Think Wink.

This is the third post in my series on how Mark presents Jesus as the Christ, the Jewish Meshiyach, but there are only two (possibly three if you include Mark 15:39) explicit statements–Mark 8:29, Mark 14:61-62–that support his opening statement in Mark 1:1 where Jesus is called Christ, Χριστοῦ. In the first post, we looked at how Mark presents Jesus as the King and in the Old Testament the Israelite/Judahite king was anointed, mashach. In the second post, we looked at how Jesus is shown by Mark as the Prophet of Isaiah 61:1 who is anointed, mashach, by God. In this third post, we will look at how Mark presents Jesus as Meshiyach by seeing Christ as the Priest.

First let us see how the priest in the OT was a kind of meshiyach (if you can’t tell, I loosely refer to these OT officers as meshiyach). Let us look at Exodus 29:1-9,

1 Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, 2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3 You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. 4 You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. 6 And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7 You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. 8 Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, 9 and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.

So in Exodus 29:7 we see that the priest is anointed, “You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint (Hebrew: mashach; LXX: χρίσεις) him.” Thus if Jesus can be shown to be a priest, then Mark again has demonstrated that Jesus is the Christ. In Mark 6:46 Jesus is praying for himself and earlier in Mark 6:41 he said a prayer to bless the food of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. Also we see Jesus praying in Mark 14:32-42. Also Mark shows Jesus performing an extreme purification of the Temple, which the priests and Levites were supposed to do. In Mark 11:15-19 we see Jesus cleansing the Temple. Mark shows Jesus performing priestly functions.

Now most interesting is how Mark utilizes Malachi 3:1 in Mark 1:2. Let us compare Mark and Malachi. Mark writes,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face (πρὸ προσώπου σου), who will prepare your way (τὴν ὁδόν σου),

Malachi says,

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord (ha-adon) whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts.

Notice the pronouns in both texts. In Malachi 3:1 the pronouns are in the first person, “Behold, I (LXX: ἐγὼ) send my (LXX: μου) messenger, and he will prepare the way before me (προσώπου μου).” So in the statement uttered by Yahweh through Malachi is a statemnt about Yahweh coming. He is coming to his Temple. This is Yahweh coming. But then in Mark we see that the pronouns change and some second-person pronouns appear. We see in Mark 1:2, “Behold, I send (ἀποστέλλω, first-person verb) my messenger before your face (πρὸ προσώπου σου), who will prepare your way (τὴν ὁδόν σου).” So now the one sending is no longer the one coming after the messenger. Mark views John as the precursor of Jesus. He is “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark uses the conjunction καθὼς or “just as” to join the OT quote concerning John and the gospel of Christ. So Mark makes Malachi’s quote a statement of the Father to the Son concerning John the Baptist, Elijah. Thus the party who sends the messenger and the party who follows the messenger are both Yahweh, κύριος. The Father is κύριος and the Son is κύριος. Both are Yahweh (hence an argument for the diety of Christ). And Malachi announces that κύριος is coming to his Temple and Yahweh is the lord of the temple. Thus Jesus is above the tribe of Levi who is put in charge of the Temple because he is Yahweh, the Lord of the Temple. Therefore he can perform the duties of the Levitical priests. He is the one who set them apart over the temple in Exodus. This is a wonderful image that Mark paints and utilizes for Jesus’ Messiah-ship.

But what is going on in Malachi’s context (Malachi 3:1-5) is the Day of the Lord. He is coming to purify the Levitical priests because they were not fit to offer up pleasing sacrifices for Judah and Jerusalem. So he comes to refine them through judgment. One day Christ will come for his priests to purify and refine them so that they may offer up pleasing sacrifices. But this purification is not pleasing and is not something that will bring immediate joy. It will hurt and discourage. But the relationship that can be had once Yahweh purifies his people is one that is truly Psalm 16:11, pure joy and pleasures forevermore. When Jesus chastises his people, when you feel the thumb of God pressing down upon you, don’t wriggle but accept it. Embrace it and take joy from it. God is fitting you to worship him properly and correctly. He is purifying you so that you may enter his presence of joy. Let God kill you, refine you with fire by looking to the joy that you will have. Follow Jesus’ example in Hebrews 12:2 as he endured the cross and despised its shame because of and for the joy he will have on the other side of the cross. Let God rebuke you. His purposes will bless you more fully than you could possibly know. Let him be the Lord of your Temple.

Related posts:

Testifying without Testifying Part 2 of 3

Mark’s King Jesus

Testifying without Testifying Part 1 of 3