The ‘Way;’ the good news; the kingdom of God.
Written by Rev'd John Poole | Feb 26th, 2021
A Lenten encounter with Jesus through the Gospel of Mark. (Read or Watch the Video above)
Week 2: The ‘Way;’ the good news; the kingdom of God.
At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, John the Baptizer is introduced as a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy: ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.’ (from Malachi 3: 1 and Isaiah 40: 3)
The way of the Lord is a major theme of Mark’s Gospel. ‘The way’ (also translated as path or road) is a metaphor for the meaning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The way evokes ancient Israel’s journey from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land, and later the return of the Jewish exiles to that homeland from Babylonia in the 6th century BC. Both journeys were undertaken through a desert or wilderness and ended with a crossing of the river Jordan. So John’s baptism of people, including Jesus, in that river evokes a sense of something new and final being created: a people who, having repented, are baptized as if passing through the waters of the Jordan in preparation for entry into a new promised land - the reign or kingdom of God.
The gospel as ‘the way of Jesus’ does not primarily focus on belief in who Jesus is, but on a way of life to be followed, that is, his way of life. (‘Belief’ in ancient times meant much more than intellectual assent. It indicated loyalty and commitment to a person or cause). We read in the Acts of the Apostles (9:2) that the earliest name for the new Christian movement was ‘the Way.’ They were followers of the way of Jesus.
Mark reports that Jesus journeyed from Nazareth to where John was baptizing in the Jordan, a little to the north of where the river meets the Dead Sea. It would have been a journey of about 100 miles on foot. It is hardly likely that Jesus walked there to be baptized straightaway. ‘Mark’s account suggests that Jesus’ decision to be baptized indicates an acceptance of John’s call to repentance and an identification with John’s message and vision.’¹ It is widely thought in scholarly circles that before his baptism, Jesus spent time in John’s community and even may have been one of his disciples. The evangelists writing as they were long after the event and in the knowledge of Jesus’ true identity obviously found such a possibility difficult to articulate, and even embarrassing. The superiority of Jesus over John right from the start is something they felt necessary to stress, but Mark alone is silent on the matter. With him there is no hint of a ‘rank issue’ between John and Jesus.
What Mark does clearly indicate is that the arrest of John by Herod Antipas, the regional vassal king, was the trigger for Jesus to begin his ministry. ‘The time is fulfilled,’ Jesus proclaims, ‘the kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the gospel.’ For Mark (and the other evangelists after him) the gospel is about ‘the kingdom of God.’ So what is this kingdom, and what did it mean for Jesus, for Mark, and for early Christianity?
‘Kingdom’ was, and still is, a political term. The long-suffering people of Jesus’ world knew all about life in the kingdoms of Rome and of Herod. We may wonder why Jesus didn’t use a term like ‘family’ or ‘community’ of God. ‘Kingdom of God’ would therefore surely have meant a society and system that would be loyal to the God of Israel, and what life would be like if God alone were king and the rulers of this world were not².
This makes sense when we consider the petition in Jesus’ own prayer, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew: ‘Your kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven.’ It is asking that God’s rule, God’s system of justice and values, become the norm for the earth just as they are for heaven. This does not deny, of course, that the kingdom of God will reach fulfilment and perfection beyond this life, but first and foremost for humanity, it is about the transformation of this world. It is God’s desire for the earth: a world of justice, love and peace.
At the time of Jesus, after centuries of domination and suffering under foreign rulers and the power of wealthy elites, this is the kind of world that many Jews dreamed of. It is the world envisaged by the great prophets, such as Isaiah and Micah, who both proclaimed God’s will for a just, peaceful and settled future for the people (See Isaiah 2: 4 and Micah 4: 1 – 4).
Jesus proclaimed that this kingdom of God is near or ‘at hand.’ Many people thought that it would be imposed on the world by God, that God would bring an end to the world as we know it. John the Baptist appears to have seen it this way. His call was for people to repent and be baptized before it is too late! But Jesus clearly had something different in mind. He taught his hearers that the kingdom is something that is accessible and can be entered now. He appealed to people to ‘repent,’ which literally means to change your mind and your ways, turn your life around, more than about your sin and need of forgiveness. It is best captured by the image of return to God from the ‘exile’ or separation where you now live. When we can do this, we can enter the kingdom of God. It has no borders except human hearts and minds that can stubbornly imprison us in the way of life we have now.
Jesus then called his hearers to ‘believe’ (to commit to, to love, to live by) the good news of God, and God’s vision of a very different kind of life and world than the one we have now. Mark’s introduction or prelude concludes with Jesus calling his first disciples to ‘follow me,’ to learn and grow to live by his vision of how God wills that life should be for humanity, and for these disciples to be ‘fishers of people,’ who draw others to this good news of God.
At once they follow Jesus, leaving the old life behind. Because what could possibly be better than what he has to offer?
Questions to ponder and pray about (there may be others!):
- How has your own understanding of Jesus evolved over time, and what has influenced your thinking?
- To repent really means to turn your life around, to go beyond the mind you now have. What does this change of direction mean for our individual lives and our relationship with others, and how are we challenged to move outside our normal comfort zone?
- To believe in the good news involves commitment to God and God’s kingdom. What must we do to live out this commitment?