Picking out the Tunes: Part Two - Eyewitness Testimony

This blog series for Easter 2022 is taken directly from the sermon I preached at St Pauls Waiheke (New Zealand) on Easter Day this year. It is focused on the gospel of Mark, and the unconventional way Mark presents the good news of resurrection to his people in mid-century Rome. 

Like any sermon, it draws together thoughts and concepts from the miscellany of writers and preachers that I encountered during my preparation. The positive response of those who were there gives me the courage to think my integration of these ideas may be useful to others. I therefore need to acknowledge that here you will find the echoes of, and possibly even whole sentences from, works by N T Wright (Mark for Everyone), Frederick Buechner (Peculiar Treasures) and David Rhoads et al (Mark as Story). I apologise for the lack of detailed acknowledgement; this was after all a sermon used for Christian worship and not in pursuit of academic rigour.

Eyewitness Testimony

So this gospel we call Mark is thought to have been written by a Jewish pastor in Rome in 70 CE, a tough time for Christians.  I noted in Part One that an early historian called Papias says this first-written of the four gospels was written by a friend of Simon Peter’s who got many important details from him in Rome, and that John Mark who was in Jerusalem during Jesus' ministry is a likely candidate. Later in the first century, Mark is writing for people who already believe, rather than those who need persuading. And he writes about who Jesus was, rather than what he said. Who he was and what he did, with the time he had. He was the Son of God  -  that's who he was,  Mark says it in chapter 1 and Peter recognises it in chapter 8. And he came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many. (Mk 10: 45).

That’s what he did and he died doing it. The whole book is obsessed with the fact of his death, with hints and clues dropped in along the way to keep readers in the know. Why did he die? Mark’s line is the Jewish leaders had it in for him.  And maybe he died because that's the way he wanted it - a ransom for many, bought at a terrible price. Certainly, he died because that's the way God wanted it, and marvellous things would come of his death. 

Why do I love this book? Because despite his haste, Mark stops and looks and sees Jesus, better than any of the others. So many specifics. The word immediately repeated and reiterated. When Jesus naps in a boat, it's in the stern with a pillow under his head. The grass was green at the miracle picnic. He got up a great while before day to pray,  and he was sitting opposite the treasury when he saw the old lady drop in her two cents. Only Mark reports a desperate father who said I believe; help  my unbelief and it was belief enough to heal his boy. You can say these details which others skip over make no difference, or you could say they make all the difference; this is Eyewitness Testimony for sure.

When the end comes, even Mark has to slow down. Half the book has to do with the last days in Jerusalem and the way Jesus resolutely approached his destiny and his demise. And when he died, Mark is the one who reports his agonised last words, even the Aramaic language.  “Eloi eloi lama sabachthani”, the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew picked it up but Luke and John couldn't bring themselves to record its air of failure.

The book ends as it began, almost in the middle of a sentence. There was no time to gather up the threads. It was 70 CE and the world itself was at loose ends. Mark tells us the women went to the tomb and found it empty. A young man in white was sitting there on the right not the left. "He has risen,  go tell his disciples" - and Peter, Mark adds: perhaps the old man wanted his name there. So the women ran out as if the place was on fire, trembling in astonishment, and they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Later editors would add a few verses to round things off, but that seems to be where Mark ended it, in midair, with the last word in the gospel being “afraid”. But all through the book we find clues that their fear was not the last thing; the last word was hope. You will see him as he told you, said the man in white, and if that was true, nothing else mattered, so Mark stopped there. And the reason we have this gospel is that the news was eventually told, the message did get out, and the church of the risen Christ was born.

Can you hear the different melodies being intertwined as legalism and love, and fear and hope, and power and service take their turn in the music? Let me try and pick out some of the tunes for you on this day of mystery and hope and joy.

To Consider: Had you noticed these distinctive features in the author's style? The eyewitness details, and the abundant of the word immediately? (see Part One) Do you find this style helps you connect with Mark, whoever he was?  

To be continued........