In this introductory article to the Gospel of Mark Philip Fogarty SJ addresses the question about who the intended readers were and why Jesus imposes what is called a “messianic secret” about himself.
There are several instances in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus commands people to be silent about miracles he has performed or about his true identity. Such commands may have had their origin in Jesus’ rejection of some of the messianic aspirations of his time.
The Messiah expected by the Jews had political and military functions, and, perhaps, Jesus was unwilling to use such a title, at least without some qualifications, to avoid provoking the Roman authorities. Scripture scholars have termed this call for silence the ‘Messianic Secret’. Mark’s Gospel sets out to tell us what being the Messiah meant for Jesus and for his mission in the world.
Authorship
The Gospel was most probably written somewhere between 68 and 73 AD, making it the first of the Gospels to be written. In the second century, the authorship of the Gospel was attributed to Mark, a follower and ‘interpreter of Peter’. However, scholars are unsure as to the Gospel’s real authorship, and the author may simply have been an otherwise unknown Christian named Mark.
We can glean from the Gospel that Mark was a Greek-speaker, who was not an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry, and whose knowledge of Palestinian geography was rather shaky. The Gospel was written for Greek-speakers who did not know Aramaic and who, for the most part, were not Jews. They were probably Christians who had been converted by people who were familiar with the Jewish Christian tradition.
While the Gospel may have been written somewhere else, a setting in Rome is generally accepted as being the most plausible. Mark’s Gospel has a pervading sense of impending persecution and, in the sixties, the Christian community in Rome lived under such a threat, especially after the Emperor Nero made them scapegoats for the famous fire that destroyed large parts of the city in 64 AD. As a result, a revolt against Roman rule in Palestine could have led to potential trouble for Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome.
Kingdom of God
Mark drew on various sources in the compilation of his Gospel: the sayings of Jesus, his parables, miracles, and the controversies he engaged in. He may also have had access to a pre-existing narrative of Jesus’ passion and death. His central theme was the kingdom of God.
In Jesus’ time the ‘kingdom of God’ referred to the definitive display of God’s lordship at the end of history and its acknowledgment by all humanity. Much of the teaching in Mark’s Gospel aims at explaining what Jesus meant when he spoke of God’s kingdom and how people should prepare for it.
For Mark, Jesus himself embodied the kingdom and whoever wished to understand the kingdom had only to look to Jesus, the healer, the teacher, and the crucified-and-risen one.
Mark begins his story by telling us that large crowd from Jerusalem and throughout Judea come to see John the Baptist, an awesome figure who dresses in camel-skin and lives on locusts and wild honey. He proclaims a message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and baptizes all who are prepared to repent.
John quotes the prophet Isaiah: ‘Look, I am going to send my messenger before you; he will prepare your way. A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight’ (Is.40:3).
Mark sees John the Baptist as such a messenger. He says, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals, (the job of slave). I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’ (Mk.l:8) Cf. Mt.3, concerning John the Baptist.
Revelation of identity
At the same time, Jesus comes from Galilee and is baptized in the Jordan by John. Mark does not tell us why Jesus was baptized. (Presumably Jesus was identifying himself with sinners to whom he would, in his turn, bring a message of forgiveness.)
Mark’s interest, rather, is in the revelation of Jesus’ identity. No sooner has Jesus come out of the water than he sees ‘the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him’. A voice comes from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests in you’ (1:9-11).
What are we to make of this remarkable scene? It is important to remember that the Evangelists often allude to the Old Testament when trying to explain who Jesus is. Hence Mark is probably reflecting the words of the prophet Isaiah when the latter prayed to God, ‘O that you would tear open the heavens and come down’ (Is.64:1).
The dove-like Spirit may be an allusion to the Spirit hovering over the waters at the creation in Genisis (1:2). The voice from heaven may be an allusion to Psalms (2: 7): ‘The Lord said to me, “you are my son; today I have begotten you,” , or to Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him’ (42:1). As far as Mark is concerned, Jesus is indeed the Beloved Son of God.
Forty days and nights
Immediately after his baptism, the Spirit of God drives Jesus into the wilderness, and he remains there for forty days and nights being tempted by Satan. He is with the wild beasts, and angels look after him (1:12-13). The wilderness is probably the Judean desert where John the Baptist was active. The forty days recalls the forty days that Moses spent conversing with God. ‘He (Moses) was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water’ (Ex.34:28).
In Mark, Satan puts Jesus to various, unspecified tests. Matthew (4:1-13) and Luke (4:111) give much more elaborate accounts of Jesus’ temptations. The reference to wild beasts and being looked after by angels
recalls Psalms (91:11): ‘For he (the Most High) will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’
Even though Jesus suffers from various temptations, God will protect him as he prepares for his public ministry. The authorities arrest John the Baptist. Jesus then leaves the desert place and goes to Galilee where the main part of his ministry is to take place. He announces that, ‘the time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News’ (1:14-15).
Good news
The ‘time’ is the time that the Jews have been waiting for: the time of fulfilment of Jewish hopes when God will show his special love for his people by breaking their bonds of servitude. The kingdom has drawn near, Jesus says; it is making itself felt because Jesus himself embodies the kingdom, but it still has not fully arrived because men and women have to embrace the Good News that he brings.
In asking people to repent, he is not merely asking his listeners for an act of contrition for their sinfulness, but calls upon them to open their hearts and undergo a complete re-orientation of their lives by believing in Jesus. The Good News, the best news ever, is something new and unheard of, namely that this man Jesus, in all his human frailty, is both God’s messenger and God’s message.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (January 2007), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
