Gospel of Mark Study
Week Seven
1.
“Approximately forty-percent of the book
(chapters 11-15) details Jesus’ passion week… One way ancient writers
emphasized an event was by devoting a significant amount of space to it. Mark devotes ten chapters to a ministry
that lasted about three years. As
mentioned above, he devotes six chapters to the final week, beginning with Jesus’
triumphal entry and concluding with the empty tomb.”[1]
2.
Anointing of Jesus for burial (Mark 14.1-9) - cf. Matthew 26.6-13;
John 12.1-8
a.
NOTES: Comparing the Gospels accounts
i. Matthew
and Mark are very close in their presentations of this episode. John mentions that Lazarus, Martha and
Mary are there. John tells us that
woman who poured the perfume was Mary (John 12.3). Some are tempted to see a contradiction in the
accounts. In John it seems like it
is Lazarus’ house but Matthew and Mark
say it was Simon the Leper’s house. But notice that John does not say it was Lazarus’
house. It just says that Lazarus
was there (“Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany
where Lazarus was…” John 12.1).
ii. Question:
Why do Matthew, Mark and Luke not mention Lazarus (his raising from dead,
etc.)? Possible answer: When
Matthew, Mark and Luke wrote perhaps Lazarus was still in danger. Lazarus was in danger at the time of
Jesus (John 12.10-11). Perhaps
Matthew, Mark and Luke are written pre-AD 70 and John is written post-AD
70. If Lazarus is still alive
after the destruction of Jerusalem he is perhaps safer since the power
structure that wanted Lazarus dead is no more or rendered ineffective. Also, perhaps, when John wrote his
Gospel Lazarus had died (again!) and thus is no longer a target.
b.
Passage is about Jesus
i. “she
has a good deed to me” (v. 6)
ii. “but
you do not always have me.” (v. 7)
iii. “she
has anointed my body” (v. 8)
c.
“Jesus distinguishes between giving to the poor
and the extravagance lavished on himself on
the grounds that he will not always be there to receive it… Implicitly, the
distinction Jesus makes is a high Christological claim, for it not only shows
that he foresees his impending departure but also the he himself, who is truly
‘gentle and humble in heart’ ([Matt] 11:29), deserves this lavish outpouring of love and expense.”[2]
d.
Verse 9 is high praise! “Truly I say to you,
wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done
will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
·
interesting that her name is not mentioned here
in Mark
3.
Jesus’ predictions that show he is fully aware
of what it is happening. He is not
be taken unawares by chance circumstances
a.
Preparation for Passover meal (14.12-16)
b.
Betrayal (14.17-21)
c.
Disciples fall away (14.27-28)
d.
Denial by Peter (14.29-31)
4.
Fulfillment of Scriptures - everything is
proceeding according to God’s plan
a.
“For the Son of Man is to go just as it is
written of him” (14.21)
b.
“You will all fall away, because it is written,
‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’” (14.27)
c.
“Everyday I was with you in the temple teaching,
and you did not seize me; but this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures.”
(14.49)
5.
Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane (Mark 14.32-42)
a.
“…began to be very distressed and troubled. And he said to them, ‘My soul is deeply
grieved to the point of death…” (vv 33b-34a)
b.
“What is this cup? Is it physical suffering from which he shrinks, the torture
of the scourge and the cross, together perhaps with the mental anguish of
betrayal, denial and desertion by his friends, and the mockery and abuse of his
enemies? Nothing could ever make
me believe that the cup Jesus dreaded was any of these things (grievous as they
were) or all of them together. His
physical and moral courage throughout his public ministry had been
indomitable. To me it is ludicrous
to suppose that he was now afraid of pain, insult and death. Socrates in the prison cell in Athens,
according to Plato’s account, took his cup of hemlock ‘without trembling or
changing colour or expression’. He
then ‘raised the cup to his lips, and very cheerfully and quietly drained
it’. When his friends burst into
tears, he rebuked them for their ‘absurd’ behaviour and urged them to ‘keep
quiet and be brave’. He died
without fear, sorrow or protest.
So was Socrates braver than Jesus?
Or were their cups filled with different poisons?”[3]
c.
“We turn back to that lonely figure in the
Gethsemane olive orchard—prostrate, sweating, overwhelmed with grief and dread,
begging if possible to be spared the drinking of the cup. The martyrs were joyful, but he was
sorrowful; they were eager, but he was reluctant. How can we compare them? How could they have gained their inspiration from him if he
had faltered when they did not?
Besides, up till now he had been clear-sighted about the necessity of
his sufferings and death, determined to fulfil his destiny, and vehement in
opposing any who sought to deflect him.
Had all that suddenly changed?
Was he now after all, when the moment of testing came, a coward? No, no! All the evidence of his former teaching, character and
behaviour is against such a conclusion.
“In that
case the cup from which he shrank was something different. It symbolized neither the physical pain
of being flogged and crucified, nor the mental distress of being despised and
rejected even by his own people, but rather the spiritual agony of bearing the
sins of the world, in other words, of enduring the divine judgment which those
sins deserved.”[4]
d.
Cup of God’s wrath: Job 21.20; Psalm 75.8;
Isaiah 51.17-22; Jeremiah 25.15-29 (cf. Habakkuk 2.16); Jeremiah 49.12; Ezekiel
23.32-34; Revelation 14.10; 16.1ff; 18.6.
e.
Mark 14.38 “Keep watching and praying that you
may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
i. Practical
insight: prayer is needed for our fight against temptation
ii. If
Peter had labored in prayer would he have had the resources to fight the
temptation to deny Jesus?
6.
Mark 14.61-62
a.
Three titles linked together
i. Christ
ii. Son
of the Blessed One (i.e., Son of God)
iii. Son
of Man
b.
Linked with Jesus’ claim to do away with temple
(14.58)
i. Temple
is not the place of God’s presence
ii. The
presence of God is where Jesus is
iii. “The
trial opened, as it was bound to do, with the question about the Temple. Jesus had claimed authority over it,
authority indeed to declare its destruction. This could only be because he believed himself to be the
Messiah? Yes, answered Jesus: and
you will see me vindicated, enthroned at the right hand of Power. The whole sequence belongs to together
precisely as a whole. The final answer drew into one
statement the significance of the journey to Jerusalem, the Temple-action, and
the implicit messianic claim.
Together they said that Jesus, not the Temple, was the clue to, and the
location of, the presence of Israel’s god with his people… Theologically, it
was either true or it was blasphemous.
Caiaphas wasted no time considering the former possibility.”[5]
7.
Next week: Mark 15.1-16.8 (read the larger
ending too, 16.9-20)
a.
Read meditatively. In coming to the crucifixion of our Savior we are on holy
ground. Enter the text with your
mind and imagination.
b.
How often do you consider the suffering Jesus endured
for you?
c.
Compose a written prayer to Jesus of
thankfulness in light of Mark 15.
d.
What is your response to Jesus’ cry of
forsakenness (15.34)?
e.
Consider the importance that in 15.39 there is
the first declaration of Jesus being the Son of God by a human. Who is it that says this? Do you think he knew the full
implications of what he was saying?
f.
If Mark 16.8 is the actual ending of Mark why do
think that Mark did not give us more about the resurrection appearances?
[1]
William F. Cook III, “The Passion of the Christ According to the Gospel of
Mark” Southern Baptist Journal of
Theology 8 (2004), 86. Online:
http://www.sbts.edu/resources/files/2010/07/sbjt_083_fall04_cook.pdf.
