Through the Bible -- Mark 1:14-15

Last week I started a new Sunday series in the vein of my Through the Bible YouTube series. Today I look at the key verses of Mark's Gospel.
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1. Mark 1:14-15 are the key verses of the entire Gospel. "The time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and put your faith in the good news" (1:15). Mark is telling us that this was the essence of what Jesus preached in his brief mission in Galilee in the year AD30.

We get the idea of a three-year ministry from John's highly symbolic Gospel. If all we had were Mark, we might conclude that his ministry was much briefer, perhaps only part of a year. Mark 1:14 seems to indicate that the trigger for Jesus' actual ministry to commence was the arrest of John the Baptist. John is arrested. Jesus picks up in Galilee where John left off.

2. "The time has been fulfilled" suggests that Jesus' ministry fits into a much bigger plan of God. Time has been waiting for this moment for a long time. The moment is the restoration of the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is the rule of God. It is for God to resume his kingship of the earth. 

Mark is not so much Israel-centric as Jesus' message no doubt was at the time. Mark has more of the feel of a Gentile-Christian orientation than a Christian-Jewish feel. Matthew leans more in that direction. For example, Mark explains Jewish practices in the third person -- "they" do this (Mark 7:3-4). We mentioned that in the introductory reading. Mark universalizes, while Jesus' message at the moment probably focused more on those right in front of him -- Galilean Jews.

So, as we noted in the previous reading, Mark 1:2-3 position the preaching of John the Baptist at the return of Israel from exile. This return aligns with where John baptized (where Joshua entered the Promised Land) and with Jesus' preaching that the kingdom of God was arriving. 

3. We mentioned in the introductory reading that Isaiah 52:7 likely stood in the background of Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God: "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, the one causing us to hear peace, the one who brings good news of good, the one causing us to hear salvation, the one speaking to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"

The concentration of similar words and concepts to Mark 1:15 and Mark in general seems too great for the parallel to be a coincidence. God reigning directly corresponds to the arrival of the kingdom of God. There is of course the multiple use of good news in the verse, which is what a gospel is. There is the sense of a new moment, the arrival of a new era and the fulfillment of long-awaited expectations. 

Finally, there is the concept of salvation. While the word is not present in Mark, it is in Luke. Jesus will be a "horn of salvation" for us in the house of David, Luke 1:69 says. Salvation in the historical context of Jesus and John the Baptist would be -- in the first place -- the deliverance of Israel from its oppression under foreign rule by re-establishing its kingdom and installing a descendant of David to its throne.

4. Historically, Jesus' Jewish audience would have heard salvation of the kingdom of Israel from Roman rule. They would have heard the restoration of Israel as an earthly kingdom with a Davidic king ruling on its throne. In their mind, this would be an "Anointed One," or a meshicha in Aramaic. In English, we render this word as "Messiah" and from the Greek equivalent, "Christ." 

We see this expectation even from his disciples in Acts 1:6. After Jesus has died (which they weren't expecting) and then risen (which they weren't expecting), they ask, "Are you now going to restore the kingdom to Israel." This is a clear indication that, while Jesus was on earth, his key followers were thinking very locally, as if the coming kingdom was just about Israel or at least primarily about Israel's political deliverance.

But of course, we believe the kingdom God had in view was much larger than Israel. Jesus' ministry casting out demons clearly indicated that there was a spiritual salvation in play as well. Not only were Romans in political possession of Israel, but Satan had been wreaking havoc on the earth for all of human memory. Jesus was not just restoring Israel but the cosmos itself.

Yes, Israel would eventually be delivered. The disciples would sit on twelve thrones judging the tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28). But the good news was bigger than Israel -- the temple would become a house of prayer for all the nations (Mark 11:17). Even more, Satan would soon be dethroned from the earth, a sure indication of the arrival of the kingdom of God (Luke 11:20), the liberation of the cosmos.

5. How should they prepare for this coming kingdom? First, repentance. Repentance is a turning from one's current path to a different one. John had tied this repentance to the forgiveness of Israel's sins (Mark 1:4), and Jesus no doubt did too. In context, this was more likely first a corporate repentance of Israel and only secondarily an individual repentance as part of that collective repentance.

"Believing" (pisteuo) is to put one's trust or one's faith in the good news, the gospel of the arrival of the kingdom of God. It is to give one's allegiance to that kingdom and thus to God as its King. The Greek word pisteuo has a range of possible nuances. Yes, it can mean mere head assent to knowledge, but that is not likely the focus here. In this context, it implies a trust, a commitment to the kingdom that is coming. It implies an allegiance to that kingdom.

6. While it is helpful to be reminded of the historical context of these words, it is understandable that Christians have universalized them throughout the centuries. Indeed, Paul himself broadened the scope perhaps well beyond what some believers in Jerusalem were thinking at the time. The Israel to which Jesus preached no longer exists. It was more or less obliterated by the Romans some 1900 years ago after the bar-Kochba rebellion. Today's Israel is nothing like the Israel to which Jesus preached.

We truly await a cosmic kingdom, as Paul points to in Romans 8, one that even involves the liberation of the creation from its bondage to corruption and decay (Rom. 8:21-22). In this kingdom, there is neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28). We put our trust and allegiance to Jesus as cosmic Lord -- a much bigger Messiah than Jesus' Galilean audience likely comprehended at the time. Paul says every knee in all of the creation will bow to Jesus -- on the earth, above the earth, under the earth (Phil. 2:10). And of his kingdom, there will be no end (Luke 1:33).