The Gospel of Mark

Mark 15:1-16:8: Deity

Mark 15:1-16:8 contains a double reference to God when Jesus, dying on the cross, cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It is noticeable that there is no vocal response by God, as there often is in the Hebrew Bible. After Jesus' baptism, a voice from heaven (God's voice) says, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11). At Jesus' transfiguration, a voice comes out of the cloud that overshadows Jesus, saying, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him" (9:7). Thus, God does speak twice in the Gospel of Mark. Why does God not speak to Jesus while he is dying on the cross? Does this mean that God does not hear or respond to Jesus' cry?

God also does not speak when Jesus prays to God in Gethsemane saying, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what you will" (14:36). Jesus' speech in this setting asserts that God is Jesus' father. It also asserts that there is nothing this father cannot do. Everything is possible for him. In what sense is God father in the Markan narrative? There is significant imaging of God as father in the other Gospels in the New Testament, but there is very little explanation in Mark of what this might mean. Is it really the case that God the father can do all things? What the reader does see is an implication that the answer of God to Jesus is, "No, I will not remove this cup from you." The nature of God the father, then, is to allow Jesus to suffer and die. God does not remove this ordeal from Jesus. Would it be possible for God the father to remove this ordeal from his son, but that he wills not to remove it?

What is the nature of God, then, as the Gospel of Mark reveals God? One of the characteristics is that God regularly does not work explicitly and openly in Mark, as God works at times in the Old Testament. God is present behind the scenes, responding favorably to Jesus at his baptism and transfiguration but otherwise not entering the story in an explicit, open manner. God also works in paradoxical ways. This means that God does things that appear to humans to be contradictory to one another. We will want to find some of the ways, then, that God is at work implicitly, perhaps secretly, and paradoxically in the Gospel of Mark.

From V. K. Robbins, Exploring the Texture of Texts, (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1996), p. 120-1.

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