This September we return, after our excursion into the Gospel of St John, to a sequential reading of St Mark’s Gospel, picking up at the beginning of Chapter 7. This month we will read about Jesus’s controversy with the Pharisees about cleanness and uncleanness; the healing of the deaf and dumb man; the first “passion prediction”; the second “passion prediction” and the saying about little children; sayings about discipleship and about cutting off parts of the body that cause us to sin.
At first glance this all seems rather bitty. It is certainly true that when we compare Mark to Matthew and John in particular, we struggle to find an obvious structure to the Gospel. Indeed, there was a time when this Gospel was widely believed to have no structure: aside from the obvious order provided by the life of Jesus – Baptism and Temptation at the beginning, entry into Jerusalem and Passion at the end. Many felt that the great bulk of the Gospel was just one thing after another, in no particular order. The evangelist had simply gathered various stories about Jesus and collections of His sayings and strung them randomly like beads on a thread.
When this lack of an obvious structure is set alongside the unquestionable fact that Mark’s Greek is distinctly second-rate – not just basic, like that of John, but positively ropy in places – it is easy to see why this Gospel came to be somewhat neglected, rarely read at Mass before Vatican II, and much less studied (or frankly respected) than the others. However, in the last few decades this Gospel has received new attention from scholars interested especially in literary and narrative criticism, who recognise that Mark is in fact a careful literary creator, shaping his narrative quite deliberately to create a series of powerful literary effects that result, ultimately, in a distinctive and coherent presentation of Jesus’s person, life and ministry.
The difficulty of demonstrating this hidden coherence lies in the fact that we read Mark in a partial way – most notably of course in skipping the Feeding of the 5,000, where we detour into John. We also omit the Feeding of the 4,000 – perhaps on the mistaken supposition that it is basically the same story and therefore adds nothing. It is largely the same story, except for the numbers, and except for the very crucial point that the first miraculous feeding takes place in Jewish territory, the second in lands occupied by Gentiles. But if we read from the Feeding of the 5,000 in the middle of Mark 6 through to the Healing of the Blind Man in the middle of Mark 8, we find a clear and deliberate pattern in which incidents echo one another to build up a complex picture.
It goes like this. Part 1: Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Mark 6:30-44); there is a sea voyage during which the disciples show that they have misunderstood (6:45-52); Jesus heals many people (6:52-56). Part 2: Jesus rebuts the Pharisees’ accusations about uncleanness (7:1-16); the disciples fail to understand and are rebuked (7:17-23); Jesus exorcises a demon and heals a deaf man in Gentile territory (7:24-37). Part 3 is modelled on both the previous sections and leads to a suggestive conclusion: Jesus feeds the 4,000 in Gentile territory (8:22-26); there is a sea voyage during which the disciples show they have misunderstood and are rebuked (8:14-21); Jesus opens – in two stages – the eyes of a blind man (8:22-26).
What is Mark telling us here? Perhaps that the profoundly symbolic miracles of Jesus, combined with His teaching about Himself and about God, comprise a body of teaching that the disciples cannot fathom. It baffles and amazes them, but also eludes them. They are blind to what He is doing, deaf to what He is teaching, and therefore necessarily unable to speak accurately of Him. But Jesus’s power can open their ears, their eyes and their mouths, as He does to those He heals.
Immediately after the end of these passages, we read St Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ” (Mark 8: 29). His eyes, ears and mouth have been opened! But almost immediately we discover that this new understanding is only partial: “Get behind me, Satan” (8:33). The blind man’s healing was in two stages, though – so clearly here Peter is only halfway healed…
This is just one example of the complex and allusive genius of St Mark’s Gospel. To be appreciated, it must be read in large chunks, even all at once, and certainly not in little bits. If you have never read Mark all in one go, I urge you to do so now – and bask in his brilliance.
<strong><strong>This article appears in the September 2024 edition of the <em>Catholic Herald</em>. To subscribe to our award-winning, thought-provoking magazine and have independent and high-calibre counter-cultural and orthodox Catholic journalism delivered to your door anywhere in the world click <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">HERE</mark></a></strong></strong>.
