#euangelion

Funsized Bible Study: New Testament - Gospels #Bible #hermeneutics #interpretation #gospel #christian #theology

All the chewy goodness of proper hermeneutics in new fun-sized bites!

New Testament – Gospels (more…)

Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Ps 84; 2 Pt 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

It’s hard for me to listen to these words of Isaiah and not hear the music of Handel’s Messiah – these words, and their soundtrack, are so familiar. But it is this familiarity that causes me to miss what Isaiah is saying. Similarly, the Gospel of Mark, and the Christian story can be so familiar that we miss its profundity. How often do I hear the Gospel and think, ‘I know this already?’ 

A few years ago, I met someone who told me about his conversion to Christianity. He came from an atheist background, and he wasn’t familiar with the Gospels. But he was writing a doctorate on social justice and Marxism, and he realized that many ideas could be traced to the Gospels. So he thought that, as part of his research, he should at least open the Bible and read it. And as he read the Gospels, he said the figure of Christ was so radical, so compelling, so attractive that he knew it had to be true. So, he sought baptism as a Catholic. The Orthodox archbishop Anthony Bloom had a similar experience. He had been a skeptical young man, and after hearing a talk by a Russian Orthodox theologian, he decided he had to demonstrate to others how empty and stupid he thought Christianity was. So he went home and began his research by reading the shortest of the Gospels, Mark. But as he read it he says he encountered the Risen Christ: “I suddenly became aware that on the other side of my desk there was a Presence”. Can it be that our familiarity with the Christian story causes us to miss Christ’s presence? 

It’s like our experience with our own families and especially our parents, I think: we can just take them for granted – we think we know them. But do we? Can we assume that we know the meaning of the Gospel and know Jesus? Have we encountered him, or let him encounter us the way Anthony Bloom or my friend did? Or, maybe, when we listen to Scripture being read, we think we know it already and another soundtrack plays, one that can hinder us from really listening to the Word of God. 

Advent, as such, opened last Sunday with a call to be alert and vigilant; awake and attentive. And then, having woken us up, the herald comes today crying out and making great declarations; getting us to sit up and listen again. 

And Mark’s Gospel opens as a great announcement: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk 1:1). So much is packed into this first sentence, but we can often miss it’s radical newness because we’re so familiar with Jesus being called Christ and Son of God, and we think we know what the word ‘gospel’ means – it’s the story about Jesus’ life, we’d say.

And yet, to an outsider in the first century approaching the Greek text for the first time, Mark’s opening sentence makes one sit up, and it’s even slightly alarming. For in the Hellenic ancient world euangelion was a bit of political jargon. Although it literally means ‘good news’ or a ‘good proclamation’, it was a word used routinely for official news and important public declarations. Rather than just a feel good news story, it’s more like a significant Press Release from Downing Street or the Palace of Westminster. 

An euangelion was used to herald a piece of news that was of public interest and significance,  like news from the frontline in times of war, or used to inform people that a peace treaty had been signed, or to announce the birth of a prince. Here in Edinburgh we can think of the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile which is still used for official announcements of national importance such as the calling of a General Election. The idea is that an euangelion is supposed to announce an event that marks the transition to a new era, that heralds regime change, and an end to the status quo.

Because I am a follower of Jesus, and because I am a pastor and teacher of God's Word, and because I by faith affirm that my actions in secret can either bless or curse those with whom I'm in community I must engage the fight with the devil in times of solitude in the power of the Spirit for the sake of the community and the ministry of the Gospel."