Mark 9:30-32

Possibility of Betrayal – Jesus’ Destiny

Mark 9:30-32 – Jesus Foretells his Death and Resurrection (2)

This second reference to his death added one new significant detail to the first - the issue of betrayal.

Jesus did not indicate who would in fact betray him. The disciples’ lack of understanding, and their fear to ask him, was probably an instance of psychological denial on their part, of an unwillingness or an inability to face up to the frightening possibility that it might conceivably have been one of them. Perhaps, deep in his unconscious self, each one knew only too well that it could be he. Each was having problems holding the vision, given the failure of the Galilean ministry.

The issue of the betrayer’s identity was not a problem for Mark’s readers. He had already named Judas Iscariot as the one. His previous identification of Judas may have served the purpose of encouraging his own community to listen more carefully to the teaching of Jesus that would follow. 

With this brief observation Mark noted for the first time the seeds of potential disintegration in the group of disciples. The disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying. They were already under stress. Jesus had been effectively rejected in Galilee, and they had little idea where the originally popular movement was now heading. Their initial “in love” experience was beginning to wear thin. A new agenda was beginning to unfold. Would they hold together? Jesus’ reference to his future betrayal was triggered perhaps by something he had himself picked up from what was going on in the group.

Stresses in the Community of Disciples - 1

It was a testing time for the disciples. Their initial assumptions and projections were beginning to surface and be challenged. Peter had already voiced his expectations. Jesus would be the Messiah, with whatever connotations that that prospect held in his mind. Jesus had immediately challenged it. Was Peter’s delusion the dream also of others in the group? And if glory and victory were not to be the case, then where were they heading? What did the future hold out for them? Jesus had outlined that prospect by predicting his own death. The outlook was anything but congenial to a group who had come on board with exactly the opposite expectation.

Certainly Jesus had also spoken about his resurrection from the dead. But what did that mean? Mark had explicitly made the point that the three witnesses of the Transfiguration had wondered precisely about the same matter, and the answer was certainly not obvious. Trust was starting to break down.

The possible collapse of trust could perhaps be detected in Mark’s comment that, with their inability to understand or come to terms with what Jesus was saying, the disciples “were afraid to ask him”. A lack of openness and honesty within the group was showing its head. The “discussing” of Peter, James and John may have been going on also among other disciples. In the atmosphere of fear, distrust in Jesus’ leadership would easily have grown.

Was the promise of resurrection seen by the disciples, later if not immediately, as an effort to introduce the idea of an extrinsic future reward for putting up with a hard time first?

The Problem for Mark’s Community

As far as Mark was concerned, his interest in the breaking down of community among the disciples was of particular interest because of its relevance to his own community of disciples. Seen in that light, his insertion into the narrative of his description of Jesus’ transfiguration may well have been perhaps his way of expressing what “rising from the dead” meant to him. If his description was in fact his own apocalyptic composition, he was effectively saying that, whatever the community’s experience at the surface level of things, a deeper mystery was taking place, not in some distant future but in the dynamic of the here and now. Suffering and humiliation were in fact, at a deeper level of reality, the triumph of integrity and truth. What was true for Jesus was in fact true for his community.

For this sort of insight to carry conviction, however, deep faith was necessary, and that was precisely what worried Mark. It was probably that concern that inspired him to include at this juncture the prayer of the father of the possessed boy: “I believe, help my unbelief”, and in the process, to upbraid the faithlessness of “this generation”.

Next >> Mark 9:33-37