The Son, the Scribes, and the Strong Man

James J. Tissot, "Woe Unto You, Scribes and Pharisees"

 The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” 

Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. 

Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit” (Mk 3:22-30).

Jesus has just worked a miracle but the scribes refuse to recognize it "for they had said 'He has an unclean spirit'" (v. 30). They do not want to admit that God is the author of the miracle. In this attribute lies the special gravity of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit -- attributing to the prince of evil, to Satan, the good works performed by God himself ... That is why our Lord says that he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven: not because God cannot forgive all sins, but because that person, in his blindness towards God, rejects Jesus Christ, his teaching and his miracles, and despises the graces of the Holy Spirit as if they were designed to trap him (cf. St. Pius V Catechism, II, 5, 19; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, II-II, q. 14, a. 3). CF. note on Mt 12:31-32.
--from The Navarre Bible: St. Mark

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church on "The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God"

543 Everyone is called to enter the kingdom. First announced to the children of Israel, this messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of all nations (Cf. Mt 8:11 10:5-7; 28:19). To enter it, one must first accept Jesus' word: 

The word of the Lord is compared to a seed which is sown in a field; those who hear it with faith and are numbered among the little flock of Christ have truly received the kingdom. Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and grows until the harvest (Lumen Gentium 5; cf. Mk 4:14, 26-29; Lk 12:32).

546 Jesus' invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching (Cf. Mk 4:33-34).

 

On "The Signs of the Kingdom of God"

547 Jesus accompanies his words with many "mighty works and wonders and signs", which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest that he was the promised Messiah (Acts 2:22; cf. Lk 7:18-23).

 

548 The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him (Cf. Jn 5:36; 10:25, 38).  To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask (Cf. Mk 5:25-34; 10:52; etc). So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God (Cf. Jn 10:31-38). But his miracles can also be occasions for "offense" (Mt 11:6); they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons (Cf. Jn 11:47-48; Mk 3:22).

 

549 By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness and death (Cf. Jn 6:5-15; Lk 19:8; Mt 11:5), Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below (Cf. Lk 12 13-14; Jn 18:36), but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage (Cf. Jn 8:34-36).

550 The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:26, 28). Jesus' exorcisms free some individuals from the domination of demons. They anticipate Jesus' great victory over "the ruler of this world" (Jn 12:31; cf. Lk 8:26-39). The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ's cross.

One Life as a Ransom for Many

Some scholars and theologians have described the Gospel of Mark as a “passion narrative with a long introduction.” Most of the Gospel consists of what seems to be a series of episodes taken from the ministry of Jesus, interwoven with judgment and condemnation from the Pharisees, and reports that they and the Herodians are plotting to kill Him. Jesus' public ministry abruptly ends in the passion narrative, as a seeming realization of that plot.

Lorenzo Ghiberti, "The Baptism of Christ" c. 1427

At the same time, some historical-critical scholars are also of the opinion that Mark's passion narrative was written separately from or was derived from a different oral tradition than the rest of the Gospel as we know it. Yet it is only when we view Mark's Gospel account as one continuous narrative that we understand Jesus’ words, works, identity, and mission as first foreshadowing and then finally culminating in and revealing their fullness of meaning in His passion, death, and ultimate resurrection. This approach to Mark’s Gospel does justice not only to the structure of the entire text as written, but also to its underlying purpose and theology: that is, with the Gospel as the work of the Holy Spirit, to explain to the world the seeming contradiction of Jesus as the crucified Messiah.

From the beginning until its end, Mark’s Gospel proclaims that Jesus is the Son of God. God Himself declares it in the baptism of Jesus by John, as a voice from heaven that names Him as “my beloved Son” (Mk 1:11).

Immediately thereafter, from the temptation of Jesus by Satan onward, the reader understands Jesus to be one with power and authority over and above all men, as well as over all of creation: firstly, over Satan and all unclean spirits (Mk 1:12-13, 21-28; 3:11, 23-30; 5:1-20; 9:14-29, 38-39); and over all forms of uncleanness and disease of the body (Mk 1:29-34, 40-45; 2:1-12; 3:1-5; 5:21-34; 6:53-56; 7:24-37; 8:22-26; 10:46-53) —even over death itself (Mk 5:35-43).

Further, Jesus is presented as having sole authority to define what is unclean and what defiles, and as Lord of the Sabbath (Mk 2:18-28; 7:1-23; 11:15-17): that is to say, He is nothing less than both the giver of and the interpreter of the Law. Jesus’ power over creation is demonstrated beyond doubt in His miraculous feeding of the multitudes (Mk 6:34-44; 8:1-10), in His calming of the sea storm (Mk 4:35-41), and in His ability to walk on water (Mk 6:45-52). Prefiguring His resurrection, Jesus’ true glorified identity as the Son of God is revealed in Mark’s Gospel only to Peter, James and John, while being made known plainly to every reader in the account of Jesus’ transfiguration (Mk 9:2-8).

But after all this, how could Jesus, the one who Peter first declared to be “the Messiah,” (Mk 8:29) later be declared by that same disciple to be one that he does not even know? (Mk 14:66-72) How could the Son of God, the one with absolute power and authority, possibly have been arrested, subject to trial, mockery and beatings, be scourged, and finally crucified? Mark’s answer appears to lie in what functions as a transitional verse in the text; a bridge between the Gospel’s “introduction” and the passion narrative proper; a summary of all that Jesus has done thus far, and a preparation for what is to come:

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).

In this single statement of Jesus about His own identity, Mark in effect gives meaning to all that Jesus has accomplished in word and deed for the people thus far as told in the Gospel, and at the same time foreshadows the meaning of all that Jesus will then go on to accomplish for them in his suffering, death, and rising. Paralleling the structure of the text, Mark reveals in this statement that the singular mission of Jesus as Messiah is also twofold.

It is only at this point that one fully realizes where the ministry of Jesus has been leading, and that it had a destination from the beginning--which Jesus, in His same power and authority over all, had foretold and had willingly undertaken in loving obedience to the will of His Father: He goes to Jerusalem, where he would be proclaimed Messiah King (Mk 11:7-11)—but His coronation would be His crucifixion. Herein lies the paradox, but herein also lies the Messiah’s true mission.

Albrecht Dürer, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, 1511

In His being proclaimed Messiah King by the people, Jesus is thus empowered to reign over them. But what the people did not understand, yet which Mark makes clear for us, is that as Jesus’ reign in His life of service was over all that is unclean and over bodily death, His reign in His passion, as the ransom for many, is over sin and eternal death, which are the true oppressors and archenemies of His people.

Jesus does not die because of the plotting of His opponents, but freely gives His life, because it is His Father’s will and His divine right as Messiah King. He came to serve as no one else could have; and only such a King could pay such a ransom.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Mysteries of Jesus' Public Life 

565 From the beginning of his public life, at his baptism, Jesus is the "Servant," wholly consecrated to the redemptive work that he will accomplish by the "baptism" of his Passion.