That’s Just Capital! Empire and Kingdom 1.19.2023

 

From the very first words he wrote, Mark faithfully communicated that Kingdom and Empire would be in constant competition with one another. The conflict is as ageless and timeless as the doomed construction project on the plains of Shinar when men thought they could undo the fall by building towers into the sky. Babel may have failed, but the spirit of Empire only grew from there. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and beyond. 

Empire’s goal is to organize all human behaviors (religious, political, social, and cultural structures, economics) without deference to God. Empire subordinates even seemingly spiritual and emotional functions beneath a single-minded pursuit of power. Or to use the phrase found in Genesis 3, “…to be like God.”

God in general has opposed all Imperial projects. Jesus specifically founded and focused His Kingdom to expose the deceptions of Empire and to liberate its victims. Mark introduces his story of Jesus by laying out the Empire defying nature of the project with his very first words.   

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1 ESV) 

To our way of thinking, formed upon the basic premise of the Lordship of Christ these words do not read like the challenge that they are. In his environment, with those specific words, Mark pokes the serpent of Empire with the stick of Gospel. That is what we are going to look at this week. 

In our preaching we want to usher people “inside” the text. We want them to see, feel, hear, and smell the environment. Thus, background information is essential to good preaching. At the same time, we don’t want to overwhelm our listeners with detail. Background information sets the Stage for the text but should not replace the text.  First let’s look at a couple of background matters, then we’ll look a little deeper at Mark’s seemingly innocuous opening line. 

Environment

The most trustworthy traditions regarding Marks Gospel locate its composition in Rome. At the time Mark was listening to Peter’s preaching and gathering the eyewitness materials for his gospel the Neronian persecution was beginning to unfold. Thought there were cultural, social, economic, political, and religious pressures confronting the Church, Mark had the moxie to faithfully tell the story of Jesus’ Kingdom message. A message designed to question every Roman Imperial ambition.  Even in Galilee where no Roman soldiers were stationed cities had been named after Tiberias Caesar and Caesar Augustus. Jesus and His disciples may have lived at the edge of the Empire, but Caesar still collected the taxes, and the local politicians bowed the knee to the fortune of Rome. 

Time

Mark’s story is set in Imperial Roman Galilee and Judea. The ministry of Jesus ended with His passion around 30-35 A.D. It would take three hundred years for the Kingdom of the Galilean to finally bring the Empire to its knees. The victory was short-lived, the Church, beholding the power of Empire, became what it beheld.

Yet Mark and his colleague Evangelists preserved the vision of Kingdom that Jesus preached so that despite compromise, God could continue to work remaking the world through Jesus. So, when we read Mark there are several timelines we want to keep in mind.

1. The original proclamation of Jesus. 
2. The preaching by Peter of the proclamation of Jesu.
3. The preserved message of Mark of Peter’s preaching of the proclamation of Jesus.  
4. The present preaching of Mark (and the other Gospels), which bears witness to the preaching of     Peter and the earliest Church, proclaiming the Kingdom of Jesus. 

This full process began, as far as Marks’ Gospel is concerned with the following words:

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” (Mark 1:14–15 ESV)

Audience

The Audience(s) for Mark’s Gospel roughly correspond to the four chronological settings. 

            1. The audience(s) of Jesus

              2. The audience(s) of Peter

              3. The original audience(s) of Mark’s Gospel

              4. The contemporary audience of Mark’s Gospel.

Capital Crisis

With that little bit of background let’s get to my primary concern. The opening line of Mark’s Gospel, whether it functions as a title or as a summary that proceeded and set up the story, is designed to be provocative. Specifically, Mark alerts the Empire that, with the appearance of Jesus, God has inaugurated His Kingdom. The verse includes three “objects”: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Son of God. Each of these three descriptors is a specific challenge to the claimed privileges of Empire. 

The Caesars, in mid-first century were accruing to themselves ever greater “divine honors.” They began to see themselves less as benevolent dictators and more as entitled demi-gods. Good old-fashioned Republican Romans did not really like this development yet seemed to be powerless to stop what was a power-driven strategy. 

The personal name “Jesus” signified the saving purposes of God with Christ functioning as the title He bears signifying His status as God’s chosen regent over His creation. The Caesars also claimed to exercise both sovereign and saving power over the inhabitants of their Empire.  The choice Jesus offers is the choice between a power-hungry and empty salvation by Caesar or an actual life-affirming salvation in Christ. The Empire would spend three centuries seeking to stamp out Jesus’ antidote this arrogant Imperial claim. 

Good news was what Caesar proclaimed when he paraded and proclaimed his military victories and economic subjugation of the world. The irony is that most of those who heard the glad tidings of Caesar’s greatness were not liberated but enslaved by the political, social, military, economic, and religious policies of Empire. Caesar’s good news was mostly good news—for him.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ God’s Son was a shot across the bow of Caesar’s Imperial ambitions. Jesus signaled that He had come to tell a tale of salvation that was as universal as the known world and as particular as otherwise nameless individuals who first beheld the authoritative teaching presence of Jesus. This was a capital crisis for Rome because Jesus did not recruit soldiers but servants, and preached love not hatred. The very focus and fuel of Empire was exactly what Jesus rejected. And it seemed recklessly impotent until the very moment that the women were told

  “…Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”” (Mark 16:6–7 ESV)

The Roman Governor, the Roman army, the Roman cross; the whole apparatus of Rome’s will to power did not stand a chance before the King of Kings, the grandeur of His Kingdom, and the good news He told and taught to others.