THE GOSPEL OF MARK
The Passion Narrative
Starting with chapter 1 and running through the rest of the Gospel of Mark, we come to what is commonly called "The Passion Narrative." It is called "The Passion Narrative" because the sufferings of Christ ("the passion") play such an important role in it. This section is so major in the Gospel of Mark that many NT scholars claim that everything which has preceded this section is a mere introduction to it. There is a lot of truth to this statement as seen by the amount of space Mark devotes to the passion narrative葉he last week of Jesus' life on earth. If Mark devoted as much space to he rest of the life of Jesus as he did to the last week of Jesus' life, then the Gospel of Mark would have around 10,000 chapters in it as opposed to just 16.
Why is the passion narrative so important in the Gospel of Mark? Because it gives meaning to the rest of Jesus' life and ministry. If it wer not for the death and resurrection of Jesus as portrayed in the passion narrative, then the miracles of Jesus would be seen merely as acts of compassion and nothing more. Exorcising the demons would be seen merely as temporary relief for a few individuals. Jesus' teaching would constitute some of the greatest teachings ever produced by mankind but not necessarily authoritative. Jesus' death and especially resurrection, however, give meaning to all the above. Miracles are now pictures of the future-they give us insight o the time when Jesus Christ will return and heal our bodies by making them just like His resurrection body. His teachings are not simply good ideas but are actually authoritative--they're not optional. Jesus' claims to be God are not the ravings of a lunatic but actually explain who He really is. Jesus' death and resurrection are that important.
The passion narrative is important also because it gives us insight into God and mankind. Of all the events in the Bible, the passion narrative shows us tha God is love. He loves us so much that He is willing to die for us in order to remove the sin barrier which prevents people from having a relationship with Him. God wants to be with you and me so much that He dies in order to protect us. That is how much God loves us. This event also reveals to us what mankind apart from God is like. It was not the scum of the earth which crucified Jesus. Those who condemned Jesus included the best that worldly religion can produce. It included the rich, the powerful, the educated, the socially elite. The la creme de la creme stood before the cross rejoicing in the death of God. In the past 2000 years, mankind has not gotten better. If the world today was confronted personally with Jesus, it would respond in exactly the same way.
Finally, the passion narrative is important because it climaxes God's relationship with Israel. Too many of us put on rose-colored glasses when we speak of Israel. We view the Jews as if they had haloes, so spiritual that their feet barely touched the ground. That is not a realistic reading of the OT and NT. Stephen portrays God's relationship with Israel as being a negative one (Acts 7). To be sure, there were brief moments of national revival under Josiah and Hezekiah, but the history of Israel is primarily one of her rejecting God (a rejection of Joseph, Moses, the time of the judges, Samuel, Saul, Solomon and his descendants, Jeremiah, Amos; se especially Acts 7:9, 25, 41, 51-"you are doing just as your fathers did!")> Jesus during the last week of His life on earth will summarize God's relationship with Israel in the parable of the tenant farmers (Mark 12:1-12). It will climax with Israel rejecting God and then with God rejecting Israel. This theme permeates throughout the entire passion narrative as we shall see.
THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY (11:1-1)
The Feast of Passover is near and on the Sunday before Passover Jesus with His disciples approaches the city. Accompanying Him are pilgrims who have just arrived from the city of Jericho. The normal procession which enters the city, though, turns into a triumphal entry for Jesus. What brought about this change of a normal festival procession into a triumphal entry? Although Mark does not say, John informs us that the resurrection of Lazarus is what turned this into a triumphal procession. A few weeks earlier Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany, a village just 2 miles east of Jerusalem. Jerusalem went into such a frenzy over the resurrection that the chief priests determined that things had gone too far and that Jesus had to die (see John 11:47-50). Before the chief priests could make good their threats, Jesus entered Jerusalem with the pilgrims coming from Jericho. As the pilgrims approached Jerusalem, the people of Jerusalem went out to the pilgrims and told them that Jesus had resurrected Lazarus (John 12:17-18). The result was that the pilgrims in addition to the people of Jerusalem began to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.
The multitude by their actions proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah. First, they converted one of the Hallel psalms (Ps. 118:26) sung at the Feast of Passover into a psalm for the coming of the Messiah. Originally, this psalm read: "Blessed in the name of the Lord is the one who comes." In other words, the one singing the psalm was on the Lord's behalf blessing the pilgrim approaching the city. The people, however, sang: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." In other words, they were blessing the one coming to Jerusalem on the Lord's behalf as His representative葉he Messiah.
Next, notice that the pilgrims are waving palm branches. Palm branches were the national symbol of Israel just like the eagle is the national symbol of the U.S. By waving the palm branches, the Jews were expressing their hope that Jesus was coming in order to restore the nation of Israel. Finally, as an act of honor, they threw their coats down on the ground in front of the donkey carrying Jesus. In their view, Jesus was such a great person葉he Messiah葉hat neither His feet nor the feet of any animal He was riding were to touch the ground.
Note that the people and Jesus are operating on 2 different levels. Whereas Jesus allows them to proclaim Him the Messiah, He nevertheless does not accept the meaning they attach to the concept of Messiah. They are thinking that at any moment He is going to come as a conqueror and throw off the Roman yoke of oppression. Jesus, however, understands His Messiahship in terms of the prophecy of Zech. 9:9:
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation.
HUMBLE and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus does not come as a warrior-king but rather in humility. He comes as the Servant of the Lord who will suffer for His people in order to destroy their true enemies: Satan, the sin nature, and death itself. Although the disciples were caught up in the messianic frenzy of the crowd, they would later understand what Jesus was actually doing after His death and resurrection (John 12:16).
Matthew and Luke leave out the next part in the story. They have Jesus going immediately to the Temple and cleansing it. Mark, though, gives us the additional element that the cleansing did not occur until the next day柚onday. Rather, the triumphal procession takes Jesus up to the steps of the Temple from whence He surveys the situation. Before the Lord of the Temple takes any steps, He scopes it out first. Since evening has come, He along with His disciples goes back to Bethany to spend the night, presumably at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Not only is it unsafe for Him to spend the night in Jerusalem, but the crowds, due to the Passover, were so great that there was probably not enough room for him to spend the night there. Also, this will give Him time to pray about how He should respond to the situation in the Temple.
CONFLICT WITH THE JEWISH AUTHORITIES (1:12-12:44)
Cursing of the Fig Tree (12:12-14, 20-21)
On the next day (Monday), Jesus returns to Jerusalem from Bethany (a distance of 2 miles). On His way back to the city, Jesus espies a fig tree in full bloom. Being hungry, Jesus approaches the fig tree and discovers that although the fig tree is in full bloom; it has not produced any figs. Now this is not surprising because the time for fruit-bearing is still a few months off; however, because the fig tree had appeared so promising and yet had produced nothing, Jesus curses the fig tree, declaring that it will never bear fruit again.
Just what is going on here? This is only one of 2 instances in which Jesus brings down a curse upon something. The clue to understanding this episode is that there are actually 2 parts to this episode葉he cursing of the fig tree and then Jesus' remarks about the fig tree on the next day (Tuesday) when they pass by the fig tree and see that it has withered away. Between the times Jesus curses the fig tree and then sees that it has withered, Jesus goes up to the Temple and cleanses it. By putting the cleansing of the Temple in the middle of the episode of the fig tree, Mark is linking the 2 together. In order to understand the episode of the fig tree, you must link it to the cleansing of the Temple. The cursing of the fig tree is another way Jesus gets His point across about the Temple and the Jewish people.
The world has not produced a more religious person than the Jew of Jesus' day. Outwardly, the Jew of Jesus' day was one of the most pious persons whoever lived. The Pharisees fasted twice a week--on Wednesdays and Fridays. He tithed even the herbs of his gardens. He memorized scripture and even wore them on his person in the form of phylacteries. He gave religiously to the poor, and yet in spite of all his religious trappings, Jesus declared him to be a "son of hell" (Matt. 23:15). Why would Jesus say this? Because when the religous Jew of Jesus' day encountered God, he wanted to kill Him. When did the Jew of Jesus' day encouter God? When he encountered Jesus. Just like the fig tree was all appearance and no substance, so the Jew of Jesus' day was all appearance and no substance. The Jew of Jesus' day, like the fig tree, was about to fall under God's curse.
Cleansing the Temple (11:13-19)
Although the Temple had no substance, it was nevertheless wonderful in appearance. By Jesus' day, the outer courts measured 533 yards by 333 yards. The eastern side of the Temple facing the sun was inlaid with so much gold that when the sun rose, its beams reflected brightly off the Temple. The sight was dazzling. One first-century traveler wrote: "If you have never seen the Temple, then you have never seen anything beautiful."
However, the day before (Sunday) had revealed to Jesus the inner life of the Temple; and this life did not honor God. The Law required that the Passover pilgrims should offer sacrifices during the feast. Since many of the pilgrims came from a great distance, they found it much more convenient to buy in Jerusalem the animals for their sacrifices. The chief priests were more than happy at a "small profit" to sell them sheep, oxen and doves (for the poor) on the Mount of Olives, located to the east of the city, well away from the Temple precincts. They also had money-changers who for a "nominal fee" would convert foreign currency into the Temple currency which was required to pay the Temple tax. According to Jewish writings, Caiaphas that year decided to move the merchants from Mt. Olives to the Court of the Gentiles, the outer-most court of the Temple environs. No matter what Caiaphas' reasons were, his act totally violated the character and purpose of the Temple.
Jesus takes a scourge and begins to drive out the merchants and money-changers, declaring that His Father's house was to be a house of prayer and not a den of robbers. There are 2 very interesting points about Jesus' statement. First, He called the Temple "a house of prayer" and not a house of sacrifice. There was so much sacrifice going on in the Temple, you would think that He would have called it a "house of sacrifice." Jewish writings inform us that each year during the Passover, the priests would sacrifice over 200,000 animals. However, sacrifice is not the goal of religion. It is the means to the end. The purpose of sacrifice is to clear the way for a person to have a relationship with God, which for all intents and purposes can be called prayer. Well, prayer was not going on in the outer courts; instead, all you could hear was the bleating of sheep and the lowing of cattle. Again, just like the fig tree, the Jews were all show (sacrifice) and no substance (prayer).
Second, Jesus claims that they have made the Temple into a den of robbers. When Jesus claims this, He is actually quoting Jer. 7:11. Jeremiah faced the similar situation Jesus faced. The Temple had been perverted into something God never designed it to be, and because of that, God told Jeremiah that He was going to destroy the Temple and carry away the people into exile. By quoting Jeremiah, Jesus is declaring that God is going to destroy the Temple and disperse the Jews. The parallel with the fig tree is complete. Just as God cursed the fig tree, so Israel was about to fall beneath God's curse. Not that God was going to give up without a fight. For the next 3 days, Jesus will confront the Jews with sin in order to try to lead them to repentance and escape the cataclysm which will come in 70 AD. Unfortunately, like her ancestors before her, Israel will reject God's Messenger. This time, though, the blow that descends upon Israel will be final. No more brief exile to another county but rather one which will last approximately 1900 years.
An interesting note here. The word Jesus uses for "robber" (lestes, pron. LAYS-tays) is the same word used to describe Barabbas in John 18:40. It is used to refer to the Jewish zealots, those Jews engaged in guerilla warfare against the Romans. It had probably become a symbol of national pride and a secret gathering place for those intent on attacking Rome. Such activity defeated the purpose God gave the Temple to the Jews. Remember that God wanted the king of peace, Solomon, and NOT the king od war, DAvid, to build the Temple.
We, too, need to keep this in mind. Too often, Republicans want us to wave the flag in church, while Democrats want to use the church for social reform. We just need to be careful in our use of the church. We may actually bring down the same wrath upon our churches those first-century Jews brought down on the Temple.