Marginal Christianity

Satan? (8:31-33) As we turn to the “Two Ways” section of Mark on the nuts and bolts of following Jesus on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus “sternly orders” (8:30) the disciples not to say anything to anybody about him, you know, the messiah business. Now we find out why. Using his favorite self-designation, the under-defined “Son of Man” (from Dan.7) he fills out Peter’s confession with his own content. He’s already loaded it with his challenging of the debt system and challenging the traditional understanding of the sabbath (ch.2) Now he adds, “I’m going to suffer, be rejected by the powers that be, get killed, and rise from the dead after three days.” Doubtless the disciples all shook their heads as if they understood, mentally filing this saying with all the other strange and unintelligible things Jesus had said to them. Except for Peter. He took Jesus off to the side, surely to spare him the embarrassment of a public rebuke and himself the embarrassment of Jesus having just...

Jesus appears among the crowd at the river and undergoes his baptism (v.9). By this he signifies his solidarity with his people and participation in God’s New Exodus. Unlike all others baptized by John, Jesus has a visionary experience as he rises out of the water in both sight and sound. He sees heaven “torn apart.” The prophet Isaiah had cried out to God, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,      so that the mountains would quake at your presence—       as when fire kindles brushwood      and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries,      so that the nations might tremble at your presence!”     (64:1-2) Mark surely has this text in mind as he narrates Jesus’ experience. He fulfils this prophetic hope and signals the onset of the New Exodus by using this language for Jesus’ baptism. Jesus’ also sees the Spirit descending o...