Mizpah Bible Study · New Testament
The Son of God Who Came as the Son of Man, and the Structure of Mark
Mark is a book written to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Yet the way it makes that case is not through displays of power but through the suffering and the cross he bore as the Son of Man. This first lecture establishes that theme, then works through the structure of Mark, the conflict that accumulated from the beginning, and the messianic secret.
| I | The Theme — The Son of God as the Son of Man |
| II | The Key Text and the Transfiguration |
| III | The Six Divisions of Mark |
| IV | Conflict Accumulating from the Start |
| V | The Kerygmatic Christ and the Historical Jesus |
| VI | The Messianic Secret — Glory Concealed |
| VII | Discipleship and the Cost of Mission |
The lecture sets Mark’s theme in a single line: the Son of God as the Son of Man. The Korean word for “Son of Man” can be misread as “a kind person,” but in the Gospels it means exactly what it says — the Son of Man, Jesus who came in human form.
Jesus Christ left the throne of heaven, came to this lowly earth, and went so far as to be crucified. His life as the Son of Man, his life as a human being, was therefore a life of suffering. The instructor returns repeatedly to the English word suffering to fix the point.
Mark is nothing other than a book that demonstrates Jesus Christ was the Son of God. And what is the evidence it offers? The words he spoke and the work he did on this earth. Through those we come to know that he is the Son of God.
Remember
The instructor takes Mark 9:7–9 as the thematic text of the whole book, because two decisive words appear together in a single scene.
Mark 9:7
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
“This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”
“My beloved Son” is spoken by God, so it names Jesus as the Son of God. Yet as the disciples come down the mountain, Jesus immediately reaches for a different title.
Mark 9:9
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus admonished them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
How is the Son of God explained? By the Son of Man. And who is that Son of Man? One who is about to die, one who will bear the cross. The declaration of glory followed immediately by the prediction of passion and resurrection compresses the logic of the entire Gospel.
The lecture pauses over Peter Paul Rubens’s painting of the Transfiguration. In the upper register stand the transfigured Jesus with Moses and Elijah, and the three disciples — Peter, James, and John. Below unfolds the confusion at the foot of the mountain. The spiritual world above and the fallen human life below are set against each other on one canvas.
Remember
To read the whole of Mark, the instructor first breaks it into paragraphs — six of them.
1:1–13 · Prologue
Mark 1:1 states the purpose of the book outright: Jesus Christ is the true Son of God.
1:14–10:52 · The Galilean Ministry
Ministry begins far to the north, in the region where Jesus grew up. This was a comparatively smooth and successful period.
11–12 · Entry into Jerusalem
His critique of the temple system collides head-on with the vested interests of the leaders. A difficult season.
13 · Eschatological Teaching
A distinctive chapter set between the Galilean ministry and the Jerusalem passion, handing the reader a lens in advance.
14–15 · The Passion
From the last Passover meal through the trial before the council to death on the cross.
16 · Witness to the Resurrection
The disciples testify to the resurrection and ascension — events no natural principle can account for.
If Galilee was the smoother ministry, Jerusalem was the hard one. Even during the Galilean period the leaders in Jerusalem had already sent people north to monitor what Jesus was doing. The contrast between the two settings generates the central tension of Mark.
The passion narrative proper begins at chapter 14. Up to that point matters were bearable; from there on both Jesus and his disciples face real hardship. At exactly that hinge Jesus places his eschatological teaching.
The reason is plain. If the disciples interpreted what was coming by ordinary sight, they could only be bewildered. So he put an eschatological perspective into their hands beforehand.
Remember
The cross did not happen suddenly. Conflict with religious and political leaders began early in Jesus’ ministry. The lecture examines three early incidents.
| Text | Incident | Point of collision |
|---|---|---|
| Mark 1:40–45 | Cleansing a man with leprosy | Only the priestly group could certify that the disease had healed. Jesus’ pronouncement challenges the authority of the priests and the ruling class. |
| Mark 2:1–12 | Declaring forgiveness to the paralytic | Only God can forgive human sin. Within the religious tradition of the day this was received as blasphemy. |
| Mark 3:1–6 | Healing the withered hand on the Sabbath | Sabbath law was an acutely sensitive matter. Jesus answers the criticism by exposing the contradiction and hypocrisy of the leaders. |
Immediately after the third incident, Mark 3:6 records that the Pharisees went out and took counsel with the Herodians. The Pharisees were religious leaders and the Herodians political ones. Two very different groups make common cause in seeking to destroy Jesus.
The conflict intensifies until, hearing his critique of the temple system in Jerusalem, the leaders can bear no more. Mark 14:1 records that they sought a way to arrest him by stealth and kill him — that is, by conspiracy.
Remember
To locate Mark properly one must know a pair of concepts long debated in New Testament study: the kerygmatic Christ and the historical Jesus.
Broadly, the New Testament divides into the letters Paul wrote and the Gospels that treat the life of Jesus Christ. The order of composition runs opposite to what most people assume. The Pauline letters come first, around AD 50; Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels, around AD 70.
| Aspect | Pauline Letters | Gospels (especially Mark) |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Around AD 50 | Around AD 70 |
| Emphasis | The kerygmatic Christ | The historical Jesus |
| Title in focus | “Christ” — Messiah, the divine name | “Jesus” — the human name |
| Vantage point | The eye of the early church, its confession | The eye of eyewitnesses, living testimony |
| Character | Doctrine · divinity | Biography · humanity |
By the time Paul was writing, the confession of the early church had already settled: Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The difficulty was that with the divine aspect so strongly emphasized, what Jesus actually said and did on earth receded from view.
The Gospels fill precisely that gap. They record the vivid, biographical reality — that in his lifetime Jesus did this and also did that.
Remember
Here the unavoidable question arises. If he is the Son of God, should he not have lived splendidly, powerfully, happily? Why did he live so hard a life? How can one who submitted to suffering be called the Son of God?
Mark answers with a paradox. Precisely because, being God, he came as a human being, endured suffering, and bore the cross, we are made certain that he is the true Son of God.
In the Old Testament Moses asked to see God. The answer was absolute.
Exodus 33:20
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
“You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”
When Moses persisted, God set him in a cleft of the rock and showed him only his back. Merely from that, Moses’ face shone so that the people could not look at him directly. If God came in unveiled glory, no one could approach him at all.
So Jesus Christ hid his majesty, power, and glory, and came to this earth in a lowly form. Again and again in Mark he prevents others from proclaiming him as Messiah. This is the messianic secret.
One cannot casually meet a president or a king. Had he come in full majesty, fellowship with him would have been impossible. The concealment is not for hiding but for becoming our friend.
Remember
The cross of the Lord is a cross of pain and, at the same time, a cross that conveys resurrection and hope. It is the road to the glory of God. Whoever looks toward that hope endures today’s suffering in silence. The instructor summarizes the whole of Mark in three sentences.
First
Jesus Christ was the suffering servant
He could have lived in glory and finished well. He did not choose that road. Exposing a corrupted religious system led him to the way of the cross.
Second
Discipleship — self-denial and the cross
If Jesus accepted suffering, so must those who follow him. Every person has a cross of their own to carry, and carrying it, together with self-denial, is what discipleship means.
Third
Mission — there is no mission without cost
Disciples carry a missionary responsibility, and that responsibility demands a price. God’s way collides with the way of the world, so there is no mission that bypasses suffering.
The instructor offers a very near example. Even leading one’s own unbelieving father to faith is far from easy. Listen to those who have brought a parent to faith and each will describe hidden difficulties beyond telling. Yet it is by enduring and absorbing that hardship that the road opens for a whole household.
Remember
| Theme | Mark’s theme is “the Son of God as the Son of Man”; the Son of Man means the human son. |
| Key text | Mark 9:7–9 joins “beloved Son” and “Son of Man” in a single scene. |
| Structure | Prologue (1:1–13) · Galilee (1:14–10:52) · Jerusalem (11–12) · eschatology (13) · passion (14–15) · resurrection (16). |
| Chapter 13 | Placed before the passion to supply an eschatological lens for the cross and resurrection. |
| Conflict | Conflict beginning with the leper, the paralytic, and the Sabbath accumulates until it reaches the cross. |
| Two views | Paul conveys the kerygmatic Christ, the Gospels the historical Jesus; they complete one another. |
| Messianic secret | Concealing his glory is a lowering undertaken so that he might have fellowship with us. |
| Discipleship | Self-denial and carrying one’s cross is the way of following the suffering servant. |
| Mission | There is no mission without cost; fruit comes by way of suffering. |
Mark 1:1 · 1:14 · 1:40–45 · 2:1–12 · 3:1–6 · 9:7–9 · 10:52 · 11–12 · 13:1–37 · 14:1 · 14–15 · 16:1–20 · Exodus 33:18–23