Mark's Gospel as sequel: Understanding the backstory, part III: David (1)

 


     From the very first verses of his Gospel, Mark plugs his story into the narrative of the Hebrew Scriptures (i.e., Old Testament).  Mark has written a story (Gospel) about a first-century Jew who lived in Northern Palestine (Galilee).  Mark is presenting the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of the story of Israel, which began in Gn. 12.1-3 with God’s calling of Abra(ha)m.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and all the other OT characters were part of the “people of God”, the family that God promised to give to Abraham that would be God’s agent of salvation in the world.  God revealed his name (Yahweh) to Moses in Ex. 3.14, and as the Israelites gathered at the base of Mt. Sinai, Yahweh renewed and expanded the covenant that he had first established with Abraham (Ex. 19—20; cf. Gn. 12, 15, 17).  A covenant is a sacred agreement made between God and his people, with promises of blessing for faithfulness and cursing for unfaithfulness (cf. Dt. 28—30).  Mark’s “Gospel” (i.e., “good news”) is the astounding and incredible news that Yahweh has kept the promises he made to his people throughout the 20 centuries which had passed since Abraham.  Yahweh has proved himself faithful (i.e., “righteous”, “just”) to his covenant promises, despite the persistent unfaithfulness of his people Israel.

     To fully understand Mark’s “sequel” to the Scriptures of Israel, we need to look at 7 previous “episodes”, 7 OT characters who shed light on what Mark is saying about John the Baptist and Jesus in chapter 1.  The third character from the “original story” is David.  David had been the greatest king that Israel had ever known, and reigned during the 11th century B.C.  However, David had had rather humble origins, being the youngest of the 8 sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite (cf. 1 Samuel 16.1-11).  Not only this, but following his legendary victory over the giant Goliath and a successful career as a general in King Saul’s army (cf. 1 Samuel chapters 17—20), David lost everything due to the king’s jealousy and spent many years on the run for his life with a band of men who were loyal to him (cf. 1 Samuel 21.1-9; cf. 22.1-2).  The first of the four references to David in Mark’s Gospel occurs when Jesus makes mention of an episode from David’s life as a fugitive in Mk. 2.23-28 and claims that he is behaving in a way that resembles that of David (sitting loose to the stipulations of the Mosaic Law in favour of an urgent human need, i.e., hunger).

     Jesus’ baptism by John resembles David’s anointing by the prophet Samuel (compare Mk. 1.9-11 with 1 Samuel 16.12-13).  In both instances, the recipient of the blessing (baptism, anointing) also receives the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.  Another parallel between David and Jesus is that when they are designated as king or Son of God, there is no immediate change in their circumstances.  After having been anointed, David resumed his duties as keeper of his father’s sheep; for his part, Jesus actually experienced a loss of status following his baptism, as he abandoned his conventional village life in Nazareth and undertook a “career” of itinerant preaching/healing.  As David was pursued by King Saul, Jesus was on the radar of King Herod Antipas who killed John the Baptist in dubious circumstances (cf. Mk. 6.14-29; Lk. 13.31-33).  There is much more to say about how David foreshadows Jesus…

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