Following Jesus in Galilee: resurrection as empowerment in the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 16:1-8

The resurrection narrative in the Gospel of Mark is surprising not only for its abrupt ending, which has the women fleeing the tomb in amazement and awe, but also because the risen Jesus makes no appearance. In the earliest resurrection tradition Paul reports that Jesus was "raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time ..." (1 Cor 15:4-6). Moreover, the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which use Mark as their primary source, and the Fourth Gospel, which may also count Mark among its sources, all include appearances of the risen Jesus.

Given the consistent and ubiquitous emphasis on appearances of the risen Jesus in the Gospel tradition, it seems apparent that Mark's conspicuous omission is by design and indeed makes a bold statement about the significance of the announcement "he has risen, he is not here" (16:6) for the Gospel's audiences. There is almost universal agreement now that the earliest edition of the Gospel ended at 16:8 and that the ending served to engage hearers rather than provide closure. The effect of such an ending on an audience can be ascertained only by relating it to the rhetorical strategy of the narrative as whole.

There are a number of distinctive features in Mark 16:1-8 that relate the good news that Jesus has risen to the preceding narrative, suggesting that the consequences of his resurrection for hearers have already been intimated. The presence of the women who come to anoint Jesus' body evokes not only his anointing by the woman at Bethany (14:3-9) but all the women characters in Mark's story of Jesus. There are other details in Mark's resurrection account that also tie it to earlier scenes in the narrative and underline the importance of interpreting 16:1-8 in relation to the rest of the Gospel. It is noteworthy that in the tomb the women encounter a "young man ... dressed in a white robe" (16:5), and the only other occurrence of the term for "young man" (neaniskos) in Mark is in 14:51-52 where a young man in nothing but a linen cloth is seized and runs away naked. The depiction of the young man in 16:5 is also reminiscent of the Gerasene demoniac living in "tombs" who upon being delivered by Jesus is found sitting there "clothed and in his right mind" (5:15). The episodes are linguistically and symbolically interwoven, and in interpreting them the point is not so much to see the three characters as one but rather to perceive the connection between the divine power operative through Jesus to heal and restore in Galilee and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The young man exhorts the women to "tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee, there you will see him" (16:7). He is simply reiterating what Jesus told Peter in 14:28: "after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." Mark's resurrection narrative refers not only the women but also the hearers of the Gospel back to Galilee, the place where the power of the Creator to heal, liberate, feed, teach, and restore was manifested in the ministry of Jesus. In other words, the meaning of Jesus' resurrection in Mark is to be found in recalling his proclamation and enactment of God's kingdom in Galilee.

The main theme or inclusio of the Gospel of Mark is announced by Jesus in 1:15: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news." Every episode in the narrative is an explication of how the kingdom of God has been either manifested or opposed. Hence the resurrection of Jesus is the climactic demonstration of the sovereignty of the Creator who brings life out of death and prevails over the forces of evil. There is no epiphany in Mark's account of the resurrection because God's power to restore life has been evident throughout the Gospel. So, while the resurrection of Jesus is the climax of the narrative, it is yet another example of the divine power that was at work in the ministry of Jesus. The correlation between God's activity in raising Jesus from the dead and Jesus' proclamation and enactment of the "gospel of God" (1:14) is signaled by the promise that the risen Jesus will meet his followers back in Galilee. The metaphor of the kingdom of God is both temporal and spatial. The audience was informed at the outset that the time for God's rule is now, and in 16:7 (cf. 14:28) Galilee is confirmed as the place where the risen Jesus will meet his followers to continue actualizing the kingdom of God. The ending of the Gospel of Mark is not a conclusion but rather an invitation to consider the implications of Jesus' resurrection for their own involvement in God's kingdom by reconsidering Jesus' Galilean ministry. (1)

The beginning of the Gospel

The Gospel of Mark is the product of an oral culture and was written to be performed dramatically. In interpreting the Gospel it is useful to keep in mind that the audience would have heard the narrative in its entirety, so they would have been impacted by the story as a whole. (2) Moreover, a dramatic presentation would have engaged hearers emotionally and psychologically and beckoned them to contemplate how they might perform Mark's story of Jesus in their own community life. Like any narrative, the Gospel of Mark has a surplus of meaning, so from the very first dramatization the possibility of multiple interpretations and appropriations existed. What people heard would have been influenced by voice inflection and gestures, which would have varied. Nonetheless, the narrator has used rhetorical devices that serve to guide and direct the hearer's apprehension of the story of Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection. As Joanna Dewey has observed, Mark is an interwoven tapestry that employs repetitions, intercalation, echoes, and foreshadowings to correlate the episodes in the Gospel. (3) In part this is accomplished by how the Gospel is structured. However, there are also aural cues in the Greek text of Mark that encourage the audience to comprehend any particular passage in relation to what precedes and comes after it.

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The most important and often neglected key to the structure and plot of Mark is the prologue, which includes 1:1-15. Aristotle remarked that the prologue was "a paving the way for what follows" (Rhetoric, III.xiii.14), and ancient audiences were conditioned to listen for the main themes to be expounded upon in the body of the work. After announcing the "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," the next words heard are from the Scriptures. The citation ascribed to Isaiah is actually a conflation of a passage from Isa 40:3 with portions of Exod 23:20 and Mal 3:1, which informs the hearer that the "gospel of Jesus Christ" has something to do with the "way of the Lord." The language and imagery of 1:2-3 evoke Second Isaiah's theme of the new exodus and the promise that Yahweh would come in strength to deliver Israel from her bondage among the nations (cf. Isa 40:1-17). In Isa 40:9-10 the verbal form of "gospel" (euangelizo) is used twice to proclaim that "the Lord comes with might." (4) John the baptizer is in the "wilderness" where "all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem" come to him, because, as with the first exodus, the second exodus will take place in the wilderness, where Yahweh will again provide for Israel and prevail over the power of evil. The "way of the Lord" (1:2-3) here characterizes the advent of Yahweh who is "great in strength, mighty in power," who "gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless" (Isa 40:26-29). However, it is also used throughout Mark, especially in 8:27-10:45, as a metaphor for following Jesus.

These excerpts from the Scriptures apprise the audience that the hope of God's victorious reign expressed in Isaiah will be realized through the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He is acclaimed by John as the "more powerful" one (cf. Isa. 43:16-17). The rending of the heavens at his baptism echoes Isa 64:1-2 and signals the long-awaited new exodus intervention of Yahweh on Israel's behalf: "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence ... to make your name known to your adversaries so that the nations might tremble at your presence."

A voice from heaven, quoting Psalm 2:7, acclaims Jesus as the messianic servant of Isaiah who has been endowed with divine authority to inaugurate Israel's eschatological comfort and deliverance from the hands of the nations (cf. Isa 40:10-31; 51:9-16; 52:10-15). (5) That he has been infused with the very Spirit who hovered over the primeval chaos at the "beginning" of creation (Gen 1:1-2; cf. Mk 1:1) alerts hearers that the divine presence will be mediated through him to restore and reorder creation. (6) The prologue sets out the conceptual framework in terms of which the plot of the narrative is to be grasped. The audience is assured that God's empowering presence will be mediated through Jesus to deliver the people of God, but the means and scope of this deliverance in Mark is contrary to expectations and requires the hearer to contemplate the modus operandi of the kingdom of God and its implication for the practices of the covenant community.

Jesus' Galilean ministry

The new exodus imagery introduced in the prologue prompts hearers to construe the exorcisms, healings, feedings, teaching with authority, and other deeds of power as the fulfillment of the promise of God's eschatological victory. The numerous echoes and allusions to Scripture indicate that Mark's depiction of Jesus' ministry in Galilee must be understood in the light of Israel's history and hopes. It begins with a series of conflict stories in which the divine authority and power manifested through him is challenged by other powers that are characterized as working against God's creative and redemptive purposes. In the first act of his public ministry in the synagogue in Capernaum Jesus' authority is contrasted with that of scribes and is also used to exorcise a man with an unclean spirit (1:21-28). The use of divine power to deliver those who are tyrannized by demonic forces or marginalized by illness is what gives rise to Jesus' conflict with the Jewish authorities, which intensifies as the plot develops and he heads toward Jerusalem.

The ensuing conflict between Jesus and the Jewish authorities is focused on the character and purpose of divine power. Divine "authority" and "power" are mediated through him in Galilee to deliver people possessed by malevolent spirits (1:21-28; 5:1-20; 7:24-30; 9:14-29), to "release" them from sins thought to be the cause of physical maladies (2:1-12), and especially to heal and restore to community those who have been disenfranchised (1:29-34; 5:21-43; 6:5, 53-56; 7:31-37; 8:22-26; 10:46-52). Upon curing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath Jesus poses a question to some Pharisees who are waiting for him to break the law: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" (3:4) Implied in Jesus' question is a contrast and comparison between the redemptive intent of God's power and the destructive effects of the power wielded by Jesus' antagonists in Mark. Indeed, in 3:6 the narrator informs hearers that the Pharisees, who claim God's authority to interpret the law, "immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him." Henceforth the narrative moves inexorably toward Jesus' confrontation with the religious and political authorities in Jerusalem where he will "suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes, and be killed" (8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34).

On one level the Gospel of Mark is a study in the difference between the power of the Spirit manifested through Jesus and the temporal authority exercised by those who are characterized as being opposed to God's purposes. It is interesting that scribes who have come down from Jerusalem acknowledge that there is a power operative through Jesus, but they allege that "he is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out demons" (3:20-27). By the same token, later in Jerusalem the real source of the Jewish aristocracy's authority is disclosed in an episode in which they ask Jesus about the origins of his "authority." Jesus replies to their question with a query of his own regarding whether John's baptism came from "heaven" or was of "human origin." After arguing among themselves they are reticent to answer: "If we say, 'from heaven,' he will say, 'why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'from human origin?'--they were afraid of the crowd ..." (11:27-33). Although the Jerusalem leaders claim that their authority comes from heaven, the ironic reality from the narrator's point of view is that it is actually subject to the "crowd." Likewise, Pilate, representative of the Roman Empire and the most powerful political figure in the Gospel, is said to have crucified Jesus not in compliance with Roman law but rather to "satisfy the crowd" that repeatedly cries out "crucify him" (15:13-15).

Following Jesus on "the way": kingdom values and practices

From the opening verses of the prologue Jesus has been acclaimed as the "more powerful" one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (1:7-8), which suggests to hearers who also have been baptized that they will learn from Mark's story of Jesus what it means for them to be empowered by the same Spirit that imbued Jesus at his baptism. The tearing open of the heavens at Jesus' baptism indicates that he is God's agent of deliverance and redemption, but his enactment of the new exodus in Galilee also requires a reorientation and commitment to the alternative values and practices of the kingdom of God. Mark's depiction of Jesus' Galilean ministry is focused on the beneficiaries of Jesus' deed of power, but in the middle section of the Gospel he turns his attention to the formation of his followers in the "way of the Lord." This section of Mark is bracketed by the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida in 8:22-26 and the healing of blind Bartimaeus in 10:46-52. The blind man of Bethsaida episode is immediately preceded by the feeding of the 4,000 in 8:1-10.

Both feeding stories are reminiscent of God's provision for Israel in the wilderness. (7) In the first, Jesus instructs the disciples to give the people something to eat (6:37), but they don't apprehend his attempt to involve them in this enactment of the kingdom. After the second feeding he chides them for failing to recognize and trust the "way of the Lord": "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember? ... Then he said to them, 'Do you not yet understand?' (8:17-21)

Blindness and seeing are metaphors in Mark for grasping not only the nearness but the marks of the kingdom of God as "new exodus." Moreover, the Gospel presents the "way of the Lord" not just as something to behold but as a reality in which Jesus' followers have a share. In other words, the "way of the Lord" is also a path, a way of life. Progression from simply catching sight of God's liberating and restorative power to acting on it is signified in the narrative by the counterpoint between the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida and the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Upon receiving his sight, the blind man from Bethsaida initially sees people, "but they look like trees, walking." Jesus again put his hands upon his eyes until he "saw everything clearly" (8:24-25). Bartimaeus, on the other hand, is an exemplar of faithfulness because, when Jesus restored his sight, he "immediately followed him on the way" (10:52).

This didactic section of Mark is organized around three passion predictions in which Jesus explains to his disciples that it is "necessary" for him to "suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again" (8:31-38; cf. 9:30-32; 10:32-34). Although it has been apparent since the conflict stories early in the narrative that Jesus posed a serious challenge to the interests of Jewish religious authorities and therefore would have to be vanquished (cf. 3:6), the disciples are depicted as obtuse and antagonistic in their response to Jesus' premonition regarding his impending fate in Jerusalem (8:32-33; 9:32). The dullness of Jesus' inner circle serves as a foil for enlightened hearers who have been primed to expect a confrontation between Jesus and the Jerusalem leadership. From the standpoint of the audience, the repeated passion predictions are important because they provide the occasion for Jesus to clarify the values and practices of followers who would devote themselves to the "way of the Lord."

Much of the material in Mark 8-10 elucidates the attitudes and manner of life that befit followers who, unlike Peter, do have eyes to discern the difference between "divine things" and "human things" (8:33), that is, the difference between the way God works and the way religio-political order works. (8) Jesus here instructs his followers, which includes hearers of the Gospel, in kingdom values and practices and assumes that they will continue the ministry he began in Galilee after his death and resurrection. There is more emphasis on kingdom values in the catechesis than on specific practices, and as in Mark 1-8 a key theme is authority and power.

The difference between divine and human power is crystallized in the passage immediately following the third passion prediction where Jesus contrasts his practice with the norms of the Greco-Roman social order (10:32-45). His teaching follows on the heels of an attempt by James and John to secure positions of eminence by riding Jesus' coattails into "glory." Jesus offers a poignant sketch of the imperial pattern of power as contrary to the alternative praxis he exemplifies: "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (10:42-45).

Throughout his Galilean ministry Jesus delivered people from the mostly impersonal forces that exercised control over them, but, as he journeys to Jerusalem, the symbolic center of Jewish religious and political authority, Jewish and Roman leaders will personify this hegemonic power. Already in 8:15 Jesus warned his disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." Because leaven is a common metaphor for the "evil inclination" in Judaism, Jesus here insinuates their complicity with the inimical powers that oppress the people. (9) In contrast to religious and political leaders preoccupied with their authority and reputation, Jesus is portrayed as one who "served" those in need.

Although early in the narrative scribes and Pharisees debate the interpretation of Torah with Jesus in the conflict stories (cf. 2:23-3:6; 7:1-23), it becomes apparent that the real point of contention has little to do with theological disputes, at least from Jesus' point of view. Jesus' only explicit criticism of scribes comes in 12:38-40, and then only after he has commended a scribe who agrees with him that the Shema (Deut 6:4-5) and the command to love one's neighbor as oneself (Lev 19:18) are the most important commandments: "you are not far from the kingdom of God," he tells him (12:34). But he then goes on to caution his followers: "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogue and places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers" (12:38-40). According to Jesus, the problem with the scribes is not their theology per se but their behavior. They are guided by the preoccupation with honor and status that characterized Greco-Roman society, the same preoccupation that motivated James and John's request to sit on Jesus' right and left hand. Honor was the foundational Greco-Roman cultural value, and it was antithetical to the values Jesus extolled like denying one's self (8:34-35) and receiving a child (9:36-37) or becoming a "slave of all" (10:44). Neither children nor slaves had any status or honor in antiquity.

Although everyone competed for honor in the Greco-Roman world, it was by and large something that was enjoyed mostly by an elite minority. The majority of the population paid homage to those who exerted the most influence on their lives and, indeed, were dependent upon them as benefactors. In denouncing the practice of exercising power over others, Jesus emphasized that the "first," or most honored, among his followers must be "slave of all" (10:42-44). This is ironic counsel inasmuch as slaves were "animate tools," nonpersons, with no legal rights and permanently stigmatized as dishonorable. They were at the opposite end of the sociopolitical spectrum from those "who seemed to rule" (my translation) and were honored as "great ones." This contrast sets up the passion narrative in which Jesus will suffer humiliation or dishonor at the hands of Jewish and Roman despots and will ultimately be crucified, a form of state terrorism reserved primarily for slaves.

A confrontation with hegemonic power

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, which is staged as a parody of imperial power in the form of processions in which political and military leaders were honored as they processed into the city, marks the transition from the teaching section to the trials and execution of Jesus. Approximately one third of Mark's narrative is devoted to a graphic depiction of what happened to Jesus in Jerusalem. This part of the narrative is richly textured and full of irony, but what is particularly striking is that Jesus is transmuted from agent of God's power in Galilee to a victim of imperial power in Jerusalem. Although the Gospel depicts Pilate as a rather weak character in order to hold the priestly aristocracy accountable for Jesus' death, one aspect of Markan irony is that Jerusalem operates like any other temple state in the Roman Empire, and the administrators of the Temple act like imperious "Gentile" rulers. In terms of the rhetorical effect on the audience, hearers who would have identified with beneficiaries of God's power to heal and restore in Galilee earlier in the Gospel must now witness the full brunt of "rulers," namely the priestly class and Roman prefect, who "lord it over" the people as they follow Jesus into a downward spiral of tyranny and brutality.

Contemporary readers of the passion narrative are inclined to focus on the theological significance of Jesus' death, because the passion predictions typically have been interpreted in terms of sacrificial atonement. But Mark's graphic depiction of Jesus' rejection, suffering, and death would probably have had a more visceral impact on an ancient audience hearing the Gospel performed in its entirety. Hearers drawn into a dramatic presentation of the passion narrative must witness the horror of the crucifixion as Jesus is mocked, taunted, spit upon, and then hung on a cross to die. The hearer is not so much invited to ponder the meaning of Jesus' suffering and death but rather is confronted with an epiphany of injustice (14:56-63; 15:315), humiliation, abuse, and violent death (14:65; 15:16-20, 32). The rhetorical force of Mark's vivid portrayal exposes the systemic personification of the power of evil that held people hostage in Galilee.

Hearers have been told that Jesus' death, like his ministry, would somehow be redemptive: "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (10:45; cf. 14:22-25). However, the term "ransom" is not a sacrificial metaphor. (10) It is an economic metaphor that denotes the buying back of hostages and was frequently used to refer to the sum paid for the manumission of a slave. In this instance a person is given in exchange for hostages rather than money. Jesus goes into captivity instead of the "many." Jesus is here presented as one who sets people free from captivity to the religio-political system vividly depicted in the passion so that they don't have to live as captives to it, but his death as a victim of its violence does not accomplish anything for hearers apart from their engagement in the struggle that resulted in his crucifixion. The narrator has reinforced the connection between Jesus' rejection, suffering, and death with the values and practices reflected in his continued commitment to God's purposes, even though it entailed the ignominy and agony of crucifixion (cf. 14:32-36). So it is not just his fate but perhaps more importantly his faithfulness that hearers are to identify with. (11) The Gospel was designed to motivate hearers to live as faithful followers of the "way of the Lord" exemplified by Jesus in ministry and the passion.

Meeting Jesus in Galilee: resurrection as empowerment and practice

Those who have heard Mark's story of Jesus performed have witnessed God coming in strength to heal and restore people in his Galilean ministry, and they have traveled with Jesus to Jerusalem where they have seen him falsely accused and executed as an enemy of the Roman order. The "darkness over the whole land" (15:33) and the rending of the temple veil (15:39) signify God's judgment of those who presided over this religio-political order. The subsequent report that Jesus "has risen" indicates to hearers that neither death nor the autocrats who exercise authority over the people are able to thwart God's purposes or prevail against God's life-giving power. More important, by referring the disciples, and hence also the audience, back to Galilee to meet the risen Jesus the resurrection narrative challenges Jesus' followers to evaluate their own commitment to the "way of the Lord." Instead of verifying that Jesus is alive with an appearance story, the narrator engages hearers with an ending that offers neither closure nor reassurance but rather requires them to consider the significance of Jesus' Galilean ministry for their own lives and ministry.

Followers of Jesus who have just heard Mark's story of Jesus in its entirety are in the end referred back to the beginning of the Gospel where "the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near" (1:15). The narrative is woven together through foreshadowings and echoes that prompt the audience to apprehend the significance of particular episodes in the light of subsequent or preceding episodes. The resurrection narrative was presaged with auditory cues in several exorcisms and healings during Jesus' Galilean ministry. The first prefiguring of Jesus' resurrection occurred with the healing of Simon's mother-in-law. The text simply says that she "lay sick with a fever" and that Jesus "took her by the hand and raised her up, and the fever left; and she served them" (1:31). This succinct account of healing may not seem to have much gravity for people reading the text in English, but auditors listening to a performance of the Greek text would be struck by the fact that this is the same verb (egeiro) used of Jesus being raised from the dead (16:6). In the light of what Jesus has taught and what has happened to him in Mark, this account of Peter's mother-in-law's being "raised" so that she can "serve" can be taken as a precis of the message of the Gospel for hearers. In Galilee, which in Mark represents the place where God heals and restores, Jesus' followers are empowered by the Spirit to serve (cf. 10:42-45).

The gravity of employing the same verb to describe Jesus' healings that was used to denote his resurrection is corroborated by its repeated use in the first part of Mark. When Jesus heals the paralytic in 2:1-11 he exhorts him to "rise," and then the narrator reports that he was "raised," the same passive form of the verb used of Jesus' resurrection in 16:6. The fact that those who witness this were "amazed and glorified God" (2:12) may also be important, because the women who are told that Jesus has been raised respond similarly with astonishment and reverent fear. (12) Jesus tells the man with a withered hand in to "rise" (3:3) before restoring his hand. All of the episodes in Mark 5 should be construed as resurrection stories. The Gerasene demoniac was living among the "tombs" and had often been "restrained with shackles and chains" when Jesus exorcises a demon named "Legion" (5:1-20). He reacts in a manner that is exemplary for any and all faithful followers: "he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed" (5:20).

The healing of Jairus' daughter in 5:21-43 is interrupted by a woman who had been "suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years" (5:25-34). The fact that Jesus was "aware that power had gone forth from him" (5:30) underlines that this is a manifestation of God "in strength" come to restore and release from bondage the people of God. Noteworthy, again, is her response to this display of divine power: "knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him" (5:33). The episode with Jairus' daughter anticipates what Jesus tells the Sadducees who query him about resurrection, namely that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is "God not of the dead, but of the living" (12:27). By the time they get to Jairus' house the people announce that the girl is dead, but Jesus insists that "the child is not dead but sleeping" (5:39). He then takes her by the hand and says "'Talitha cum,' which means, 'Little girl, get up'" (5:41). Once more the verb "to raise" (egeiro) is used. Those who witness God's power to bring life out of death are yet again "overcome with amazement" (5:42).

Galilee is the setting of the new exodus in which the people of God were liberated, healed, and sustained by the power of God. Just as these "deeds of power" portended that Jesus would be raised from the dead, so the resurrection narrative echoes the divine power active through his ministry and beckons hearers to return to that place, wherever it may be, to engage with the risen Jesus in God's ongoing work of healing, restoration, and redemption. The primary aim of the resurrection narrative is not to convey information but to impel those who hear the story to become faithful followers of Jesus. Those who have been with Jesus in Galilee and traveled with him to Jerusalem and then Golgotha must decide whether they will set their minds on "divine things" (8:33) and perform the "will of God" (3:35; 14:36) or continue to live as captives of the Greco-Roman social order that co-opted the ruling class of Judea. Jesus has shown them the "way of the Lord" in which God's power was active through him to address the needs of the dispossessed. In the resurrection narrative followers of Jesus who have been baptized and endowed with the same Spirit are directed to meet Jesus back in the place of his ministry where that same divine power is active through those who embody the gospel of God by serving and bearing witness.

Raymond Pickett

Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest

[e-mail]

1. See Werner Kelber, The Oral and the Written Gospel (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 70. Kelber, who emphasizes "Mark's oral legacy," observes that "Jesus' entire life and death constitutes a pedagogical paradigm, inspiring the disciples to learn by imitation and participation."

2. On the impact of Mark as a coherent narrative see Richard Horsley, Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's Gospel (Louisville" Westminster John Knox, 2001), and David Rhoads, Joanna Dewey and Donald Michie, Mark as Story: An Introduction to the Narrative of a Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999).

3. Joanna Dewey, "Mark as Interwoven Tapestry: Forecasts and Echoes for a Listening Audience," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 53 (1991): 221-36, and "The Gospel of Mark as an Oral-Aural Event: Implications for Interpretation," in The New Literary Criticism and the New Testament, ed. Edgar McKnight and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1995), 145-63.

4. See Rikki Watts, Isaiah's New Exodus and Mark (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr Siebeck, 1997). Watts makes a compelling case for the influence of Isaiah's new exodus topos on the Gospel of Mark.

5. The voice from heaven cites Ps 2:7, an enthronement psalm that was interpreted messianically, and Isa 42:1. Together these references evoke an image of the anointed king who proclaims God's eschatological victory, which implies the shattering of hostile kingship (1:14-15). See Joel Marcus, Mark 1-8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. The Anchor Bible 27 (New York: Doubleday, 2000): 166.

6. Both the calming-of-the-storm episode in 4:35-41 and the scene in which Jesus walks on water in 6:45-52 identify Jesus with the presence of the Creator who has power over and orders the forces of chaos, which is symbolized by the water. This is especially clear in 6:50 when he consoles his terrified disciples who see him walking on the sea with the words "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid." "It is I" is a translation of "I Am" (ego eimi), which is a circumlocution for Yahweh. This affirmation of God's presence in the person of Jesus, however, must be understood within the monotheistic framework of early Judaism in which agents of God's activity often have divine qualities. See George W. E. Nickelsburg, Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins: Diversity, Continuity, and Transformation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), 89-117. Yahweh's victory over his enemies is often expressed in creational chaos-defeating language characteristic of the divine-warrior hymns of early Israel (cf. Exodus 15; Isa 44:27; 50:2; Ps 76:6f.; 18:8-16; 104:7). See Watts, Isaiah's New Exodus and Mark, 160-63.

7. Watts, Isaiah's New Exodus and Mark, 177-78.

8. The Greek text of 8:33 uses the verb for moral reasoning (froneo) and distinguishes between being intent on "the things of God" and a merely human manner of thinking and acting. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, ed. Frederick William Danker (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1065-66.

9. See Marcus, Mark 1-8, 510. The "evil inclination" is the "destructive and anarchic impulse within the hearts of human beings that causes them to sin. In Mark "leaven" is associated with a hardened heart (8:17). In the dualistic worldview of early Judaism evil is often seen as the function of cosmic forces. See Nickelsburg, Ancient Judaism and Christian Origins, 62-75.

10. It is never used in the Septuagint as a sacrificial term. See Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, Jesus Miriam's Child, Sophia's Prophet: Critical Issues in Feminist Christology (New York: Continuum, 1994), 115. Schussler-Fiorenza observes that "the image evoked in Mark 10:45 is not that of atonement but rather of the ransoming of a people living under slavery or that of captives of war set free by the death of Christ."

11. In Gethsemane Jesus affirms his commitment to do what God wills (14:36). Although he has stated in the passion predictions that is "necessary" for him to be rejected, suffer, and die, there is nothing in the text to suggest that God deems his death "necessary" or that this is "God's will." Rather, his faithfulness in the passion narrative is expressed in his willingness to endure the machinations of the imperial system that God will triumph over by raising him from the dead. The connection with the faithfulness of his followers was indicated already in 3:35: "whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother."

12. See Marie Noonan Sabin, Reopening the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 197-98. Sabin has made a compelling argument for interpreting the women's response of "fear" in 16:8 in terms of reverent awe because it is more consistent with both the other words used in Mark 16, namely "trembling" (tromos) and "ecstasy" (ekstasis). It is also consistent with people's responses to Jesus' deeds of power in Galilee.