This post is part of a commentary on the last three chapters of the Gospel of Mark
It is fair to say that the symbols of cross and resurrection are as central to an understanding of the Christian revelation as meditation and enlightenment are to Buddhism. Yet both cross and resurrection seem cryptic to many, even weird.
The last three chapters of Mark’s 16-chapter narrative are about the meaning of cross and resurrection as understood by that mid-first-century author and the surprisingly vigorous religious movement of which Mark was a part. I know of no better way to introduce to a contemporary explorer of Christianity the power of these two symbols than with a commentary on the last three chapters of Mark’s Gospel.
Members of a our current scientific culture may be excused somewhat for having a weak understanding of resurrection. Most of us know, if we are honest, that belief in a literal return to life of a three-day-old corpse is superstition. Yet this meaning of resurrection has been paraded as Christian by many. Mark did not see resurrection in this light. Or perhaps we might better say, “Mark did not see resurrection in this darkness,” for a literal return from the dead means nothing deeply religious to Mark or to you or me. If such an event were to happen today, it would be open to hundreds of speculative explanations, none of which would be profoundly or convincingly religious.
Mark’s understanding of the cross is equally opaque in our culture. Some modern authors even accuse Christianity of having a morbid preoccupation with death, suffering, and tragedy. The crucifix, or even a bare cross, is viewed by some as silly and grim—like hanging a guillotine on your wall or around your neck. But for Mark the horror of the cross is seen as priceless food for the soul. How can that be? Surely, we have some thoughtful exploration to do, if we are to grasp the Gospel (the good news) that Mark claims to be announcing.
So here is what I am going to do. I am going to quote in order the Markian text in chapters 14-16. After each section of the narrative, I will do a commentary on the quoted verses and follow that with a few discussion questions. I will assume the best of New Testament scholarship, but will be doing what I call “21st century theologizing for the ordinary reader.”
Mark 14:1-9 A Holy Waste
In two days’ time the festival of the Passover and of unleavened bread was due. Consequently, the chief priests and the scribes were trying to think of some trick by which they could get Jesus into their power and have him executed. “But it must not be during the festival,” they said, “or there will be a riot.”
Jesus himself was now in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. As he was sitting at table, a woman approached him with an alabaster flask of very costly spikenard perfume. She broke the neck of the flask and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. Some of those present were highly indignant and muttered, “What is the point of such wicked waste of perfume? It could have been sold for over thirty pounds and the money could have been given to the poor.” And there was a murmur of resentment against her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone, why must you make her feel uncomfortable? She has done a beautiful thing for me. You have the poor with you always, and you can do good to them whenever you like, but you will not always have me. She has done all she could—for she has anointed my body in preparation for burial. I assure you that wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this deed of hers will also be recounted, as her memorial to me.”
The story of Martin Luther King Jr. has become a treasure in our recent common memory. We can see how he and his leadership team were supported by the crowds while being opposed by establishment enemies. If there were no crowds, no swath of the population and its social forces hearing his message and supporting it, King’s enemies would have simply shut him up in one way or another. These dynamics are present whenever something new is breaking upon the scene. We can see it in early labor movements, in the apartheid struggle of South Africa, in Gandhi’s freedom fight in India, even in the Beatles impact upon popular music. The prophet is the bringer of new truth to the dynamics of society. There will always be enemies of any new truth. The prophet goes to those who will hear and then confronts his enemies with the crowds who support him or her. The enemies have to listen to the prophet because of the crowds. Otherwise they would simply dismiss him or her. The existence of the listening crowds makes conversation with the prophet’s truth a possibility even for the prophet’s enemies.
Mark has begun the closing chapters of his story by showing us Jesus’ relation to his crowds and to his establishment enemies. Mark is leading up to telling us about Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and burial as well as its vital meaning for our lives. Next Mark tells us a story about a woman anointing Jesus’ body in preparation for his burial. Mark views Jesus as the Anointed One, the chosen of God for illuminating the Truth about every event that happens to human persons and societies. This whole-hearted and enthusiastic women is pouring out her expensive perfume on Jesus’ body. This event provides the only anointment ritual that Jesus is going to receive. Jesus is also being prefigured as being himself a precious perfume that is going to be wasted, or so it seems.
The crux of the story is the dialogue between Jesus and those who see this woman’s deed as a wicked waste of expensive perfume: “It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” Jesus’ reply indicates that honoring a prophet in our midst has an importance even more valuable than giving alms to the poor.
Jesus is surprisingly direct. “You have the poor with you always, and you can do good to them whenever you like, but you will not always have me.” It may now be possible to do away with poverty, but there will always be opportunities for charity and reform rather than the deeper thing that Jesus was doing. Clearly, all values do not revolve around improving the economic conditions of humanity. The value of truth and the value of the truth-teller are even more precious. And these truth values deserve whatever resources we need to honor these rare gifts. In terms of the more typical values of human living, honoring Jesus with a precious ointment may seem like a waste. For Jesus did not change the economic and political conditions, and it is still unclear to many people how he reset our whole sense of truth. Indeed, this entire sadistic and violent pouring out of Jesus’ life can still seem like a waste.
When have you felt that something precious has been wasted?
What might it mean to find other meaning within that seeming waste?
To read the rest of this three-chapter commentary
on cross and resurrection according to Mark click:
http://www.realisticliving.org/PDF/MarkCrossResurrection.pdf
For even more elaboration, see the following book:
The Love of History and the Future of Christianity
toward a manifesto for a next Christianity
For more information on this book, click: