Christ
in the Gospel
The suffering Servant
in Mark
For
centuries, mark Gospel, the shortest version is considered to be abridged version
of Matthew and Luke. In the twentieth century, its own distinctive contribution
to the theology and life of Jesus was rediscovered. There is an agreement that
Mark’s Gospel provides the outline for the rest of the Synoptic Gospel and was
written first. There it is appropriate starting point for a study of the
Gospel’s Christologies.
Mark
gospel identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, whose destiny is to
suffer, die, rise from the dead and return as the glorious Son of Man to gather
the elect. The Christocentric of Mark comes to focus in the very first
sentence’ the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God’
(1:1). Marks Gospel is also christologically structures. Jesus Ministry in
Public runs to 8:29, which is the turning point. The largest part focus on the
death of Jesus. The fact the Jesus is God’s anointed One, the Messiah is
confirmed at his Baptism with the voice from Heaven (1:11). This echo the
coronation psalm (2:7) points to the royal coronation of Jesus as the anointed
King. It also declares Jesus to be the Suffering Servant whom God equips with
the spirits (Isa.42:1).
More
than any other Gospel writer, mark highlights the role of Jesus as miracle
worker and healer. Even in the first three chapters, Jesus appears as exorcist,
healer and overcomer of infirmities that bind people. After he teaches in
chapter 4, Jesus continues his ministries of deliverance. AS soon as Peter
indentifies him as Messiah (8:29), Jesus announces that the Son of man must
suffer, be killed and rise again after three days (8:31). Mark begins his
narrative by identifying Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah, Christ, the most
frequent designation is Son of Man. Three times Jesus uses Son of Man to refer
to his future coming as judge (8:38; 13:26; 14:62), and two of these references
appear in the context of Jesus impending death. Five others are also linked in
one way or another with the passion motifs. Three occur within predictions
about his suffering and death (8:31; 9:31; 10:33). It follows, therefore, that
the Son of Man references in mark primarily have to do with suffering and
death. Interestingly, however, the tile Son of man also highlights his
authority (2:10; 28).
Jesus
did not want the title Son of Man to understand publicly about his role clearly
until he was ready to suffer and die. This bring us to the age-old problem of
the ‘Messianic Secret’. The reason for this silencing is that Jesus true
messiahship could be understood only in the light of the cross. Mark’s accents
Jesus’ suffering and death as the essential’s part of the Messiah’s identity.
Matera summarizes the distinctive Markan picture of Jesus as-
For
mark, Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, because he fulfills the destiny of
the Son of Man. Were Jesus not to fulfill this destiny, he would not be God’s
messianic Son. Markan Christology, then, can be summarized in the terms
“Messiah,’ ‘Son of God’, ‘The Son of man.’ And yet, none of these can be
understood adequately apart from Mark’s narrative; for the Christology is in
the story and through the story we learn to interpret the titles.
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