1 Mark’s Christology – a Dying Messiah Mark’s gospel comes to its climax in tragedy, the mysterious and pointless death that Jesus endures. Only in the light of this can we approach the questions that underlie this Gospel: why was Mark’s gospel written and for whom? Mark has two aims: to give his readers a deeper understanding of who Jesus is; and probably equally important in his view, to invite them to think “If this is what Jesus was like, then what must Jesus’ disciples be?” What is “Mark’s Christology”? The short answer is that for Mark Jesus is a “dying Messiah.” A longer answer is that Mark gets as near as anyone, who has not yet read the documents of the Council of Chalcedon, to asserting the divinity of Jesus. The Problem of talking about Jesus The first Christians had a problem: Jesus was unmistakably a human being – the first heresy the young Christian church had to deal with was the idea that Jesus only seemed to be human – Docetism. Moreover Jesus and his first disciples were Jews and all good Jews know there is only one God. The first disciples thought of him as you or I would, as a human being; only later they found themselves driven to use of Jesus language reserved up to now for God. At this distance we can’t grasp how difficult it was for them to make this move. We see Mark’s delicate dealing with the issue of what to say about Jesus. We’ll approach this in 3 ways: Look at some of the titles Mark uses for Jesus. The questions about Jesus in Mark which draw attention to the puzzle that he was; The answers given to the questions (or not) – the lack of an answer might be very important. Some Titles for Jesus Son of God The first title Mark gives Jesus is “Son of God” – it appears in the opening line of the gospel in most mss. Even if it was not what Mark wrote, it was certainly what he meant, for twice (1:11 after the baptism and 9:7 at the Transfiguration) the voice of God confirms this identification. But it is a title with some pretty strange company, we find it used by: demons (3:11; 5:7) 2 the Roman centurion in charge of Jesus’ execution (15:39) Are they right to identify him in this way? Yes and it is only the other side of the coin of Jesus’ prayer to God as Father e.g. at Gethsemane, where Jesus pleads with God as “abba, Father” (14:35). But it is odd to have such speakers clearly getting Jesus right! Son of Man A more common title in Mark for Jesus. It looks as though its origin is in a trick of speech that Jesus had where “the Son of Man” is simply a way of referring to himself without saying “I”, but it also echoes the mysterious figure in Dan 7:13ff who appears before the “Ancient of Days.” In Mark the title “Son of Man” appears several times in 3 senses: Early on, Jesus uses the phrase to show he has some kind of authority here and now e.g. o the authority to forgive sins (2:10); o as “Lord of the Sabbath” (2:28) and so his disciples can pluck grain on the Sabbath. Most uses of the title (9x) refer to Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, e.g. o the Passion predictions (8:31; 9:31; 10:33); o after the Transfiguration (9:9) where it refers only to the resurrection; o it concerns Jesus having to “suffer and be treated with contempt” (9:12); o responding to the power-hungry apostles, Jesus says “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (10:45); o it is used twice at 14:21: “the Son of Man is going” presumably to his death and “is being betrayed.” Here we are in the Last Supper which for Mark is the Passover meal and the tone of it has all gone horribly wrong. The other 2 times the phrase is used (13:26; 14:62) it refers to the Son of Man’s return in glory and both clearly draw on Dan 7:13. o The first is part of Jesus’ discourse about the end-time in ch.13 o The second is Jesus’ response to the High Priest which results in a charge of “blasphemy” and hence in his death-sentence. It seems to have been a characteristic of Jesus’ speech (like “Amen I say to you”), which has been preserved in the tradition; but it never made any impact on the early Church (e.g. Paul doesn’t use it) and unlike “Son of God” or John’s 3 strange expression “Lamb of God”, the phrase never made its way into the church’s liturgy. Other titles There are other titles, but Mk doesn’t seem to make much of them e.g. “holy One of God” (1:24). The circumstances are somewhat unpromising, since the title is on the lips of a man with an unclean spirit; but presumably Mark still sees this as a correct diagnosis. Then there is “the Stronger One” which John the Baptist uses for Jesus (1:7), and “The Coming One”, which the crowds proclaim as Jesus enters Jerusalem (11:9; quoting Ps 118). There is, “My Son, the Beloved” (1:11; 9:7) and we might also include the “Beloved Son and heir” of the Parable of the Vineyard (12:6). This leaves just two titles that may turn out to be of some importance and one that is mysteriously unobtrusive. The first perhaps doesn’t look like a title at all: Jesus says “I AM” (6:50; 14:62 - capitals deliberate) – the Greek is “Ego Eimi.” The first of these is when he comes walking on the water to his disciples, and in response to their (pardonable) misapprehension of him as a ghost, He says “Ego Eimi” which may just mean “it’s me” (so don’t panic), but it may be a hint of something greater, moving towards the divine title that in effect it will become in John’s Gospel. The second is Jesus’ reply to the High Priest’s question: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” These words might just mean “yes”; but if so it’s hard to see why that might allow a charge of blasphemy to stick. But if Mark means the reader (and the High Priest) to take it as some kind of divine title, then it’s easier to understand. The second, “King of the Jews”, only appears in ch 15:2,9,12,18 and 26. The title “King” had a mixed press in the ancient world. Significantly, elsewhere in Mark it refers only to Herod, in his treatment of John the Baptist, to opponents of the Christians (13:9) and (mockingly) to Jesus on the cross. It is still part of the effort to work out who Jesus is, but it is a Roman category, as it is on the lips of Pilate and his soldiers, and on the “inscription of his case.” Is Jesus King of the Jews? Mark’s slightly unsatisfactory answer might be “yes and no.” What about the title “Messiah” or its Greek equivalent “Christ”? At first sight it seems more promising: 4 Mark begins his gospel by applying it to Jesus (1:1). 3 times it’s not clear whether or not it refers to Jesus (9:41; 12:35; 13:21). twice it’s used by chief priests, in the context of Jesus’ death (14:61; 15:32). At the central moment of the gospel, it is correctly applied to Jesus by Peter, who then shows by his reluctance to accept that Jesus must suffer, that he has not grasped what kind of “Messiah” Jesus really is (8:29). Questions about Jesus in Mark: Drawing attention to the puzzle For Mark’s gospel, it seems possible only to hint at who Jesus is. Mark’s approach to Jesus is to sketch a big question-mark in the air, which the reader has to answer. Mark does this using key questions to which no proper answer is given. The witnesses to an exorcism in a synagogue ask “What is this?” (1:27). They also give an answer of a sort “a new teaching with authority”, which they go on to explain: “He even gives instruction to unclean spirits - and they obey him!” But we feel the answer still leaves the question unresolved. Another question is asked by “the scribes of the Pharisees”: “why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?” (2:16) No ready answer is given – but obviously the question puts before the reader the deep mysteriousness of Jesus. How can someone of such evident religious significance have such terrible friends? The next question (3:23) also links into the debate about who Jesus is. The accusation has been made that his mastery over devils is itself diabolical, to which Jesus responds with the devastating question: “How can Satan expel Satan?” Another question is asked by his fellow villagers at Nazareth and again it is a question about who Jesus is. They ask, indignantly reciting his family tree as they do so, “Where does this chap get these things from? What’s the wisdom that has been given to him, and such huge miracles happening through his agency?” (6:2).