Bible Study Series: Mark 3:7-12. It is a clear and revealing summary.
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Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 3:7-12
7 Then Jesus, along with his disciples, withdrew to the lake, and a great crowd from Galilee followed—and from Judea 8 and from Jerusalem and from Idumea and beyond the Jordan River and around Tyre and Sidon. A huge crowd, listening to whatever he was doing, came to him. 9 Then he said to his disciples that a small boat be readied for him because of the crowd, so they would not press in on him. 10 For he healed many, with the result that they crowded him, in order that everyone who was afflicted might touch him. 11 When unclean spirits saw him, they fell before him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God!” 12 He sternly rebuked them so that they would not make him known. (Mark 3:7-12)
Comments
7-8:
Jesus’s ministry was well known by now. It drew large crowds from the distantly separate regions. There are many Bible maps online. You can google them using the time frame of Map of Palestine in the time of Jesus. Then you can have the fun (yes, fun—I like maps!) of finding each location. Tyre and Sidon could be expanded to stand in for northwestern Palestine.
Matthew’s Gospel says that Jesus withdrew because Jesus knew the evil plans of the religious leaders to kill him (Matt. 12:14-15). Sometimes it is best to “get out of Dodge” (leave town) before trouble happens.
Some may criticize the crowd for following Jesus just for the benefits of healing and deliverance he gave to them. Maybe these critics are right, up to a point. However, anyone who is sick, whether with a fever (Mark 1:30) or a bad skin disease, like Hansen’s (Mark 1:40-45), or paralysis (Mark 2:10-12) or a withered hand (Mark 3:5) needs help desperately, so I personally don’t criticize anyone who seeks Jesus for this kind of help. It is true, however, that he calls everyone to life-long discipleship (Mark 8:34-38; cf. John 6:66).
“listening to whatever he was doing”: “Whatever” could be translated as “everything.” Listening to what someone does not quite match, but the point is that they were following and watching him closely.
9:
I have read somewhere that sound waves bounce off the water, so that a speaker could be heard more easily. In this case, however, Jesus took practical action so that the crowds would stop crowding him.
“disciples”: The noun is used 261 times in the NT, though many of them are duplicates in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It means “one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice”; (2) “one who is rather constantly associated with someone who has a pedagogical reputation or a particular set of views, disciple, adherent” (BDAG)
10:
This verse explains why the crowds were pressing in on him. (Decker translates “press in on” as “jostling.” I like that.)
“healed”: the verb means to “make whole, restore, heal, cure, care for.” Here it means “healed” or cured.”
“touch”: Jesus exuded so much power that all people had to do was touch him. I don’t see this much power flowing from healing evangelists today. The answer why is found in v. 11: He is the Son of God. However, Peter’s shadow would cross over some people and heal them (Acts 5:15), but this seems an extra-unusual, special anointing, while this passage here in Mark is a summary of what regularly happened in Jesus’s ministry almost as a routine. So his Sonship and unique Messiahship is the deeper answer to the remarkable healing he saw. And for the record, I never saw the shadow of a healing evangelist heal anyone.
“afflicted”: the noun means to be afflicted and tormented with diseases and bodily ailments. Anyone who has suffered from a disease, as common as a strong flu, feels afflicted or tormented in body. Jesus healed many of them.
For advanced readers:
It is interesting that the verse does not say “all,” but the word “many” in Greek can be ambiguous, so that it could mean all, if we stretch out its meaning. In their comments on 1:34, these commentators write: “The term ‘many,’ in the statement that Jesus healed ‘many that were sick,’ is used inclusively and is equivalent to the ‘all’ of v. 32; it reflects upon the large number of those who came for healing” (Lane). Garland agrees: “The ‘many’ is a Semitism for the ‘all’ (see 10:45: cf. Matt. 8:16; Luke 4:40)” (p. 73, note 13). That is also inclusive, meaning “all.” But literally it reads many. If it is unclear why Jesus may not have healed all of them, read Mark 6:5-6. They denied he was the Messiah.
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time?
11-12:
“unclean”: the NIV translates it as “evil,” but it literally reads “unclean,” which could further be translated as “defiled.” An evil spirit defiles and pollutes the soul and mind and does not belong there. Get rid of the demon right now.
Bible Basics about Deliverance
I like Lane’s comments in these verses on the demons crying out the true status of the Son of God:
Among the crowd were demoniacs, unfortunate men possessed by unclean spirits whose behavior betrayed domination by a will alien to their own. The demons addressed Jesus as the divine Son of God in a futile attempt to render him harmless. These cries of recognition were designed to control and strip him of his power, in accordance with the conception that knowledge of the precise name or quality of a person confers mastery over him. In this context, “Son of God” is not a messianic title,” but a recognition of the true status of their adversary.
So far, I have never seen a demon fall before a healing evangelist and cry out like this. Again, the answer is related to Jesus’ being the Son of God. There was something uniquely powerful about him, due to his unique status and title (or the reality behind the title—he really was the unique Son of God). Through him we can be called the children of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2), but we are subservient to the Son of God and depend on him for our sonship and daughtership.
Jesus also rebuked the demons sternly because they were making him known before his time and in a rude and corrosive way. As I wrote in my comments on 1:34: Why did Jesus command the demons to shut up and not reveal who he was? He did not want their dark endorsement; revealing who he was too soon would raise the wrong expectations of what the Messiah should do and who he should be, as the people defined the terms. And he was not going to be the Conquering Military Messiah, but the Messiah who became the Passover Lamb who sacrificed for us and initiated the New Covenant.
Lane writes of Jesus commanding demons not to speak in 1:34:
The reference to the demons who knew Jesus is general, but intelligible in the light of the encounter with demonic possession reported in Ch[apter]. 1:23-26. In that instance Jesus was recognized as the divine Son, the Bearer of the Holy Spirit. As earlier he had muzzled the defensive cry of the unclean spirit, here he silences their shrieks of recognition, for they are powerless before him.
See my posts about Satan in the area of systematic theology:
Bible Basics about Satan and Demons and Victory Over Them
Bible Basics about Deliverance
Magic, Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Fortunetelling
Finally, let’s expand Jesus’s rebuke of demons to why didn’t Jesus want people generally to spread the news about the healing?
First, Jesus simply wanted to spread the message his way without the false expectations from noninformed people. Second, the exuberant expectation from the masses may spark an insurrection, which would hinder his message and his mission: to proclaim the kingdom of God, backed up by sings and wonders. People had to learn about his Messiahship through their thirst and hunger for the knowledge of God. They had to connect the dots. This is one of the purposes of teaching in parables. Only the hungry seekers could understand.
Let’s talk about the signs of the Messiah or the Messianic Age, to find out which dots they had to connect without a loudspeaker blasting it.
As I note in various places throughout the commentary on the Gospels, one sign of the Messianic Age was the healing of diseases and broken bodies. Is. 35 describes this age. After God comes with a vengeance to rescue his people, these things will happen:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy (Is. 35:5-6, NIV).
Is. 26:19 says of the Messianic Age: “But your dead will live, LORD, their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout with joy” (Is. 26:19, NIV).
The phrase “in that day” refers to the age that the Messiah ushers in: “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll and out of gloom and darkness the eyes will see” (Is. 29:18, NIV).
The Lord’s Chosen Servant will do many things. Here are some: “I am the LORD: I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for my people, a light for the nations, to open they eyes that are blind, to bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is. 42:6-7, ESV). Is. 42:18 connects hearing and seeing with walking in God’s ways, and deafness and blindness with national judgment. As for leprosy, Jesus referred to the time when Elijah the prophet healed Namaan the Syrian of his skin disease, and the return of Elijah was a sign that the Messiah was here (Mal. 4:5-6; Mark 9:11-13).
Since this pericope contains an element of demons recognizing Jesus and who he was, let’s discuss what his Sonship means with a brief excursus into systematic theology.
Jesus was the Son of the Father eternally, before creation. The Son has no beginning. He and the Father always were, together. The relationship is portrayed in this Father-Son way so we can understand who God is more clearly. Now he relates to us as his sons and daughters. On our repentance and salvation and union with Christ, we are brought into his eternal family.
6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God
When Did Jesus “Become” the Son of God?
The Trinity: What Are the Basics?
The Trinity: What Are Some Illustrations?
The Trinity: Why Would God Seem So Complicated?
The Trinity: What Does He Mean to Me?
Now let’s move on to the GrowApp.
GrowApp for Mark 3:7-12
1. When you converted to Christ, was it a popular move? What about your following him currently? Popular or unpopular? If you’re unpopular following Jesus, how have handled it?
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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