The Gospel According To MarkНамуна

Preparation for Jesus’ Suffering: Mark 8:31-9:29

The material describing Jesus’ preparation of his disciples can be divided into three main parts, each of which begins with him predicting his suffering, death and resurrection. The first section focuses on Jesus as Lord of the Kingdom in Mark 8:31–9:29. 

Mark began with a report of Jesus’ unexpected strategy for bringing God’s glorious kingdom to earth — namely Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection — which Mark explained in 8:31–9:1. Throughout his teachings in this section, Jesus talked about his own suffering, and warned his disciples that they would also have to suffer as they continued his gospel ministry. 

After this, Mark called attention to Jesus’ unique authority by reporting an event commonly known as the Transfiguration in Mark 9:2-13. In this event, Jesus’ glory was revealed visibly to Peter, James and John. Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus, indicating that Jesus affirmed and continued in the teachings of the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament. But God commanded the disciples to honor and obey Jesus above even Moses and Elijah. This event prepared Jesus’ disciples by reminding them to remain loyal to Jesus above all others and by encouraging them that loyalty to Jesus was the purest form of loyalty to God and his Old Testament revelation.

Finally, Mark focused on Jesus’ unique power by revealing his ability to control demons in Mark 9:14-29. Jesus’ disciples could not exorcise a particularly difficult demon, and Jesus taught that such demons could only be exorcised through prayer. But Jesus himself was able to cast out the demon with a simple command. In this way, he demonstrated his superiority over all others, and ensured his disciples that he had unlimited power to bring his will to pass. Regardless of the doubts and fears they were to experience when he was killed, his power should have encouraged them to stand fast in their faith in him.