Introduction

Mark was amongst the twelve disciples of Jesus as well as among the closest disciple to Jesus together with John and Peter. The gospel of Mark portrays the specifics in the ministry of Jesus in his tenure on earth. Also, it was Mark himself who wrote down the Gospel of Mark, with some credit coming from Peter’s narrative on the mission of Christ. The gospel of Mark indeed correlates with the other gospel on the various missions Jesus Christ did on earth, from his teachings to performing miracles, crucifixion and the death of Jesus. Mark has the shortest chapters in all the comparable four gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. Even though the book is shorter than the other gospels, the Gospel of Mark first nine chapters describe the ministry of Jesus through performing miracles. Scholars date the book of Mark was written in between 50 to 60 AD.

The world behind the text

            In writing the book of Mark, there were old testament prophecies, especially from the book of David, that prophesied a king would be born from his lineage. This means that the traditional setup in ancient Nazareth accepted the norm of a powerful king who would reign forever. Kings were the leaders of the masses, and they had their administration protocol that even involved Pharisees.

Their cultural setup relied on foretold prophecies on certain leaders who would rise to power. David and Elijah both prophesied the birth of the Messiah and the demography was at toes assessing their environment for clues of the Messiah. The kings also believed in prophecies and were highly involved in ensuring their ‘successor’ would be eliminated or even executed so that these leaders would stay in their thrones for an extended period. An example was the execution of John the Baptist, whom King Herod thought was the prophesied Messiah.

Performing miracles was an act mostly practiced by witches during this period. The miracle workers faced the death penalty, thereby scaling down their activities. Jesus healed the blind man and insisted that he should not tell anyone for it would have raised some suspicion to the practice of magic. When Jesus healed the paralyzed man, he instructed the crowd that his deeds should not spread throughout the city for more people would come for help and eventually people would label him a sorcerer.

The environment that Jesus lived in was a profoundly religious setting. People believed in God and had even build structures for worship. Besides, due to inadequate knowledge in medicine and science, all naturally occurring phenomena was based on the actions of a god, from catastrophic natural disasters to widespread diseases. They believed that God was in control over their lives and God would heal them and calming the unstable weather patterns. As Jesus began treating people, many thought that he was indeed a divine being, others linking him up with Elijah and John the Baptist.

World of the text

As Jesus and his disciples were voyaging in a sea, there were attacked by a massive storm which made the disciples frightened for their lives. In the turn of events, Jesus, who was asleep during that time, woke up and talked down the storm which sooner subsided. The actions left the disciples astonished as they had never experienced such a miracle before. Jesus asked them about their faith, and the disciples began wondering the real character of Jesus Christ. Jesus demonstrated that faith is essential in performing miracles, even other tasks that the disciples could probably find a menace. Jesus finally told the disciples not to spread the news of the happenings that took place during the same voyage.

In Mark chapter 8 from verse 22 to 25, Jesus demonstrates his divine nature by healing a blind man in Bethsaida. This was after the man was presented unto Jesus by fellow people who had heard of the miracles of Jesus across the surroundings. Jesus restores the sight of the blind man and instructs him never to return back to his dwellings. His return would mean that every blind person would look for Jesus and this would eventually lead to further investigations of the new ‘magician’ in town for violating the practice of magic and blasphemy.

Mark chapter 1, chapter 5, and chapter 7 demonstrate the exorcism power of Jesus Christ by casting out demons from certain people. Through the exorcism, the evil spirits can recognize Jesus as the son of God. all the witnesses are amazed by the wonders of Jesus, and some believe that Jesus was the prophesied messiah, while the unconvinced lot thought that Jesus was another magician and blasphemous. The cursed demons are commanded not to speak of him, the same applying to the crowd that happens to witness the miracles.

In conclusion, Jesus needed to accomplish his Father’s will of preaching the good news to the world. Using miracles to heal the people or even raise the dead would limit his time in carrying out his primary objective. Also, the treated people were either requested to leave town or proclaim their healing came through faith.

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