Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 1 Study # 2
December 1, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(Download Audio)
(185)
Thesis: The "intended meeting" is Mark's way of pressing his point: Jesus
is The Mighty One.
Introduction: Last week we reviewed Mark's basic method for the establishment of his major thesis: telling of events that make Jesus' identity a "no-brainer".
He began with an exorcism in a setting of "new doctrine". The language in 1:27 is predisposed to highlight the phrase, "...a new doctrine according to the standard of authority..." [the Nestle/Aland 26 has it this way: "...didache kaine kat exousian..."]. The "new doctrine" is identified by both John's "message" of "Repent and God will forgive" and Jesus' follow-up "...Repent and believe in the Gospel...". This is, bottom-line, "Grace" doctrine. It is a total up-ending of Jewish, legal doctrine: it completely eliminates "performance salvation" (IF "repentance" is biblically understood). This exorcism is the first "establishment story" of Mark's Jesus is The Coming Mighty One.
From there Mark went immediately to a physical healing that brought the entire city to the door of Simon's house as soon as the sun had set with the outcome of "all" the diseased and possessed being delivered combined with Jesus' refusal to allow the demons to "identify" Him.
This initial pairing of exorcism and healing is simply Mark's opening "identity" argument and he builds it, repeats it, and regularly forces his readers to answer the question: Who Is He?
- I. Jesus And The Man Of The Gerasenes Possessed By Many Unclean Spirits, Continued.
- A. "The other side...".
- 1. Mark's first use of "the other side" is 3:8 where he tells his readers the extent to which the reputation of Jesus had spread based on their "hearing of what great things He did".
- 2. His next use is in 4:35 where he tells his readers that Jesus had a plan in mind that included something about "the other side".
- 3. His next use is in 5:1 where he tells us that "they came to the other side" directly after the calming of the wind and waves that resulted in the "Big Question": Who Is This? [This is the East side of the sea of Galilee].
- 4. His fourth use is in 5:21 where Jesus is recorded as having returned to "the other side" [The West side of the sea of Galilee], having accomplished the exorcism of "Legion" -- Mark's first argument in chapter one in reverse.
- 5. Thus, we understand that Mark's intent is that Jesus' command in 4:35, which initiated the question, "Who Is This?", is to be understood by 5:1 and 21 as a large "inclusio" that puts forth the "Answer" once again: He is The Coming Mighty One [Thus we have a complete and unassailable foundation for faith in Jesus as John presented Him].
- B. "...He got out of the boat...".
- 1. The verb translated "He got out of" is used four times in this story and its unemphasized form is used twice; once at the beginning and once at the end of this story.
- a. At the end, Jesus "got back into" the boat; giving us another "inclusio" where the entire story is wrapped around Jesus' exit from the boat to His reentry into it.
- b. The emphasis indicated by the intensified form of the verb in 5:2, 8, 13, and 14 is deliberate because Mark wants his readers to understand the "exit" issues: Jesus got out of the boat to force the demons to "get out of" the man and the people were then faced with whether they would deal with This Authoritative One ... and they resisted.
- 2. The issue of the "boat" swirls around the fact that it was that boat that was to have sunk in the storm that Jesus "got out of" and it was that same boat that Jesus "reentered", having accomplished His task(s).
- a. He had, again, given the disciples an unassailable foundation for faith.
- b. He had, simultaneously, sent the restored man into his region to tell his story so that when He returned to that region later the people there would have that same foundation.
- 3. In this story, it is the boat that preserves the lives of the disciples as they float upon the surface of the realm of death; it is the boat whose preservative abilities are seriously undercut by the storm; and it is the same boat that takes them back across to "the other side".
- a. This is analogous to the record of the Noahic Flood and a "boat" that preserves humanity so that the words of God can, and will, be fulfilled.
- b. The sea and the preserving boat are a major backdrop theme in the Bible.
- C. "...Immediately...".
- 1. This is another of Mark's, "the next most crucial concern is about to be addressed", caught in the one word, translated "immediately" but not meaning "a quick succession of time".
- 2. This "immediate thing" is the second half of the answer to the Big Question.
- D. "...a man with an unclean spirit met Him...".
- 1. The word translated "met" is only used in ten texts of the New Testament (relatively rare) and three of the ten are found in the records of this very event recorded by Mark (Matthew 8:28 and Luke 8:27). [There are overtones of conflict in the "meetings" in seven of these texts, but three do not maintain this "conflict"/"confrontation" characteristic].
- 2. This word derives from a combination word made up of a preposition (hupo) and a verb that is not, itself, used in the New Testament (antao). This raises the question of why Mark picked this word to express the "meeting". In this text/context, the "meeting" is a "confrontation" (negative overtones of conflict). In all of the texts/contexts, the "meetings" have "contradiction" overtones (a "meeting" that upsets the expectations involved in it, though not always in a negative sense, simply a sense of the "unexpected").
- 3. In our current text, it may well be that Jesus' arrival was "unexpected" by the unclean spirit for some reason. He/it was dismayed by Jesus' "torment" (5:7-8). This is not unlike 1:24 where the issue is the unclean spirit's "Have you come to destroy us?" and Matthew's parallel record where the unclean spirit says, "Have you come to torment us before the time?" (8:29).
- 4. Clearly, the man is compelled by the demons to approach Jesus: the stage to Mark's introduction to this second part of his big argument is now set.
- II. Mark's Overall Point: As The Mighty One, Jesus Is To Be Believed So That Resistance Is Not The Reaction, But Clear-eyed Faith Is.
