By Olive J. Hemmings
A Commentary on the Sabbath School
Lesson for May 7–13, 2005, "Teaching the Disciples"
Mark seems to have been
the first to write a Gospel. He seems to have written his
Gospel with a passion to set the record straight. Who is this
Jesus and why was he crucified on a cross like a common criminal?
How can this renegade be the Messiah? Mark wants his
audience to know that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, but many
did not realize it because they were not paying attention
or didn’t want to pay attention (Mark 4:10–12).
Mark’s Gospel is a
polemic that argues that even though Jesus did not fit into
popular conceptions of Messiah, he was indeed the Messiah.
Thus, his introduction: "The beginning of the gospel
about Jesus Christ, the son of God."1
Mark not only wants his readers to understand who Jesus is,
he also wants them to understand what real discipleship involves.
In essence, he wants to present to his readers what Jesus
and the Kingdom are really about. It is in understanding who
Messiah really is that we understand what it means to be his
disciples.
Mark’s portrait of
Jesus is antithetical to the popular portrait of Christianity
today. Today, Christianity often paints Jesus as a rich conservative
Christian, the cornerstone of the status quo that ensures
the stability of the rich and powerful. This, indeed, was
the popular expectation of Messiah in the first century.
Mark’s Jesus is not
a conservative Christian. He is a revolutionary Jew who upsets
some of the fundamental doctrines of his religion. Mark’s
Jesus is not rich. He is an itinerant preacher/philosopher/healer
who directs his ministry toward the weak and downtrodden.
Thus, Jesus is constantly in confrontation with the authorities
as they question and oppose his teachings and his ministry.
It is in this context that we may get a clear picture as we
look at the passage of focus for this week.
Mark 9:14–10:31 is
part of the climactic portion of the Gospel where Peter recognizes
Jesus’ messiahship (8:27–30). But in this section,
Mark wants his readers to know that the disciples for the
most part did not get it at all. After all this time with
Jesus, they still could not drive out demons (9:14–29).
After all that had been said about the Nazarene, someone thought
they could follow him accompanied by the heavy baggage of
wealth (10:17–31).
Mark’s Jesus wants
his followers and would-be followers to understand that it
is the least esteemed in society ( the children) that truly
represent the Kingdom of God (10:13–l16). Very importantly,
too, he wants them to understand that traditional teachings
such as those on divorce were merely accommodative of a religion/culture
that just did not get the point that human relationship is
all about love (10:1–12).
Let us look briefly at
each of these important passages in the Mark 9:14–10:31
a little closer in light of the overall purpose of Mark.
1. The incident
recorded in Mark 9:13–29 seems to end with Jesus’
prediction of his passion and a comment by Mark saying that
the disciples did not understand what Jesus meant (9:31–32).
This is Mark’s effort to underscore the fact that the
disciples could not perform an exorcism simply because they
just did not get the full picture of what Jesus was about.
In verse 19, Jesus describes them as unbelieving. Then when
the disciples asked Jesus why they failed, he points out the
need for prayer (9:29).
Mark wants to paint the
picture of a group of followers who did not yet understand
the kind of sacrifice and discipline that discipleship entails.
In this story, Mark effectively makes the point that belief
is about drinking the cup that Jesus drinks (10:39). Are the
followers of Jesus today engaged in the spiritual discipline
to which Jesus points his disciples, or are we just religious
people agreeing to particular doctrines?
2. The story of
the rich young man continues in this same vein. The rich man
could not meet the demands of discipleship because he had
great wealth (10:22). When Jesus comments, "How hard
it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God," the
disciples were amazed at his words. They just did not get
it.
In the first century, approximately
90 percent of the Greco-Roman population was poor and uneducated.2
Jesus asks the young man to sell all that he has and give
to the poor. This is a sacrifice he is not willing to make.
He just cannot get what it really means to be a disciple.
Ronald Sider’s book
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, presents this
challenge to the modern disciples of Jesus.3
Can we rise to that challenge? How truly spiritual are
we? Is Christianity about material prosperity?
3. Mark makes reference
to two instances in which Jesus points to children as indicative
of those who belong to the Kingdom of God (9:33–37; 10:13–16).
This illustration was particularly radical at a time when
children were socially and physically (because of the high
infant mortality rate) powerless.
Again, Jesus upsets the
popular messianic expectations. The kingdom is not for those
who seek after their own social and political self interests.
Rather, it is for those who put others first (9:33–35).
The fact that the disciples rebuked the people as they brought
their children to Jesus (10:13) suggests that they did not
get it.
4. The point of
Mark 10:2–12 regarding divorce still seems to elude many
Christians today. The topic appears in the New Testament as
"divorce." Was Mark really discussing divorce, or
was the law on divorce a case in point for a much larger issue?
"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote
you this law" (10:5). This is the point of the story.
Is this the only law that
Moses wrote because of hard hearts? The laws of Moses
seemed to accommodate a religion in which many did not get
the whole point of human relationships. The point here is
that human relationship is not about power and the
abuse of it.4 Rather, it is a bout love
and self-sacrifice. It is about mutuality and respect of each
other’s rights and dignity (10:7, 11,12).
This was radical in a culture
where women were not regarded as equal to men. It also follows
the line of thought of Mark 9:14–10:31, that the kingdom
is not tailored toward the interests of the socially powerful.
In summary, Mark 9:14–10:31
gives us a radical picture of discipleship. It is about a
spiritual commitment and a disciplined walk that thinks less
of self, less of social codes and popular expectations, and
more about others.
Mark wants us to get it.
Notes
and References
1. The term Christ
actually means Messiah. Christ is not a name, but a
title translated "messiah."
2. See Bart D. Ehrmann, A Brief Introduction
to the New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press.
2004), 15.
3. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1997.
4. The codes of the culture stressed the
absolute submission of wives, children, and slaves. Wives
were often put away for trivial reasons.
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
|
