Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.2008, Page 35

are also to be rulers who are not rulers. The first Markan passion prediction
leads to the criticism of Peter and then an appeal to the disciples and the
crowd — to anyone who wants to follow Jesus — to take the way of the
cross (8:32-38). The second passion prediction leads to a criticism of the
quest for greatness by any of the community’s leaders, to an invitation for
these leaders to welcome the marginalized and powerless of the world, and
to a criticism of John for trying to forbid others who are doing the work of
Christ but not following his own group (9:33-42). But the third passion
prediction leads to an even more explicit criticism of the leaders — first
of James and John and then of all the leaders (10:35-45). Instead of the
desired places of power, James and John are offered the paradoxical cup
and baptism of Jesus. These are, of course, symbols of the central rites of
the community, rites in which the leaders of the assembly preside. But,
in Mark’s Gospel, they are also strong symbols of Jesus’ death. Indeed,
the seat “at the right hand and at the left,” the supposedly powerful places
that James and John are coveting but that they do not understand and that
Jesus cannot give, are the very places reserved for executed bandits (15:27).
Power here is never what it appears to be. Then the rest of the twelve,
imaged as angry because they also want a share of the power, are also invited
to the way of service. Among the nations, leaders act as lords and tyrants.
It is not to be so in the Christian community. Rather leaders are to be
table-servers, diakonoi, and slaves to the well being of the community, just
as Jesus also serves at table and gives his life for the great crowd, the many,
the hoi polloi.
The story then turns toward the account of the passion itself and does
so utilizing a fascinating turning point (10:46-52). Just as we have had
scribes in the story up to now, symbolic of values contrary to those of the
needed leadership in the Christian community, so now we come across a
leader from the nations. Or, rather, we come across such a leader’s son,
functioning here — like the scribes — as a symbol. Literate, Greek-
speaking people of Mark’s time knew that Timaeus himself, the primary
speaker in the Timaeus, the most widely read of Plato’s dialogues and the
one of the most widely read books of the ancient world, was supposed to
be both a Pythagorean philosopher and a statesman from the Greek city of
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