The miracle stories told by each of the four evangelists undoubtedly constitute one of the most famous aspects of the life story of Jesus Christ, and it is clear that for the writers of the Gospels , as for the first Christians, miracles held great meaning. However, the way in which these miraculous events are described differs between the Gospels generating variation in how we, as readers, might perceive their function. In this essay I will try to make the case that the miracle stories in the Gospel of Mark serve many potential functions; the authentication of Jesus' identity and message, the catalyst for profound teaching and method through which the writer of Mark could speak directly to the concerns, fears, and questions of his own community, to name just a few. While it is unclear which of these functions the writer of Mark actually intended in telling the miracle stories, these roles are, ultimately, if accidentally, fulfilled. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It is worth outlining the distribution and arrangement of the miracle stories in the Gospel of Mark. Within Mark we see eighteen stories in which Jesus is depicted as a miracle worker or an exorcist[1]; as Boring notes, "Depending on whether you include the Markan summaries and stories like the finding of the colt and the curse of the fig tree, miracle stories comprise between 20 and 30 percent of 1:1-16 :8 and 40% of chapters 1 -10[2].' In particular, almost all the miracle stories are found towards the first half of the narrative and most of them were performed before Peter's confession following the transfiguration and before the first prediction of the passion Jesus virtually fell silent after his entry into Jerusalem. I think that when discussing the 'function' of miracles in Mark, it is important to recognize the extent to which what we find in his text is the result of individual interpretation Mark simply served to maintain and support the use of the miracle story tradition with which he himself would have been familiar; as Richardson argues, "it is a reasonable hypothesis to suppose that St. Mark found miracle stories already used by church teachers for the same purposes to which he himself applied them in his Gospel... We cannot consider St. Mark in every sense as an innovator; he is rather the preserver and scribe of the tradition in which he himself was educated[3]". It therefore appears that the writer of Mark adopted the tradition of the miracle story and continued it as an effective way to talk about Jesus; we cannot be sure of the extent to which the stories we see told in the Gospel remain as Mark received them, but taking into account Mark's sitz im leben and his desire to orient the Gospel towards the struggles and questions of his community, I think that the writer most likely inherited the tradition and used it for his own theological purposes; as Best notes, "the Gospel was written not only for a Christian community, but for a specific Christian community at a specific time and intended to satisfy its needs[4]". It is impossible to know the exact function the miracle stories intended for Mark, but we can see that certain functions are undoubtedly fulfilled; in the rest of the essay I will try to explore some of these potential functions. Miracles serve to demonstrate Jesus' connection with God; he acts with an authority apparently new to his contemporaries:«...everyone was amazed and glorified God, saying: 'We have never seen such a thing![5]', '...and everyone was amazed[6].' Historically healings and exorcisms were not entirely uncommon; the public would surely have been aware of others who had performed similar cures, therefore, seems to lie in the way Jesus heals: his authority and response to faith signal that it comes from God. Furthermore, in many cases, Jesus heals only through his word, perhaps reminiscent of God's creative activity in Genesis. From a narrative point of view, the miracle stories testify to the statement already made by Mark at the beginning of his Gospel, of «Jesus Christ, the son of God[7]». The fact that Mark's readers are already aware of the fact that Jesus is the son of God creates a sense of dramatic irony as the public knows the secret of Jesus' miracles while those around him are still wondering.Perhaps the most obviously function performed by miracle stories is the revelation of aspects of Jesus' nature after establishing his identity as the Son of God, miracles delve into what this title entails. Mark realizes the revelation of the dual nature of Jesus both as a divine man and as a suffering Messiah; two Christological points of view that many believe were maturing in the Markan community at the time the Gospel was composed; Mark may have wished to reconcile these positions. As already noted, the first half of the Gospel contains most of Jesus' miracles with virtually no mention of them as the narrative approaches the passion, Boring concludes that "the first half of the Gospel therefore represents a sort of off" . theology of glory', with Jesus' power to perform miracles dramatically in the spotlight. The second half of the Gospel represents a sort of 'theology of the cross', in which the power of God is revealed in weakness[8]". Mark accentuates the extraordinary nature of Jesus' miracles to strengthen his power before his weakness, his nature as a suffering Messiah, is revealed through the crucifixion: «Jesus is first and foremost the one who dies on the cross and is resurrected and not the one who performs miracles. The cross might suggest that he was powerless, but the miracles show him as the one who can and does come to the aid of the community with his resurrected power.[9]». Alongside the emphasis on Jesus as the suffering Messiah, the juxtaposition of the miracles with Mark's theme of secrecy demonstrates a modesty in Jesus' ministry, he is here to serve rather than gain personal gratification. For example, Jesus heals Jairus' daughter and "severely ordered them that no one should know [10]." The idea that, often, people cannot help but proclaim how Jesus healed them also demonstrates the wonder of his power. In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of the personal nature of Jesus through the miracle stories, we gain perhaps, more significantly, insight into the nature of Jesus' ministry, his purpose for humanity, and what humanity can get from him through faith. Best alludes to this idea when he observes that «the lesson that miracles teach also concerns the person of Jesus; if he saves from disease or from the devil or from the storm, we learn something about his nature, but the primary emphasis is on what they tell us about his activity for and on behalf of men[11].” Perhaps most obviously, Jesus is presented as possessing the power to heal spiritually, demonstrated most clearly through his exorcisms. The demoniac Gerasene, for example, is seriously possessed but Jesus purifies him. Juel observes how the detail provided by Mark on the gravity of the situation increases the sense of Jesus' power in being able to save him: «The situation isdesperate. The signs of possession are painfully obvious to all. Man is totally out of control and incapable of living within society. Symbolic of his expulsion from the human community, he lives beyond the boundaries of civilization, in a state of ritual impurity (from a Jewish perspective), among the dead[12]'. In the society in which Jesus performed his miracles, illness in the physical sense would be considered a physical manifestation of spiritual illness; when Jesus heals physically, he also heals spiritually. When we talk about 'spiritual healing' I am referring to the redemptive power of Jesus that Mark highlights. This is especially explicit when Jesus cleanses the leper in 1:40-45. For a Jewish audience, the fact that the man was afflicted with leprosy would mean that he was a sinner since the disease was, in the Old Testament, a punishment for sinful behavior[13]. Since "leprosy is a kind of sin[14]", when Jesus physically heals the man it is seen as if he forgave his sins and reintroduced him into society. This also establishes, once again, the connection between Jesus and God as Jesus is endowed with the authority to do what only God has the authority to do, that is, forgive sins. Throughout the miracle stories, Jesus can be seen to transgress numerous boundaries regarding society and laws of cleanliness. As Rhoads explains, “these notions of clean and unclean have nothing to do with our modern ideas of sanitation. Rather, they are invisible forces capable of making things pure or contaminated, holy or contaminated, clean or impure[15]'. Jesus can be seen ignoring these laws on numerous occasions: he heals a leper, he heals on the Sabbath, he heals the hemorrhagic woman who would be considered ritually unclean by the laws of Leviticus, and he heals the daughter of a Gentile woman in Gentile land. Collectively, these demonstrate the universal nature of Jesus' salvation; he rises above any restrictions that might be imposed by society and offers salvation to all who have faith. Jesus brings a new covenant that transcends social boundaries and welcomes all people, not just those who are of Jewish origin and abide by Jewish religious laws. Jesus brings a new law: '...from within, from the hearts of men, evil designs come out: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, greed, acts of malice, deception, debauchery, an envious eye, blasphemy, arrogance, reckless madness . All these evil things come from within and defile man[16]." Commenting on this passage, Rhoads notes that «Mark eliminates ritual purity or defilement as a demarcation. Instead, it draws a line between moral and immoral behavior as that which determines purity or defilement. Mark honors moral behavior that comes from within rather than protecting oneself from impure things from without[17]. Although the messages of the miracle stories in Mark translate to a modern audience, it is widely accepted that many of these messages would have taken on additional meaning for members of Mark's community. Within a community constantly suffering persecution, stories of Jesus' miraculous work would provide vindication of Jesus' power to redeem and transcend death; Christians need help; they face persecution and must face the temptations of the world, the desire for wealth, for security, for popularity. They walk the hard path of the cross, but it is not a solitary and unsupported following of Jesus, but rather a following in which they have his presence. Miracles indicate some of the ways in which his support is offered[18]". Through their struggles, the miracle stories also highlight the importance of faith; they may suffer greatly in their efforts to follow the..196