The turning point of the gospel in Mark 8
The reading for Trinity 15 in Twelvemonth B is Mark viii.27–38, the encounter with forms the pivot in the second gospel: until at present, there has been power, success, dynamism and crowds, only from now on, Jesus walks the solitary path to suffering and the cantankerous. At the northernmost point of his ministry, Jesus turns from the adulation of the crowds in Galilee to the opposition of the authorities in Jerusalem. For once, the parallel account in Matthew sixteen.13f is longer than Marking'south, then this reading combines the material in the ii lectionary readings we had last year from Trinity xi and Trinity 12 in Year A. (You lot might therefore want to consult your sermons from those weeks in preparing for this!) Luke'southward account is even shorter, and instead of because this section in Yr C nosotros jump over it and focus on Jesus' challenging teaching about discipleship later on in the chapter.
The organisation of their narratives with these ii major focusses in the first and 2d halves of their gospels must be understood every bit existence theologically motivated past Matthew and Mark. Jesus has, in fact, already faced opposition from the authorities, and Mark iii.22 explicitly tells the states that this opposition has come from Jerusalem. And the Fourth Gospel highlights that, equally an observant Jew, Jesus must have been to Jerusalem numerous times before, and certainly for each of the three major pilgrim festivals in each year of his ministry. To the extent to which Matthew and Marking 'artificially' distinguish these 2 phases of Jesus' ministry, they are making a theological point well-nigh the two paradoxical aspects of Jesus' ministry building—the power of ministry building in the Spirit that draws crowds, and the opposition of others that brings suffering—and this surely is going to be a pattern for all those who follow him.
Matthew agrees with Mark in locating this episode later the feeding of the 4,000, testing past the Pharisees and Sadducees (two groups who would otherwise exist at loggerheads with each other), and the dispute near bread and leaven. Mark additionally includes his unique story most the blind human who needs more one impact from Jesus to heal him (Mark viii.22–26), offering a symbolic parallel to the disciples' need for Jesus to keep teaching them most the true nature of his ministry. Luke approaches this episode quite differently, and it does not accept the same pivotal place in his narrative, but all iii follow it with Jesus' passion prediction, instruction on the cost of discipleship, and the transfiguration. All this serves to raise the paradox of Jesus' suffering and glory.
The location is in the region of Philip'south Caesarea (known as such to distinguish it from Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast), a Roman town established on the site of previous settlements by Herod the Great'south son Philip, tetrarch of Batanea to the due north-e of the land, and covering the northern office of what is now Hashemite kingdom of jordan. Herod had built a marble temple to Caesar here, and it was likewise associated with the god Pan, giving ascent to its mod name Banias. Apart from offering a physical turning bespeak in Jesus ministry building in the north (the site is withal inside the region of the northern tribe Dan), it also provides more testify that the gospel, which is in the first identify for the children of Israel who sit at the table of God's provision, will ultimately accomplish well across Israel's borders. Equally nosotros have seen, this is a continuous counter-thread running through the gospel narrative, and non something revealed to Jesus as a surprise by gentiles he encountered!
Reflecting on this passage, I have also been struck by the fact that we have, yet again, an account of Jesus taking time out, either on his own or with his disciples, away from the pressing needs of the crowds. Jesus is non a slave to his own popularity, and the needs of the crowd are not the just important thing to make demands on his time. The show of his power and lordship are made manifest in his public ministry, simply the reflection that leads to understanding happens in the quiet moments away from the action.
Every bit happens frequently in the gospels, the exchange is provoked past Jesus asking a question. Luke agrees with Mark in recording it as 'Who do people say I am?' just near manuscripts of Matthew offer a different grade: 'Who do you lot say that the Son of Human is?' thus bringing into the opening question an idea from Jesus' later response.
The idea that Jesus might 'really' be these other characters doesn't advise whatsoever notion of reincarnation. Herod Antipas fears that John the Baptist might have been resurrected in the person of Jesus, simply for the most role this suggests a symbolic association—just equally Jesus describes John every bit 'Elijah, if you are willing to accept information technology' (Matt 11.14).
Jesus then turns to the disciples themselves; his emphatic grade 'You, who do you say that I am?' is expressed in the TNIV as 'What nearly you?' Jesus asks them a question that we must all respond to for ourselves. Mark has already pointed to the growing understanding of the disciples, and then we might look a ameliorate respond from them—not least considering 'the secrets of the kingdom of heaven' accept been revealed to them (Marking four.11)—simply their failures in the previous part of this chapter brand this no surprise.
The language of 'Messiah' (in Greekchristos) had a range of meanings in the Old Testament. Both priests and kings were anointed, but even foreign rulers like Cyrus in the second half of Isaiah could be described as 'anointed' for the task of rescuing God's people and returning them from exile. By the time of the New Testament period, these diverse ideas had coalesced into a sense of expectation of God'southward anointed i who would evangelize the people from the oppressive foreign power that rules over them. The question that Jesus raises is who is the existent oppressor: a foreign political ability, or the 'foreign' ability of sin that leads the people into defiance to God?
For the kickoff time in the Synoptic narrative, Jesus and his disciples now caput south into hostile territory—though this cannot be a historical representation of his ministry building, since he would have visited Jerusalem many times every bit a pilgrim.
The shadow of the cross the falls across this whole s journey, as Jesus tries to become his disciples to understand the paradoxical and unwelcome nature of his mission (R T France, Matthew, NICNT, p 628)
The dissimilarity between Galilee and the north, where Jesus has been mostly welcomed, and followed by large crowds, and the hostility of those in the south, corresponds with the dissimilarity in the Fourth Gospel betwixt the unlike meanings of 'the globe'. It is a place created through Jesus the Word, one which he loves and comes to rescue, simply which also stands in enmity and opposition to him. (Note that, in the Synoptics, the welcoming crowd at Palm Lord's day are pilgrims from the north, whereas the hostile crowd on Practiced Friday are local southerners.)
The term 'Son of Man' has three senses. It begins life equally a simple self-description; simply equally 'son of State of israel' means Israelite, so 'son of man', in Hebrewben adam, simply means human beingness. Nosotros can see the equivalence in the parallelism of Ps 8.iv: 'What is man, that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him.' (We need to note that 'human being' here translatesadamin Hebrew andanthropos in Greek, both of which refer to 'human being' without any sense of sex distinction or 'maleness'. Thus some translations return Ps 8.4 as 'human beings…mere humans…')
But within the biblical canon information technology then acquires a 2nd sense, that of homo mortality and fragility contrasted with the majesty and power of God—thus its repeated use as God'due south address to Ezekiel is often translated every bit 'mortal man'. This makes information technology an appropriate term for Jesus to use in the lite of his anticipated suffering and decease.
All the same thirdly, and in some contrast, it features equally the centrepiece of the visionary apocalyptic narrative of Dan seven, where the '1 like a son of human being' (that is, a human figure) is exalted, 'coming on the clouds' up to the throne of the Ancient of Days to inherit an eternal kingdom. Within Daniel, this effigy symbolises the people of Israel, fragile and trampled past the various beasts from the sea, but ultimately exalted by God's grace, power and faithfulness. Equally Jesus recapitulates the story of Israel, he experiences this victory in his resurrection and ascension. Recognising this holds the key to making sense of many of the afterward passages of the Synoptics such equally Matthew 24 and Mark xiii.
Thus information technology is that the term 'Son of Homo' expresses inside itself the paradoxes of Jesus' ministry building ready out in the gospel narratives. No wonder that it is Jesus' own favourite term to describe himself.
There is a strong sense in all iii accounts of the 'divine passive': Jesusmust get andmust be killed andbe raised; this is the divine plan and intention, rather than either existence the option of Jesus or the simple will of those involved—though the threefold agency of 'elders, chief priests, and teachers of the police force' is spelled out advisedly. Critical scholarship has consistently seen this kind of language in the gospels every bit the project back of post-Easter organized religion onto the pre-Easter figure of Jesus. And even so at that place is enough of precedent in the Quondam Testament for the thought of God'due south chosen i experiencing rejection, suffering and decease—in Psalms 22 and 69, both of which will exist alluded to in the passion narratives, in the portrait of God's all-powerful i in Zech 9–14, and supremely in the description of the suffering servant in Isaiah 52.thirteen–53.12 alluded to in Mark 10.45 and xiv.24.
The mention of being raised 'after three days' is parallel to Matt 16.21 'on the 3rd 24-hour interval'; in that location is no contradiction here when we note the convention of counting 'inclusively', that is, including the offset and last days in the numbering, a different convention from our own methods of counting.
The precipitous commutation of rebuke and counter-rebuke betwixt Jesus and Peter is both surprising and rather shocking, heightened in Matthew'south version because of the praise lavished on Peter by Jesus only a few verses before. Whilst Peter'south rebuke to Jesus has been private, Jesus' counter-rebuke appears to take been in the hearing of the disciples, and he now addresses them directly—and in Marking, as nosotros might expect, the crowd are fatigued in too.
The language of 'taking upward your cross' must indeed have been startling to Jesus' hearers, and it has lost its edge for us by being translated into the more anaemic terms of having some irksome burden to carry through life—which cannot possibly be what Jesus means. Its strangeness has once again led disquisitional scholarship to dubiousness its historicity; NT scholar James McGrath comments:
Taking up one'due south cross certainly does not seem to have been an already-existing expression, nor is such a saying likely to take existed in that period. It seems equally though information technology was just the reality of a crucifixion that could inspire such an idiom every bit in the case of Jesus and early on Christianity. No ane is likely to have used this horrific form of execution as a metaphor, simply as we practice non detect "beheaded," "put in the electrical chair," or "given a lethal injection" used metaphorically…
[A] historian will take to conclude that this saying is more likely to exist a post-crucifixion invention than an authentic saying of the historical Jesus.
Against this, the i comment on the post suggests drily:
If Jesus actually said this, and then information technology is possibly a case of him giving the answer to a question that no one had yet asked, namely, "What does it mean to follow a crucified Messiah?" When those who heard this proverb, and perhaps idea it odd, crude, or awkward, months afterward heard that the aforementioned fellow had himself been crucified and was rumored to have been raised from the dead, they may have idea, "Hmm, didn't he say something almost carrying a cross? Maybe he knew what he was talking about after all."
There are iii major issues with historical scepticism hither. First, crucifixion was well known to the Jews, primarily as an objectionable and humiliating Roman method of punishment, and the crucifixion of Jewish rebels is widely attested. Some Jews even adopted this method of execution (see the details in France, Matthew, NICNT pp 410–11). It is hardly surprising that Jesus reaches for a hitting metaphor from the world around him, making use of something that was well-known to his hearers.
Secondly, this phrase comes as an integral role of his instruction hither and elsewhere; though it stands out for united states as a vivid metaphor, Jesus does not dwell on it, but rapidly explains its meaning—that whatsoever who follow him must be prepared to 'lose their lives' that they might gain them from Jesus in a remarkable divine exchange. The phrase has already come in Matt 10.38, again as one idea fluently integrated into a serial of sayings near the call to follow Jesus as involving a radical break from previous values and commitments, including the delivery to cocky-preservation.
Thirdly, as this too illustrates, the idea is completely in line with Jesus' teaching elsewhere, and fits perfectly with the focus of the gospel from at present on.
But nosotros need also to note that Jesus does non talk near 'begetting your cross' every bit a continual brunt; anyone in the first century would know what information technology meant if they saw someone carrying a cross, not that they were engaged in a long and burdensome journey, but that their life was forfeit and would presently come to a encarmine cease.
Subsequent Christian usage of the language of 'self-denial' (and even of 'cross-begetting') has blunted the force of Jesus' words. They are virtually literal death, following the condemned man on his mode to execution. Discipleship is a life of at least potential martyrdom. It may be legitimate to extrapolate from this principle to a more full general demand for disciples to put loyalty to Jesus before their own interested and comfortable, but that can be only a secondary application of the passage. Jesus' words are non to be taken as merely metaphorical. (French republic, Matthew, NICNT, p 636)
The term 'life' (repeated in verses 36 and 37, though some ETs replace the 2nd use with 'soul') translates the Greekpsyche. Although on occasion this is paired with 'torso' by fashion of contrast (Matt 10.28) or in a tripartite sense of 'body, soul and spirit' (ane Thess 5.23), it rather has the sense of 'whole person' or 'reality of who you are', and then should not be contrasted here with physical life.
The paradoxes hither are pressed even further in this episode, with suffering and humiliation ready alongside glory and the kingdom. It is clear from all iii Synoptic accounts that the vision of 'the Son of Homo coming in his kingdom' is a reference to the feel of the Transfiguration for Peter, James and John, non least because that episode follows on from this in all three. Only discover that hither in Matthew the kingdom of God is experience in an encounter with the 'Son of Homo' in his true radiance, and the kingdom of God is now the kingdom of Jesus—God'southward ability, majesty and dominion are truly seen in this human effigy, heading to the cross.
In every aspect of this varied text, glory and suffering are constantly found side by side within the life and ministry of Jesus. They are therefore also juxtaposed in the life of anyone who is willing to follow him.
The film at the head of this article is an intriguing depiction of historical figures on the Via Dolorosa, past Jon McNaughton, illustrating the cost of discipleship for people in all walks of life.
If you would similar to acquire more virtually how to read the New Testament well, why non pick upward Exploring the New Testament which I take contributed to. It explores bug of groundwork, context, content and interpretation for the letters of the NT including the Book of Revelation.
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