Review
Our last excursion into the Gospel of Mark (Mark 1:16-20) treated us to a “shattering little story”[i]: the calling of Simon, Andrew, James, and John. In that passage Jesus confronted and overruled two very powerful spiritual “Arkys”[ii]: the Arky of Career or Vocation; and the Arky of Family or Tradition.
Last week, the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 3:1-19) told us that Jesus is “superior to Moses,” the Giver of the Old Testament Law and Israel’s supreme authority.
Mark 1:21-34 brings these two ideas together. In these verses, Jesus decisively confronts yet another powerful Arky, perhaps the most powerful of them all: the Arky of Religion and Nationalistic Fervor.
Let’s take a closer look.
Healing
This passage narrates some of Jesus’ first acts of Healing. That seems providential, given the current crisis. Healing is something we desperately need right now.
I’m not going to take this opportunity to pontificate on the coronavirus. We all know there’s nothing new about disease and death. Witness the fever of Simon’s mother-in-law in verses 29-31; or the fact that, once the Sabbath draws to a close, Jesus is literally inundated by a steady flow of people suffering from a wide variety of maladies, physical and spiritual (32-34). Such is the human condition.
Do we believe that Christ performs miraculous healings today? Absolutely. But we also affirm something far more profound and significant: namely, that these healings point to a larger Reality. To borrow the language of John’s Gospel, they are signposts (Greek semeia). They proclaim the arrival of a new Arky that overturns and supplants all others: the Arky of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15).
Demons and Exorcism
The arrival of this Arky spells Freedom. Freedom from “principalities and powers (archai and exousiai), from the rulers of the darkness of this age, from spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). “He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, He has put down the mighty from their thrones” (Luke 1:51-52) – this is what the coup of Christ’s kingdom has accomplished. It’s the deeper meaning of Jesus’ many encounters with demons, the first of which surfaces here in verses 21-26. Contrary to a great deal of popular perception, these daimonia are not mere hobgoblins, gremlins, or sprites. They are the Rulers of this world, and their power is broken when Jesus comes on the scene and says, “Be silent!” (verse 25).
Authority: “On the Sabbath”
We must not overlook the fact that Jesus performs this act of liberating power on the Sabbath. It’s just the first of many such violations of the Mosaic Law on His part (remember: “Jesus is superior to Moses,” Hebrews 3:1-6). We’ll have more to say about this farther on, but for now it’s enough to note that these offenses against Jewish sensibilities appear to be deliberate and premeditated. Why? Because, in the minds of Jesus’ contemporaries, “Keeping the Sabbath … was the principle distinguishing mark of Jewish identity and a sign of one’s commitment to God’s covenant.”[iii] Sabbath-keeping, in other words, was another Arky. It was the linchpin not only of Jewish Religion but of Israelite National Identity. Jesus challenges both these “allegiances” in a single bold stroke. No wonder the people were “amazed”. Not only did He perform miracles of power, but He taught “with authority” (exousia, verses 22, 27). That alone set Him apart – worlds apart – from the scribes, who functioned as the official representatives of Mosaic Religion and Jewish Patriotism.
The Incognito Messiah
When the demon reveals Jesus’ identity (verse 24), He commands it to be silent (verse 25). This is the first appearance of a recurring theme: that of the “Incognito Messiah.” Apparently Jesus does not want to appear to be what He really is. As far as possible, He squelches publicity and avoids self-promotion. That’s noteworthy in and of itself. But here again, there will be more to say as we move forward in our reading of Mark.
Final Thoughts
Healings and exorcisms. Important in themselves, perhaps, but even more significant as signs of something else: the in-breaking of the Kingdom and the presence of the King. He is the One whose authority trumps that of all others; and with the arrival of His Kingdom, every other form of loyalty and allegiance must crumble and fall.
[i] N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 8
[ii] “… ‘Arky’ (from Gr. arche) identifies any principle of governance claiming to be of primal value for society. ‘Government’ (that which is determined to govern human action and events) is a good synonym – as long as we are clear that political arkys are far from being the only governments around. Not at all; churches, schools, philosophies, ideologies, social standards, peer pressures, fads and fashions, advertising, planning techniques, psychological and sociological theories – all are arkys out to govern us.” – Vernard Eller, Christian Anarchy, pp. 1-2.
[iii] E. J. Schnabel, Mark: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, p. 57.
I am a bit behind this week but this is such good stuff — healings and exorcisms pointing to a greater reality, Jesus’ authority trumping all others, with the arrival of His Kingdom every other form of loyalty and allegiance must fall…..
Not sure if you have thoughts on this but one time I did a quick study (‘quick’ being the key word here!) on the healings that Jesus performed on the Sabbath, and it seems that in those instances the person healed did not ask Him to heal them, but He just did it anyway. One thing that I did not notice at that time was how in this passage it says that as soon as the sun set “they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.” So as soon as the Sabbath ended they were back bringing the sick, yet not during the Sabbath. I’m not sure of all of the significance here but perhaps He was also wanting to reveal that by healing on the Sabbath, He wants to heal even without being asked, and reaches out even when we are not asking for it, and that He is doing it from a place of rest. Maybe it’s also that sometimes He heals us when we are simply in a place of rest. Some of these are things that my head knows but my heart does not yet fully believe about Him – especially that He always wants to heal even without being asked. Yet it is His nature as Healer and it is what His Kingdom brings, and I want to fully believe it.
Yes, those are all good ideas. The floodgates opened after the sun went down because at that point the people knew it was “legal” to bring their sick for healing. This just seems to underscore all the more the point that the Sabbath healings were done deliberately in order to make a point.
What I find really fascinating is that “arche” can be found in the the Septuagint translation in Gen 1:1 in the beginning (arche). In John 1:1 also and in {Mat 19:4 NKJV} And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made [them] at the beginning (arche) ‘made them male and female.” Hmmm…
Yes! And as we said while we were still able to meet together in person, arche is also the very first word of Mark’s Gospel — “The arche of the Gospel of Jesus Christ …” A new power, principality, authority, and dominion to confront and overthrow all the others.
I love this. “He is the One whose authority trumps that of all others; and with the arrival of His Kingdom, every other form of loyalty and allegiance must crumble and fall. ” It brings some other discussions we’ve had to mind. It reminds me of Jesus’ encounter with Pilate, per John 18:33-36:
“So Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied, ‘Are you saying this on your own initiative, or have others told you about me?’
Pilate answered, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people and your chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?’
Jesus replied, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’
Then Pilate said, ‘So you are a king!’
Jesus replied, ‘You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’
Pilate asked, “What is truth?’”
We all can see well enough with 20/20 hindsight that Rome would indeed be another Arky that must inevitably fall. The irony of Jesus’ contrast between his eternal Kingdom and this temporal Roman Arky is clear enough.
But I think we all have to admit that in the moment (as with the occasion of PIlate’s and Jesus’ exchange), the very real and present danger of a political power is so hard to fight. It’s the way of the world–it gets things done here and now, at whatever cost, all in the interest of self-preservation . . . of protecting our own, our constituencies.
Jesus’ response isn’t so reassuring in that present moment, either: “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities” (v. 36). This may seem simplistic, but those of us who are servants to this king and kingdom apparently don’t represent the kingdom’s interest by fighting for it . . . for Jesus. That’s the very compelling way of the world (of Pilate’s world). And if Jesus’ kingdom were operating by the ways of the world, we should “be fighting to keep [every thing we hold as dear and Christian] from being handed over to [name your favorite Arky] authorities. ”
It seems that the way Jesus’ authority trumps that of all others is by very counterintuitive means–not by warring against or opposing the evils and injustices of an Arky. Rather it is the “no-greater-love,” self-sacrificing responses that herald the arrival of His Kingdom. It’s in the face of self-sacrificing humility that every other form of loyalty and allegiance must crumble and fall. That at least was Jesus’ M.O.
To me this means Jesus’ authority, which does “trump all others,” isn’t by the means I naturally want to think. It recalls the image we saw in Revelation with the sword coming from the mouth of the Lord–that too isn’t the kind of power I might wish it to be. It’s the power of Christ’s Gospel truth (by the way, a nice irony in Pilate’s conclusion, “What is truth”).
I want God’s power to defeat evil and injustice by being the warring king that crushes the Armageddon Arkys of this world. Yet Jesus’ kingdom isn’t of this world, and so he has (and I think, always will) conquer through mercy, grace, and (of course) love. I don’t know why the king and kingdom of Jesus then should be any different now or in decades/centuries to come. His kingdom will never be of this world, and I suspect his means of conquering will not be of this world either.
Jewish sensibilities appear to be deliberate and premeditated. Why? Because, in the minds of Jesus’ contemporaries, “Keeping the Sabbath … was the principle distinguishing mark of Jewish identity and a sign of one’s commitment to God’s covenant.”[iii] Sabbath-keeping, in other words, was another Arky. It was the linchpin not only of Jewish Religion but of Israelite National Identity. Jesus challenges both these “allegiances” in a single bold stroke. No wonder the people were “amazed”. Not only did He perform miracles of power, but He taught “with authority” (exousia, verses 22, 27). That alone set Him apart – worlds apart – from the scribes, who functioned as the official representatives of Mosaic Religion and Jewish Patriotism.
YES. And yet, still, I am so comfortable in the arkies I know, the forms of religion can give me such confidence. So to be pushed outside the bounds of these forms, into His arms alone, where I should feel most safe, there is hesitancy, uncertainty. He is more radical than I can fathom.
Amen, and amen, Dorothy. I find it comparably hard when the discomfort of being pushed outside the bounds is augmented by the likes of today’s self-appointed Scribes who are quick to tell me I’m out of bounds from established “Christian” forms and norms (in our case, in the American Evangelical context, with all of its Arky political allegiances, for instance). Tradition and culture can be such powerful Arky taskmasters–when’ we’re told, “This has been the way it’s done, it’s how they’ll know we are Christians,” it can be so seemingly unsafe and uncertain. And if we protest we’re simply relying upon “his arms alone,” the Scribe can simply insist “No, I am relying upon Christ alone . . . and God tells me the opposite. You break with the Christian church and her standards of forms and norms, you break from God.” The effects can be so hard, as you describe–shunning, isolation, and questioning of one’s own faith. Radical indeed.
Wow! This is great stuff. Thanks to both of you for this wonderfully probing discussion.
Thank you for providing the Aramaic, I am lost in words…
Sorry, Cyndi!
The American church, relentlessly weaving the chains that bind it, enchanted by mammon, howls at those who choose the way of the Rabbi, not unlike the drunk enraged by those who won’t join in a drink.
Yes.
Tom–nice! 👍😉
Thanks for keeping up on these, Dad. It’s been a great way to remind myself to continue the reading.
Good, I’m glad to hear that!
This reflection—where Jesus pays no heed to career and family—reminds me of Tim McConnell’s message on Sunday, on Matthew 15:21-28:
“21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Tim said, in reading this difficult passage, that Jesus says what He isn’t supposed to say, goes where He isn’t supposed to go, visits whom He isn’t supposed to visit. In this Matthew passage, Jesus confronts prejudice head on, just as He does with nationalism and religion, career and family. There are no boundaries to His authority, no obstacles to His authority. He is the most inclusive person who ever lived, and the most exclusive person who ever lived.
Thanks, Tom. It seems to happen time and time again that there’s some kind of link between Sunday mornings and Monday nights. Uncanny, isn’t it?
I like this apt summary of Tim’s sermon, Tom. Thanks.
I commented on Sunday on the Choir’s Facebook site something that kind of connects, I think: “Such a powerful and poignantly relevant sermon today—the very real Jesus, acknowledging the borders, walls, races, cultures, and politics, and yet reaching through and beyond them . . . transcending them with a holy ambivalence that is love. Big Blue’s choral presence in that service was perfect (thank you Jim): they’ll know we are Christians (followers of the Real Jesus) by our love. Not by our alliances, but our love. Beautiful.”