Taking Our Bearings
Step into the study, pour yourself a cup of coffee, get comfortable and let's enjoy the Gospel of Mark.
8:1 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance." His disciples answered, "But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?" "How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present.
We have arrived at an excellent place to pause, take stock of where we have come and look forward to what is ahead. Chapter 8 is the center of the book, and the events of chapter 8 will be central to Mark's Gospel. Here the picture of who Jesus is becomes momentarily clear before being plunged into contradiction and confusion. It is important that the student of Mark have a sense of where he is in the Gospel at any given time. The Gospel is divided into two simple divisions; a passion story preceded by a summary of Jesus' public ministry. But there is more to the terrain than this. There are preludes and subplots. We are standing before the beginning of a theme that will come to dominate and define the Gospel: the cross. But before the cross is in sight, the passage we have selected for today wraps us much of what we have seen so far.
The Decapolis was an association of Greek city-states freed from Jewish domination in the recent past. The cities were gentile and, of course, pagan, even hostile, to Jews. Yet mark reports Jesus going well out of his way in order to travel there. It has been noted that either Mark has a poor grasp of geography or Jesus purposely took a longer route. The truth is Jesus may have intentionally taken the longer route and we have no reason to accuse Mark of being ignorant of geography because his may vary from our own. The need to remember that establishing the Gentile mission’s validity was a major concern for Mark and the early Christians. A controversy was raging and the memory of Jesus’ own Gentile ministry was the authoritative answer to the questions being raised.
The account of the healing of the deaf-mute is typical of what we have read about Jesus to this point. The people may have remembered Jesus’ previous visit to the area (Mark 5) but his reputation certainly preceded him. A man is brought to him and the people beg for Jesus to touch him. This language indicates the faith that has confidence in Jesus. The details of the healing are somewhat unusual. Perhaps because Jesus does not speak his language, he uses more tactile methods than normal, utilizing spittle and placing his fingers in the man’s ears. These might not have been as unusual as they strike us; healers of the time would have used similar actions. But Jesus heals completely with a word, and this is unusual and should always be kept in mind as the distinctive mark of Jesus’ power. Mark even reports the Aramaic word Jesus speaks and translates it for the Greek reader.
The immediacy of the result is another Mark of Jesus’ power. The man hears and speaks plainly. Jesus responds with a strong insertion of "Mark’s Secret," the insistence that the healed person not tell anyone what Jesus has done. The request is absurd because, as Mark reports in verse 36, the more he makes the request the more widely he is proclaimed as a miracle worker. I have said elsewhere that this puzzling behavior seems to be reminding us of something so unusual that it would not be erased from the early memories of Jesus. It took Matthew and Luke to edit it out! Jesus is probably seeking to place the focus on his eventual death on the cross as the key to his mission. The early ministry of Jesus brought him immense popularity, but this was not based upon a full perception of who Jesus is. This is a preview of the events of chapter 8 where the identity of Jesus is a major interest, and Jesus firmly places the focus of his identity on his coming death and resurrection. This should signal the reader to watch for this change. When the cross, comes into the picture, Jesus begins preparing his followers to tell the world who he is.
The "summary" statement in 7:37 is a fitting pronouncement on the entire ministry of Jesus to this point: He has done all things well. He has ministered to the crowds, called his disciples, initiated a revolution within Judaism and announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God. He has demonstrated the reality of that Kingdom’s presence in himself through healings, exorcisms and nature miracles. He has taught his message to the crowds and to the followers. He has taken time for the individual and preached to the thousands. As an introduction goes, this one is complete. Things are now ripe for a major twist in the plot, and we should watch for it.
Chapter 8 begins with a feeding story that is a virtual rerun of the feeding of the five thousand in Galilee (6:30ff). One of the interesting variations is numerical and concerns the number of baskets of food gathered at the end of the miracle. In Jewish territory, twelve baskets are collected. The significance as a number representing Israel is clear to most Bible students. But do you know how many tribes are traditionally seen as occupying the land of Canaan before the Israelites entered? Look at Deuteronomy 7:1: seven nations (all with great names!) And how many baskets of food are collected when the feeding miracle occurs in non-Jewish territory? You guessed it! This is an example of the sort of level scripture often communicates on that we totally miss.
This miracle also sets the stage for an important and humorous conversation in 8:13ff. The feeding miracles seem to have a special significance in the Gospels because they preview the Lord’s Supper and its place in the life of the church. It also represents Jesus on a deeper level, as King in the Kingdom that rights all of the world’s wrongs and as the bread of life himself. For Jesus, these miracles were teaching devices for his disciples and he will express frustration that they do not often understand what he is teaching through them.
The level of communication with the reader now begins to get deeper as Mark expects that we have begun to understand much of what the disciples do not comprehend in the text itself. As we read the miracles upcoming, be alert to the deeper meaning of the miracle in the story. We are not to reject the historical event, but we should realize the event is selected and passed on to us for very specific reasons that have little to do with historical reporting. Discovering just how the text is communicating to us can often be a shock. Discovering that Mark is carefully crafting the Gospel narrative to bring us to particular kinds of truth is an exciting process
Questions
As we approach the mid-point of Mark’s Gospel, what do you believe mark has wanted us to understand about Jesus to this point?
