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Having recruited some disciples, Jesus now begins teaching in public places.
Malina points out that verses 21-27 are the first of a "Mark sandwich." That is, a set of verses that begin and end with similar material, with a different material in the middle. (See also: 3:20-35, 5:21-43, 6:7-31, and 11:12-25.) And just as a sandwich is eaten in a bite of the whole, and not first the top piece of bread, then the filling, then the bottom slice; so too the passage must be understood as a whole and not just the individual parts. In this case the parts are:
- Jesus teaches with authority; the crowd is amazed.
- An unclean spirit cries out and Jesus shows his authority over the spirit.
- The crowd is amazed and comments on his teaching with authority.
Those are the pieces. The sandwich that must be chewed over is the authority of Jesus.
A key is to start with the filling - the unclean spirit. The phrase, "Just then," at the beginning of Verse 23, makes the connection between Jesus' teaching and the actions of the unclean spirit seem too accidental. The actions of the unclean spirit are actually provoked by the teaching of Jesus - they are an immediate response to his teaching - with authority.
Indeed, the unclean spirit gives voice to the reactions of the crowd:
- What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
- Have you come to destroy us?
- I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
The crowd is astounded - stunned - by the teaching of Jesus because they know him only as a peasant wood worker from Nazareth. (And nothing good has ever come from that part of town.) So what are we to make of this deviant behaviour? Deviance is always scary precisely because it is outside the norm; it is unpredictable; change will happen; and change is almost always bad. Have you come to destroy us?
In Mark, this unclean spirit is the first to "know who Jesus is:" the Holy One of God, and publically acknowledge him as such.
The fact that Jesus can order the spirit to be silent and come out of the man further confirms that Jesus has spiritual authority; is a person of higher spiritual rank than the unclean spirit; is a Holy One of God.
The fact that Jesus commands the unclean spirit to be silent - but that nonetheless gossip about his fame begins to spread - is a beautiful illustration of how public honour, reputation and status worked in Jesus' day.
A person's status began - and usually remained fixed - with their birth: their parent's social status, and birth place and time. A family's status was jealously and fiercely defended because everything - including basic survival - depended on it. And one family's status could only increase if someone else's decreased. So seeing someone act "out of place," act with an authority they were not born to, was highly disturbing. It would have been immediately - and constantly - challenged. And would have needed to be immediately - and constantly - successfully defended.
BUT. And this is a huge "But" for those of us who live in a celebrity driven age: It was shameful and dishonourable to claim a change in status for oneself! And so, in response to being honoured by being called "the Holy One of God," Jesus honourably tells the spirit to be silent; which thereby confirms this new status to the crowd, who then confirm it by gossiping about what Jesus has done. Their gossiping would also confirm to others that the man possessed by the unclean spirit has been healed and is no longer unclean - his former status in the community would now be restored.
The crowd who was gathered there would have heard the unclean spirit testifying to the truth of the claim with which Mark began his Gospel - that Jesus is the Son of God, the Holy One of God. In Mark, the only human who also testifies that Jesus is the Son of God is a Roman soldier who helped execute Jesus on the cross. I wonder why Mark does this, and where in our present day we also hear / see testimony to the status of Jesus as the Holy One of God?
David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca
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