A Rushed and Abrupt Gospel?
At first blush, the Gospel of Mark seems like a rough draft of Matthew, rushed and abrupt. He skips the genealogies and stories of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke, and there’s no poetic introduction like John. Instead, he jumps right in, literally. In Mark 1, Jesus jumps in the water to be baptized.
Mark’s style of writing has him conflating Old Testament Scriptures, misquoting some, and misattributing others. He’s not good at citations. He even portrays Jesus as “unsure” of his identity. Is Jesus the Messiah? Is he divine? Why does Jesus hide his identity?
The end of Mark’s book is even stranger. His cryptic resurrection account is the shortest of all the Gospels. It ends with,
Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. – 16:8, NIV
Hardly the confident proclamations of Matthew, Luke, and John. The tomb is empty, and the women are afraid—close scene.
As ad hoc as Mark may seem, it is far from thrown together. Mark’s Gospel is a work of art. It may look rough on the surface but is filled with nuance and allusion. Richard Hays describes it as the “poetics of allusion.” It is the kind of poetry that makes the reader work before giving up its secrets. Mark knows that an author can rob his reader if he does all the work for them.
He holds back the answers. Mark writes his Gospel in a way that causes the readers to dig deeper into Scripture and their own souls. What is said about Jesus’ parables is true for the whole book. Mark does reveal the truth. But before he reveals, he conceals.
For there is not anything that is hidden except in order to be revealed, nor is anything secret except to in order to be disclosed. – Mark 4:22
But Mark isn’t coy. He’s doing all of this on purpose. In numerous places throughout his Gospel, Mark raises the question: Who is this Jesus? Is he the Messiah? Is he divine? More than the other Gospels, Mark demands that the reader participate in telling the story. And his short account of the resurrection is the best example.
A Demanding Gospel
Through it he reveals the least and draws out the most. A mere 8 verses, it includes an empty tomb, an angel, and three frightened women. “He is risen,” the angel says but the women don’t see Jesus. In later years, those copying the Gospel of Mark were troubled by the brief account of the resurrection and added more material. This almost certainly was not a part of Mark’s original.
Instead, Mark shares just enough of the evidence of resurrection to demand something of us who read. We may ask where is this man, the one risen from the dead, but in the process, we must ask who is this man?
Mark is a preacher. And, at the end of his 16 chapter sermon, he leads us in an invitation hymn. What are we going to do with the empty tomb and the missing Jesus? Mark’s Gospel is a demanding one. Not because it is hard to understand, not because he is obscure, but because he demands a response from the reader. It reminds all of us that Easter is not just another date on the calendar, it is a living reminder calling us to the risen (yet hidden) one.
Agnus Dei, The Lamb of God by Eric GillPost-ScriptRowan Williams, a poet and theologian himself, understands what Mark is doing with his Gospel.
Throughout Mark’s Gospel, Jesus holds back from revealing who he is because, it seems, he cannot believe that there are words that will tell the truth about him in the mouths of others. What will be said of him is bound to be untrue—that he is master of all circumstances; that can heal where he wills; that is the expected triumphant deliverer, the Anointed . . . “There is a king of truth which, when it is said, becomes untrue.” Remember, the world Mark depicts is not a reasonable one; it is full of demons and suffering and abused power. How, in such a world, could there be a language in which it could truly be said who Jesus is? – Christ on Trial
