Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 10 Study # 3
April 30, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:   It is important for us to understand that Mark was presenting Jesus as being motivated by both a strong leaning toward compassion as "motive" as well as a very strong hostility toward the demonic absence of it as "motive".

Introduction:   In our last two studies in Mark's record we saw two major issues: Jesus' healing of a leper was an "upping of the ante" in regard to His "authority"; and that Jesus' deliberate declaration of "willingness" to address the leper's physical plight was a revelation of the underlying "Why?" of His "agenda" (this is why I came). These are the two main issues of "The Gospel": is Jesus "authoritative" regarding His message, and "why?" does He want it declared?

This evening we are going to see that Mark used his record of the leper's cleansing to highlight two contrasting "attitudes" expressed by Jesus in respect to both His authoritative message and His motivation for proclaiming it.

• I. The First Issue: The Actual Content of the Text.
  • A. It came to light in our last study that there is a textual issue in 1:41 that forces our attention to Mark's focus on Jesus' "motivation".
    • 1. Some textual traditions have "hostility" as Jesus' "motivation" for His cleansing of the leper: they have the verb orgistheis as describing the driving cause of Jesus' "willingness" to cleanse the leper.
    • 2. Other textual traditions have "compassion" as Jesus' "motivation" for this cleansing: this verb is splagchnistheis.
    • 3. The facts are these...
      • a. The texual support for splagchnistheis is just slightly stronger than that for orgistheis.
      • b. But Mark's use of the two words is instructive.
        • 1) He deliberately used splagchnistheis in the later text of 9:22 to provide a contrast regarding the inherent characteristics of Jesus (a point we made in our last study).
        • 2) And, though he used splagchnistheis two other times in similarly themed texts (the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand), he did not use orgistheis at all anywhere in his record.
      • c. And there is a perfectly good argument for a change of the text by whatever copiest replaced splagchnistheis with orgistheis: Mark inserted into this record a "hostility" theme in 1:41.
        • 1) The use of "straitly charged" (Authorized Version), or "sternly warned" (NASB) is a use of a word that generally indicates a level of hostility (as 14:5 reveals [Mark's only other used of the word]).
        • 2) And the follow up verb, "sent him away" is a verb that is used by Mark in 18 texts of his record, the vast majority of which have to do with "casting out demons" (as in 1:34 and 1:39); thus, the issue of "hostility" is in the words of our text.
  • B. Thus, we have two issues: what made Jesus willing to cleanse the leper; and what made Jesus hostile in regard to the leper's inclination regarding his cleansing.
• II. The Second Issue: The Double Focus of the Text.
  • A. Mark's favorite "focus" word ("straightway") is in both 1:42 and in 1:43 (though you wouldn't know it by the translations).
    • 1. Mark wanted his readers to "focus" upon the reality that "as soon as" Jesus touched the man and said, "I am willing; be clean" the leprosy departed.
    • 2. And then Mark switched to another "focus": Jesus, after "straitly charging" the man, "forthwith" "cast him out" with a "strong demand".
  • B. Thus, Mark is emphasizing both Jesus' "authority" over leprosy and the leper's obvious rejection of that "authority" by exuberant disobedience.
    • 1. What the demons could not do (disobey Jesus when He cast them out), the leper did with great enthusiasm.
    • 2. The problem: Jesus meant what He demanded.
      • a. Mark's description of Jesus' attitude when He made His demand of the leper is couched in the word translated "sternly warned", which Mark only used one other time to describe an "attitude" of significant hostility (14:5) which Judas embraced so deeply that when Jesus rebuked him he went out to betray Him (see John 12:4-6).
      • b. Mark's emphasis upon Jesus' attitude is reinforced by his second verb ("sent him away").
• III. The "Point".
  • A. Jesus is "compassionate".
  • B. But He is also "deeply hostile".

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This is article #070.
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