Back to the Bible: Mark 1

I have been “in the ministry” since I was 22. I have two degrees studying theology and the Bible. While my views have evolved over the decades, I have always loved the Christian Scriptures, teaching them both in the classroom and in churches. However, I haven’t been reading them lately mostly due to a needed hiatus.

So I’m picking them back up again. Should be fun.

Mark 1

I like how Mark begins. It comes in clear and with guns blazing: the GOOD NEWS (1:1).

When I was reading this passage to my fiancé (now wife!) - who grew up Hindu and has never read the Bible - I felt compelled to stop and explain to her that this phrase is pretty meaningful. It actually wasn’t original to the New Testament but was a known statement in the ancient Western world. There is an inscription in Greek referring to Augustus Caesar announcing the good news of his birth. Basically, the good news is the start of a glorious kingdom of peace and prosperity. It’s a statement dripping with political dogma and religious devotion.

I think about the history of the Hebrew people and how many kingdoms they saw come and go. If we start with the Golden Age of Israel during Solomon’s reign, the list goes like this: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek, and then Rome. And that says nothing of Jewish run-ins with other Empires after the destruction of the Temple (AD 70ish). Here, Mark is writing about an obscure Jewish Rabbi that he reportedly watched die, resurrect, and then ascend. The good news is a different kind of kingdom. An economy built on radically different principles.

Then Mark just jumps right into it. First, Jesus is thrust into the wilderness and tempted by the Accuser (1:12). Like Batman Begins, Jesus survives boot camp, exits a legit ninja, and starts getting down to biz-ness. He exercises a demon (1:26). He heals Simon’s mother-in-law (1:30). Then he answers a leper’s plea and cleanses him of a stigmatized disease (1:41). I love that short part where Jesus pulls away for some solitude (1:35). I mean, who wouldn’t need some me-time after all that work. You can’t keep burning the candle at both ends, Jesus!

I grew up in the faith tradition commonly referred to as Pentecostal-Charismatic. Yeah, we are the ones who speak in tongues and gave birth to televangelists who ask you to stretch your hands towards the TV screen. And I believed it all back them. I grew up with a semi-obsession around miracles and supernatural beings. But I don’t see things that way anymore. While I try to hold onto some humility around these matters, for the most part I don’t believe they are real. I believe in demons/angels as much as I believe in ghosts. Which is to say: maybe they’re real, but probably not in my opinion. Ironically, I would love to find out ghosts are real. It would just be the best. But I’m not holding my breath.

Does this mean I believe the Bible is making stuff up? Nope. I interpret the New Testament in its context, not within mine. For me, I believe in evil and beauty. I believe in mental illness and the power of the mind. And mostly, I believe in our human capacity to create stories, superstitions, and conspiracy theories to fill the gaps of missing information. Humans are masters at weaving tales to help describe an indescribable experience. When Mark speaks of demons and healings, I don’t doubt his experience. I just don’t feel the need to project his experience forward 2,000+ years. 

Instead, I try to enter the story that Mark is telling. A story of good news. Here is a story of an untrained Rabbi recruiting untrained disciples (1:16-20), and crazy shit starts to happen. These people who are suffering and longing for some semblance of freedom find something new. It’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen or even heard. I witness hope, healing, cleansing, and humility. This man from Nazareth spoke with authority (1:22) and at the same time told the evil spirits to stop marketing his greatness (1:27).

Most Evangelicals have boiled the Good News down to a sinner’s prayer. It’s a disturbing story in my opinion. Some angry god in the sky is genuinely disgusted by humans - whom he incidentally created that way - and he needs to balance the scales with judgment and sacrifices. Because this stickler of a god also supposedly loves these humans, he sends his son to brutally die for them. His wrath being satisfied, he now feels relief when he looks at his bloody son whom he was finally able to release his caged rage upon. And we, despite our unholiness and innumerable sins, can now be loved by this god in spite of our inherent depravity. Yuck. That story sucks IMO.

Mark doesn’t have a sinner’s prayer in mind when he wrote, “this is the beginning of the good news.” For Mark, the Gospel (which is what “good news” means in Old English) is not a story of a cosmic transaction to atone for sins, it is a story of Jesus the Christ interacting in space and time. This Jewish Rabbi is announcing a glorious kingdom of peace and prosperity. He calls it: the Kingdom of God. But strangely, it’s not one of dominion, it’s one of healing. It’s not one that starts with political rulers or wealthy lords, it starts with uneducated fisherman, ostracized lepers, and the town crazy folk. It begins with the lowly and the marginalized. It grows from there.

Personally, I like where this story is going.