The Self-Donation of God. Jack D. Kilcrease
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Jews to be the cosmic judge who would come at the end of time (for example in 1 Enoch 61–62, 64). As the cosmic judge, the Son of Man takes on the role held by the priests within the Levitical cult: “You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean” (Lev 10:10, also see 11:47). Because Jesus is the true advent of this figure, Mark indicates that he has the power to forgive sins on earth in the present (Mark 2:10) and will serve as the judge of humanity at the eschaton (13). Jesus makes his judgment available ahead of time to those who have received his word of forgiveness with faith.
Mark’s glorification of Jesus in the first verses of his gospel is followed by his description of Jesus’s entry into humiliation. Jesus goes to the Jordan and is baptized with sinners, thereby identifying himself with them. Being indistinguishable from the mass of sinful humanity, Jesus’s glory is revealed when his Father testifies to it: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (1:11). Mark tells us that the heavens are “torn open” (schizomenous) and the Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon him. The violence of the term schizomenous seems to indicate the disruption of the normal structure of reality that had held sway in the Old Testament. God in his holiness had segregated himself from sinners in the tabernacle/temple. In the person of Jesus, he now identifies with them.
The Father’s pronouncement of sonship echoes the royal Psalm 2, which designates the Israelite king as God’s Son and promises him the nations as his inheritance.227 Predictably, the revelation of this glory is followed by humiliation. Jesus is “driven out” (ekballei) into the wilderness (Mark 1:10, 12). The use of ekballei is particularly harsh. Elsewhere, Mark uses it to describe what happens to demons during exorcisms (1:39). Jesus, having identified with sinners, is now an object of condemnation much like demonic forces of the old creation that he is charged by the Father to destroy.
This opening sequence of alternation between humiliation and glory is repeated throughout the rest of the gospel. In fact, following this pattern S. Moyter has argued that there is an intentional literary inculsio that brackets the whole of the gospel.228 The inclusio commences at Jesus’s baptism (1:9–11) and ends at his death on the cross (15:36–39).229 At Jesus’s baptism, John is mentioned in connection to Elijah, the heavens are ripped open, and he is designated as the Son of God by the Father’s voice. At his crucifixion, there is a mention of Elijah (15:35), the rending of the veil of the temple (the same Greek word is used), and a voice designating Jesus as the Son of God is heard, this time coming from the Centurion.230 The inclusio that Moyter suggests seems to correspond well to what appears to be an intentional structural division in the book. The first half of the gospel is primarily concerned with Jesus’s glory (hidden though it often is) and therefore culminates in the transfiguration. Conversely, the second half is primarily concerned with Jesus’s abandonment and humiliation. For this reason, it fittingly culminates in his crucifixion.
After Jesus’s return from the wilderness, he engages in a series of deeds of power. He heals, works exorcisms, and forgives sins. He is the mighty one who has come to bind the strong man (Satan) and plunder his goods (3:23–29). This narrative of Jesus’s power culminates in the direct revelation of his glory in the transfiguration on Mount Tabor. In this event, Jesus reveals himself to be the hypostatized kavod that was encountered in the Old Testament by Israel. As Gathercole correctly notes, there is no indication that such glory is borrowed.231 A further indication of this is the fact that he is accompanied by Elijah and Moses, both of whom (as Donald Juel observes) were witnesses to theophonies on mountains (Exod 33; 1 Kgs 19).232 Lastly, he is encompassed with a thick cloud, which, as we have seen, is an Old Testament sign of God’s presence (Exod 19:18). God’s voice again pronounces Jesus to be his true Son and again thereby testifies to his glory as he did at the Jordan.
Jesus’s glorification is now followed again by humiliation. This time his humiliation culminates in the Father abandoning him to the cross. This downward turn is expressed in other ways as well. In the second half of the gospel, Jesus does very few miracles and speaks a great deal about his coming crucifixion. After instituting the Lord’s Supper, he travels to the garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is the pathway through which David fled Jerusalem when he was betrayed by Absalom (2 Sam 15:30). In the same manner, Jesus, the true king, is betrayed by Judas and his own nation. Jesus prays that he might have a reprieve from his destiny to suffer and die. The voice that came to him on the Jordan and at Tabor is now silent. Silence seems to indicate the Father has abandoned him. His faith in the Father’s Word nevertheless remains strong. Jesus ultimately accepts the “cup” (Mark 14:36) that the Father gives him. According to David Scaer, it is most likely that the “cup” Jesus speaks of is an allusion to the “cup of wrath” spoken of in Isaiah 51:22 and Jeremiah 25:16.233
In Gethsemane, Jesus is arrested and taken to the Sanhedrin. Before the high priest, Jesus is initially silent as is proper to his identity as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah who “did not open his mouth” (Isa 53:7).234 After a lengthy silence, he must finally answer the high priest regarding his identity: “Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:61–62). In other words, Jesus confesses that he is the human one and cosmic judge whose divine identity will be revealed when he shares the divine throne and glory cloud.235
The question has been frequently asked concerning whether Jesus’s “I am” in this confession constitutes a claiming of the divine Name. Even if this were not the case, Jesus’s confession still constitutes a claim of divinity, as the high priest’s accusation of blasphemy indicates (14:64). Gathercole notes that within later rabbinical circles the claim to have a heavenly throne was considered to be blasphemous because only God could claim to have such a throne. Therefore Jesus, in claiming to have a heavenly throne, was claiming to stand in the place of God.236 It should also be noted that Jesus’s description of the “Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven,” actually combines the Son of Man of Daniel 7 with Psalm 110’s description of the Melchizedekiah priest-king.237 As we have previously noted, both texts have strong messianic and theophonic connotations to them. These allusions and their connotations are only strengthened when read in the overall context of Mark’s gospel.
After being condemned by both the Sanhedrin and Pilate, Jesus is led out to be crucified. His crucifixion scene possesses strong sacrificial imagery borrowed from the Old Testament and contemporary Judaism. Earlier in the gospel, Jesus asserts that he will serve “to give his life as a ransom for many” (10:45). Some have noted that the use of the word “ransom” (lytron) is similar to the description of the substitution of monies for the firstborn in the LXX version of Numbers 3.238 Mark also tells us that Jesus is nailed to the cross at nine o’clock in the morning (15:25) and dies at three o’clock in the afternoon (v. 33). Arthur Just has noted that according to later Jewish tradition, sin offerings occurred in the