Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
January 9, 2024
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Mark's "stage setting" for his last big "push" to establish the identity of Jesus as the King of God's Kingdom is set within the boundaries of the blind man's "faith".
Introduction: In our last study, we wound up our consideration of Bartimaeus' "faith" as an expression of "faith" in the prophecies regarding Messiah in Isaiah 35 where the restoration of sight to the blind was one of the marks of the identity of Messiah.
This evening we are going to begin to look into how great a contradiction there was between the "faith" of Bartimaeus and the coming events that occurred immediately after Jesus was acclaimed to be "Messiah" by the crowd in Jerusalem.
- I. "And When They Are Drawing Near Into Jerusalem Into Bethphage And Into Bethany Toward The Mountain Of The Olives..."
- A. This is the setting for this final element in the chiasm regarding the Kingdom.
- B. Mark switches to the Present Tense of the verbs that he uses to record this story.
- 1. This is indicative of the importance of this final paragraph.
- a. We have seen that Mark did this on multiple occasions as we have looked into his "Gospel"; thus, we know that it is one of his literary devices to indicate the importance of the records where the present tense is used in historical narrative rather than the typical "past tense" (Aorist Tense).
- b. That this paragraph is the final presentation of the truth that has been the focus of attention since 9:1, we are not surprised that Mark used the tenses of the verbs to elevate the record in terms of its importance/significance.
- 2. Linguistic devices have their place in lieu of all of the things that are available to a speaker and his/her audience.
- C. The "approaching" is recorded in terms of a present tense verb ("eggizousin").
- 1. Mark only used this verb in three places in his Gospel.
- a. The message of Jesus in Galilee is summarized by Mark in 1:15 with the heart of it being "the kingdom of God has drawn near" (Perfect Tense), with the attendant imperatives of "Repent" and "Believe", both cast in terms of continuous action in the present time.
- 1) The continuous (on-going) action signals the constant presence of "need".
- 2) The "need(s)" are for a persistent recognition of one's inadequacies that is coupled to a persistent recognition of His willingness to provide for what is needed.
- 3) This "nearness" is not unlike 9:1 and following where "seeing the Kingdom come with power" refers to the transfiguration of the King as a "powerful" occurrence that is focused upon the King and not the realm of a kingdom.
- 4) In this case the "Kingdom" is announced as having already come "near".
- b. The second place is in our current text. In this text, they are already "near" (within a short walking distance). In this case, the "Kingdom" is illustrated by the powerful transfiguration.
- c. The third place is in Jesus' statement that Judas (has drawn near; Perfect Tense) in 14:42.
- 1) This text reveals that "near" is "immediately present in close proximity".
- 2) In this case, the betrayer of the King/Kingdom is set to turn Jesus over to the powers of the wicked in the world.
- 3) This is the "hiccup" that indicates a "problem" for the establishment of the Kingdom that, as it turned out, set the stage for the age of the mystery of the Church that has taken 2,000 years of human history to play out.
- 2. The "approach" is identified by references to Jerusalem, Bethphage, Bethany, and the Mountain of The Olives.
- a. "Into Jerusalem".
- 1) The closest prior references to our text regarding Jerusalem are 10:32-33. These two verses set the stage for what is to happen to Jesus when He goes into Jerusalem.
- 2) Jesus' prediction of these events was completely off the chart in terms of the Messianic expectation of The Twelve.
- b. Into Bethphage.
- 1) There are only three references to this village in the New Testament and all three are in parallel references to the events of our current study.
- 2) The name itself is given the description of "the house of unripe figs" by Strong's concordance and may well figure into the record of the cursing of the fig tree in the very next paragraph (11:12-14).
- c. (Into) Bethany.
- 1) Three of the four references to this village by Mark are in this one context, as the place where Jesus was staying as He went to and from Jerusalem.
- 2) The fourth reference is 14:3, the place where Jesus was staying is identified as the home of Simon the Leper.
- a) In this context, the record of the anointing of Jesus by an unnamed woman who poured a vial of very costly nard over Jesus' head. This record is pretty much an identical record to that of John 12:1-8 in which Mary is identified as that woman. The two records are not specific enough to tell us the link between Simon and Mary (husband, brother, ???).
- b) This context puts the focus upon the coming the coming burial of Jesus, which, again, introduces His looming death by treachery and in strong contradiction to the "hope" of the disciples.
- d. "Toward the mountain of the olives".
- 1) The use of "mountain" by Mark varies in significance, but it was upon a mountain where Jesus chose The Twelve (3:13; initial reference to "mountain"). It was upon "the mountain" that Jesus was transfigured (9:2). It was also upon the mountain of the olives that Jesus instructed the disciples in regard to the coming time of great tribulation upon the earth.
- 2) It was on the Mountain of The Olives that Jesus was betrayed.
- 3) It is also, by prophecy, the Mountain of The Olives where Jesus' foot will land at His second coming and the mountain will split into two pieces (Zechariah 14:3-5).
- D. Each of the places mentioned by Mark have overtones of the approaching climax of the conflict between the powers of this world and Jesus, the King, wherein it will initially seem to be a massive defeat for Jesus.
