Think Wink.

Today I want to continue my look at Mark 1:14-15 and Mark’s record of Jesus’ first public statement.

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

What I am really trying to put my head around these days is what Jesus means by “The time is fulfilled.” The Greek reads πεπλήρωται ὁ καιρὸς. What time was fulfilled. How did Jesus expect his hearers to understand him? How did Mark expect his readers to understand Jesus’ statement? The aim of this post is for me to just put down my struggles with this text and my attempts to contemplate what is to be seen in this text.

First let us get our heads around the nominative in Jesus statement ὁ καιρὸς. This is the word the ESV translates “time.” It occurs five times in the gospel according to Mark.

Mark 1:15 ESV - “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 10:30 ESV - “who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Mark 11:13 ESV- “And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”

Mark 12:2 ESV - “When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.”

Mark 13:33 ESV - “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”

In Mark 11:13 and Mark 12:2, ὁ καιρὸς refers to a season for farming. We read about whether it was the “season” for figs or harvest. In Mark 13:33 the term takes on eschatological meaning as it refers to the time when Jesus returns and specifically destroys the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 at the hands of Emperor Vespasian, his son General Titus, and the Roman Legions–but also by implication the parousia of Jesus at the end of the age. In Mark 10:30, “time” refers to the present dispensation of the church-age. But how does Mark mean for us to understand ὁ καιρὸς in Mark 1:15 and Jesus declaration of the time being fulfilled? Well, we can see that he does not refer to time as in a calendar or time measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days etc. But Mark really does use ὁ καιρὸς in 1:15 like he does in the other four occurrences. I think the best parallel is Romans 13:11-14 ESV where Paul says

11 Besides this you know the time [τὸν καιρόν], that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Here Paul is speaking about putting away the old things, the “works of darkness,” and to “make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” Why? The “the hour has come for [us] to wake from sleep” and that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Paul says in 13:12, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.” Two things strike me. First is the parallel between “The night is far gone” in Romans and “The time is fulfilled” in Mark; and the parallel with “the day is at hand” and “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Second, Paul uses the exact same word, tense, mood, voice, and person as Mark in 1:15 for the kingdom being “at hand.” The parallel would be this, ὁ καιρὸς parallel “night” and “day” parallels the kingdom of God.

(Allow me to refresh my understanding of Mark and his relationship to Paul. Paul speaks of Mark in extremely favorable terms in Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24. The sharp disagreement and disapproval that Paul had with and over Mark in Acts 13 and Acts 15 was healed. So Mark does have much insight into Paul’s theology and no doubt has incorporated Paul’s views into his own. Also, Mark was most likely writing in Rome to the church in Rome and so he would have this epistle at hand and that his audience would be very familiar with.

Peter and Mark had a very strong relationship with Mark as well. Peter went to the house of Mark’s mother in Acts 12 after his miraculous release from prison and Peter calls Mark “my son” in 1 Peter 5:13. Tradition has it that Mark wrote down or “translated” for Peter the life of Christ. Peter’s use of ὁ καιρὸς is very eschatological as well [cf. 1 Peter 1:5, 11; 4:17; 5:6].)

Thus Jesus and Mark have in mind the season in which the world was under darkness and walking in the night. The dominion of Satan, sin, and the law is over. The time for salvation is at hand (although I would almost argue that Paul might be referring to the fall of Jerusalem in Romans 13:11). The light has come, it is day time. Think of it in terms of Narnia and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The winter is over, spring is here.

I also tend to think of this statement in that of the way Paul speaks of the law in Galatians 3:22-25 ESV,

22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

The time of the old things, the darkness, our imprisonment under our guardian the law is over. In Mark 1:15, Mark uses the word πεπλήρωται. It is the perfect passive indicative of πληρόω, which means “I make full.” It speaks of the time being full and complete. The time under which the world was under its guardian has been fulfilled, it is complete. The time to live in the darkness and the sin that lies therein is over. The day has dawned. We are free. Christ has come and died in our behalf creating peace between us and God (cf. Romans 5:6 and Paul’s use of ὁ καιρὸς there) and bringing with him the light (cf. John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Ephesians 3:9; 5:8-14). The time of darkness and death is over, the light of life has come.

I think this would speak measures to both Jesus’ audience and Mark’s audience. It would be a beacon of hope to say that the old season of law, sin, darkness, death, and us being at enmity with God is over. The eschatological age has come in Jesus and his person and work. For Jesus’ audience, they might think of Jesus throwing off the shackles of Roman oppression. For Mark’s audience, it would serve as a reminder to strive to fight to be children of light, as Paul urges. Mark’s Roman audience would remember that Jesus brought forth an age in which we make war not with governments who oppose our faith, but our internal sin and our great adversary the devil. The time of fighting each other is over. It is time to take the fight to the real enemy: our flesh.

So let us join in Mark’s cry to fight for holiness. This new year, realize that the power and season of darkness is over. The law has fulfilled its role to imprison us in that darkness and now it is time to walk in the light. We can walk in the daytime as children of light who have put on the armor of light and Jesus Christ, making no provision for the flesh and gratifying its desires.

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