2:14 – cf. Mk. 1:11)
• Where Israel failed the test (Psalm 78. 105. 106)

Here, into this “wilderness”, Jesus is thrown out by the (archetypal good) Spirit, he does battle with the archetypal bad Spirit for the standard forty days. The same battle of opposites will continue throughout Mark: Jesus’ testing continues. To this summary statement, a new Adam-in-Paradise theme appears to be added as Adam is also forty days with the beasts. It is evident to us that Jesus passes his testing and, like Elijah after his forty day flight to Mt Horeb (1 Kings 19:1-8), is ministered to by the angels.

In this prologue, everything points to Jesus. We see, we hear, we remember. This is set to be a very high stakes game. This is no ordinary story and we are no disinterested observers.

B. Mark 1:13 - 3:6 The Arrival of the Kingdom is Announced

Mark 1:14-15 Transitional Markan Summary of Jesus’ preaching

In terms of our sense of the development of the plot of Mark the key thing here is the synchronizing of the beginning of Jesus’ preaching with the “handing over of John”. Only when one exits the stage can the other enter.

Jesus came proclaiming the good news. Here Jesus is the "preacher of the gospel": in contrast, Mark portrays Jesus as the teacher who is mighty in word and in deed. The language of this linking summary sounds strange. It is the language of the narrator, not the language of the character Jesus.

Mark 1:16-20 Calling of representative disciples

This is the first of four callings of disciples (cf. 2:13ff., 3:13ff., 6:6bff.) As second readers we have a strong sense that the “disciples” are going to play a major role in teaching us about what it means to follow Jesus. ”In fact, their failures constitute the primary literary device by which the narrator reveals Jesus' standards for discipleship, for much of his teaching comes in the course of correcting their behavior and attitudes.” (Rhoads, Dewey & Michie, p124). In the course of our reading we have noted that, in addition to the four named fishermen here, and Levi in 2:14, they are referred to as “his disciples” (2:15), “they” (1:29), “the twelve” (3:14, 14:17), “them” (3:23), “us” (4:35) and the “women looking on … who used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee” (15:40f)

The summary proclamation of the Kingdom of God is immediately followed by a typical, stylized response that is in the style of the calling of Elisha by Elijah (1 Kings 19:19-21) – passing … saw … called … left … followed…

We remember that the final element of the Gospel also associates Galilee with his disciples - Jesus "goes ahead" of his disciples (16:7)

Follow me (the status of discipleship) and I will make you into those who fish for humans (the function of discipleship - so Donahue). This two-level request will be seen again in the calling of the twelve (3:13f). The fishing metaphor normally evokes images of judgment at the end of the age when God’s net is cast out (Jeremiah 16:16; Ezekiel 32:3f, 17:20; Hosea 7:12). Such negativity here would clash with the two subsequent commissioning stories at 3:13ff and 6:7ff. Donahue calls the fishing image "enigmatic".

Jesus, who will be proclaimed as “mighty in word and deed”, teaching with authority, healing all manner of sickness, casting out demons and having the wind and the waves obey him, this Jesus commands the disciples to come follow him and they obey immediately. The proclamation of the kingdom in word and deed is on the march!

Mark 1:21-34 A representative “day” in Capernaum

A paradigmatic calling leads into a paradigmatic day. In both cases, the authority of Jesus’ word is demonstrated: he commands and disciples follow, he commands and demons come out. The overall classification is that of “teaching”, a “new teaching with authority”. Later, the authority of his word, his authority to forgive sins, will be challenged and then vindicated by his ability to command a healing (2:10f.).

The “day” links together three healing stories on the Sabbath day and the evening of the following day – inside a public building, inside a private dwelling and out at the city gate, involving an individual man, an individual woman and a crowd. It included sickness and demon possession.

The reference to the day does not imply diary jottings or the beginnings of a history. Rather, it links the various healing activities together and places them under the rubric of “teaching with authority” We are told that Jesus was “teaching in the synagogue” and “proclaiming the message in their synagogues” but what we see him doing is healing the sick and casting out demons. We do not see/hear a lot of the teaching of the teacher in Mark

The first and last healings stress the casting out of demons perhaps because the Prologue has mentioned a decisive encounter of the “stronger one” with the archetypal demon, the Satan (1:13); there remain “mopping up” operations in which the one who has been “cast out” into the wilderness by the spirit now, as a consequence, “casts out” the unclean spirits. These spirits recognize the “holy one” just as we remember, and recognize, the voice from the heavens and the battle in the wilderness.

The command to silence, a standard part of the pattern of exorcism stories, here becomes a part of the larger Marcan “messianic secret,” where, ironically, no one seems able to keep silence in the face of the words and deeds of Jesus.

As we gain some familiarity with these minor characters called “demons” that pop up in the world of Mark’s story, a world in which anything can happen, we also recognize their subservience to the baptized one. (The fact that demons don’t have a role in our world doesn't prevent us imaginatively entering into Mark’s story)

We recognize too the structure of the healing/exorcism, and in particular the “Greek chorus” like response of the crowd who are amazed and marvel. They say “What is this? … He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him” (1:27) and “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (4:41). This is an entirely appropriate concluding response in such a story; we are coming to understand the rules that operate in this world.

Mark 1:35 – 45 Representative activity in Galilee

Jesus’ seeking out the solitude of the “wilderness” for prayer begins another cycle of preaching and healing, being mighty in word and deed.” This new cycle shows success beyond all measure, even when Jesus withdraws to the wilderness. Wherever Jesus goes he is sought out by people from every quarter (1:45 cf. 3:8) (There is ‘brand recognition’ operating here!)

The initial summary of this tour (1:38-39) has “proclaiming the message” (= preaching) as his mission – what he is called out to do – and links it with the neighboring towns, their synagogues and the casting out of demons. Jesus is confirmed to us as completely reliable: what he says he will do, he does. The words of Jesus are confirmed by the narrator.

The concluding summary (1:45) reports the unfettered success of the former leper’s “spreading the word around” causing restrictions on where Jesus can operate.

Between these two markers is ‘sandwiched” the story of the healing of a leper. The sandwich is characterized by its filling: the extraordinary success of the mission receives its flavor from the story of Jesus’ gut-wrenching compassion for the leprous individual. The social world of Mark’s story understands the boundaries that separate the leprous and non-leprous worlds, the clean and the unclean. (It has been noted that ‘leprosy’ in the biblical world is a reference to a wide variety of skin diseases and fungi, rather than to modern leprosy – Hansen’s disease). Jesus is “gutted” (as we would say) and crosses those boundaries by touching the leper and healing him with a word. “Tell no-one and go show yourself to the priest” Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen!

As readers, we watch while the success seems unstoppable but we also know it will not last for ever. The clouds of opposition are gathering: we will not have long to wait.

Mark 2:1 – 3:6 Opposition to Jesus and Vindication of his Authority

This series of five controversy stories shows Jesus’ skill at the game of challenge—response within an honor—shame society.

Honor – Shame Society
The pivotal value in 1st Century Mediterranean society. “Honor can be understood as the status one claims in the community together with the all-important recognition of that claim by others. It thus serves as an indicator of social standing, enabling persons to interact with their social superiors, equals, and inferiors in certain ways prescribed by society.” Malina & Rohrbaugh, p.213). Honor can be ascribed through birth into an honorable family or it can be acquired through skill in the ongoing game of challenge and response. A person can be shamed by losing honor or have shame by being sensitive to the honor of one’s family. Honor must be gained, or defended, publicly as the community must acknowledge the transfer of honor from one family to another. Since so much hangs on the honor of one’s family, honor must be publicly and immediately defended at all costs. “The smallest slight or injury must be avenged, or honor is immediately lost.” (Malina, p.213)

Challenge – Riposte
Any and all challenges that seek to undermine the honor of a family must be publicly answered with an equal, or greater, challenge. To ignore a challenge results in a serious loss of face. (Malina, p.188)

Mark 2:1-12 Healing of the Paralyzed Man

The evidence of the success of the preaching-healing tour continues to be seen in the lack of access into the house. The persistence of the four men carrying the paralytic in “thinking outside the square” and gaining access via the roof is reminiscent of the Syrophoenician woman (7:24-30) or of blind Bartimaeus (10:46-52) is referred to as “faith”. The effect of it is to allow the challenge—repost to be set up by Jesus’ statement that God forgives the sins of the paralytic. The “divine passive” indicates that Jesus is not forgiving the man but declaring God’s forgiveness.

The challenge/insult is thrown down: “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! …”

The response by Jesus, “Which is easier to say …?”, is a rhetorical question that effectively silences the scribes. The command to stand up is open to immediate verification, unlike the acknowledging of forgiveness. This would mean that to declare forgiveness is the easy option. However, to say that the forgiveness of sins is easy would be to insult/dishonor God. “But that you might know …”. Jesus “ups the ante” by implying that the healing of the lame is a sign of the divine activity in the coming of the kingdom. Jesus, mighty in word and deed is also the Son of Man soon to be on his way up to Jerusalem.

Mark 2:13-17 Calling of Levi, Meals with Tax Collectors and Sinners

The insult is “Why does he eat with toll collectors and sinners?” Under the popularizing influence of the Pharisees, meals were on their way to being the replacement for the activity of the priests in the Temple. As such, issues of purity, cleanliness and hedging off contamination were important. Who sat at table was not a secret. Attendance at meals affirmed and established social boundaries so it was important to see that the group was not being threatened. We know that issues of clean and unclean will be taken up later in chapter 7, “Toll collectors sitting in customhouses … collected levies on goods entering, leaving, or being transported across a district as well as those passing crossover points like bridges, gates or landings.” (Malina, 190) Because of the need to handle, and thrust hands into, all goods, toll collectors such as Levi would be carriers of contamination – “unclean”. They would work for chief collectors of local taxes, such as Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1ff.), some of whom could grow rich. Impurity rather than immorality is at issue here. “Sinners” functions as a catchall for those who were seen to be living outside the community (“Gentiles”?), not those who had “fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Jesus’ retort by means of an aphorism, “Those who are well have no need …”, wins him honor. “It’s what I do!”, is the implied claim. The inclusive call, rather than exclusive admission, to table is itself the affirmation of the new social order; what is at issue is not disease but the overcoming of “the loss of meaning and place in the community” (Malina, p.189)

Mark 2:18-22 Fasting as the New Wineskins and New Garments?

The third challenge laid down is: “Why do your disciples not fast?” “Fasting is … a form of self-humiliation intended to get the attention of another so that that other will offer assistance to the one fasting.” (Malina, p.195). How much more than this will God give assistance?

Jesus responds with two sets of metaphors. The first says that it would be entirely inappropriate to fast at a wedding; it would be insulting. The metaphors of the cloth and the wineskins are a little less obvious. In both cases, what is of value is the old – old garments and old wineskins. They are of high value. The real tragedy would be to loose either of these; new wine, which is of little value, needs to be put in the valueless, new wineskins until fermentation has been completed. It is then transferred to the old, brittle but value-full, wineskins to be aged to where it is drinkable. Is the metaphor being used in praise of the old?

From the point of view of the “implied reader”, members of the community behind the Gospel of Mark, the bridegroom has been taken away from them, they are in a time of absence (so Crossan), and so fasting is now appropriate, or will soon be.

Mark 2:23-28 Doing what is not Lawful to do on the Sabbath

The first of two stories set on the Sabbath, the first a “pronouncement story” and the second an (informal) healing story: both are stories that show how Jesus responds to being watched and questioned and spell out the nature and extent of his authority over the Sabbath.

We note the rise in the status of those issuing the challenge as we move through these five challenges: from scribes to Pharisees and Herodians.

While passing through a field, Jesus’ disciples are plucking grain and (presumably) eating it. Is this permitted? Does it violate the Sabbath rest? Does it fall under the provision of Deut. 23:25? There is no problem with taking the grain to snack on; there is no problem with eating on the Sabbath. Are they “harvesting”, and thus working? The exact nature of the alleged infringement is lost on us.

More to the point is Jesus response to the challenge. Jesus alludes to what David did. Reading 1Samuel 21:1-6 shows us what David did not do: have companions, be hungry, enter the house of God, while Abiathar was high priest and eat the bread of the presence. It reads like early Christian “midrash” (commentary) on the David story with an underlying appeal to a “light and the heavy” argument: if David could, how much more could the Son of Man? Later (12:36), Mark will have David call Jesus “Lord”. The same high honor is here won by Jesus’ response to the challenge.

Jesus finishes up with the pithy saying “The Sabbath is made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath.” This saying does not jar with current early Jewish thinking and practice. The Sabbath is God’s gift to his people and can accommodate the alleviation of hunger as it can other actions that preserve life.

The “Son of Man” is put before us for the second time, this time as the one who has authority over the Sabbath: later we know we will see him as the one who will go up to Jerusalem with his disciples, there to suffer and die (10:33). In the current context of these two Sabbath stories, Jesus, whom we have seen teaching with power and authority, now as the Son of Man creates case law, authoritatively teaching how the Sabbath is to be lived out within the Kingdom.

Mark 3:1-6 Doing good or evil on the Sabbath

The testers are now keeping a very close eye on Jesus indeed: will their prognosis be for good or evil? By the end of this story we will see the fate of the bridegroom “who will be taken from them” being played out as these testers take counsel as to how Jesus will be destroyed.

Once again, the person being healed, the man with the withered hand, is not personalized by being named. What is important is that he was healed on the Sabbath and that such an action is declared to be permitted. He is brought into clear view (“rise up in the midst”) and healed by a command from Jesus.

Jesus is profoundly angry with the hardness of their hearts and this anger leads on to the healing of the paralytic but the cause of the anger is not clear. Maybe it is because the antithesis (do good or do evil) is such a “no brainer” (FDA approval has been given, get on with it!) and the man with the withered arm is the one who is being left to suffer for no good reason.

His affliction is not life-threatening but since saving life (treatment of life-threatening illness) and taking life (taking up arms in self-defense in 1Macc. 2:41) are currently approved, there is no good reason to delay this more minor case of healing. (Maybe?)

Jesus is the only one who speaks in this story. The paralytic makes no request, the Pharisees are silent. As the one who has authority over the Sabbath (its “lord”), Jesus can exemplify appropriate ways of behaving on the Sabbath. His opponents are silenced but not finished with: they express their anger in their plotting about how the lord of the Sabbath is to be put to death. The plot rises up to the surface again.

C. Mark 3:7 – 8:21 Activity of Jesus around the Sea of Galilee

As readers, we have been introduced to Jesus, first in relation to God, through the activity of John and the activity of the Spirit, then in relation to Israel, with an initial unrestrained success and then a mounting challenge to Jesus’ honor/authority. Now we move into a major section of the story that is set on both the Jewish and the Gentile sides of the Sea of Galilee. Within the rich variety of early Judaism, a new family in a new home is formed around Jesus.

Mark 3:7 - 12 Transitional Summary: Healing by the Seaside

The previous major section (1:14 – 3:6) was introduced by Mark with one of his characteristic summary statements. The great crowds, from the south east to the north west of Galilee, serve to indicate the breadth of his support. The crush is so great that, once again, Jesus takes refuge on a boat. The evil spirits identify Jesus with the ‘Son of God,’ a designation we readers heard first in the prologue and then later heard from the centurion at the foot of the cross. Once again, the transitional Markan summary tells us the sort of things Jesus used to do and the sort of response he received. As here, they anticipate what is to come.

Mark 3:13 - 19 Calling of the Twelve

The twelve are called, they come and are appointed to do two things: be with him, go out and preach and have authority to case out demons – pretty much what they have seen Jesus do. That is the nature and extent of their appointment.

The twelve is a symbolic grouping that clearly has an appeal to the twelve tribes of Israel. It is an early institution (1. Cor 15:5) but it doesn’t survive for long. We note that it is one of several designations of, or groupings within, Jesus’ followers. Two others are “apostles”, which creeps in here and the more amorphous “disciples” and “followers” which we see in the in the larger context of Mark's story. It is not a tidy ordering or an exact distinction.

The lists of names of the twelve (cf. Matt. 10:2-4, Lk. 6:14-16, Acts 1:13) do not agree in the detail: the number 12 and the leading names (first four) are more consistent than the lower names and the rankings. The change of name for Simon (“Rocky1”) is significant. He seems to play the part of the “rocky soil”(4:5 cf. 6:52, 8:17) rather than the rock on which the church is built!

Mark 3:20 - 35 The Beelzebub Controversy & the True Family

The family set out (presumably from Nazareth 6:1-6) to "arrest" Jesus and bring him back home; they think he is “out of his mind, beside himself”. But the narrator has told us that Jesus is already at home. The family will arrive outside Jesus’ home in 3:31, forming a “Markan sandwich” where the bread and the filling mutually interpret one another (cf. the fig tree and the temple cleansing in 11:12-21). The various "home" references will lead into the definition of the true family.

The parable of the strong man’s house is the response to the charges that he is beside himself and that he is acting under the authority of Beelzebub. We readers know that Jesus has already defeated the strong man out in the wilderness (1:13) and we have seen the mopping up operations in the exorcisms. We are already exhibiting the viewpoint of Jesus’ true family and are at home with him. The origin of “Beelzebub” (or its many variants) is obscure and it is heaped around with a “density of descriptions of demons”(Donahue, 130) The parable deals comprehen­sively to all such accusations of an alliance with evil: it is absurd to think other than that the strong man has been dealt to by the mightier one, the “liberating agent of God’s deliverance” (Donahue, 131). Clearly the strong man’s house has been broken into and all his stuff has been plundered! We have watched this happen. Go figure!

The “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” saying is linked with this charge that Jesus is acting outside himself, under the control of evil forces. Such an insult against the Holy Spirit arises from attributing the transforming and liberating power exhibited by Jesus to demonic sources. Those who make such a false linkage put themselves outside the action of the spirit and hence are closing the door to the possibility of forgiveness for ever; their hearts are hardened. “Have I committed this unforgivable sin?” is a question that can only be answered by “No!” It is not ignorance but false discipleship that is in the firing line here. The radical sin is the total loss of faith that aligns itself with the powers that have been broken by the Spirit empowered Jesus. It's a bit like shutting ourselves out of the loop of God's forgiveness.

By the time Jesus’ family has arrived outside Jesus’ home, we are ready for the new definition of family that is delivered to the new family members who are crowded inside: “whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, my mother.

”The reference to speaking to them “in parables” (3:23) provides us with a link forward into chapter 4 with its paradigm presentation and interpretation of the parable of the sower and the allegory of the seeds/soils.

Mark 4:1 – 34 Jesus’ Words of Power

Mark 4:1-9 The Parable of the Sower

An aside about parables.
What can I say about the parables of Jesus? “Much in every way!” Jesus was not the only teller of parables of his time; his are just the most enduring. They are either a simple (e.g. the parable of the mustard seed), or an extended (e.g. the parable of the father who had two sons) , metaphor. They do not so much give information about, but also allow participation in, the Kingdom of God. They are not teaching illustrations. They often tease out, or shock, the mind in order to convey the reality of the kingdom. Parables do not spell out the reality they are conveying: allegories spell out the reality, often in great detail. Allegories are often parables that have gone to seed: they become a code which is to be cracked and then thrown away. Our current chapter in Mark gives an example, the allegory of the seeds. (Who would have ever thought that the Satan is the birds that came and ate the seeds?) St Augustine shows agility for interpreting parables allegorically that beggars belief.

Parables can be echoes of the voice of the historical Jesus and also exercises in the history of interpretation, interpreting away the troubling voice of Jesus. Some parables tell us more about how parables were used at the time of the writing of the gospel; this neither shocks nor worries us.

In recent times, the “Chicago School” of Norman Perrin, John Donahue, Mary Ann Tolbert, John Dominic Crossan, Bernhard Brandon Scott and Robert Funk have been our most helpful guides into the parables. From a pervious era, CH Dodd has given a definition of parables that is still a good starting point for discussion:

“A metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearers by its vividness or strangeness and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought” (The Parables of the Kingdom, p. 5)

Mark chapter four is not a “Parables 101”course. On the contrary, it contains some of the most difficult text to read intelligently.

Reading the parable:
Who are the “great crowd” who hear the parable? Possibly the combination of the inside and the outside groups. Verse 10 will reduce the crowd down to a subset that seems to correspond to the inside group. Mark takes some time to arrange his characters on the stage. Jesus is in a boat out on the sea (where did we come across that booking being made?) and he is sitting, as is appropriate for a teacher. Jesus is sitting on the waters just as he will soon be walking on them, exercising his authority over the evil spirits of the deep. The crowd, in contrast, are standing on the land, facing out to the sea; they are the soils (good, bad and indifferent) onto which the seed will fall.

"He used to teach them in many ways by means of parables" may point to a characteristic mode of teaching by Jesus. However, there are relatively few parables in Mark’s story. Both Matthew’s and Luke’s stories have more parables and more of the more memorable narrative parables (e.g. the parable of the man who fell among thieves).than does Mark. This chapter, and chapter 13, are the two major teaching blocks that come from the mouth of the one who teaches with power and authority.

This current “extended metaphor” seems to be extended into lengthy and even boring detail of the failures of three soil types before a fourth type brings abundant and repeated success. We allow that a parable might “tease the mind” in several different directions: there is not one, simple, correct interpretation. Parables can be “multivalent.” We can see how the slow build up of the soil types would suggest a variety of responses, initially mostly negative, before unbelievable success amongst the vast crowd standing on the land.

Another way in which our minds might be led is from the seemingly random scattering of the seed to the exaggerated 100-fold yield out of the good soil: so too is it with the preaching of the kingdom. As Struthers Malbon notes: “About eightfold would be a normal harvest. So a hundredfold is ridiculous; this is a stretch. This is hyperbole. This is not a farmer’s almanac but a parable of the kingdom of God.” (p.29) The final “let him hear” forms an inclusio with the initial “list up”.

Mark 4:10-12 The Mystery of the Kingdom of God

Jesus is alone, but surrounded by the twelve and a lager group of people. We probably think back to the insiders, those inside Jesus’ home, those who do the will of God.

The problem we have with the suggestion of determinism of the “so that” of verse 12 (he taught in parables so that those who are “outside” might not perceive and might not understand and might not turn and be forgiven) is our problem and not that of Mark.

The problem is why do people hear but only a proportion of them respond positively; why do some people just not get it? It goes back as least as far as the prophets. It is a “mystery”, something hidden in the plan and purposes of God to be revealed at a later date. The “hina clause” is to be read as beginning “with the result that” rather than “in order that” As with the so-called “sin against the Holy Spirit” saying, we make choices that effect our future: other people make different choices. None of us is locked into the choices we make. There is no determinism here.

Mark 4:13-20 The Allegory of the Seeds

The allegory lines up two lists (A, B, C, …& a, b, c, …) and draws lines of correspondence (A corresponds with a, B with b and so on.) once these (often bizarre and non-intuitive) correspondences have been made we have cracked the code; the parable can be thrown away. It has no further use; we have the real kernels and the husks can be dispensed with.

In contrast, the worth of the parable is in the ongoing process it takes us through whereby we see the real world in a new way. Breath through (and through) the strange pain of the world in which the laborer who only works the last hour is paid the same as the one who works through the heat pf the day. So too, the world in which the cunning, immoral, steward who rewrites his master’s accounts and is then praised, is the “upside down is up” world of the Kingdom of God. Perhaps the cross is the master parable of the Kingdom.

Allowing for parables being multivalent, having more than one meaning, the allegory presents the view that the parable of the sower can, as the allegory of the seeds/soils, explain the mystery of the preaching of the Kingdom. One such explanation of the attention given to the rocky soil (“… not much soil, …no depth of soil, … no roots …) is that it is a paradigm for the impetuous but shallow behavior of Peter (“Rocky1”)

Mark 4:21-34 Sayings on Revelation & Parables of the Kingdom

Four sayings on Revelation and two Kingdom parables precede the final statement of the mystery: to those inside he explained everything but to those outside it was all in riddles.

The revelation sayings: anything that is now hidden will ultimately be revealed. Neither a lamp nor the mystery of the kingdom nor a parable can be permanently covered over: the light will be put on the lampstand and the hidden thing will be revealed. The second two sayings seem to require some effort or commitment on the part of the hearer – the measure you use and he who has – which in turn will be rewarded by God. See what you hear, pay attention to what you hear, is not a call to watch the rich get richer. Presumably Mark uses these four sayings to illuminate the preaching of the parables.

This illumination continues with the two small parables. The seed growing of itself The sower scatters the seed, the mystery continues as God causes the growth, the sower then becomes the harvester: so it is with the preaching of the Kingdom of God. The mustard seed grows into a modest shrub that parodies Ezekiel’s lofty cedar tree (Ezek. 17:22-23) Mark makes this a contrast between a tiny beginning and a not so tiny end; It doesn’t work quite so well for Mark! Struthers Malbon suggests the point is that the mustard seen is like (enter your weed of choice – mine is ginger) that, once planted, grows out of control. “Planted” implies too much order and intent, but to call the Kingdom of God “a weed that grows out of control” is way too pernicious a metaphor! Live with the pain.

Mark 4:35 – 8:21 Proclamation to Jew and Gentile: Crossing the Sea

This large section of Mark is structured around journeys across the Sea of Galilee, moving between the Jewish and the Gentile sides of the sea (lake). We note that the first such journey (4:35 – 5:1) takes the Jesus group into the country of the Gerasenes where there is a huge herd of pigs; this side of the sea is clearly the Gentile side. The exorcism of the demoniac (5:2 – 20) is the only action on the first trip to the Gentile side: others will follow on the next trip (6:53 – 8:12). The short trip back across the sea takes them back to the Jewish side (note the very Jewish healing story in 5:21-43) where a series of events culminates in the first of two feeding stories (the feeding of the 5,000). They cross back to the Gentile side where we see a comparable series of events that includes a Gentile healing story (7:24-30) and the Gentile feeding story (the feeding of the 4,000). There is a balance between the two sides and three of the crossings of the sea are very significant occasions.

Mark 4:35 – 5:1 Stilling of the sea
The first and third crossing stories will demonstrate the lordship of the divine man Jesus over the chaos and demonic power of the sea together with his caring presence with his disciples. They exhibit a lack of trust.

The first crossing acts out Psalm 107:23-32. Jesus’ sleeping contrasts the disciples fear and lack of faith. He exhibits the power of God to quell the storm just as the third crossing will show him striding over the heads of the sea monsters. In contrast to the assurance spoken of by the psalmist (Ps. 46:1-3), the disciples cry out “don’t you care that we are about to die?” We know, having read Mark 13, that Mark’s first audience see themselves in a time of absence of Jesus (the sleeping Jesus). Donahue notes: “Mark’s readers would be led to see that Jesus is the agent of God’s power who ultimately triumphs over the forces that threaten the community with extinction (‘we are about to die’)” (p.161).

The disciples are rebuked for their lack of courage and lack of faith. Called and taken aside to be taught, they still have a long way to go in their journey of faith (lack of faith). We take courage from the lack of courage and trust shown by the new family of Jesus. Their closing choral response is fitting in the face of a clear demonstration of the power of God. This epiphany of Jesus is sung out with “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Mark 5:2 – 20 Exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac
The exact location of the town is unknown, but it is a Gentile town. The man lives amongst the tombs in the mountains; he is clearly a madman and a Gentile. The unclean spirit is more than a match for the chains but we know that the stronger one will prevail. The Gentile exorcism parallels the Jewish exorcism at Capernaum (Mk.1:21-28) Exorcisms begin both the Jewish and the Gentile activity of Jesus and they both address a similar question to the Holy One: “what do we have in common?” The Gentile exorcism is “by far the most elaborate and enigmatic gospel miracle story”. (see Donahue, p.169)

The expected pattern of an exorcism is broken at a couple of points: the man invokes God “I adjure you by God”, normally the prerogative of the exorcist, and he requests permission to enter the swine and thus not be sent off into another territory.

"My name is Legion". Struthers Malbon suggests the irony of the crazy (Roman) Legion rushing into the sea and self-destructing would not be lost on the first hearers. Add to this that Jesus has asked the demon his name and hence now has power over “the Legion”. (Hmm?) Donahue discusses such socio-political interpretations of the name, noting the Gentile territory of the demoniac. (p. 166)

The healed Gentile begs that “he might be with him”. We have seen that it is Jesus who appoints those who are to be with him (3:14). This commissioning of the former demoniac by Jesus looks a bit like the sending forth of a missionary into the “Ten Cities” area. The amazement is the typical choral response to a healing/exorcism.

Time to go back to the other side: We will return!