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The Sunday gospel lectionary reading for Trinity 16 in Year B is Mark 9.30–37. In our reading of Mark, we have leap-frogged from the confession at Ceasarea Philippi, over the Transfiguration (which is considered at other times in the lectionary) and the following deliverance episode, to a short cluster of sayings, though stopping short of ‘who is not against us is for us’.

Overall, this section in Mark feels rather uneven, without narrative flow, and the other synoptics tend to tidy the material up. But Mary Ann Beavis points out (Paideia, p 143) that this section, from Mark 9.30 to 10.52, is the third of four significant blocks of teaching material (Mark 4.1–34, 7.1–23 and 13.1–37) inserted between the other predominantly narrative sections of the gospel. The box is quite well defined; the items within it are in a bit of a jumble. 

Themes are repeated and revisited. No doubt Mark might have felt that some of these were of particular interest to his readers. But we cannot be confident that there was such a things as a ‘Markan community’,  since the evidence is that all the gospels were widely circulated across the Christian communities in the Empire. And, even if they are teachings of particular interest, that need not suggest either that they do not go back to Jesus, or that they are not also of interest to us.

Many commentators also note that this section appears to function like a kind of ‘community rule’ for the early followers of Jesus, addressing some key issues around power, ordering (or not) of the community, wealth and property, marriage and divorce, family, and communal boundaries. There is an interesting parallel from Qumran, to which we will return. Most of this teaching is given to the disciples in private, in contrast to the Markan crowds, but it now made known to the whole reading community. 

We cannot be sure where is the ‘there’ from which they ‘go on’ (ESV, or the ‘place’ which they ‘leave’, TNIV). If the transfiguration took place at Tabor, in southern Galilee, then they are heading east towards the Jordan, which would be the common way to head south (Mark 10.1). If at Mt Hermon, in the far north (which is less likely) the language of ‘passing by’ (translated mostly as ‘passing through’) Galilee makes more sense. Either way, it is striking within Mark’s narrative that in this region, and in his ‘home town’ of Capernaum, where he is well known, Jesus avoids the crowds and teaches the disciples in secret. 

Note once more that Mark and his readers would not have been working with the ‘up = north’ and ‘down = south’ paradigm that we have developed with our use of maps. Mark’s topography is described from eye level. 

The tension between the declaration that Jesus is ‘the Christ’ and yet ‘the Son of Man must suffer’ that we noted last week continues into this passage, with the second of the three Passion predictions in the second half of this gospel (the third coming at the end of this teaching section in Mark 10.32–34). Although the private teaching has been seen as part of a ‘Messianic secret’ theme which offers a post-hoc rationalisation for the failure of the majority to recognise who Jesus was, it is better interpreted as reflecting Jesus’ concern not to be misunderstood as a political leader. The theme of Jesus’ teaching, and the disciples incomprehension, is set out sharply here and through the second half of Mark.