Markan Sandwiches

Day 9

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

We have now completed our look at five of the eleven Markan sandwiches that I find in Mark’s gospel. What have we learned in this brief overview?

First, we learned that there are three features unique to Mark’s gospel:

· No resurrection account written by Mark

· The Messianic secret motif

· Markan sandwiches

We learned that while there is the possibility that the end Mark originally wrote to his gospel became lost, it is also possible that Mark did not ever include a resurrection account because he wanted to emphasize that suffering is an integral part of Christian discipleship as it was an integral part of Jesus’ Messiahship. Suffering is the difference between the commonly held view of a “kick-butt” messiah and a Suffering Servant Messiah foreseen by the prophet Isaiah. The difference between the commonly expected messiah, little “m,” and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Messiah, capital “M,” is that the latter saves THROUGH suffering, not FROM suffering, as was the expectation for the little “m” messiah.

Mark recognized that his readers already knew about the resurrection and had been celebrating it every week in their worship for perhaps twenty years or more. The experience of suffering that Mark’s readers were beginning to undergo under Emperor Nero and those that came after him might explain why Mark thought this connection of Jesus’ suffering to disciples’ suffering was important to reinforce. To have included an account of the resurrection, something Mark’s readers already knew, affirmed, and celebrated weekly, would have diluted the message about the connection of suffering to discipleship.

The Messianic secret motif is seen whenever Jesus performs an amazing deed of power, such as a healing, and then tells the recipient not to tell anyone about it. In the story of the Transfiguration, however, Jesus attached a time limit on this prohibition -- “until after the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” In other words, the Messianic secret recognizes the importance of seeing Jesus’ story through to the end, of seeing him suffer, die, and then be resurrected. To tell of Jesus’ messiahship before experiencing all that would not only alert the authorities too soon, but in the telling Jesus would be described as the “kick-butt” messiah we all want and not the Suffering Servant Messiah that he really is.

We have learned that a Markan sandwich is a literary technique unique to Mark among the four gospels which he uses to make a theological point. A Markan sandwich is a series of stories in an A - B - A’, or “bread” - “meat” - “bread” structure, where the inner story or stories interpret the outer stories and vice versa. Learning how a Markan sandwich works can shed light on issues that have long bothered interpreters, such as why Jesus would curse a fig tree when it was not the season for figs, or why Jesus would call a Gentile woman begging him to heal her sick daughter a “dog.”

In learning to recognize and interpret Markan sandwiches we have seen that the way Mark has been viewed by interpreters stretching all the way back to Papias in the second century has been wrong. Contrary to Etienne Trocme, who said: “The point is settled: the author of Mark was a clumsy writer unworthy of mention in any history of literature,” Mark was not a clumsy writer at all. He was a brilliant writer, a Holy Spirit-inspired writer, who did not simply write “beads on a string,” but skillfully organized his material to make important theological points. For centuries, we have been the clumsy, and perhaps lazy, ones who missed Mark’s inspiration.

Some of the major theological points Mark made through the Markan sandwiches we examined were:

· The season of the temple as the place where God’s glory dwells is over now that Jesus has arrived. Israel’s mission to be a “light to the nations” will now be fulfilled not through the temple but through Jesus, and his followers.

· Jesus redefined what it means to be “unclean.” Being unfit to appear before God is not a matter of what goes into the body or who or what one touches. It is a matter of what is going on inside the heart. Our motivations are as important, even more so, than our actions because motivations lead to actions. One can do the right thing for the wrong reason. No one is “unclean” simply because of their ethnicity.

· Jesus cares deeply for desperate people, especially those the surrounding society would treat as an outcast.

· Coming clean about our desperation with Jesus can lead to our complete healing.

· Jesus fulfills God’s intent in The Genesis Project’s to restore all people, all nations, all tribes back to where we were in Genesis 2 before the fall, not just Jews.

· Jesus, even to the end of his earthly life, presents God’s covenant faithfulness even though his closest friends, those who had been with him through his entire ministry, betray and desert him when he needed them most. And that covenant faithfulness is enshrined in the meal we share together regularly as Christ-followers, the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, or Eucharist. “This is my body … This is my blood.”

The subtitle of this book is A Discipleship Resource in The Genesis Project Series. What have we learned about discipleship aside from being better equipped to read the Bible, the “manual” of discipleship?

In the gigantic Markan sub sandwich with the two blind man stories as the “bread,” Mark makes a major theological point about discipleship. If we fail to grasp Mark’s point, we end up as followers of a false messiah.And that point is: Jesus is the Suffering Servant Messiah of Isaiah’s prophecy, not the “kick-butt” messiah everyone hoped for.

The Suffering Servant Messiah saves us THROUGH suffering, not FROM suffering. If we disconnect our discipleship from Jesus’ suffering, if we try to skip Good Friday and “do up Easter in a big way,” we’re back to following a “kick-butt” messiah who we look to save us FROM suffering. When we do that, because that is not who Jesus is, we are disciples of a false messiah, the messiah of Peter’s first confession. When I look at much of what passes for discipleship in the church today, I smell the false messiah.

To offer a contemporary example of what happens when we lose sight of this critical distinction between the “kick butt” messiah and the Suffering Servant Messiah, I offer the world’s experience following the opening ceremony for the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris. While the opening ceremony as a whole was widely praised, a particular French segment sparked controversy due to its perceived resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting, “The Last Supper.” This segment featured gay activists and drag artists in a tableau that many interpreted as a parody of the famous painting, and therefore of Christ and his followers, leading to loud criticism from various religious and conservative groups.

The organizers clarified that the performance was not intended to mock “The Last Supper.” Instead, artistic director, Thomas Jolly, stated that the tableau was inspired by Jan van Bijlert's Le Festin des Dieux, which depicts Greek gods in a raucous banquet setting on Mount Olympus. Jolly emphasized that the intention was to celebrate a grand pagan festival connected to Olympian deities, aligning with the spirit of the Games. The Paris 2024 organizing committee apologized to those offended, reiterating that there was no intention to disrespect any religious group and that the ceremony aimed to celebrate societal tolerance.

Despite the apology, the performance drew the ire of right-wing politicians, public figures, and Christians worldwide. Those offended included the French Conference of Catholic Bishops, which called the moment a “derision and mockery of Christianity.” Online, a boycott was declared of anything French. Even worse, artistic director Jolly and the tableau performers were bullied, threatened, and harassed. French authorities later arrested seven people, ranging in age from 22 to 79, charging them with cyberbullying, making death threats, and aggravated insults, highlighting the serious nature of the backlash.

Let’s stop and take a deep breath. Even if these performers did intend to mock Christ, I thought it a classic case of rushing to the defense of the “kick butt” messiah rather than the Suffering Servant Messiah. Were these, I’m sure well-intentioned, defenders really protecting the honor of the Suffering Servant Messiah, who said:

· “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12, NRSV)

· “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify.” (Luke 21:12-13, NRSV)

· When he was arrested, the Suffering Servant Messiah heard his disciples say, “Lord, should we strike…?” (Luke 22:49) This Messiah, when one of those disciples drew a dagger to defend him from that humiliating arrest, said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:52-54, NRSV)

· “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.” (Luke 6:27-29, NRSV)

· “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;” (Luke 6:37, NRSV)

· “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” (Luke 9:23-25, NRSV)

· The Suffering Servant Messiah, when he could have called down fire from heaven instead chose to willinglysuffer humiliation from the culture of his day, to be falsely accused, arrested, mocked, betrayed and abandoned by his own, and executed on an instrument of Roman torture and brutality, all while his male followers hid themselves in fear having run for their lives after one actively betrayed him.

· The Suffering Servant Messiah’s servant James wrote, “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” (James 1:19-20, NRSV)

· The Suffering Servant Messiah’s servant Paul wrote, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:15-17, NRSV)

· The Suffering Servant Messiah’s servant Paul also wrote, “All who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12), and “We told you beforehand that we were to suffer persecutions, so it turned out as you know.” (1 Thessalonians 3:4) and “Don’t take revenge, my dear people, but allow God’s anger room to work. The Bible says, after all, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ No: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. If you do this, you will pile up burning coals on his head.’ Don’t let evil conquer you. Rather, conquer evil with good.” (Romans 12:19-21)

· The Suffering Servant Messiah’s servant Paul also wrote, as reported by Luke, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)

This experience shows how difficult it is to follow a Suffering Servant Messiah. We all want the “kick butt” messiah of power and glory.

All these points -- including the critically important one about Jesus’ Messiahship and our discipleship -- Mark made through his literary technique of the Markan sandwich. Keep in mind that we only examined about half of the sandwiches Mark created. A fuller examination of Mark’s gospel will uncover additional theological points.

I hope I have achieved my goal of showing you that hearing God’s Word through the Bible is not just a matter of hearing what it says, but also discerning how it says it. Literary art is an important vehicle for communicating the Word in scripture. Markan sandwiches are Mark’s contribution to that Spirit-inspired literary art. If this idea of the importance of literary art in the Bible is new to you, even if you have been a student of the Bible for decades, that means there are untold striking vistas for you yet to discover. And that is good news!

Let me close by observing that I find it amazing that the Gospel According to Mark has been read, interpreted, dissected, preached on, and taught for centuries. But it was not until the 20^th century that the importance of Markan sandwiches came into the light of day. Even after two thousand years, God taught us to see something new in just one of the books of the Bible. What else has God yet to show us?