Miracles in Mark

David Spell

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781606084069, 9781498252867
• eBook ISBN: 9781621895367
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

The Gospel of Mark has long been regarded as "The Gospel of Action." It contains more miracles and supernatural phenomena than Matthew, Luke, or John. In fact, a third of Mark's Gospel is centered on the miraculous deeds of Jesus. Mark is clearly more concerned with what Jesus did than with what He said. From the vision that Jesus experienced at His baptism to the supernatural events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection, Dr. Spell will take the reader on a journey of exploration through the pages of Mark's Gospel. The miracles of Jesus are as profoundly important for us today as they were for those who experienced them. This study will help to guide readers in finding insights for their own lives.

1

A Sign From Heaven?

The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said,“Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”

(Mark 8:11–12)

Mark’s Gospel is full of miracles and supernatural experiences. Jesus performs many spectacular healings. He raises a dead girl from the dead. He demonstrates His power over nature by calming violent storms and walking on water. He miraculously feeds groups of five thousand and then four thousand people. Mark shows Jesus casting demons out of people in various settings. Most of the miracles that Mark presents are performed in a public setting. This particular interaction with the Pharisees occurred right after Jesus had fed the crowd of four thousand with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish.

The Pharisees and other religious leaders have had ample opportunities to see Jesus in action. In spite of this, they still want him to perform a “sign from heaven.” The word that Mark uses here for “sign” is sēmeion, and is rarely used in this Gospel. By way of contrast, this is the favorite word used for miracles in John’s Gospel.1 What the Pharisees are seeking here is not another healing or exorcism or miraculous feeding. They are seeking an, “apocalyptic manifestation that would prove beyond all doubt that Jesus had God’s approval.”2 The type of sign that they are seeking is as much an evidence of trustworthiness as it was about power.3 “They regard Jesus’ miracles as ambiguous actions whose meaning must be confirmed by a sign.”4

Perhaps the Pharisees are seeking a sign of the type that Moses performed before the Pharaoh. Perhaps they were thinking of Elijah and his showdown with the priests of Baal in which Elijah called down fire from heaven. The very fact that the Pharisees were seeking a sign from Jesus is interesting. Most of the religious leaders seem to have already made their minds up about Jesus. They accused Jesus of being in league with Satan in 2:22. There have been several other conflicts in which the Pharisees confronted Jesus over His supposed violations of the Law of Moses. In 3:6, the religious leaders, including the Pharisees are already plotting to kill Jesus. In all likelihood, the Pharisees are hoping that Jesus will attempt to perform some type of spectacular sign and fail. This would allow them to publicly discredit Him.5

This demand from the Pharisees for a sign actually highlights the many miracles and signs that Jesus has already performed. The very fact that the Pharisees have to ask for further signs is indicative of their own lack of faith and spiritual insight. In reality, one more sign is not going to change their minds.

Jesus makes it very clear that he does not perform miracles or signs on demand. By way of reply to the Pharisees, Jesus asks, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?” He seems to be saying, “Look at what I have already done. That should be enough.” The miracles that He has already performed should be sufficient to convince someone who has an open heart and has not already rejected Jesus.

There also seem to be two other reasons why Jesus does not perform miracles on demand.6 The first reason has to do with why Jesus does perform miracles. Mark shows Jesus performing miracles primarily in response to human need. “The miracles, like the teaching, of Jesus were not offered as signs convince spectators; they were done as acts of love to people in need.”7 In many ways, the words that Jesus spoke to Jairus after he was told his daughter was dead: “Don’t be afraid; just believe,” convey His attitude to humanity. Another window into Jesus’s soul is found in Mark 8:2 where He speaks of the multitude but could be talking about all of lost humanity, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.” Mark clearly portrays Jesus performing miracles because of His compassion and love for humanity.

The second reason that Jesus did not perform miracles on demand was the fact that those who were asking came with the wrong attitude. They had come to “test him.” This attitude would never lead to faith. The miracles that Jesus performed “became signs for those with the humility and openness to perceive and receive their meaning.”8 In a very real sense, Jesus’s opponents are incapable of recognizing true signs and believing because they have already attributed His ministry to the Devil.9

After this encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus would continue to perform miracles. Mark records a number of other powerful healings and exorcisms. It will be in the next chapter where Mark will record the story of the Transfiguration. This was probably the very type of sign that the Pharisees were seeking. This experience, however, is reserved for only three select disciples. As we will see later, the greatest public sign of Jesus’s ministry will be the cross. It like, all the others, can only be understood through the eyes of faith.

1. John presents the miracles in a different way from the synoptic writers. He only presents seven miracles in his Gospel and they are presented as sēmeions, signs pointing to Jesus’s divinity.

2. Brooks, Mark, 127.

3. Lane, Mark, 277.

4. Ibid.

5. Hendriksen, Mark, 315.

6. English, The Message of Mark, 154.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Schmidt, The Gospel of Mark, 92.

2

The Commissioning

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.

(Mark 1: 9–11)

Public or Private?

This first miraculous or supernatural story in Mark is one of the two that seems to come the closest to the type of “sign” that the Pharisees demand in chapter eight. The other is the account of the Transfiguration. Both of these experiences involve visions, heavenly voices and supernatural phenomena designed to identify Jesus as the Messiah.

One of the first issues that must be considered is whether or not this experience was a public or private event. It could be argued that this sign was a public sign, whereas the Transfiguration was a private sign, seen only by Jesus and three of His closest disciples. This seems to be the way that the Baptism experience is presented in the other three Gospels. However, scholars such as James Brooks contend that Mark presents the Baptism experience as a private sign for Jesus only.1 He feels that Mark’s implication that Jesus alone experienced the supernatural phenomena (the heaven’s opening, the Spirit descending, the heavenly Voice) gives the first hint of the secrecy motif. “The true identity of Jesus is concealed from the characters of the story, but not from the readers/hearers.”2 Kelber agrees when he writes, “Neither crowds nor John observe these extraordinary occurrences. Jesus’ reception of the Spirit is an act of the greatest privacy, inaccessible to outside witnesses.”3 Mark implies that only Jesus saw the heavens opening and the Holy Spirit descending. The heavenly voice is in the first person, “You are my Son . . .”

As mentioned above, the other Gospels seem to present the baptism experience and accompanying supernatural signs as a public event. Matthew’s account of this event has God speaking in the third person, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased,” (Matt.3: 17). Here, God seems to be addressing the onlookers. Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism emphasizes the fact that Jesus was...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Sign From Heaven?
• Chapter 2: The Commissioning
• Chapter 3: The Capernaum Demoniac
• Chapter 4: Peter’s Mother-in-Law
• Chapter 5: The Whole Town Gathered at the Door . . .
• Chapter 6: A Man with Leprosy
• Chapter 7: The Healing of the Paralytic
• Chapter 8: A Healing in the Synagogue
• Chapter 9: Healings by the Lake
• Chapter 10: Sleeping through the Storm
• Chapter 11: The Gerasene Demoniac
• Chapter 12: Touching Jesus in the Crowd
• Chapter 13: Waking up a Little Girl
• Chapter 14: The Feeding of the 5,000
• Chapter 15: Walking on the Water
• Chapter 16: Healings at Gennesaret
• Chapter 17: Feeding the Dogs under the Table
• Chapter 18: Healing a Deaf Mute
• Chapter 19: The Feeding of the 4,000
• Chapter 20: The Two Touch Healing
• Chapter 21: The Transfiguration
• Chapter 22: A Demon Possessed Boy
• Chapter 23: The Healing of Bartimaeus
• Chapter 24: Cursing a Fig Tree
• Chapter25: God’s Greatest Sign
• Chapter 26: The Resurrection
• Bibliography