Five Insights About the Gospel of Mark

As we continue into a new lectionary year focused on the Gospel of Mark, I wanted to dive into that book a little deeper than I normally do.

Naturally, one of the first places I turned for an overview was Pete Enns and the Bible for Normal People podcast. I’m a big fan and listen each week and I figured they would have some good information on Mark. Sure enough, they have a great episode featuring J. Daniel Kirk called, “Five Things You Need To Know About The Gospel Of Mark.” I’m going to attempt to summarize and add some thoughts to those five things because they are very helpful in keeping Mark’s major themes front and center as we read verse by verse throughout the year.

Kirk pointed out five major themes:

1. Mark redefines what it means to be a messiah as a suffering servant who goes to die.
2. Mark illustrates how discipleship is more than just following, but is about participating and leading as the disciples take up Jesus’s work including healing and miracles.
3. The gospel reshapes power dynamics. Mark’s narrative consistently elevates the weak, the oppressed, the rejected, women and children.
4. Mark redefines the Messianic mission and the kingdom. The kingdom is here and you are part of it now.
5. The gospel emphasizes how women are the key witnesses and disciples to Jesus. The women in Mark are the ones who really get it, from Peter’s mother-in-law to the Syrophoenician woman to the women who discover the empty tomb and are the first messengers of the resurrection.

Some notes on my notes:

• I am not a scholar and I want to make sure that when you read the following, you don’t assume Daniel Kirk would agree with me. He might. Or not. Read Daniel Kirk for yourself, these are just my thoughts on his insights.
• I view each of the gospel accounts to be written from a specifically theological point of view that tries to make sense of the resurrection backward through Jesus’s life. This will offend conservatives who believe each gospel is a perfect eye-witness account. This will also offend liberals who don’t believe in the resurrection at all. I’m just sharing this so you can understand any bias in my thoughts below.
• Having said the above, I also believe Jesus probably said and did all those things the gospel writers attest, too, but Mark chose to emphasize certain elements of the story above others and phrase the stories in pointed ways for very specific theological reasons. Theological overlays have meanings that go beyond basic historical reportage and recognizing them as literary devices doesn’t dilute the Bible’s authority in our lives. In fact, it should enhance it.

Messiah as Suffering Servant

Israel was expecting something much different from Jesus in their messiah. Most people were hoping for a powerful and conquering king who would free Israel from Roman rule and oppression. But faced with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the early Christian community had to redefine what messiahship means. Mark meets this paradox head on. Consider these verses:

Mark 8:31-32

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 

Mark 9:30-32

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Mark 10:32-34

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”

The consistent theme is that Jesus will be handed over, tortured, killed and the disciples couldn’t understand why. That is not what it means to be a messiah. Did Jesus really say those things before his death? I think so, but it doesn’t matter even if Mark put those words in Jesus’s mouth afterward. People after the resurrection were confused about how a messiah could be put to death and still be a messiah. What kind of conquering does a dead messiah do? Mark emphasizes these stories to show that confusion around this is normal – even Peter didn’t understand. In doing so, we learn that Jesus’s messiahship is about vulnerability, not a warlord’s victory.

A lot has been written about the concept of the “messianic secret.” In Mark’s gospel, Jesus seems to want to hide his messiahship from crowds and even his own disciples. Again, whether it was important to Jesus to keep this a secret or Mark overlaid it later doesn’t matter. The point is that the early Christians were struggling to understand what messiahship meant and so Mark emphasizes this motif.

Does Mark draw on the “suffering servant,” concept from Isaiah 53? Maybe. Christians will debate this forever. My way of thinking about it is that the early church, reeling with confusion over the death and resurrection of their messiah, searched through scripture to look for parallels to Jesus. Mark may not be as explicit as Matthew at pointing to Isaiah, but his depiction of Jesus illustrates someone who is a suffering servant. It seems likely to me that these ideas were already floating around in the Christian community before the Gospel of Matthew quotes Isaiah directly later.

Discipleship is Doing, Not Just Following

The disciples participate in miracles and healing and in doing so imitate Jesus. They do this in the feeding miracles of Mark. Consider how this account is written:

Mark 6:41

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.

It doesn’t specifically say that Jesus magically multiplied the bread and fish; he gave them to his disciples to distribute and there was more than enough. The disciples take part in the miracle and do the work.

And prior to that, Mark makes it clear that the disciples were to go out healing others.

Mark 6:13

They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Mark shows that following Jesus isn’t just about observing his teachings philosophically. Disciples are active participants. Discipleship in Mark is about a radical commitment to the kingdom of God bringing justice, selflessness and even a willingness to die on the path.

Reshaping Power Dynamics

Mark’s gospel prioritizes the marginalized of society, giving voices and stories to the weak, oppressed and others traditionally excluded from societal power structures. The central figures in the story are often women, children and the outcast. They are the ones who seem to understand Jesus more than the disciples or Pharisees. In doing this, Mark makes it clear that Jesus is challenging established hierarchies and notions of who deserves respect.

There are many examples of Jesus elevating unusual people – like tax collectors – throughout the gospel. I would like to focus on the children.

Mark 10:13-16

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

I’ve heard this verse completely misused by people who want to deemphasize legitimate biblical scholarship in favor of simplistic and literal readings of whatever their favorite translation is. The discussion usually goes something like this: I don’t want to accept an ambivalent interpretation of the bible so I’ll point to Jesus here saying that we should be like children. In their mind, being like children means something anti-intellectual in an approach to scripture, a simple, childlike approach. Kirk points out this isn’t what Jesus is doing here. Children were the lowest members of society, lower than slaves and women. They had no voice; they were utterly marginalized. Jesus is elevating them here to flip the society’s script on power structures, not to tell you to turn off your mind.

In addition to flipping power structures upside down, Jesus extends the messianic mission beyond Israel and shows that anyone who is willing to understand and follow Jesus is a true disciple regardless of status or national boundary. All are truly welcome.

Kingdom of the Present

Most people in the first century would expect a messiah to bring about an earthly kingdom. In Mark, Jesus has something different in mind.

Mark 1:14-15

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

What is going on here? Rome is still ruling. Unlike other ideas – even in other gospels – that envision the kingdom of God as a future event, Jesus clearly shows it is hear now. We know this in two ways.

First, the use of “Evangelion,” or as it is translated here, “good news,” mirrors language of the Roman empire. The Priene Inscription uses the word to say that Caesar was born a god and will save you. Great news everyone, you’re now a subject of Rome. Except that everyone who heard that knew it was not good news at all. Jesus is deliberately coopting Rome’s language to say that there really is good news, you are a subject of the living God. The good news is not a political reality but a spiritual one.

Second, Mark demonstrates Jesus’s power and authority through miracles, healing and exorcisms. Whether you take those as literal or simply a theological overlay again doesn’t matter to the narrative. The point to take away is that the kingdom is present and breaking into the world right now.

If we shift our focus – much like Jesus was asking his friends in the first century – to the present from the future, we can take part in the immediate transformative power of the good news. Will there be an afterlife into which we are saved? Sure, I hope so. I’ve become less agnostic about an afterlife than I used to be even though Jesus doesn’t talk about one very much. It’s beyond the scope of this post to explain why, but I’ve become a universalist believing that logic requires us to hold that God will save every single one of us regardless of our beliefs.

Instead, the kingdom and salvation are here if you follow Jesus and actively participate through acts of love, compassion and service. We’re not waiting we are doing something right now.

Women as Witnesses and Disciples

Mark goes out of his way on many occasions to prominently feature women throughout Jesus’s ministry. Women are not just active participants but are sources of understanding. Let that sink in. Peter and the disciples spend a lot of time wondering about the wrong things while the women grasp it immediately. This would have been radical in the first century patriarchal society. Mark clearly demonstrates that the women in the story have a unique capacity for faith and insight that exceeds the insight of the disciples in the story you would think would “get it.”

The hemorrhaging woman had enough faith to simply touch Jesus and be healed. Kirk points out that the poor widow who gives her last coins is properly translated as giving her life. Peter’s mother-in-law is healed by faith and becomes a follower.

Maybe the most amazing is the Syrophoenician woman who refuses to take, “no,” for an answer so Jesus casts the demon out of her daughter. I used to get hung on up on the fact that Jesus seems to be insulting her by calling her a dog:

Mark 7:24-30

From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

David Bentley Hart has said that a better translation of, “dog,” is, “little pet dogs,” or, “puppies.” Anytime you think Jesus is being unfairly insulting, it’s a safe bet there is something we don’t understand and needs more study. That’s not the character of our Lord. Puppies are part of our family, just not the immediate family. You would feed your immediate family before feeding your puppy if push came to shove. Jesus is saying that he was sent to feed Israel first. Far from insulting, this verse again shows how faith can be strongest outside of the groups you would most expect. We could all stand to widen our circles.

I hope you find this helpful in understand how radical the Gospel of Mark really is as you journey through a new liturgical year. If you found these insights valuable, please remember they are not mine, they belong to J. Daniel Kirk. A good place to start reading more from him are his posts on Working Preacher.