I hadn’t realized that Jesus only openly declares himself at the trial. Another curious aspect to the secrecy/openness theme is the Son of God title. At first the title is only used by supernatural beings – heavenly voices, demons, you know the sort of thing. Only at the end does an actual human being stumble across it: the centurion at the cross - a Roman, a Gentile, a man who’s just pressed the nails to the skin. He speaks the truth without even knowing it: "truly this man was the Son of God". How’s that for Markan irony!
Thanks for the sermon.
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t realized that Jesus only openly declares himself at the trial. Another curious aspect to the secrecy/openness theme is the Son of God title. At first the title is only used by supernatural beings – heavenly voices, demons, you know the sort of thing. Only at the end does an actual human being stumble across it: the centurion at the cross - a Roman, a Gentile, a man who’s just pressed the nails to the skin. He speaks the truth without even knowing it: "truly this man was the Son of God". How’s that for Markan irony!