The Demands of the King
Today we come again to Mark 1:14-15
. I think I might have one more meditation on this passage and then I will bring this series to a close. Mark writes for us,
Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”
Having made his announcement that the times of old have been fulfilled, all that the Old Covenant was supposed be and do has come to be realized by Jesus Christ; and that Jesus, the King of Kings, has come with the full authority of God’s kingdom, Jesus gives two commands: repent, believe the gospel. What do these commands look like in light that the king has come with and in his kingdom? In what way was Jesus/Mark wanting his hearers/readers to repent and believe in the gospel?
Let us look at each command individually and start with repent. The Greek term is μετανοεῖτε. It is a 2nd person plural, present active imperative verb. Etymologically, the word command μετανοεῖτε is based upon two words μετα and νοῦς. It means to change one’s mind or perceptions. It is to no longer to think a certain way. So what I think, based upon the etymology of μετανοεῖτε is that it is to no longer to live as one who is under the Old Covenant times where the Law imprisoned us under sin but now to live under the kingdom of God. It is a change in allegiance from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
But the nature of the imperative nuance this somewhat. The present tense nature of the verb really indicates a continuous aspect to the action. Jesus’ command really could be translated like this, “Be always repenting.” The action is formulated in such away as to make it our lifestyle to repent of the former world view and lifestyle to the one that is of the kingdom of God. Jesus/Mark speaks such a way to say that we cannot go back, and should not go back.
So to Jesus’ Jewish audience, Jesus is commanding his fellow Jews to look to the King and his kingdom. But to do that, they must look away from the Law that does not save, that was not even intended to save them. Their salvation is found in Jesus and his kingdom inaugurating work. And the true sign that the kingdom came with Jesus is his resurrection. So his audience should no longer look to the Levitical priests to represent them before God, look to Jesus who is the Priest-King promised in Psalm 110:4. Do not look to the sacrifices for their propitiation and expiation, look to Jesus and his work on the cross. Do not look to Herod for protection, look to Jesus. Do not look to the temple as the place to meet God, look at the king of God’s kingdom: Jesus (which sound’s like an implicit argument for the deity of Jesus).
To Mark’s audience, Mark does not want his audience to return to Rome for salvation from the persecution. They are being persecuted by Nero to shift blame from himself for the fire in Rome in the summer of AD 64. Don’t go back to him and deny Christ as your King. The King of kings, the Emperor of emperors, is Jesus. They must see that and not turn back to the empire as their hope.
For a contemporary 21st century, post-modern Western world, the command is something else. The West embraces sin and does not see sin for what it is. Some European countries use their word for sin, not in the negative way that the Bible uses it, but in a positive way. We must see sin for what it is: an affront to the glory of God and his Christ. Sin is not okay and something to be embraced. Murder of innocent babies is not okay. Suicide is not okay. Divorce is not okay. God hates these things and those who practices them. But this isn’t the only application of this command to our contemporary world. Post-modernism embraces pluralism, especially religious pluralism. “You believe what you want, I believe what I want. We are all trying to get to the same place and we will all get their our own way. So don’t you dare try to tell me that you are right and I am wrong.” That is the pluralistic view of the Western World. We must understand that God has his kingdom and his King. We cannot think that we can all get into that kingdom without first swearing allegiance to that King! We must realize this reality, this truth, if their is any hope of achieving eternal life. God is not playing games here on this issue. God has placed the second person of the Trinity over his Kingdom to rule until all his enemies are made a footstool under his feet (cf. Psalm 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28). Jesus says “For whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40) The converse is true (cf. Matthew 12:30): whoever is not for Jesus and his kingdom is against Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus also says in Matthew 10:33, “whoever denies me before people, I will deny him also before my Father in heaven.” If we deny Jesus in this lifetime, then the King of God’s kingdom will deny us before God. The one whom God says he loves and delights in (Mark 1:11) will tell his Father that he does not know that person who denied him. Jesus will not let that person into the Father’s Kingdom that he rules over.
The second command in Mark 1:15 is to πιστεύετε. The verb is also a 2nd person plural, present active imperative. It is from the verb πιστεύω which means to trust. So Jesus is saying, “Be trusting…” What are we to trust? What is the object of this trust, this faith, this belief? Mark/Jesus answers the question, ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ, “in the gospel.” But what is the gospel. Mark 1:14 says that Jesus went into the Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God. The declaration, as we saw in the previous two posts, is that the times of sin, satan, and the Mosaic Law are over and that God’s kingdom has come in the person of its king: Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah. The kingdom was the in the person of its king. So Jesus is saying to trust in the good news that the king has come with his kingdom, trust the good news.
To the Jewish audience of Jesus, he is commanding them to no longer trust in the things of the Old Covenant and the Mosaic Law. Do not trust in the things that only looked forward to the coming of the Messiah and his kingdom. Do not trust your blood to get you favor with God, trust the one whom God said he loves and has installed as the the King over God’s kingdom. Trust in what he does. Believe in the one who you see healing the sick and casting out demons. Trust the one who can multiply some fish and loaves into a meal to feed thousands. Trust the one who raises the dead to life. Trust the one who took a man born blind and gave him sight. Trust him as your Messiah to intercede for you before God.
To Mark’s audience, the message is slightly nuanced. The one who raised from the dead is worthy of our trust and he commands it. He can control the weather, the seas, the devils. He has the authority to raise people from the grave. Nero cannot do anything to those who have sold themselves to Christ as his slave for that person is a coheir with Christ to God’s kingdom. Jesus, who can raise himself from the grave, can and will raise you from the grave. Entrust your soul to his care! Do not fear Nero but trust the king.
In today’s culture, authority is shunned. It is looked down upon. The individual is regarded as supreme. Jesus’ message stands in stark contrast to that ideal. Jesus is the King and he commands us to trust him as our King and central and sole authority. He has died and been raised and that resurrection establishes Christ as the Lord of the universe. It validates God’s enthronement of Christ at the baptism scene (Mark 1:9-11). Trust Christ. Confess him. Follow him, believing in his promises for salvation. Bow your knee to his kingship.
The church today needs to hear this message urgently for 2 reasons: 1.) the church trusts too much in political officials for salvation; 2.) the church is too hypocritical and inauthentic to speak to the world today. Too often the church looks to Washington D.C. to be the place where the culture war is fought and lost. The conservative view of morality is trying to be legislated upon the United States. But the Old Covenant tells us with great power and clarity that morality cannot be legislated upon hard hearts of stone. It doesn’t work. No king in Jerusalem, no priest in the temple, could make the people follow after Yahweh. And the same is true today. No president, senator, judge, or representative can make a pagan, pluralistic, fallen society enslaved to sin obey God’s laws without an internal change. Until this postmodern world decides to follow Christ FIRST, legislating Christ-like godly laws will only stir up their rebellion and sin. The church needs to get back to making Christ followers, not moral people. This nation needs Christ the King, not a president or a congress or a supreme court.
But not only does this overly political posture turn people away from Christ, the church will preach at the sins of a lost and sinful world without acknowledging and confessing and trying to walk worthy of their calling to be holy and blameless in love before a holy God who is of purer eyes to behold evil. The postmodern world looks upon the church to see Jesus and Jesus looks no more appealing than their own sinful lifestyles. In fact, some may not see any difference. And instead of preaching the grace of Christ to save sinners (I am not saying we should not preach against sin, but let us direct our sermons inwards first) we tell them how loving Jesus is as we condemn them for their actions. They aren’t hearing the mercy of Jesus, they are hearing the Law of Moses. While they must be brought to see their sin, our message must be of the grace of Christ and the joy there is in knowing Jesus and being known by him. We must become more authentic in our lives and in our message. We must heed Jesus commands to repent and trust that Christ can save this postmodern, pluralistic world if we will only trust him to do so. He is after all the King of kings, Lord of lords, and there is more joy found in our King than anywhere else. So why not show it and tell this world about that joy?
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I was hoping to ask a question, do you think that Mark was written after 64 A.D.? Also, I am puzzled by this post in that you are saying that Jesus is telling them to look toward the King, Himself, stop looking at the Levitical priests and the temple; to trust Him rather than the Law, to see the Old Covenant replaced and to trust in the one that does these miracles that have yet to be performed?
All of that seems odd, it would be clear then that Jesus was saying that He was King and that He was the sacrifice for sins and there was no need for the priests or the animal sacrifices and that the Old Covenant has been replaced. Huh?
Magnus
First as to the date, I do believe that this text was written during the period of Nero’s persecution of the Christian church in Rome and that Mark is writing this life of Jesus and the gospel that Jesus preached to encourage the Christians there to persevere in their faith in the King.
As to your second question, I think that is one of the points that Jesus, and thus Mark, are making. The time of the Old Covenant and the Law of Moses have been fulfilled. Jesus has come. But in some ways, Jesus is the eschatological reality that the Old Covenant was anticipating. Thus the Law and the Old Covenant are pointing to Christ and his New Covenant. But Mark is also wanting to his people to look away from Rome and Nero and rescinding their confession of Jesus in order to escape the persecution. Mark wants them to look to Jesus as their King and protector. Even though they may die physically, Jesus holds their souls in his hands. Also, this government was allowed to do what it does by Jesus and so they must trust their King for understanding in that time of persecution.
I really encourage you and everyone else to look into New Covenant Theology and that line of thinking. D. A. Carson really puts forward a lot views that are striking similar to NCT (although I don’t think he calls himself NCT). Having studied NCT I really think they have the best way of looking at the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Here is a page that can get you started.
Hank,
Forgive me in not being clear, I am not the best at expressing my thoughts so I will try to ask my question in a different way.
Let us leave the question of when was mark written because it really has little to do with my overall question. I understand that it is your view that Mark was writing to encourage the Christians under persecution from Rome, but my question is what were the people thinking when Jesus first came upon the scene and this happened? This is before the miracles, before the crucifixion, before the resurrection, what where they thinking?
When I read it I can see that the Old Covenant has passed because I have the luxury of knowing the ending of the text, but these people did not. So how would a Jew take it when Jesus said repent and believe the Gospel?
Thanks for the link, I will study it.
Magnus
Well Magnus,
It is hard to say how Jesus made the declaration initially, and thus gage the reaction of his hearers. Did he perform a miracle and then speak of the kingdom coming? Or did he just make the declaration? I can only go by what is in the text. So I have to assume, given Mark’s reading, that Jesus just announced the kingdom coming.
How would an Israelite understand this proclamation? What did Jesus intend by the statement? These are two different questions. I believe that Jesus was stating that the kingdom of God had come in the person of Jesus. Thus the Old Covenant of Israel, and the nation that was part of that covenant, was fulfilled or fully realized in Jesus (NCT terminology).
But Jesus’ audience might not have heard this or seen this typology. The Gospel writers intend for us to look at the life of Jesus through the lens of the cross and empty tomb. They would not have looked at Jesus’ statement this way. Some Israelites would have thought Jesus was going to get himself killed by the Romans for sedition. Some might have thought Jesus was crazy. Others, if he made this proclamation like he taught in Mark 1:22, 27
, then they would have been amazed and even captivated by it and yearned to learn more. They probably thought the kingdom of heaven in terms of Israel’s restoration to her former glory under David and Solomon. Bottom line, there was probably a mixed reaction that I cannot fully ascertain. I’m sure it people’s reactions landed somewhere between the extreme doubt and skepticism and the other extreme of the Jewish Zealots. Depends upon the individual’s presuppositions upon hearing Jesus’ words.
Hank,
Thank you for that and it has helped clarify it a bit more. I always want to know what something means and how people reacted toward it. I was recently in a similar discussion about John 3:14
where I was trying to see how Nicodemus would not have taken it as Jesus referring to his crucifixion and the atonement but was told that this is all it could have meant. I still have a hard time with that because Nicodemus would not have any reference to that, all he had was that just as the serpent had to be lifted up/placed for all to see so must Jesus and his message be brought to all people’s view/attention.
Anyways, thank you for your work and your replies. I read your site on a regular basis and love it when you do exegis of Scripture.