Notes on the Gospel of Mark: The Bookends of Mark and the Theme of the Gospel (5)

The New Exodus is Mark’s description of the Jesus’ event. John heralds it. And as we see in today’s post the Spirit animates it.

Mark is “bookended” by two stories whose themes give us insight into the evangelist’s particular view of Jesus. The first story is Jesus’ baptism in 1:9-10. In this story we are told that the heavens were “torn apart” allowing the Spirit to descend on him. Mark alludes here to the powerful cry recorded in Isa.63:1: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence.” This cry was the heart beat of Second Temple Judaism’s expectation, long expected, long prayed for, long anguished over. That Mark alludes to this important Old Testament text suggests that he sees the bestowal of the Spirit through “torn apart” heavens as marking Jesus as its fulfilment.

At the other end of the gospel the story of the curtains of the temple being “torn in two” immediately after Jesus’ death (15:38) we find this.

“At Jesus’ death in 15:37, Mark uses a word (exepneusen) that was not commonly used as a euphemism for dying in everyday Greek, suggesting that he wants us to hear something more than just that Jesus died. Especially since we were told that the Spirit went into Jesus in his first appearance in the story, this word suggests that in Jesus’ final appearance the Spirit exits his body. That is, his last breath is a breathing out of the Spirit who came into him at the beginning. As a result of the Spirit’s movement, the heavens are ripped apart (eschisthē) as they were when the Spirit descended in 1:10, but this time in the form of the outer Temple curtain with the heavens painted on it (v. 38). God’s Spirit, his personal dynamic force of holiness, is thus portrayed as moving out of Jesus into the Temple, not as moving out of the Holy of Holies. The ripping apart of ‘the great cosmic curtain that separates creation from God’s presence,’ which began at Jesus’ baptism, is now completed at his death.” (Johnson, Andy. Holiness and the Missio Dei . Cascade Books. Kindle Edition: 1732-1737)

This makes it almost certain that we have indeed hit on the major theme of Mark’s gospel. The Spirit catalyzes this opening of this new chapter in God’s work with his people. These bookends require that we pay particular attention to the theme of the temple as the locus of God’s presence and power in Mark. Jesus’ launches a “counter-temple” movement right at the beginning of Mark (1:40–2:12) and the Spirit infills the Holy of Holies at Jesus’ death at the end. This connects up with the larger theme of the centrality of the temple in God’s plan and work.