The Gospel of Mark and God’s Unimperial Empire

The latest issue of Interpretation (2016) is a special feature on the Gospel of Mark with some great articles on kingdom of God, disability and healing, cross over boundaries, and the Roman empire, all in relation to Mark.

It includes an interesting article by Suzanne Watts Henderson on the kingdom in Mark’s Gospel. I think she wrongly plays off Christology and Kingdom, however, she does offer one very stirring description:

Mark depicts God’s reign as an insurgent uprising at work on the earth to disarm Satan’s minions where they thwart human dignity and cosmic wholeness. Drawing on Jewish hopes forged in the fires of Roman occupation, Mark tells a story of God’s incursive force unleashed through Jesus the Christ. In Mark, God’s kingdom power takes root on earth as an ‘unimperial empire.’ Disclosing strength in sacrificial servanthood and emerging organically from below rather than coercively from above, this paradoxical reign threatens the status quo not through conventional ‘strong arm’ tactics but stealthily, and in life-affirming ways. In the end, Mark’s ‘good news’ about God’s kingdom registers a first-century call that retains relevance today – a robust, counter-cultural call to trust that the end of evil’s occupation is at hand.
Suzanne Watts Henderson, “The ‘Good News’ of God’s Coming Reign: Occupation at a Crossroads,” Interpretation 70.2 (2016): 145-58 (146).