Following Mark to the Son
In his landmark ‘political reading of Mark’s story of Jesus’ Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers identifies three important plot lines that are found throughout Mark’s Gospel until the very end where they climactically converge in the Passion event. These plots are 1) Jesus’ creation of a new community of disciples, 2) Jesus’ relationship and mission to the crowd, and 3) Jesus’ confrontation with the powers that held the people of God in their grip. In his introduction to the commentary Sam Wells writes, “these three stories, of disciples, crowd and authorities, are interwoven in Mark’s Gospel like three strands of a rope… The three stories, in the end, constitute one story. And that story is the sending of Jesus by the Father, crystalized in the Father’s words at Jesus’ baptism ‘You are my beloved son,’ epitomized in the Father’s words at the Transfiguration, ‘this is my beloved son,’ and climaxing in the Centurion’s words at the cross, Truly, this man was God’s son!’ Jesus’ intimacy with his disciples, his mission to the crowd and his confrontation to the authorities are all dimensions of his being at the heart of God.”
