Reflections on Mark's Gospel - Mark 1:28

The Spreading Fame of Jesus

Mark concludes the episode with a statement of the outcome. Jesus becomes "famous".

The popularity of Jesus is a major context issue when reflecting on his ministry. It affected his actions. It determined how he did ministry. The oft-raised, but largely discredited, theme of the "Messianic secret" in Mark's gospel relies on Jesus' popularity with the masses.

Jesus lived and did his ministry in the context of people seeking him out. He spoke to large crowds of people who were not yet His followers but who were keen to hear what he had to say. His popularity increased the tensions with the established religious leaders of the day. If Jesus was just some lonely wilderness prophet that no one listened to, he would never have been the focus of plots by the chief priests. It was his popularity that made him a threat to their ambitions. It was a major contributor to his death.

And why was Jesus popular? The gospels record over and over again that people sought him out for this authoritative teaching and his power to heal the sick, lame, deaf and demon-possessed.
The Gk word translated as "fame" or "news" or "report" or "rumour" is ακοη. It has the sense of being a rumour or something heard about. It is not like a formal news report, but something spread by word of mouth as people shared their own excitement.

And so the rumour spread to all the περιχωρον which is a compound word made up of peri - about and chora - the region around a metropolis which has towns and villages. It is like saying it spread to all the farming villages around the main town of Capernaum. It was news that didn't just stay on the main trading route. It penetrated to the little villages.

The challenge this provides for me when I consider ministry, and looking at the life of Jesus as a model for ministry, is that his context is fundamentally different to mine. He is operating among a people who were largely biblically literate (even though they couldn't read), who valued spiritual things and were expecting a Messiah. Jesus developed a reputation among these people as the one who fit their expectations, even though his purposes meant that he didn't fulfil them in the way they expected.

I serve among a people who are almost totally biblically illiterate (even though they can read), who are apathetic towards spiritual issues and are skeptical of any "Saviour" figure because they are happy with the status quo (at least in material possessions).

I was asked a question recently by a senior administrator in a university, "what is an evangelical Christian?" I would say that their exposure to the gospel has been totally absent. And this person is representative of the vast majority of Australian population. They are not church-attenders, they have never been church-attenders, they don't have a friend who attends church, and their parents didn't attend church.

What will it take to change this situation? Intentional action. What action? A combination of broad communication with personal communication. One without the other is less than effective.