Mark 3:6-12

For those who follow the shifting demographics of Judah at the time of Christ, what you see in this passage is a typical yet powerful observance by the evangelist regarding the diversity of Christ’s following.

Within this group you see all of the player whom you would expect, in places that are entirely predictable:

Pharisee and Herodians – together. What binds them together? The same thing that binds the Isaiah school together – they have common interests to protect:

1. They both anticipate the arrival of an earthly Davidic messiah.
2. They both are against any form of leadership resulting from divine revelation.

If a prophet like Moses had, in fact, appeared, it threatens the return to the temple/palace model of the cult.

Mark’s irony is rich here – he pairs these two people to show how corruption had taken hold of a holy thing under Roman rule. Whereas the pharisees retain the claim of being guardians of the Law of Moses, and Herod lays claim being a Davidic prince, both groups are manifesting the same corruption that was witnessed by Malachi during the Zadokite domination of the Temple several hundred years prior.

Mark’s pairing of these two units is like the idyllic dual coronation of the high priest and the prince found in Zechariah I. They conspire against Jesus in the same way that Zadokites – and perhaps some Isaiah followers – would have conspired against Jeremiah and those who stayed behind under Babylonian rule.

Luckily, Christ is a prophet – no palace, no real possessions, nothing keeping him down. He is the one who hears the voice of God in the wilderness and obeys it, and teaches the same to those who assemble with him.

So what does Christ do? He gets on a boat, and is joined by many people outside the circle of influence who accept not only him, but the theology He is a manifestation of!

Let’s examine the group: Multitude from Galilee – generally poor. Also from Judea (that is Judah) and Idumea (that is Edom) and from Tyre and Sidon (traditionally trade competitors among Judahite monarchy).

This is a collection of those who would be considered ingrates by the Zadokites and some Levites, but they would have been the common folk who lived in Jerusalem and the outlying areas ever since the Babylons became part of the life of Judah.

To sum up, Mark is laying the stage for the political and social challenges that are going to manifest themselves in the fight over whether Christ lives or dies. For him, Christ is a scapegoat for a battle being waged between those who abide in the school of Isaiah and Ezekiel and those who believe in the New Covenant proposed by Jeremiah.

On the one hand we have Pharisees trying to preserve the integrity of their belief that God revealed His will to Moses once and for all time – not to be challenged by circumstances. Hand in hand with them are those who believe in the ability of a fruitful and law-abiding Davidic ruler to deliver the people of God from their oppressors and engage the plan for a New Jerusalem.

Opposed to them are the masses whose needs are not being recognized or met – who are being punctured by the traditional leadership instead of being healed – who are the poor, the immigrants, the ones who have no country to cling to and no civic parents to speak of. These people responded poorly to Jeremiah when he was surrounded by them, but in the end the concept that God may reveal his law for a given day to his people through a given prophet was one that gave them hope. Despite everything else they were being told by their theocracy, these people believed in God engaging them on a grassroots level through those prophets who could be sustained in the desert by the voice of God.

These are the people who are listed by Mark, and he confirms that these populations responded to Christ so well, that he had to escape to the open sea FOR SAFETY. Seafaring is never safe, when compared to dry land, but the desire for Christ was that livid!

And yet from all these different places, a Judahite may say, these people are approaching Christ with all of these different teachings – different faiths and different beliefs about God. And so Mark’s commentary here is fabulous – but you will only see it if you understand the power of prophecy and how prophetic activity can reflect the hierarchy of the gods in the ancient near east.

Mark comments on this – those who had diseases, he healed. Those who had unclean spirits fell before him and cried out “You are the Son of God” – that is to say, all at once, three things:

1. You are my king
2. Your God is my God
3. Your spirit is my spirit

Thus Christ finds himself the Lord of a people – kingship was never his aim, but it is how these foreign peoples respond. They have found one with the power of a King to heal, to teach, and most importantly, to dominate.

Their acceptance of Christ indicates right away that God is strong enough to rule over all nations – over Tyre and Sidon, over Edom, over the poor of Judah and Galilee, and even BEYOND THE JORDAN – into the frightful east!

This reflect the anti-idolatrous sentiments of God as stated by the prophets – that in destroying the idol of a nation, God immediately claims dominance over all who believed on the idol.

A conquered people then has two choices:

1. They recognize that as good as their God was, this God is certainly more worthy of fear – and they choose to worship Him.
2. They hold on to the idol foolishly – and they choose destruction along with it.

As the gospels move forward, we can expect a similar tension to exist as Christ takes the idols of Judah and Rome to task. How they respond will determine their outcome.

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