Antc: Mark (Abingdon New Testament Commentaries)

Marks genius lies not in telling a story about Jesus but in creating conditions under which the reader may experience the peculiar quality of Gods good news. The Evangelist hurries one along breathlessly immediately making sure that the reader lurches with the characters into one pothole after another. What is this new teaching that consorts with the flagrantly sinful turning the pious homicidal intimates into strangers and mustard seeds into the greatest of all shrubs? . Jesus closest adherents the Twelve are among the most muddled. Who can blame them? They ask for an obscure parables interpretation and receive an answer even more confounding. They are told to feed thousands with next to nothing. Their boat almost capsizes while their teacher sleeps. As they oar in rough waters the teacher strides the waves intending to bypass them. Putting the reader in the same boat Mark structures conversations with Jesus that make little sense if any. The Twelve are craven stupid self-serving and disobedient: meet the average Christian. Besides their hearts were hardened. Who hardens hearts? God. Should not Gods Messiah lift the burdens of those following him? What kind of Christ heads to a cross handing his disciples another for themselves. Do you not yet understand? from the Introduction