The Year of Mark, #1 Mark’s Gospel as Transforming Story
16th December 2011 - by Fr Tom O’Reilly
We have begun the Year of Mark in the Church’s liturgy. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest canonical gospel and it can be read from start to finish in a relatively short time. In doing this, one can sense that Mark’s Gospel is a developing story which draws us into the flow of events and the continuing struggle of people to understand who Jesus is and what following him means. We can easily miss this when we hear the Gospel piecemeal in the liturgy.
Fr Tom O’Reilly SSC offers six short articles (to be read in sequence) which may help us in keeping the unfolding plot in view as we hear the individual passages. Some suggestions are made about the relevance of Mark’s message for Christian discipleship and mission today.
Mark’s Gospel as Transforming Story
Most of us like a good novel, drama or movie. The better the story, the more we lose ourselves in it, eager to know how the plot will unfold and the suspense will be resolved. We feel close to some characters in the story and distant from others. We can be quite moved by the events and issues presented in the story. Having been drawn into the story world, we sometimes find ourselves able to face events and issues in our own world with new perspective and energy. Thus, engagement in the story can be a transforming experience.
Recent study of the Gospels has focused on their power as stories that can transform us. Mark was the first to present the good news in the form of a unified narrative about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Putting the Jesus traditions into narrative form was a way of drawing his readers into the drama of Jesus’ story, which remained an ongoing reality by reason of his resurrection. The Gospel reflects who we are and what we are called to be as Christian disciples. Entering into the drama of the Gospel, where we meet Jesus Christ, has the potential to transform our attitudes, values and practice. To approach the gospels as transforming stories is not to undermine their historical basis. Mark is not writing fiction, but a story very much rooted in events that happened some two thousand years ago.
Most would agree that the event at Caesarea Philippi (Mk 8:27-30) is a pivotal event around which Mark constructed his story. Up to that point, Jesus authoritatively proclaims the Kingdom of God by word and deed during a Galilean ministry that constantly raises the question of his identity (cf. e.g., Mk 4:41). When Peter gives an initial answer by confessing Jesus to be the Messiah (Mk 8:29), the focus in the story immediately shifts to the type of Messiah Jesus is. It slowly emerges that he is to be a suffering Messiah, and this becomes a reality in his crucifixion. The shadow of the cross falls across Mark’s entire story, which has been called a passion narrative with an extended introduction. While the main focus is on the crucified Messiah, the story is also about disciples who are very slow to see who Jesus is and cannot cope at all with a suffering Messiah.
Having some knowledge of the situation of Mark’s first readers helps us understand why Mark presented the story of Jesus in the way he did. Mark wrote for a mainly Gentile Christian community, possibly living in Rome just prior to 70 A.D. The experience of persecution had left this community wondering why suffering should be their lot. Many had failed in Christian discipleship, some to the point of apostasy. Mark writes to encourage these faltering Christians and direct their gaze to a suffering Messiah who walked the way of the cross and invites his disciples to follow him on that way. They are led to see themselves in the struggles of Jesus’ first disciples who could not understand and often failed. But the message for failed disciples at the end of Mark’s story is that the risen Jesus invites them meet to him again in Galilee (cf. Mk 16:7). Mark’s story continues to be relevant today, particularly when the going is tough and we fail miserably in Christian discipleship.
When we read Mark’s Gospel piecemeal in the liturgy, it is easy to lose sight of its developing plot. As we begin the Year of Mark, it would be good to read his short Gospel from start to finish to get some sense of the whole story. The main aim of my short contributions is to help keep that narrative framework in view.
Read the next article: Galilean Ministry in Mark, Who is Jesus?
