Friday, 9 August 2019

THE MESSIANIC SECRET IN THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK


INTRODUCTION

Reading the Gospel according to Mark, one feels Mark is fairly bursting with the good news of Jesus Christ the son of God, crucified and risen from death. Obvious in Mark’s introduction is the fact that that Jesus is the Son of God. The most striking feature of the Gospel according to mark is the theme of the messianic secret. This is a theme which raises the fundamental question of the identity of Jesus. Thus, why did Jesus forbid his identity to be revealed? This paper will focus on elaborating the theme of the messianic secret as in the gospel according to Mark; what it is, its proponents and opponents.

WHAT IS THE MESSIANIC SECRETS?

The messianic secret is a theme in the gospel according to Mark which speaks of Jesus’ insistence on concealing his identity and mighty works during the time of his public ministry. It is a theme which sprang from biblical criticism, expressing Jesus’ repeated desire to remain unpublicized during the time of his ministry here on earth. This insistence of Jesus forbids both demons and people from revealing His identity. Some of these instances can be seen in Mark 1:25, 34, 3:12 and Mark 8:30 respectively. Why did Jesus forbid that his identity should be revealed? Why would he want them to keep this stunning revelation to themselves?

 A clue to this puzzle is revealed in Peter’s confession or profession of faith. Jesus’ messianic identity enclosed a deeper mystery more than any of the apostles or even his followers could understand. However, this mystery was unveiled gradually when Jesus completes the first part of his ministry, his Galilean mission which consists mostly of his deeds. However, before He begins his Jerusalem ministry, which will highlight his passion and death, He wishes to clarify his identity with his disciples. Peter’s confession of Jesus as the messiah is apparently correct, but Peter still thinks of him merely as a miracle working messiah and a person of grandeur. That has been the traditional concept of the messiah. Jesus’ response, surprisingly, is a stern injunction to silence.[1] He prohibiting them not to reveal his identity makes it clear that this title can only be misleading until people have experienced his passion, death and resurrection. Thus the Messiahship of Christ is complete only in his cross and death. Since the disciples did not yet comprehend the true nature of Jesus messiahship, Jesus would not allow them to interpret it in the light of their own earthly understanding and expectation. However, the second part of the gospel according to mark makes the identity of Jesus clearer.[2]

            The popular expectation of the messiah is one who would exercise a political and military dominance, who would liberate Israel from Roman domination and bring back peace and progress. However, the mission of Jesus is far beyond that. The messiahship of Jesus transcends all Jewish expectations. Jesus had come to bring a greater liberation from the shackles of Satan, sin and death. This mission is necessarily linked to his sacrificial death, being obedient even unto death on a cross. The gradual disclosure of the messianic secret has to happen for every Christian, as we learn from Jesus the paradox of the cross. The warrant of the messianic secret is thus: until the mystery of the messianic identity is revealed, there is a fundamental risk that sensational reports about the miracles of Jesus would generate a false and distorted messianic enthusiasm[3] as the one Jesus escaped in the gospel according to John 6: 15 where the people forcefully want to take him and make him a king.

            Nonetheless, there is a striking contrast to the messianic secret, which made of an exorcised man the first Christian missionary to the people of the gentile nations (Mark 5: 19), where Jesus told a man he delivered from demonic possession, who had asked to remain with him, to “go home to your people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). This is to say that Jesus’ rejection of the Man’s request is rather a commissioning. However it is arguable that the man is not asked to proclaim the identity of Jesus, but rather what Jesus did for him. Jesus use of the word “the Lord” (ho Kyrios) in place of his own name is a veiled reference to his divinity.[4]

The miracles of Jesus point to the truth of his messianic identity; however, they are only part of the truth. This is thus the reason for Jesus’ insistence that his identity remain unrevealed until after his resurrection as he instructed the apostles after his transfiguration.

SOME INSTANCES THAT IMPLIED THE MESSIANIC SECRET

Instances of the messianic secret are spread all through the gospel of mark. Some of these instances are: Mark 1:44 after Jesus had, out of pity, healed a leper who requested his healing at his (Jesus’) own will. However, as Jesus sent him away, He sternly warned him not to tell anyone about it. This is the first clear instance of what the biblical scholars call the messianic secret. Also in Mark 5:43 after Jesus had resurrected twelve years old Jairus’ daughter, He strictly ordered that no one should know about it. Another instance is on Mark 7:36 after Jesus healed the deaf and dumb man; He ordered that they should not tell anyone. However, here it was not portrayed that Jesus succeeded in stopping the people from proclaiming, because the people were completely astonished. Yet another instance is Mark 8: 26, here the messianic secret is implied when after curing a blind man, Jesus sends the man home and asks that he never return to the village. It is implied here because, had the man stayed back in the village, the people would recognized him as the once blind man and would inquire how he got to regain his sight which would warrant the man to expose the identity of Jesus. Also in Mark 9:9 after the glory of Jesus was manifested on the mount Tabor and the three apostles present had a glimpse of his divinity, when they got down from the mountain Jesus ordered the disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen, until the Son of man had risen from the dead. The condition for the proclamation of his identity as given by Jesus reemphasizes the point that His messianic identity would not be properly understood until he had embraced and conquered death. A classical passage of the messianic secret is Mark 8: 29-30, the scene at Caesarea Philippi where Peter confessed Jesus as the messiah.

Nevertheless Jesus also rebuked demons from revealing his identity, these instances are particularly seen in Mark 1:25 here Jesus had ordered an evil spirit to be silent and come out of the man it possessed after it had proclaimed that Jesus is the holy one of God. Also in Mark 1:34 it is recounted that Jesus drove out many demons; but never allowed them to speak because they know who he was. Here the reason given by Mark why Jesus did not allow the demons to speak stands as a strong argument for the affirmation of the messianic secret. In Mark 3:12 Jesus had also warned that no one should be told who he was.

THE PROPONENT OF THE MESSIANIC SECRET

            The first proponent of the messianic secret is a German Lutheran theologian named Wilhelm Wrede who proposed that Jesus was consciously hiding his identity from His enemies by commanding the disciples to keep silent about his miracles. Wrede demonstrates that Mark’s gospel portrays Jesus as someone who rejects messianic claims in an enigmatic method.

            However, he sought to substantiate his charge that the portrayal of the messianic consciousness of Jesus by Biblical scholars exemplified by Oscar Holtzmann cannot be established from Mark. According to Wrede the search for a development of Jesus’ messianic consciousness is based upon a misconception, for Mark simply does not answer the questions which must be answered if such a development is to be traced. Wrede brought forth some question whose answer Mark didn’t provide. Some of the questions are: on what account does Jesus continually forbid people to speak of his messianic dignity and miracles? On what account does he keep silent over and against the disciples?[5] Wrede went on to say that Jesus wishing the disciples to arrive at the right attitude towards him on their own is neither hinted nor self-evident in Mark; however, on what account is the secret still to be kept from the people after Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ of God in Caesarea Philippi? Nonetheless, a very outrageous claim of Wrede is that Jesus never thinks of himself as the messiah of divine.

THE OPPONENT OF MESSIANIC SECRET

            Scholarship has provided insurmountable problems that destroy Wrede’s hypothesis and leave it insufficient for the position its arguing for. These are the people who argue for messianic consciousness. Basically the opponents are scholars who initially respond in opposition to Wrede’s submission. One of the outstanding critics of Wrede’s position is William Sanday, an oxford professor who championed the positions of the radical Historicism. Sanday in his argument says that Wrede’s position is exceptionally in error. He characterized Wrede’s writing style like that of a “Prussian Office”[6], making it utterly superficial and impossible.[7] However, another opponent is Albert Schweitzer who holds that Jesus is aware and understood his messianic call, but enigmatically veiled it under the title, “Son of man.”  He goes on to say that Jesus kept his awareness a mystery, only gradually revealing it.  This led to Peter’s confession and ultimately to his own confession before the High Priest. Both William Sanday and Albert Schweitzer reactions to William Wrede’s messianic secret was characterized by attempts to reclaim historical grounds for describing the life of Jesus.

EVALUATION

If difficulties arise because of what Mark does not say, they also arise because of what he does say. Although, sometimes Jesus enjoins silence upon the people whom he heal, at other times he perform miracles in the full glare of publicity.[8] However, if the son of man means the messiah, then following the events of Mark 2:10 and 2:28 it would mean Jesus has long designated and revealed his identity before Peter’s confession. Jesus enjoining his three apostles to keep quiet about what they saw during the transfiguration till after his resurrection throws more light to his parable of the Lamp in Mark 4:21-23. This however, would imply that the Messiahship of Jesus as Mark had constructed his gospel is designed to be a secret throughout his earthly ministry and is to be made known after his resurrection.

CONCLUSION

However, as a researcher, I conclude that the messianic secret is a theological idea that resulted out of biblical criticism and not Mark’s invention. Jesus as the Christ Performed miracle; an evidence of His Messiahship, but then enjoins the witnesses to keep silent about it. If the miracles of Jesus are evidences of his Messiahship, why does he hide it? The controversy of the messianic secret is still very debatable.





BIBLIOGRAPHY

BROWN RAYMOND, An Introduction to the New Testament, Theological Publication, Bangalore 2014.

HEALY MARY, The Gospel of Mark, Baker Academic, Washington 2008.

SANDAY WILLIAMS, The Life of Christ in Recent Research, Oxford University Press, New York 1907.

WILLIAMS WREDE, The Messianic Secret, trans. J. C. G. Grieg, James Clarke & Co., Cambridge 1971.

The New community Bible, St Paul Publications, Ibadan 2013.



[1] M. HEALY, The Gospel of Mark, Baker Academic, Washington 2008, 163.
[2] The New community Bible: Commentary on Mark 8:27-30, St Paul Publications, Ibadan 2013.
[3] M. HEALY, The Gospel of Mark, Baker Academic, Washington 2008, 53.
[4] M. HEALY, The Gospel of Mark, Baker Academic, Washington 2008, 103.
[5] W. WREDE, The Messianic Secret, trans. J. C. G. Grieg , James Clarke & Co., Cambridge 1971, 15.
[6] W. Sanday, The Life of Christ in Recent Research , Oxford University Press,  New York  1907, 70.
[7] Ibid. 74.
[8] W. WREDE, The Messianic Secret, trans. J. C. G. Grieg , James Clarke & Co., Cambridge 1971, 17.

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