How would you feel if everything you believed came crumbling down around you like the destruction of a majestic cathedral? What if I told you that’s what the original audience of the Gospel of Mark felt? I’m Rev Darcy, a Universalist pastor from rural Alabama, and I’m inviting you on a journey with me through the Bible where we’ll dive deep into all of the drama without the spiritual trauma. Come with me to learn about just how much you are loved, just as you are in this moment, as we spend the next eleven minutes in heaven.
Listen to what the Spirit is saying to you through this sacred word from the Gospel of Mark:
As Jesus left the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look! What awesome stones and buildings!” Jesus responded, “Do you see these enormous buildings? Not even one stone will be left upon another. All will be demolished.” (Mark 13:1-2, CEB)
Beloved, this is Rev Darcy (she/hers), and I am incredibly excited about this new first season of Eleven Minutes in Heaven. The Gospel of Mark is my favorite Gospel, and Mark’s Jesus is my favorite Jesus. It’s also special to me because Mark was the topic of my first Bible study as a pastor. So, it’s only fitting that this will be our first Bible study together.
Before we go in further, if you’ve not listened to the five part introduction to this podcast, I recommend you do so before you start this episode. In the introduction, I lay the foundation for our journey through the Bible together.
In this episode, I am going to cover some of the most important background information about the time Jesus lived and the time when Mark’s Gospel was written so that you have a firm foundation as we enter the first chapter of Mark to discover the world behind, of, and in front of the text.
Sermon Note: Want to dig deeper and/or check my claims? Here are the books I’m using and recommend to get a deeper understanding of Mark.
Marcus J. Borg’s The Gospel of Mark from Morehouse (ISBN: 978-0-8192--2339-5)
Jerry L. Sumney’s The Bible: An Introduction (3rd ed.) from Fortress Press (ISBN: 978-1506466781).
Ben Witherington III’s The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary from Eerdmans (ISBN: 978-0802845030).
The World Behind the Text
Mark was written around 70 CE.This is a very significant date in Judeo-Christian history because this is the year that the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem, forever altering Jewish life as they knew it. It would be some six decades later in the 130s CE that the Roman Empire would wipe Judea— the region around Jerusalem— off the face of map in the aftermath of one final Jewish rebellion, with a massive Jewish depopulation of the region scattering Jews across the Roman Empire and the area’s renaming as Syria-Palestine. All of this political unrest had its roots in the Maccabean Revolts between 167–141 BCE as the Jewish people, returned from captivity in Babylon and Persia, attempted to regain their independence from the Grecian Seleucid Empire.
Sermon Note: The Jewish Festival of the Dedication, or Hanukkah, originates from these Maccabbean Revolts when the Temple was re-taken and rededicated to God and is recounted in 1st and 2nd Maccabees (part of the Apocrypha).
The outcome of these revolts was the formation of the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom which ultimately became a client state of the Roman Empire under King Herod the Great in 37 BCE.
Sermon Note: Herod the Great is the Herod mentioned in the classic nativity story, but his son, Herod Antipas, is the Herod referenced in the rest of the Gospel stories. Herod Antipas is the Herod we will encounter in Mark.
Unlike many other nations conquered by the Romans, the Jewish people resisted assimilation into Roman social and religious norms, and there was constant unrest and threat of revolt in and around Jerusalem. At the time of the Gospel narrative, Rome had divided the Jewish nation into a Tetrarchy— a state with four rulers. In the Gospel of Mark, the action starts in Galilee— a region in the northern part of modern-day Israel and the West Bank— and Judea, the region around Jerusalem. At the time of Jesus, the Roman government was increasingly involving itself in the internal affairs of the Jewish nation and its religion. It’s safe to say that Jesus’ story opens on a powder keg that was about to explode.
The World of the Text
The Gospel of Mark’s literary context is, of course, a Gospel. According to the late Marcus Borg, one of my favorite theologians, Mark defines the genre of Gospel. We get the word Gospel from the Greek word euaggelion or a proclamation of good news. This is where we get the word evangelism from. The Gospels are really a testimony about Jesus. Remember from our podcast introduction that we aren’t meant to take anything in the Bible as a factual restatement of what actually happened. The Gospel of Mark, like all the Gospels and the entire Bible, is a theological narrative that strings together stories about Jesus with eyewitness interpretation of what those stories mean. Mark, like all the Gospels, uses a lot of metaphor. So some of the really big claims of the Gospel stories that are too hard to believe because of how outlandish they are may actually be metaphoric. This doesn’t mean they are untrue or inferior to factual narratives. Twentieth century Biblical scholar Paul Ricoeur says the metaphor language of the Bible, particularly the Gospels, is “a surplus of meaning.” In other words, the Evangelist, which is what I’ll call the author of Mark, uses metaphor to emphasis the magnitude of the experience of knowing Jesus. The Gospel’s narrative structure follows the journey of Jesus from his baptism to his native Galilee where the bulk of his ministry occurs and ends in Jerusalem with his death…perhaps a metaphor of our Christian journey from baptism to picking up our cross and following the Way? A quick word about the author. We don’t know who the author of Mark is, but it’s safe to assume the author might have been a person named Mark who either knew Jesus or knew an apostle or was a person who was disciple of this person named Mark. We don’t know.
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The World in Front of the Text
The Gospel of Mark was most likely written to Galilean or Syrian Christians, mostly Jewish, who were reeling from the destruction of the Second Temple and the end of Jewish life as they knew it. The Temple was the center of Jewish social and religious life, and without it Jews were facing a cultural catastrophe not experienced since the Babylonian Captivity. Jewish Christians saw Jesus as the Messiah, the son of David who was coming to liberate God’s people. The destruction of the Temple, and their oppressor’s gleeful triumph, undoubtedly shook their faith. The Gospel of Mark is an attempt to remind them of who Jesus is and what liberation he promised.
Sermon Note: The Second Temple was the replacement built by the Jewish people upon their return to Judea following the Babylonian Captivity. It replaced the First Temple, commonly called Solomon’s Temple because King Solomon built it. Herod the Great did considerable rebuilding to the Second Temple prior to the events recounted in the Gospels. The Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine, sits adjacent to the site of the Second Temple.
Fast-forward to January 2025 when this episode was written and recorded. We are in a place not unlike that of those first readers of Mark. For many of us, the world as we know it appears to be coming to an end. Everything we’ve believed about democracy, human decency, the rule of law, and even the church is fractured…maybe never to be repaired. Like those early readers we are scared, confused, and maybe even questioning everything. If you keep your ears, minds, and hearts opened, these 1,955 year old words of Mark may also remind us of who Jesus is and what liberation he promised.
Because it is so important that support our spiritual health and wellbeing in the days, months, and years ahead, I am beginning a weekly Zoom-based guided meditation circle called the Monday Circle. We will gather on Zoom every Monday at 7pm CST, starting January 13. If you can’t make it to the live meditation, the recording will be available for thirty days for you to complete at your own pace. To join, please subscribe. The first three Monday Circles are free, and after January 27, 2025, they will only be available to paid subscribers. A subscription is only $5 a month, so I hope everyone who wishes to participate will be able to. Let me know if this is a problem.
Last Things
In our next episode we open the Gospel of Mark and will journey together through the Gospel’s “overture,” Mark 1:1-20.
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Beloved, go about your day knowing you are loved more than you could ever ask or imagine. Be kind to yourself and to one another. Have a snack, and take a nap. Above all, dwell in peace. May it be.
Eleven Minutes in Heaven is © Copyright 2025 Darcy Corbitt, LLC, PO Box 23, Camp Hill, AL 36850. All rights reserved.
All scripture quotations come from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE which is © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.CommonEnglishBible.com).
Music included in this podcast is by Julius H used under the Pixabay Content License.
