Preaching the Gospel of Mark

Proclaiming the Power of God

Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm

• Editorial: Westminster John Knox Press
• Año: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781611644180
• Categoría: Theologie & Religion
• Categoría: Christlicher Dienst

In this engaging treatment of the Gospel of Mark, Dawn Ottoni Wilhelm combines biblical scholarship with a close reading of the Gospel text to meet the needs of preachers today. Swift and purposeful, the Gospel of Mark proclaims God's reign and urges the participation of all God's people in the witness of the good news that God has transformed human reality through Jesus Christ. This insightful commentary helps that message come alive while providing pertinent suggestions about how preachers can proclaim this message to today's churchgoers.

PART ONE

Jesus Christ Proclaims the Power of God

1:14–8:21

Preliminary Remarks

Jesus Christ has come to proclaim the fullness of God’s reign, and the power of God is suddenly alive among us as never before. Although the cross looms large in Mark’s account, so does Jesus’ extraordinary embodiment of God’s presence and power in the world. In the first half of the Gospel, he preaches and teaches, drives out demons, heals various diseases, confounds religious authorities, feeds multitudes, and commands the forces of nature. These first eight chapters recount his witness first among Jews but also Gentiles, men and women, leaders and followers, and many who are attracted and others who are appalled by his ministry. God is actively engaged in combating evil through Jesus Christ. All that Jesus says and does urges us to recognize and respond to God’s impending reign.

But what does it mean for us to proclaim God’s power and participate in God’s reign today? Each of the first eight chapters of Mark’s Gospel relates something of the purpose and power of God in Jesus Christ, and through his ministry we can begin to understand what God’s reign means for our lives and the world we love.

Proclaiming the Powerful Reign of God

Mark 1:14–45

Following his baptism and encounter with Satan in the wilderness, Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee by proclaiming God’s reign and enacting God’s power. These verses not only introduce us to his ministry but also offer a preview of upcoming events. Jesus proclaims the good news through preaching, teaching, exorcism, healing, and interacting with persons who are considered unclean and outside the realm of religious acceptability—activities that characterize Jesus’ mission throughout Mark’s narrative. During the Third through Sixth Sundays of Epiphany in Year B, these verses appear in sequence as they communicate the new manifestation of God’s reign in Jesus Christ.

However, in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus does more than enact God’s loving intentions for humanity: Jesus’ words and deeds proclaim his role as Messiah. According to Mark, Jesus Christ is empowered by God to overcome evil, and he alone has authority to establish God’s reign. A sense of apocalyptic urgency begins with the inauguration of his public ministry in verses 14–15 when Jesus announces the fullness of time and the arrival of God’s reign. As the Gospel of Mark unfolds, all of Jesus’ words and deeds reveal his identity as Messiah, proclaiming God’s power in the world and opening the way for others to participate in God’s reign.

But let preachers and teachers beware: words are not enough to proclaim the reign of God revealed in Jesus Christ. If his witness is normative for our own lives and ministries, then we need to consider carefully how Jesus proclaims God’s way in the world through both words and deeds so that the gospel we proclaim is more than good advice, churchly admonition, or clever biblical exegesis. The dominance of the word kērussō (translated as both “preach” and “proclaim”) in this chapter serves as a reference point for all that Jesus says and does, with various forms of the verb appearing six times in the first chapter of Mark and twelve throughout the entire Gospel.¹ The Gospel affirms a larger understanding of Jesus’ proclamation. It encompasses all of his ministry while giving priority to his preaching (1:38). According to Mark, Jesus’ preaching and teaching as well as his exorcisms and healings reveal God’s intervention in human reality and proclaim God’s kingdom come. Preaching is central to Mark’s opening narrative. In the words of Brian Blount, “the proclamation not only declares the intervention, it also effects it. Transformation follows immediately.”² Thus, it is significant that this section is framed by two decisive preaching moments: in the beginning Jesus speaks forth the good news of God’s reign, and at the end an unnamed leper freely preaches the good news he has experienced through the healing ministry of Jesus Christ. In between, Mark insists that God is at work to intervene in human events for the well-being of others. Words alone will not suffice. Our preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ must necessarily be accompanied by deeds that call others to join in his ministry of compassion to a blessed but broken world.

JESUS PREACHES AND CALLS DISCIPLES (1:14–20)

Exploring the text

In his first act of public ministry, Jesus proclaims the gospel and calls others to follow him in ministry. Most translations divide these verses in two parts, with verses 14–15 offering Jesus’ first recorded “sermon” and verses 16–20 focusing on his call to the first disciples. Thematically there is a clear relationship between the two: both represent public events urging people to respond to God’s impending reign. Also, both events are characterized by the radical initiative of Jesus Christ, who is determined that we know the grace and power of God’s claim on our lives. Nevertheless, it is wise to recognize that 1:14–15 functions transitionally in the text so that, as noted in the exploration of 1:9–13, Jesus’ inaugural sermon may be considered in the context of his baptism and subsequent time of testing in the wilderness (as it is presented in the lectionary reading for the First Sunday of Lent, Year B). However, if taken alongside Jesus’ call to the disciples (as suggested for the Third Sunday after Epiphany, Year B), these verses mark Jesus’ purposeful and decisive movement into the public sphere.

Proclaiming the Good News (1:14–15)

This brief passage signals the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and offers us a summary of his message: the good news of God’s impending reign. The brevity and general setting of this passage (somewhere in Galilee, at the very beginning of his ministry) underscore its importance. These two verses tell us the essential purpose and nature of Jesus’ mission but, like the summary offered in verses 38–39, do not elaborate on it. We must listen to the whole of Mark’s narrative to hear more about God’s reign and to encounter for ourselves the fullness of the gospel that Jesus proclaims. For now, we are swept into the commencement of a new and startling era.

There are a few details worth noting in verse 14. In contrast to John’s Gospel, Mark chooses to announce the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry after John’s arrest (cf. John 3:22–30). There are at least two reasons for this: to underscore that John’s role as forerunner to Jesus Christ is now complete and to alert us to John’s fate, which foreshadows that of Jesus. Although further description of John’s execution is given in 6:17–29, the mention of his imprisonment at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry alerts us to the terrible reality of political maneuverings against God’s prophet. From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the forces of evil are ready to exert themselves against those who proclaim God’s way.

Another important detail arises in connection with the reference to Galilee as the locus of Jesus’ ministry in the first half of Mark’s Gospel. In contrast to the region of Judea and the holy city of Jerusalem within it, Galilee is a place where both Jews and Gentiles live in close proximity and regular commerce with one another. It also represents more of an ethnically diverse environment than other locations in the region. With the announcement of Jesus’ entry into Galilee, Mark clarifies that Jesus neither withdraws into the wilderness as John did nor focuses his ministry among the religious elite in Jerusalem and the Temple complex, the rallying place for those who seek to destroy him. Jesus’ ministry flourishes in Galilee, and he later calls his disciples to join him there after the resurrection (1:14, 28, 39; 3:7; 15:41).

Finally, verse 14 uses the term “good news,” or “gospel,” a noun that neither Luke nor John uses and that occurs only four times in Matthew. In Mark’s account it refers to “the gospel of God,” that is, the good news related to God’s reign among us and the new and radical change that is about to take place (v. 15). But it is not only the content of his message that grabs our attention—it is the person who announces this good news that compels us to listen. Jesus is heir to God’s throne and the living embodiment of God’s authority and power. He battled the forces of Satan and was named God’s Son in baptism. What he proclaims is good news because he is the one to proclaim it. We can turn around (repent) and believe his message because in him God’s kingdom has drawn near.

When Jesus speaks in verse 15, the gospel is proclaimed and the reign of God draws near. Although the fullness of God’s reign is yet to be realized, Jesus’ brief words and their apocalyptic nature urge us to recognize that a new era has arrived. The kingdom he proclaims is not only a spiritual hope but a present reality. The term “kingdom of God” in ancient Hebrew literature is not so much a place where God rules as the fact that God rules or the power by which God’s sovereignty is manifest among us.¹ It is a political term and, like the word “gospel,” recalls the reality of a public and prominent event that affects all who hear it. Jesus’ preaching calls for a dual response that includes both repentance (turning away from former ways) and belief (turning toward God’s reign). Like John, Jesus urges people to repent and reorient their lives according to God’s way. Unlike John, Jesus does not offer baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Instead, his preaching calls hearers to repent and believe in the good news of God’s reign present now as never before. All that follows in Mark’s Gospel is intended to help us recognize, understand, and respond to the reign of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.

Calling Disciples (1:16–20)

The dynamic force of Jesus’ message does not end with the announcement of God’s reign. In Mark’s narrative, Jesus’ message continues with a call to the first disciples, who hear his words and immediately follow him.

Jesus sees something in these men they do not see in themselves. More than their professional identity as fishermen or their role as breadwinners, Jesus sees disciples who are able to serve as divine witnesses. Although it was certainly common for rabbis to have disciples, in rabbinic literature teachers do not solicit prospective disciples in the way Jesus models for us in Mark 1. His initiative in this passage is indeed amazing. Thus, what is most remarkable is not that the disciples immediately left everything to follow Jesus but that without any evident relationship with them or demonstration of their faithfulness, Jesus calls them to be his closest companions and future witnesses of the gospel.

In quick succession two sets of brothers are called to follow Jesus, and they do so without question or hesitation. In the first call to Simon (Peter) and Andrew, Jesus issues a command, then offers a promise: “Come after me and I will make you fish for people.” The Greek phrase reflects the spirit of calling someone to “come after” rather than to simply follow; it suggests that these disciples are in a successive line of prophets and other witnesses who testify to God’s intervention in human events and bear witness to God’s reign.¹ They are not asked to repent and believe (as Jesus commanded in vv. 14–15) but to leave their nets and come after Jesus. This proves to be a costly venture, since their middle-class occupations afforded them a more secure income and stable home environment. For James and John, the stakes are even higher: they not only leave their work but abandon their father (see 3:21, 31–35 and 7:9–13). The presence of hired men in the family business suggests the success of Zebedee’s enterprise and the financial loss these brothers face as they leave home to follow Jesus.

The promise Jesus offers his first disciples is more of a challenge than an enticement. To be “fishers of people” is not a call out of the world of social activity (as if being disciples is “otherworldly”) but into a new order of responsibilities and relationships that include missionary activity, teaching, preaching, and exorcism (see 1:21–28; 3:14–19b). The phrase recalls the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks of God’s calling forth fishers of people to regather Israel and teach sinful humanity about God’s power (Jer. 16:16–21). It also recalls other prophets who announce God’s efforts to rescue those who are imperiled and would otherwise face divine judgment against their unjust deeds (Ezek. 29:4–6; 38:4; Amos 4:2; Hab. 1:14–17). Jesus’ first disciples realize that the time has come to fish for what God asks and to pursue what God commands.

Preaching and teaching the Word

There are weeks in the life of every preacher when he or she would like to deliver a two-line sermon and sit down. Although the recitation of 1:14–15 would not qualify as a sermon for most preaching contexts, Mark offers Jesus’ opening words as a summary of the gospel. With his announcement of God’s impending reign we cannot help but to sit up, take notice, and open our ears to all that follows.

The need to proclaim the gospel. Jesus’ dramatic proclamation of God’s reign reminds us what an amazing and audacious task we are called to undertake. It is humbling to think that we who are just as faulty and faithless as the first disciples are entrusted with the gospel. God in Christ announces the good news and continues to call forth saints and sinners as witnesses to God’s reign. It takes preachers and teachers, prophets and poets to proclaim God’s power and grace, to recognize the fullness of time and the potential of those around us, to risk calling forth others who do not yet see the goodness and beauty of God within them or their own potential to love and serve others. In the words of Gardner Taylor, “To seek and find God’s movement in human affairs and to cry out, passionately pointing to where that stirring is discernible though scarcely ever disputable, is the preacher’s task. To hear and to suffer deeply with ‘the still sad music of humanity’ and then to offer to it the wonderful Gospel of healing and wholeness is the preacher’s privilege.”²

God’s initiative and our response. The reign of God comes at God’s initiative, not ours; it is realized according to God’s gracious will and not our own effort. Jesus does not ask us to “build” the kingdom of God but to turn our lives around and believe the good news of God’s reign that comes to us because of God’s gracious activity. The opening chapter of Mark’s Gospel portrays the power of God on the loose in the world, and Christ’s call in verses 14–15 urges us to join God’s reign and engage the transforming power of God on behalf of others. We cannot calculate God’s goodness, and we cannot control the coming of God’s reign; however, we can participate in God’s power, and we can anticipate God’s mercy and goodness as it emerges among us. Most of us work as though our lives depend on it, and we forget that God desires our company more than our work. If the response of the first disciples to Jesus’ call teaches us anything about faithfulness, it is that our longing to be near Christ is our greatest hope and the best possible reason to forgo all other priorities or alliances.

Repentance and belief are essential to the life of faith for baptized members of the body of Christ. Jesus’ announcement of the good news includes the dual call to repent and believe, to reject evil and embrace God’s just and loving reign. Jesus proclaims the need to recognize and turn away from all that is contrary to God’s will and is emphatic that we must also turn toward God’s reign as the primary reference point for our lives. Baptismal vows also reflect this call to turn away from sin and toward Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In fact, this text parallels other New Testament passages that have been identified as baptismal formulas and that encourage us to remember what is essential to the life of faith as we seek to live faithfully as followers of Jesus Christ (see Rom. 3:12; 1 Thess. 5:5–6; Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18).³

The formation of a visible community of faith. These verses mark the beginning of the church’s ministry as a visible, public, and active presence in the world. Jesus did not simply offer ideas for people to ponder in private meditation; he called persons to join with him in public ministry. There is something very personal about his address to specific individuals, but the context and consequences of his call were not private or removed from the shared activities of life in the public arena. At a time when many churches tend to emphasize the personal and private nature of faith, it is important to remember that Jesus calls a spiritual community that is very much a visible community, active in the public sphere. Disciples of Jesus Christ are not called out of the world; they are called to follow a new way in it, a way that, as the following verses reveal, includes ministry to the needs of strangers and those who are rejected by others.

JESUS TEACHES AND HEALS WITH AUTHORITY AND POWER (1:21–31)

Through teaching, preaching, exorcism, and healing, Jesus confronts the powers that threaten well-being and crosses various religious and social boundaries to extend God’s compassion to others. Verses 21–31 encompass activities that take place on the Sabbath, and verses 32–39 describe events of the following day. Taken in sequence, the incidents described here include an impressive succession of events and two summary statements of Jesus’ ministry and mission (vv. 34 and 38).

Exploring the text

The first two stories of exorcism and healing in Mark’s Gospel not only assert Jesus’ power and authority but also provide key examples of what typifies his ministry of word and deed in upcoming chapters. The RCL lists 1:21–28 among the readings of the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany and on the Fifth Sunday includes 1:29–31 with 1:32–39, tying together three brief segments in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel (1:21–31, 32–34, and 35–39). However, if 1:21–28 and 29–31 are considered alongside one another and apart from subsequent units (just as Mark’s Gospel presents them as the events of a single day), these two episodes complement and contrast with one another in noteworthy ways.

Preaching and Healing in the Synagogue (1:21–28)

Jesus begins his public ministry in a sacred place, at a sacred time. With Simon, Andrew, James, and John beside him, Jesus enters the synagogue at Capernaum on the Sabbath to teach. In contrast to Luke’s account (4:16–30), Mark’s story of Jesus’ first teaching in Capernaum describes his initial acceptance by others who recognize his authority. It is a promising beginning that inspires hope and confidence in the future of his ministry in Galilee.

Most importantly, this story focuses our attention on Jesus’ authority. The Greek word for authority used here (exousian) may also be translated as “power.” Jesus is authorized as divine Messiah in the apocalyptic battle to overcome evil and exorcise demons. The peop...