Mark

Hisako Kinukawa is Co-Director of the Center for Feminist Theology and Ministry in Japan and teaches feminist liberation theology, biblical interpretation, and gender issues in the scriptures at International Christian University, Lutheran Theological Seminary, and St. Paul Graduate School in Tokyo. A member of the Coordinating Committee of the Asian Women’s Resource Center [Malaysia], she is on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Asian feminist journal, In God’s Image. Her publications includes Women and Jesus in Mark: A Japanese Feminist Perspective (1994) and many articles.

Mark

Hisako Kinukawa

Introduction: Powers at Work in Our World

My Life-Context

I live in Japan, a country that plays a significant role in globalizing the free market economy that undergirds capitalism. As is well known, Japan has colonized underdeveloped countries and benefited from hiring laborers at low wages in these countries. I cannot practice my hermeneutics of the Scriptures without critically analyzing both my own socio-cultural context and the political and economic context of my country in relation to other countries. I cannot forget the Asian countries that my country has invaded and colonized: in the past through war, and recently as one of the significant economic powers. I must painfully acknowledge the history of Japanese relations with other Asian countries. I must understand the victimization, pain, and suffering that other Asians endure and acknowledge my country’s guilt.

At the same time, under the all-encompassing umbrella of its ally, the United States, Japan has recently been in danger of losing its autonomy. After 9/11(September 11, 2001), the government has been trying to replace the most important article of our constitution, Article 9, which declares Japan would never fight another war, with a new law. I might say that Japan is invisibly colonized by the power of the United States, and thus Japan is both a colonizing and a colonized nation.

To be politically or culturally critical of my own country, especially its government, directly raises another serious question, namely the meaning of discipleship in the Christian churches in our country. If we want to dialogue with the Scriptures, we must expose ourselves to the political, social, economic, cultural, and religious situations of the ancient world where the writings were born and where the people did not necessarily enjoy peace and justice. Through this process, I would like to learn what the Gospel of Mark might have to say to Christians who seek peace and justice for the world and yet who live in an oppressive[mlp1] country like mine.

Because of my interests and concerns, my study focuses on the power relationships at work in certain texts Mark recorded in his gospel. What kinds of powers are covertly working as a hidden agenda underneath the easily grasped open, surface agenda ? Under the oppression that people experienced in the time of Jesus and the early Christian communities, what did Jesus teach the disciples to be? What did Mark intend to convey to his community of faith, a community that was also assaulted by various oppressive powers that complicated the believers’ lives? I would like to dig into the texts of Mark so that I may discern and embrace the urgent task that Christian churches in my country are called to undertake. My reading of Mark will also question the internalized and individualized faith commonly found among many believers in our churches to help them hear what Mark has to say about economic and political powers. Hearing this message, Christian believers in Japan’s churches might adopt a post-colonial and post-imperial discipleship in line with Jesus’ teaching.

An Overview of Mark

For this, we must first recognize, with Ched Myers and others, that the Gospel of Mark constantly concerns itself with the establishment of a new order: the kingdom of God. In line with this concern, we can outline the Gospel as follows (adapted from Myers):

1:1-20 Prologue and Jesus’ call to discipleship: a subversive call and mission;

1:21–3:35 Jesus’ assault on the Jewish social order in Capernaum;

4:1-36 Jesus’ sermon in parables on revolutionary patience;

4:37–8:21 Jesus’ miracles as construction of a new social order and the execution of John;

8:22–9:30 Second call to discipleship, the courtroom, and the cross;

9:30–10:52 Teaching on the non-violent construction of a new social, economic, and political order;

11:1–13:3 Jesus’ confrontation with the powers in Jerusalem;

13:4-37 Jesus’ apocalyptic sermon on revolutionary patience;

14:1–16:8 Arrest, trials, execution by the powers, and resurrection;

I have chosen to focus my comments on three narratives, Mark 5:1-20, 7:24-30, and 9:14-29, which are usually categorized as miracle stories. Yet, none of them seems to be recorded simply for the sake of telling the miracles. The believers might have first transmitted these stories as oral traditions about the healing miracles they experienced. However, Mark may have used them with a subtextual or hidden agenda that I will attempt to disclose.

Contextual Comments

The Story of the Gerasene Demoniac: Mark 5:1-20

Issues We See in the Story

As we read this story, we are first astonished to encounter: 1) an extended description of the demoniac’s condition and behavior, and 2) the strange power that the demons have over this man. When the demons claim that their name is “Legion,” we first suspect that the story may refer to the Roman Empire’s colonial and military dominion. Thus, I propose to pursue the following questions: What kinds of power relationships are at work in this story? Why does the story tell us that the exorcism by Jesus took place in a foreign setting? Who is this Gerasene man with unclean spirits? Who are the people who ask Jesus to leave the region?

The Region of the Gerasenes

The story tells us that Jesus and his followers crossed the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. As many have pointed out, the city of Gerasa is located some 55 kilometers or 30 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Gerasa is one of the ten cities of the Decapolis, and the story seems to identify it with the whole of Decapolis (5:20).

Decapolis was a loose confederation of territories created by the Roman Empire when Pompey integrated Syria into the Empire in 63 b.c.e. and liberated the Hellenistic cities on the east side of the river Jordan from Jewish control. The Roman legions stayed in the region to keep peace. Gerasa was one of the main Hellenistic cities that prospered through commerce. Jews continued to reside in the region. This historical background may be enough for us to suspect that the story reflects the tensions between the people of the Decapolis and the Roman legions, between the people of the Decapolis and their Jewish neighbors, as well as the tension between Palestinian Jews and Rome as a colonial power.

The Demoniac: a Man with Unclean Spirits

The story describes the situation of the sick man very vividly, repeating the gruesome words chains (three times), shackles (twice), and tombs (twice). The man is violently out of self-control; he behaves like a wild animal and even injures himself.. The efforts of people to keep him chained and shackled are in vain. He continues to desecrate the graveyard, a sacred area, by living among the tombs, the space of the dead. The social and economic implications are clear: he has lost all relationship with his family; he has been cut off from all human contacts; thus he certainly feeds himself by begging from the people who visit the tombs to venerate their dead ancestors and relatives or taking the food brought for the dead. Though living, he is treated as dead. Physically isolated from his kin, totally marginalized from the community, and considered unclean, he is socially alienated as “other.” In sum, he symbolizes the outcasts from society.

The story also shows how utterly subject to the extraordinary force of the unclean spirits the man is. Who are these unclean spirits? The story states that the possessed man ran out to Jesus (5:6-7). Jesus, however, spoke not to the man, but to the unclean spirit, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit” (5:8). After the detailed description of the man’s wild behavior, the unclean spirits—the cause of the man’s sickness—are the center of attention. For the readers in the Hellenistic world and Jewish society this was not surprising; exorcism was a common practice.

Some scholars point out possible social or cultural allusions: the possessed or mentally disturbed man might symbolize disabled people unable to maintain proper social relations in their community. The man’s abnormal behavior might be his way of struggling with harsh circumstances. Or the man might represent someone with a mind colonized by demons, someone who has internalized the collective anxiety of a community under social, political, economic, or religious oppression. A subjugated community might repress its anguish and turn on itself, as symbolized by the possessed man. This latter interpretation is plausible and supported by the way in which the story describes the total control that the demons have upon the man. Thus, Jesus’ exorcism can be read as a politically symbolic action against severe exploitation that prevents people from living decent, human lives.

The Demon whose Name Is Legion

The reality of this exploitation becomes clearer when the demon replies, “My name is Legion; for we are many” (5:9). The name reveals the origin of the social, political, and economic oppression at the center of the story: the Roman Empire and its military might be stationed in the Decapolis. Usually a legion consists of five thousand to six thousand infantry, 120 cavalry, and associated auxiliaries organized into two or three legions, of about two thousand soldiers each. When the story says that the spirits request “Send us into the swine; let us enter them” (5:12) and that, when they did so, “the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea” (5:13), the story suggests that Mark chose the words, legion and swine to mock the oppressing Romans. Sometimes swine is used as a metaphor for foreigners, because most Jews avoid swine as unclean and inedible (Lev 11:7-8, Deut 14:8, Isa 65:4). Since a herd usually does not include more than three hundred swine, this herd functions symbolically. And since the number two thousand approximately corresponds to the size of a legion, it is another indication that this herd symbolizes a legion, possibly the Tenth Legion Fretensis, that was stationed in Syria since 6 c.e., and fought against Jerusalem in the 66-70 war(Theissen 1991, 110). This legion’s standard included the image of a boar, and thus the boar/swine was quite possibly part of the legion’s religious rituals.

The Aftermath of the Exorcism

The unclean spirits, “Legion,” were exorcised from the man and driven into the swine that were drowned in the sea. The story states, “The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country” (5:14). The swineherds are astonished and shocked. Considering the loss of their huge herd, for them this is an economic disaster. As hired hands of the owners of the herd, they will lose their livelihood and might be held responsible for the loss.

The owners, despite their higher economic and social status, will also be significantly affected by this economic loss. They were benefiting from Rome’s colonial rule. For them, the presence of the legion to which they supplied food guaranteed a secure life. Despite Rome’s oppressive control , these owners, and even the swineherds, were not eager to see a change of the status quo.

Yet the story implicitly insists that the removal of the Roman colonial control is imperative for the demoniac and thus for society’s outcasts; they need to be liberated. But removing the legion threatens others; it would destabilize the whole structure of society and bring with itpolitical dangers. Therefore the story continues: “They began to beg him to leave their neighborhood” (5:17). Those inviting Jesus to leave (they were tentatively beginning to ask him to leave) are most certainly the swineherds’ owners and keepers. The gentle begging reveals their ambivalent feelings. They may desire the demise of the legion, the Roman control, yet they feel threatened by the resulting social changes.

In any situation of colonial and imperial oppression, whether during the time of the Roman Empire or today in Japan and Asia, the feelings of the colonized (whether politically or economically) toward the colonial powers that control their lives and their societies are always complex. This text contrasts the needs and dismal situation of the social outcast, the “other,” the demoniac, with those who belong to the society and its class strata.

Who is the Gerasene Demoniac?

Who is the man with the unclean spirits? Is he a Jew or a foreigner? Since the Jews also lived in the region, he could be a Jew. Theissen (1991, 110) thinks he is a foreigner because the Jews regarded swine as unclean and disgusting. If he is a foreigner, we may say the story represents the beginning of Jesus’ mission to Gentiles. In either case, I take the story as reflecting the torment, suffering, and pain caused by Roman oppression and the Jewish antipathy toward the Empire, especially among those “others” marginalized by the rulers. There must be a reason for Mark and his community to express this antipathy in the guise of a healing story in a foreign setting. Galileans, mostly peasants known for being rebellious against Rome, might have been under stricter surveillance, especially if Galilee was the location of Mark’s community.

Powers at Work

It is quite plausible to read the story as criticizing imperial/colonial hegemony. It is the hidden story, hidden from the Romans, of the alienated and the outcast’s ardent desire for a drastic transformation of society. It is also the hidden story, hidden from the other colonized people, of the desire that the elite (the upper class of the hierarchical society) have to keep the status quo. These elite do not overlook the small, subtle signs of social transformation and diligently suppress them while they mayeasily control them.

Hierarchical imperial societies typically benefit a small elite group at the expense of the vast and impoverished majority. This was the case in the Decapolis and in Palestine under Roman colonial rule . This has also been the case in many Asian countries under past Japanese military rule and presently in the Western and Japanese free market economy.

Jesus stands with the victims of imperial oppression. His exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac is a symbolic subversive political action against the oppressive occupation. In such situations, it is always dangerous to speak explicitly about resistance or subversion, so it might be prudent to speak about the troubles in a foreign land, here in Gerasa, but the message is clear.

As Jesus told several other persons he had healed, he told the man to go home to his friends, even though the man wanted to remain with Jesus (5:18-19). For the alienated, those labeled “others” by their communities and cut off from ordinary human relationships, it is most important to be re-integrated into their original communities. As Mark tells it, “He went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (5:20). The story keeps silent on what happened to his community after he went home or whether he became a follower of Jesus' movement. Thus for Mark the focus of the story is not on Jesus’ foreign mission, but on the liberation of the “other,” the person who is an outcast.

Conclusion

This story is heavily laden with power relationships. We recognize in it multiple levels of power struggles related to political, economic, social, religious, and ethnic conflicts:

1) Jesus’ exorcism of the demoniac is a symbolic political action in the guise of healing. Through it he challenged Roman military control of the Decapolis and Palestine and symbolically destroyed Roman imperial domination.

2) The oppression was the severest for those at the bottom of the class ladder. The man with an unclean spirit calls our attention to the destitute situation of such people, who are easily victimized and receive very little benefit from the social system.

3) The destruction of the herd has brought serious economic damage to those benefiting from the imperial system. The swineherds and the swine owners exemplify those whose livelihood is tied to the social system and who are threatened by any change in the hierarchical society, even as they too suffer under its yoke.

4) Jesus sided with the expendables and outcast, against the elite who benefit from this oppressive colonial situation, and thus he introduces tremendous social instability.

5) The destruction of the swine possibly affected religious rites and rituals. This suggests that the adherents and institutions of religions cannot stay neutral in political, economic, and social turbulence.

6) Jewish-Roman ethnic tension might also be present as a textual undercurrent. Such ethnic tensions are often hidden and exacerbated because colonized and subjugated people do not have effective means to address them.

Implications for our Churches

This story invites us to look at our present situation of economic imperialism and to recognize behind its many political, economic, social, religious, and ethnic conflicts the power struggles that generated these conflicts.

Historically, Japan colonized other Asian countries. Japan has now followed the US request to send self-defense troops to the Middle East. The layers of colonizer/colonized continue as the economic power of Japan continues to oppress other Asian countries. Few Third World nations include Japan as part of the Third World.

Our churches have overtly and covertly raised their voices against violence of any form, especially war. Now, our churches are seriously challenged to exorcise the demons from our society that tempt us to change our constitution that prohibits our participation in war.

The Story of the Syrophoenician [mlp2] Woman (Mark 7:24-30)

Mark sets the story of the woman whom Jesus met when he “went away to the region of Tyre” (7:24) in the rural hinterlands surrounding the city of Tyre, a city located on an island just off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea. The woman is introduced as “a Gentile, of [mlp3] Syrophoenician origin” (7:26). The story begins with the woman’s plea for the healing of her little daughter who has an unclean spirit.

Exegetical Concerns

Among the many questions that the story raises, we will focus on two that are interrelated:

1) Why did Mark put such harsh words in Jesus’ mouth in response to the woman’s plea? “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (RSV 7:27). The children represent the Jews and the dogs foreigners, including the woman and her daughter. Jesus overtly rejects her plea.

2) Why does Jesus speak about bread (artos), even though he knows her main concern is in the healing of her sick child? How does Mark relate healing to table fellowship?

By raising these two questions I already suggest that this story does more than report a miracle. Once again my concern is to uncover the power relationships between the dominant and subordinate by determining the story’s social location.

Social Location of the Story

In the time of Jesus, both Galilee and Tyre were under Roman rule. Despite imperial and colonial control, the cities of Tyre and Sidon had some autonomy and were two of the wealthiest and most important ports on the coast. In contrast, the residents of Galilee, mainly peasants, suffered under a threefold oppression: 1) Roman imperialism, 2) the Herodean monarchy subservient to Rome as client kings, and 3) Temple politics in Judea. Jonathan L. Reed draws our attention to the fact that Tyre was closer to Capernaum than Capernaum was to Jerusalem (185). The region of Tyre might not have appeared foreign or distant to Galileans. Villages inhabited by Jews, Syrians, and Phoenicians were certainly intermingled in the area where the hinterland of Tyre bordered Galilee, with no clear border separating the two.

The Woman as a Greek

The woman is introduced as culturally Greek and ethnically Syrophoenician. The designation Greek might signal that she would have known the Greek language and probably that she was thoroughly integrated in Hellenistic culture. Thus she could have been an upper-class woman. Yet the word Greek might simply indicate that she was a foreigner, and not a Jew—as in most New Testament texts. Mark might have wanted to suggest that Jesus opened up the possibility of foreign mission. The location of Jesus in the Tyrian hinterland suggests that the woman may have been from one of the peripheral villages, where people’s lives were not as easy as in the wealthy urban centers.

The Devouring City of Tyre

The city of Tyre itself was well known for:

its wealth based on metal work, the production of purple dye and an extensive trade with the whole Mediterranean region. Its money was one of the most stable currencies in circulation at this period…. This was certainly one reason why the temple treasury was kept in Tyrian coin, even though this meant accepting the fact that the coins of Tyre depicted the god Melkart. (Theissen 1991, 73)

Because the city of Tyre had very little space for farming on its island, “The Galilean hinterland and the rural territory belonging to the city (partly settled by Jews) were the ‘breadbasket’ of the metropolis of Tyre” (Theissen 1991, 74). Rich city dwellers purchased most of the produce, while the peasants in the hinterlands were always in want. Galilean peasants must have been resentful when they saw their agricultural produce sold to the highest bidders from urban Tyre, while they experienced a constant shortage of food and money, even though they labored from dawn to dusk. Tyre’s economic drain on the region compounded its threefold oppression by the Romans, the Herodeans, and the Temple . The Galilean peasants were deprived of a stable life.

The Impact of Jesus’ Harsh Words

Taking into consideration the bitter economic relationship between the affluent city of Tyre and the exploited Galilee, Jesus’ bitter words thrown to the woman would have had a powerful impact. These words, offensive as they were to the woman, also reflected the humiliating power relationship that Galileans suffered from urban Tyrians. Jesus’ words could mean: “First let the mouths of the poor people in Galilee be satisfied, for it is not good to take poor people’s food and throw it to the rich Tyrians in the city.” The words would overtly express the reality of the destitute Galilean peasants and show their resistance against the power exercised by the urban people of Tyre. By comparing the Tyrians, who devoured Galilee’s agrarian produce, to dogs, Jesus may have expressed the popular feeling of the poor Galilean peasants toward the rich, Hellenistic, elitist Tyrians.

The Woman as a Syrophoenician

Yet if the Syrophoenician woman in this story is from one of the villages in the hinterland of Tyre, as is plausible, the woman with her sick child might not be so rich or so privileged. Actually, the woman might be herself socially ostracized because of the unclean spirit in her child.

If this is the case, it is easier to understand why she is not offended by Jesus’ words. From her attitude we learn she does not identify herself with the target of Jesus’ harsh words. She is from a village in the vicinity of Galilee where her daily life may not be so different from that of Galilean peasants.

She enters the house where Jesus is and falls down at his feet, asking for a favor. Just like the demon possessed man (5:6) and Jairus, the synagogue leader (5:22-23), she assumes a subordinate position in relation to Jesus. However, in contrast to Jesus’ quick response to these two men, Jesus shows great reluctance to grant her request.

Why this rebuff? The usual explanations are not convincing to me. Did Jesus rebuff her because she is a foreigner? But earlier in Mark Jesus healed a foreigner, the Gerasene demoniac in the Decapolis (5:1-20). Tolbert (185) suggests that Jesus rebuffs her as “the opportunity for her faith to be fully revealed.” But her faith is not mentioned in Mark, and the only concern she expresses is about her child. Some say she is rebuffed because she is a woman and see in this the sexism of the time. Yet the analyses above indicate that there are other concerns besides gender at work in this story.[Comment4]

If this metaphor reflects the power relationships between Galilee and Tyre, Jesus uses it to side with the destitute Galilean peasants and thus defends them against the Tyrians who benefit from exploiting the Galilean peasants.Her response is important because “The woman, though denigrated by Jesus, speaks in a supportive and affirmative way, for she is concerned with maintaining the relationship” (Kwok Pui-lan 74).

Toward a Dialogical Interdependence

Since she resides in a hinterland part of Tyre, the Syrophoenician woman identifies herself more closely with the Galilean peasants, and thus does not take Jesus’ words personally, but as a rebuff of the populace of Tyre as a whole. In response, she says, “Yes, it is so, but, sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (7:28; author’s translation). She acknowledges that the Galilean peasants ought to have priority, since they are deprived of food because of Tyrian economic domination. At the same time, she reminds Jesus that other kinds of dogs also need to be fed, namely Tyrians destitute like her and her child. In this way, she raises a serious question to Jesus: “Can he totally ignore a sick child while talking about feeding the ‘children’ of Israel?” It is appropriate that Jesus defends the needy children of Israel. But in this case, the woman insists, Jesus should also defend her and her sick child. She insists that Jesus’ harsh words do not apply to her and her child. To the contrary, since she and her child suffer like the children of Israel, if Jesus does not feed them he would contribute to their oppression. Therefore she does not relent. She leads the dialogue toward an interdependent relationship among Jesus, the children of Israel, and herself and her child.

Listening to Jesus, she is made aware of the fact that she is from Tyre, a city noted for depriving the Galilean peasants from food by forcing them to sell their produce to Tyre. On the other hand, in hearing Jesus protect the “others” in Galilee, she is made aware of the fact that she is also one of these "others" in Tyre’s society. Therefore she asks Jesus to expand his preferential option for the “others” to the “others” in Tyre, by asking how it is possible for Jesus to exclude her and her child from his table community. She asks for Jesus to be consistent. His preferential option for the marginalized should apply wherever they are and model equality in his treatment of the destitute. Had she not experienced being the “other” in her society, she would not be able to be as confident as she is in asking Jesus’ help. Her tenacity can be read as evidence that she is neither rich nor privileged.

Change in the Balance of Power

Jesus fully accepts her request, “For saying that, you may go….” (7:29). [mlp5] Jesus affirms her, as if he has learned a new lesson from her. In the first part of the encounter between Jesus and the woman, the balance of power is apparently in favor of Jesus. Toward the end it is reversed. The last verse, “So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone” (7:30) does not say anything about her faith, conversion, or religion. We must abstain from concluding she has become the first foreign female Christian regardless of how much Mark wants the audience to read the story in this way by placing it in the context of table fellowship. This story is not originally about table fellowship, but about the power relationships between Tyrian urbanites and Galilean peasants.

Conclusion

Two elements, the political and economic relationships between the regions of Tyre and Galilee, and Tyre’s oppressive power over Galilean peasants, provide a context for understanding why Jesus throws such bitter words at the woman. His words reflect the urgent need of Galileans to secure food for their daily lives; they reveal the story to be about a most basic issue: the unfair distribution of food among rival colonies within the Roman Empire. The woman’s words, however, demonstrate that she rejects being used as a foil in Jesus’ conflict with the affluent urban Tyrians. Her words reveal that Tyrian society is also hierarchical and therefore Tyrians are not monochromatic. Instead she identifies herself with the destitute Galilean peasants as also one of the destitute whose needs must be met. When Jesus heals her daughter, he acknowledges her claim. Only after we see her need fulfilled may we begin talking about the story as encouraging a table fellowship inclusive of all those in need, wherever they are.

Implications for our Churches

As Jesus heard the voice of the Syrophoenician woman, the churches in Japan might do well to hear the voice of the deprived and the poor in foreign lands, whatever their faith, who also struggle to defend the rights of the deprived in their own countries.

Through encountering this text, Japanese churches who claim to advocate for society’s alienated may be made aware that they themselves are part of the affluent, dominant power over developing countries just as Tyre dominated Galilee. Our exposure to the influx of migrant workers from the suffering parts of the world also awakens us to our mission of advocacyjust as the Syrophoenician woman reminded Jesus of his mission. This particular story reminds us of the complicated situation in which our churches find themselves. To commit to be Jesus’ disciples is not an easy task if churches stick to the middle-class, individualistic faith that preserves their status quo in wealth and stability. This is a threatening story to most such churches.

One question remains: what is faithful discipleship?

The Disciples, the Father and his Mute-deaf Son, and Jesus: Faith and Prayer (9:14-29)

The Context of the Story in Mark

The context of this miracle story in Mark seems quite significant. This story follows Jesus’ first passion prediction, Peter’s negative reaction to it despite his earlier confession that Jesus is the Messiah (8:29, 32), and Jesus’ teaching on discipleship (including the transfiguration) (8:27–9:13). The disciples have remained mute and deaf after Jesus’ announcement of his suffering, death, and resurrection. This is a serious crisis that reveals the disciples’ incredible lack of comprehension concerning Jesus’ impending fate and the meaning of discipleship. We need to read the miracle story against this extraordinarily strained circumstance.

The Miracle Story (9:14-29)

Meyers (254) observes that this story conforms to the model of the previous healing and exorcism stories. It has the same parts and character types: miracle-worker, sick person, demon, companion, crowd, opponents, and disciples. However, the dreadful description of the symptoms of the son’s fits is surprising. They are as horrifying as those of the Gerasene demoniac. But here they are vividly described four times with diverse, striking terms. “He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid” (9:17-18; see also 9:20, 9:22, and 9:26). Why does Mark repeatedly provide such detailed explanations about the patient’s symptoms and the audience’s fear and despair? Once again, Mark’s primary intention does not seem to be simply to report another miraculous healing.

The son’s life is literally threatened by death and he is under the control of a power far beyond his will and consciousness. He is totally helpless, unable to manage himself or to have human relationships. The repeated description of the boy’s fits also suggests his father’s hopelessness , as both of them are certainly socially ostracized. After seeing the disciples’ inability to cast out the spirit, the father may have reached the stage where he cannot but be skeptical about any possibility of healing, even when he asks for Jesus’ help. He hesitates: “If you are able to do anything,” and then continues, “have pity on us and help us” (9:22). As the Greek word for have pity, splanchnistheis expresses, the father looks for someone who would share their pain, ordeal and agony—as, possibly, nobody has done before.

Disciples

Mark records that early in his ministry (3:15), Jesus gave the twelve disciples authority to cast out demons and they successfully cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them (6:7). However, the father reports that they could not cast the spirit out (9:18). Literally, he says that they were not strong enough to cast the spirit out—using the same word, ischuos, used in 5:4 (no one was strong enough to subdue the demon) and in 3:27 (no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man). Only Jesus has this strength. But what kind of strength is it? Why can Jesus cast out the demon? Or how can the disciples become like Jesus?

The story seems to suggest that the boy’s incurable symptoms are the cause for the disciples’ failure to heal him. But there is certainly more. In the previous chapter, Jesus told his disciples that he chose powerlessness, suffering, and dying on the cross—a statement that is absolute nonsense to the disciples. They cannot grasp the real meaning of Jesus’ statements. Yet in the story Mark keeps reminding the reader that Jesus will soon be rejected and killed.

When Jesus sees their failure to exorcise the boy, he alludes to his impending death even as he expresses exasperation and anger (9:19). Mark seems to tell this story to mark the tremendous gap in understanding between Jesus and the disciples. Consequently, our attention must shift from the healing to the issue of discipleship.

The boy’s incurable symptoms may prefigure the life-threatening circumstances in which the disciples will be cast if they want to be Jesus’ true disciples. It is a situation in which they feel useless and powerless and want to flee. What will enable them to break through the deadlock and overcome their fear? Jesus gives the answer in his brief teaching about faith (9:19, 23) and prayer (9:29).

The Father as a Model of Faith

Mark seems to present the boy’s father as a model of faith. To the father who does not have complete confidence, Jesus replies; ”If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes” (9: 23). What matters is to believe. But what does faith entail? Let us consider how Mark describes the father.

The father had looked for someone who would share the pain, ordeal, and agony he and his son endure. This means that his real need was for a community of empathy; such a community would bring wholeness to his son’s life. When this is recognized, we can see why he said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (9:24). He vacillates between “unbelief” that reflects his miserable experiences and his son’s ordeals because they are deprived of a community of empathy, and “belief” that reflects his deeply held wish for empathy for the sake of re-gaining his son’s wholeness. His brief cry expresses the true nature and ambivalence of faith—daring to believe when everything looks desperate. By putting his trust in Jesus, he symbolically chooses the same difficult way of accepting suffering, death, and resurrection as Jesus does. We can interpret the description of the healing as verification of the father’s faith. During the healing, the boy suffers terrible convulsions, appears to be a corpse, is thought to be dead (9:26), and then is “raised up” by Jesus (9:27). The father thus paradigmatically exemplifies the reality of faith as the struggle to keep belief despite unbelief[mlp6] , to keep faith in the resurrection even as one accepts suffering and death.

Disciples in Need of Prayer

Confronted by the unprecedented difficulty of healing the boy’s serious sickness, the disciples were bewildered and could only argue (9:14).. Afterward when they ask Jesus privately why they could not cast the spirit out, he teaches them the need for prayer: “This kind [of spirit] can come out only through prayer” (9:29). What kind of prayer do the disciples need? How do we relate faith and prayer in this context?

The narrative does not explain what kind of prayer Jesus is referring to. But its context clarifies this. The teaching about prayer (9:29) is quickly followed by the second passion prediction (9:31), which draws our attention to the earlier prediction of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’s life is the paradigmatic prayer. For the disciples prayer might be to “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow” Jesus (8:34). The type of prayer implied in this story is not something silent or static, but active. This is not to deny that meditative or solitary moments of prayer were important for Jesus. But by this story Mark apparently advocates the type of prayer through which the disciples show that they are willing to “lose their life” for the Lord’s sake and “for the sake of the gospel” (8:35).

Where do the disciples find the courage or confidence to take up such suffering and the cross and to identify with Jesus? Where do the disciples find the courage to pray for the boy and his father by taking upon themselves their own suffering? Jesus exemplifies through his life the way to stand with those who are outcast, ostracized, marginalized, and suppressed so much so that, like the deaf-mute boy, they lose their voice. Thus the story clarifies why it is not easy to be disciples of Jesus. Taking up, through prayer, the suffering of others who are reduced to silence by powers that oppress them is also taking up one’s cross; it may cost the disciples their lives.

Through this story, Mark challenged the unconscientious disciples in his community of faith to transform themselves in their faith and prayer. The fact that there are only male characters in this particular story may suggest that Mark is more concerned to encourage male believers in his faith community to have faith and pray and to take up leadership.

Conclusion and Implications to our Churches

We can now see why Mark extensively records the son’s symptoms. They symbolize the harsh circumstances Jesus’ disciples have to face and embrace following the paradigm of the suffering life of Jesus.

The story in 9:14-29 is no longer a miracle or exorcism story; it is a story showing the disciples how to surmount despair through faith and prayer. The vacillation of faith modeled by the father can result in resignation, abandoning any hope to change or transform an overwhelming situation. We often feel this hopelessness today because our lives are so much dominated by the invisible powers manifested by the patriarchal and imperial society in which we live. No new vision of life is possible, or so it seems. Through this story Mark tries to teach disciples how to overcome this hopelessness, this resignation to the status quo, and this unbelief that leads to giving up the way of suffering.

One question remains: Should we say that faith is the strength to realize healing? And if so, what kind of faith is effective? What are the qualities that faith needs to have? The question arises when we hear Jesus deplore the little faith of the generation (9:19).

The cry of the father (9:22) may be valued as an expression of the reality of our faith when we cannot fully believe, even though we deeply wish to believe. At the same time, we must realize that the father’s cry also reflects his refusal to accept his son’s situation. His only wish is that his son be cured, a wish that Jesus fulfills in this story.

There are numerous disabled or mentally disturbed persons around us. The reality is that most of them are not cured, even though they may get some aid offered by medicine and other methods. Many are exposed to various kinds of inconvenience caused by the structure of life designed according to the standards of the able. They often suffer from discrimination that involves their families as well. What if the sick and their families are told by faith communities, following the example of this story, that their faith is not strong enough? Sometimes these differently abled persons are simply told how they are a blessing of God and are left alone. Often we fail to raise the question of what is expected from faith communities or disciples who surround the differently abled or mentally disturbed persons. It is important to note on this point that the story in Mark asks the disciples, and not the father, to commit themselves to a new way of life through following Jesus.

In sum, the story challenges us to transform ourselves, our faith communities, and our societies so that the differently abled and mentally disturbed can be accepted as they are and supported so that they may live their lives as comfortably as others. The story asks each of us to reflect critically upon our faith and prayer and to assess whether we really struggle against the despair and obstacles that may tempt us to give up on following Jesus. It can be a very personal struggle that requires us to fight against a spirit residing within us that makes us deaf and mute. The spirit that has been in us “from childhood” may have deteriorated our minds to the point that we submit to the powers that be. The story challenges us to believe that the life-giving power is stronger than the death-threatening demonic power and encourages us to choose the life-giving way that Jesus exemplifies through his whole life. Then a new vision of faith communities as inclusive communities becomes possible.

The story suggests that such an inclusive community cannot be engendered without a resolute willingness to act. The story describes the reality we face as full of obstacles that discourage our hope to bring about the realization of our ideal. Mark knew from experience how much effort and dedication is required to break down the boundaries and to keep a community fully inclusive. Thus for Mark the ultimate model could only be Jesus’ suffering life unto death for us disciples. From our own experience we can readily see that innumerable lives marked by suffering unto death is the cost required for bringing about a globally inclusive community.

Epilogue

What are the overall implications of these texts for today’s Christian church in Japan?

First, in every sphere of life, political, economic, social, cultural, religious, and ethnic, the Roman Empire or the modern American and Japanese led free market economy, functions as the major power. We should not read the texts without acknowledging the effects, both the good and bad, of this Power.

Second, we notice both in the ancient text and in today’s world the differences in power among the colonized. Power struggles emerge among rival colonies, producing another type of hierarchy under the umbrella of the big power. Such internecine strife among the rival colonies prevents any significant challenge to the dominant power.

Third, each colonized nation establishes a similar hierarchical social structure within itself, with a small elite class that controls society and benefits itself at the expense of the others. This elite class strives to maintain the status quo and to keep the social structure secure, thus producing an oppressed majority. The most discriminated against, those at the bottom of society’s ladder, are despised and subjugated as the “others.”

Fourth, in both the ancient and contemporary settings, discipleship is an invitation to to seek and struggle for the wholeness of every life in society. As disciples we are asked to cultivate a spiritual perception as to who are the most alienated and silenced. We are then asked to commit ourselves to empathize deeply with and share in the suffering of society’s most destitute and invisible so that they may regain their life. This struggle will cause social turmoil as it touches the taboo, the despised outsider. Such discipleship follows the way of the cross as modeled by Jesus. His life exemplifies in the most condensed way how true faith and prayer may work.

Through this contextual analysis, these three stories reveal to us the life-giving gospel and the reality of a struggling faith, a teaching needed both by Mark’s ancient faith community and by our contemporary churches.

Short Bibliography

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Kinukawa, Hisako. Women and Jesus: A Japanese Feminist Perspective. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1994.

Pui-lan, Kwok. Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1995.

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Tolbert, Mary Ann. Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989.

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