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Faith in Mark's Gospel, with special emphasis on faith which intercedes against paralysis
Marinko Vidović
orcid.org/0000-0003-0746-023X
; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Sažetak
writings, from faith to faith. The Gospels speak about faith narratively; in
other words, as something that has a visible impact. In this type of narrative, it is not
possible to define faith or express it unambiguously or reduce it to a common denominator.
It must be viewed in different narrative units, which in addition to their real-life
context have a literary context. The author of this article starts from the term “faith”
in its verbal and noun form and then isolates contexts in which the concept of faith appears
in Mark, noting that faith is usually found in scenes that describe Jesus’ miracles,
his prayers, and places where he calls for prayer and teaches about prayer. The fact
that Mark places faith in these contexts shows that faith is first of all a true relationship
with God and that it manifests His almighty power in history. With this idea, Mark
echoes the Old Testament concept of faith, where faith is submission to God. He relies on
this ancient concept of faith, but introduces new ideas and new emphases. He stresses
that faith is a reliance on God, but mediated by Jesus, His actions, words and teaching.
For Mark, the theocentricity of faith is inseparable from Christocentricity. Faith has its
contextual variables, but faithful behavior also has a constancy and this is: accepting
the Kingdom; coming to Jesus; asking for help from Him and through Him from God;
accepting and understanding His words and deeds; prayerfully addressing God, trusting
that He, in Jesus, does what is humanly impossible; and finally totally imitating
Jesus and His way. Mark clarifies these positive frames of faith through behavior that
shows unbelief or insufficient faith. Faith is insufficient when it is based only on signs
and wonders; when it looks and seeks only human security; when it is not attentive
to the words of Jesus, and when it stays only at the level of wonder and awe that does
not lead to Him who is the source of it. Infidelity is seen as a rejection of the person of
Jesus and His realization of God’s plan; as misunderstanding caused by fear for the self
and flawed expectation of God; as an escape from Jesus’s way; as a wrong perception
of reality; as hardened hearts; as blind eyes and deaf ears; as poor memory of what
has already been experienced; as thinking “by human, not by God”. True faith is following
Jesus; walking after Him and accepting His death as God’s will. Before that kind of
death, existential faith can be poured into true religion, confession of Jesus’ identity as
the Son of God. As much as faith is a personal attitude and conviction of God’s action in
history, true faith also has an ecclesial dimension, interceding for the troubles of other
people. In this article we speak of the paralytic man, who was helped by his own faith,
but also by the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. We see here the personal and
ecclesial, interceding dimension of faith.
Ključne riječi
faith; infidelity; lack of faith; discipleship; miracle; prayer; God almighty; theocentricity; Christocentricity; reliance
Hrčak ID:
266190
URI
Datum izdavanja:
2.2.2014.
Posjeta: 457 *