The Year of Mark, #3 Galilean Ministry in Mark: How are People responding to Jesus?
16th December 2011 - by Fr Tom O’Reilly
In the last instalment we looked at the identity and mission of Jesus in the drama of the Galilean ministry up to Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah (Mk 8:29). Now we focus attention on the various responses to Jesus in that part of Mark’s story. We do this, not as detached spectators, but as participants seeking our place in the unfolding drama.
The only ones during the Galilean ministry who recognize the true identity of Jesus as Son of God are the demons that Jesus casts out (3:11; 5:7)! One has to wait till Jesus dies on the cross before a human being can confess Jesus as Son of God (15:39). The crowds are well disposed towards Jesus and eagerly seek him out as a healer and teacher (e.g., 1:22; 6:53-56). They understand him to be John the Baptist raised from the dead, or Elijah, or one of the prophets (8:27-28). Yet, they remain ‘outsiders’ who cannot comprehend Jesus and lack real faith in him (4:10-12). Mark consistently characterizes the religious leaders as people who are implacably opposed to Jesus, seeing him as a mortal threat to both themselves and the people. For the leaders, Jesus is a blasphemer (2:7) and an agent of Beelzebul (3:22). At an early stage in their conflicts with him they are already plotting how to destroy him (3:6). Even Jesus’ own relatives think that he is out of his mind and try to restrain him forcefully (3:21). The family of Jesus (including his mother!) are ‘outside’ the house while Jesus is ‘inside’ with his true relatives, those who do the will of God (3:31-35).
As followers of Jesus, we are especially interested in how disciples in Mark’s story are responding to Jesus, assuming that our place in the unfolding drama is to be found alongside them. The disciples are at once loyal and uncomprehending. They respond generously to Jesus’ call to be with him and share his mission (1:16-20; 3:13-19; 6:6b-14). They stay with Jesus during the Galilean ministry, when opposition to him is mounting, and slowly come to see him as the expected Messiah (8:29). However, Mark matches this positive side of the portrayal of the disciples with an even stronger negative side. Though they receive private instruction from Jesus (4:10, 34), they do not really understand who Jesus is and what is going on in his mission. Their misunderstanding and lack of perception is particularly evident in the three scenes where Jesus and the disciples are alone in the boat (4:35-41; 6:45-52; 8:14-21). This misunderstanding is attributed to lack of faith (4:40) and hardness of heart (6:52). In the second part of Mark’s story we will see the disciples sinking into even deeper misunderstanding about Jesus’ identity and what it means to follow him, which eventually leads to desertion, betrayal and denial. Near the end of the Galilean ministry we have the cures of the deaf mute (7:31-37) and the blind man (8:22-26), which are found only in Mark’s Gospel. These miracles are Mark’s striking commentary on the spiritual deafness and blindness of disciples in need of healing. Just as the blind man received his sight in stages, so Jesus will attempt to take the disciples beyond the blurred vision in Peter’s confession of Jesus as the expected Messiah (8:27-30).
In portraying the disciples in this way, Mark was holding up a mirror to uncomprehending and failing disciples in his day. Perhaps we too can see our own story in that mirror. We need to keep reading to see how the story of the disciples unfolds in Mark’s Gospel. Though they grow in misunderstanding and sink into deeper failure, they will eventually hear the good news that, for a disciple, failure is not the last word.
Read the next article: #4 Mark’s Gospel from Galilee to Jerusalem
