"Which is easier to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your pallet and walk'?" (Mark 2:9)
Introduction
As far as we can best determine, the earliest writings in what is now the New Testament are Paul's Letters. The first of them precede the Gospel of Mark by perhaps 15 years, although the traditions enshrined in Mark go back some 20 years beyond the penning of Paul's first Letters.
Paul has few citations of, but a number of allusions to, the teaching of Jesus. He holds him up as an example for the Christian. His ethic is close kin to the Galilean's. He is sure that the Christ whom the church worships is the Jesus whom the church remembers. But for all that, there must have been a felt need for a more tangible account of Jesus. Hence the Gospels. Unless Paul and the rest of us can put some content into "Jesus" in the confession, "Jesus is Lord," we do not know what we are saying or why we are saying it. Hence, I repeat, the Gospels.
Tonight we are going to isolate in Mark's Gospel the portrayal of Jesus as a Worker of Miracles. The Gospel story is a narrative of words and deeds and life and there is no strand of the early traditions about Jesus that does not include the deeds. I am going to consider the stories as they are, for it is "as they are" that for the most part the church lives and has lived with them.
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First, I should like to say a word about the terms used. Second, we shall look at the miracles in each of their four categories: exorcisms, healings, nature miracles, and raising from the dead, summarizing some findings as we go along. Then I should like to make six concluding comments.
1. Terms and Comparisons
First, then, a word about the terms used and some comparisons between the Gospels.
In the Synoptic Gospels, the usual term for "miracle" is dynamis. It means "might," strength," authority," "a force." "a mighty work," a "powerful deed." It is used ten times in Mark and not at all in John.
The NIV renders the word "power(s)," five times; "mighty work(s)," three times; miracle," only once. The RSV translates it as "power(s)," seven times and "mighty work(s)," three times; never as "miracle." The NIV has "miracle(s)" or "miraculous powers" four times, and the TEV and NEB three times each. None of them have "mighty work(s)"; all have some feel for "power(s)."1
In John, the parallel term is ergon, "work" or semeion, "sign," when used by Jesus; semeion when used by others.
Except in the book of Acts, the wondrous, astonishing, amazing, marvelous aspect of the deeds of Jesus is played down. The word for a wonder or a marvel is teras. In the Gospels it is found only in the expression "signs and wonders"; once in Mark, and the parallel passage in Matthew,2 and once in John;3 and in every instance it is used disparagingly. All the Evangelists play down the sheerly astonishing, the merely marvelous, in the deeds of Jesus.
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The figures that I am now going to cite are practically the same for Matthew and Luke respectively as for Mark. In Mark, there are seven accounts of exorcisms (casting out of demons); in John, none. In Mark, there are 11 or 12 healings; in John, three. In Mark, either four or five nature miracles; in John, three. In Mark, perhaps one raising from the dead, the daughter of Jairus; in John, certainly one, Lazarus.
2. The Miracle Stories in Mark
Second, then, let us look at the mighty works of Jesus in their respective categories, making some summaries as we move along.
a. Exorcisms
To begin with, the exorcisms.
1) 1:21-28: The man in the Capernaum synagogue.
(No. 12: Luke 4:31-37; Matt. 7:28-29)
Jesus' first public appearance was at Capernaum, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was the Sabbath. He entered the synagogue, which was a lay institution, needing neither priest nor rabbi. As an acknowledged competent interpreter of scripture, he was invited to expound the Word of God. There is no record that Jesus ever said "thus saith the Lord." He expected his teaching to be given a serious hearing either because its truth was self-evident or because it was his word. His teaching was felt to be with power.
And there was a man there with an unclean spirit, a demon (Luke 4:33). The demon cried out to "Jesus of Nazareth," whom he calls "the Holy One of God." But Jesus cut the demon short and told him to hold his tongue and come out of the man. Which he did, convulsing the man. Whereupon the possessed man let out a loud shriek.
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The onlookers were astonished and saw this happening as a confirmation of the fact that Jesus taught with authority. And his fame spread through that region.
2) 1:32-34: A summary of exorcisms
(No. 14: Matt. 8:16-17; Luke 4:40-41)
At twilight of that same day, perhaps still at Capernaum and possibly in the house of Simon and Andrew (vv.29-31), the sick and the demon-possessed were brought to Jesus. The Sabbath was ended and so it was lawful to carry the sick to Jesus.
The demons, viewed by Mark as spiritual beings, recognized Jesus, but what they recognized him as, Mark does not say. Part of the usual technique of exorcism was to force the demon to speak, but Jesus does not allow them to do so. Jesus is no ordinary wonder-worker who must follow a prescribed procedure.4
Why only "many" of the demon-possessed were cured Mark does not indicate.
3) 1:39: Another generalized summary
(No. 16: Matt. 4.23-25; Luke 4:44)
This is another generalized summary: Jesus travelled all over Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.
4) 3:7-12: A third generalized summary
(No. 71: Matt. 12:15-21; Luke 6:17-19)
This is the third generalized summary. Jesus withdrew from the villages and towns and the controversies of the synagogue to the Lake. But the crowds followed him from all parts of Palestine inhabited by Jews. They came even from parts beyond: from east across the Jordan and from northwest, from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon.
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5) 5:1-20: The Gerasene demoniac
(No. 106: Matt. 8:28-34; Luke 8:26-39)
This mighty work took place in Gentile country somewhere east of the Lake: in the territory of the Gerasenes or the Gadarenes. The manic-depressive psychotic, as sore identify him, was probably himself a Gentile. He was a self-punishing, tomb-dwelling deranged person of prodigious strength. He ran to Jesus, did him reverence, and with considerable trepidation appealed to him, "Son of the Most High God." And Jesus cast out the demon or demons that possessed him.
Jesus did not use any formula of exorcism but he did ask the demon his name, as exorcists were accustomed to do. The answer came back that his name was "Legion," that is, there was not one demon, there were five or six thousand. Then the demon begged and begged Jesus not to send him out into the desert, the home of demons, but to let him remain among human beings where he could continue his activity. Then the unclean spirits asked Jesus for permission to enter a herd of pigs feeding on the hillside. Permission was given and the pigs rushed into the sea and were drowned.
Mark does not debate whether demons could rise to the surface and swim to safety. Nor does he raise the question of the morality of destroying one man's herd of 2,000 pigs--whether the man were Gentile or Jew--in order to . . . In order to what?
The herdsmen spread the word abroad, in town and country, and folk carne out to see the former demoniac, "clothed and in his right mind," and the sight scared the wits out of them, and so they pleaded with Jesus to leave their territory.
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The former psychotic implored Jesus that he might companion with him, but Jesus sent him home to what had not been home to him and to friends who had found it difficult to befriend him to testify to God's mercy. And thus it was that the gospel was proclaimed among people in the Decapolis, the ten Greco-Roman cities situated around Lake Galilee.5
6) 7:24-30: The Syrophoenician woman
(No. 116: Matt. 15:21-28)
One day Jesus was found somewhere up in the direction of Tyre and Sidon. He was travelling incognito, perhaps in exile. And a Greek woman, by nation a Syrophoenician, got to hear that he was in her vicinity and came to him and fell at his feet, entreating him to drive the demon out of her little daughter.
Jesus responded with this seemingly harsh statement: "Let us feed the children first; It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" (TEV; "children" being understood to refer to the Jews, "dogs" to non-Jews).
The desperate mother, stubbornly humble, refusing to be rebuffed, was open to receive whatever help Jesus was prepared to give. "Sir," she retorted, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's leftovers" (TEV). At that, Jesus answered: "For such an answer you may go home; the demon has gone out of your daughter" (TEV).
Verse 27 has long presented difficulties, first at the point of the suggestion that the Jews must be given the bread of the gospel before it can be shared with the Gentiles, and second, the sharpness of Jesus's response. These are attempts that have been made to tone down Jesus' seeming rudeness: (1) He spoke in half-jest, referring playfully to house dogs or puppies. (The Jerusalem Bible translates the word, kyrania, as "house dogs.") But that is not very funny humor. (2) He
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spoke sharply to put the mother's faith to the test. (3) His response was not intended as an insult but was a reflection of his own uncertainty: was he obliged to give to the Gentiles that which in large measure he had not been able to give to his own people? (4) His response was all the more harsh because his understanding of his own mission had a growing edge to it: it was now becoming acutely clear to him that the good news could not be confined to his own nation.6
This pagan woman's faith--or her confidence, or desperate hope, or stubborn refusal to be put off, or humble openness--found reward in her little girl's restoration to a sound mind in a healthy body: "she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone."
7) 9:14-29: The epileptic boy
(No. 126: Matt. 17:14-21; Luke 9:37-43a)
A father had a son who had a "dumb spirit" (RSV), that is, an evil spirit that had "robbed him of speech" (NIV). He took the boy to the disciples of Jesus, but they were not able to drive out the demon. Then he brought the lad to Jesus, describing his pitiful condition, which he had had from childhood, and said: "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us" (NIV).
Jesus responded, not in terms of his motivation, compassion, but in terms of his power released through another person's faith. "Everything is possible for the person who has faith" (TEV). To which the anxious father said: "I do have faith, but not enough. Help me have more!" (TEV). Whereupon Jesus cast out the unclean spirit, forbade it to ever enter the boy again, and set the youngster on his feet, well.
At that the disciples asked why they could not cast out demons to which Jesus replied: "Only prayer can drive this kind out; nothing else can" (TEV).
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Summary
What is it that catches your eye in these stories of exorcisms?
1) Whether Jesus was convinced of the reality of the spirit world, angels and demons, we do not know. Many Jews lived with good and evil spirits impinging on their lives, but not all. In a statement to the Jerusalem Sanhedrin Paul said that the Sadducees denied, while the Pharisees affirmed, the existence of angels and spirits, presumably evil spirits.7 The Jesus of John is not presented as driving out a single demon. In Mark, it is the smaller number of cures of human ills that is recounted as exorcisms. Perhaps on occasion an insightful Jesus found it necessary to begin, not with reality as such but with a given individual's perception of reality.8
2) There was no shingle swinging outside his carpenter's shop announcing that he was an exorcist on the side. He is never depicted as taking the initiative in effecting these miracles: the man in the synagogue cried out; people are brought to Jesus; the Gerasene demoniac ran to him; the Syrophoenician mother came to him on behalf of her daughter; the father brought the epileptic lad to Jesus.
3) Some recognition of Jesus as a person of unusual power and personality is made by demons and a demon-possessed man, but Jesus is not comfortable with this. I take it that it is a fully personal response that most delights his spirit.
4) To be sure, those who came to Jesus, or appealed to him, or were brought to him had some expectation of a significant response, though faith as such is not underscored. Where faith is noted, it is a mother's for the sake of her daughter and a father's on behalf of his son.
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5) Jesus is portrayed as a person of extraordinary power. He impressed people as being a dynamic person, a man of authority. And it is not to be wondered at that Mark says they were astonished.
6) Jesus was not the only exorcist at work in Judaism in his time. There is a scene in Mark in which it is said accusingly that Jesus is able to cast out demons only because he is in league with the prince of demons. To that he said, with devastating logic, "How can Satan cast out Satan?"
Matthew and Luke have Jesus driving home the point with a second question: "If I drive out demons by [the prince of demons], by whom do your people drive them out?" (NIV).9
b. Healings
Now, the healings.
1) 1:29-31: Peter's mother-in-law, a fever
(No. 13: Matt. 8:14-15; Luke 4:38-39)
This took place on the Sabbath, probably in Capernaum. Simon Peter's mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus was informed of this. "He took her by the hand, and helped her to her feet. The fever left her and she waited upon them" (NEB).
2) 1:32-34: The sick healed at evening
(No. 14: Matt. 8:16-17; Luke 4:40-41)
These twilight healings took place the same day, or rather, by Jewish reckoning, at the beginning of the new day. All the sick were brought to Jesus and many of them were healed.
More than that Mark does not say. Why "all" the sick were brought but only "many" were healed he does not indicate.
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3) 1:40-45: The leper.
(No. 45: Matt. 8:1-4; Luke 5:12-16)
In some undesignated place a leper came to Jesus and said, "If you want to, you can make me clean" (TEV). Jesus was moved with compassion and reached out and touched this untouchable and said: "I do want to. Be clean!" (TEV). And straightway the leprosy left him and he was healed.
Jesus thereupon dismissed the man with instructions that had an edge to them: "Be sure you say nothing to anybody. Go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering laid down by Moses for your cleansing; that will certify the cure" (NEB).
But the healed man could not contain himself; blabbed it all out in public so that crowds gathered about Jesus. He retreated to "the country," but still they came.
4) 2:1-12: The Paralytic
(No. 52: Matt. M-8; Luke 5:17-26)
This healing took place In Capernaum, either in Peter's house or in Jesus' own house. It is packed so tight that when four friends brought a paralytic on a mat, they could not get through the front door. It was probably a one-room dwelling with an outside stairway to the roof, so the four men carry the sick man up on to the roof, tear up part of the roof, and let down the paralyzed man.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said: "My son, your sins are forgiven."
Healing and teaching with authority might cause astonishment but they would not necessarily arouse hostility, but this aggressive word of forgiveness could be, and was, regarded as an invasion of God's prerogative.
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The statement by Jesus implies not that he has forgiven the man but that he knows that God has forgiven him. However, it is understood by some critical scribes to mean that Jesus claims to be an intermediary between God and the paralytic. According to Judaism, forgiveness depends on true repentance, and by repentance is meant: "sorrow for sin, open acknowledgement of it, and resolute turning away from it, together with such restitution as may be possible. Where these conditions are present, God forgives sin unfailingly without the need of any human mediation or absolution."10 But Jesus pronounced this man's forgiveness without any evidence of repentance.
The sensitive and perceptive Jesus, reading his critics' body language, put this question to them: "Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, pick up your mat, and walk'?" (TEV).
Obviously if all that is involved is saying, it is easier to say, "Your sins are forgiven," than to say, "Get up and walk." So to begin at the level of the questioners' perceptions, Jesus said to the paralytic: "Get up, pick up your mat, and go home" (TEV). And the people "were all astounded and praised God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this"' (JB).
5) 3:1-6: The man with a withered hand
(No. 70: Matt. 12:9-14; Luke 6:6-11)
This was another example of Sabbath activity by Jesus. He went to synagogue and there was a man there who had a "shrivelled" hand (NIV). And there were those present who watched Jesus with a jaundiced eye, ready to lay a charge against him should he infringe a Sabbath law. He goes on the offensive and poses this question: "What does our Law allow
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us to do on the Sabbath? To help, or to harm? To save a man's life, or to destroy it?" (TEV).
But for the critics of Jesus, that was not the question. The Law of the Sabbath is divine decree; it is clear enough; and the question is obedience or disobedience. But to Jesus the first question is: Is God active in our lives for good, or is he not? Does God seek to heal and therefore save, or does God not heal and therefore destroy?
Jesus looked around at those who took issue with him, angry and sorry at the same time, because their hostility kept them from judging the case on its own merits. So he said to the man with the "crippled" hand (TEV), "Stretch out your hand." And the fellow did; and his hand was well again.
Whereupon the Pharisees--and perhaps in synagogue that day there were present some fanatical Pharisees--took counsel with some of those who were close to Herod Antipas, how they might destroy Jesus.
There is Markan irony in this story: Who is right? The one who would heal on the Sabbath or those who, on the same Sabbath, would plot the death of the healer?11
6) 3:7-12: A generalized summary
(cf. "Exorcisms," No. 4)
This is a generalized summary. People came to Jesus from all over, and of some importance in the tradition of the healings effected is the fact that Jesus touched the afflicted.
7) 5:25-34: The woman with a hemorrhage
(No. 107: Matt. 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48)
This incident took place when Jesus was on his way to the home of Jairus, a ruler of a synagogue, on the northwest or northern shore of
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Lake Galilee. A woman had had a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had suffered on two counts: one because of the disorder, the other because she had used up all her resources going unsuccessfully from doctor to doctor, getting worse rather than better in the process. She had heard reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak in the hope that if only she could touch his clothes she would get well. She did, and the source of her bleeding dried up.
Jesus perceived that power had gone out from him and turned and looked around at the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" His disciples told him that in view of the number of people pressing upon him that was a dumb question. But Jesus kept on looking around until the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came to him, trembling with fear, fell at his feet, and told him the whole truth.
To that Jesus said: "My daughter, your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint" (JB).
8) 6:53-56: Healings at Gennesaret
(No. 114: Matt. 14:34-36)
This is a generalized statement of healings that took place south of Capernaum. Wherever Jesus went people were magnetically drawn to him, bringing sick neighbors and relatives on mats laying them out in the busy marketplaces in the belief that if only they could touch the tassel on his cloak, they would be healed. "And as many as touched it were made well."
9) 7:31-37: The deaf mute
(No. 117: Matt. 15:29-31)
This healing took place somewhere in the region surrounding Lake Galilee. In or between the region of the Decapolis is how Mark puts it,