Discerning the Conflict

The usual basis for any story is conflict, the struggle of forces to prevail. Conflict "works", is effective, because in the course of the struggle the core values and beliefs of the narrative are revealed.

In the Gospel of Mark, we see three main conflicts that weave throughout the story: [1] Jesus against non-human forces [demons, illness, nature], [2] Jesus against authorities [the Roman oppressors and the scribes, Pharisees, and priestly leaders of the Temple in Jerusalem], and  [3] Jesus against his disciples. But what is the force or character that initiates or sets off the struggle? What is the goal that the whole story is driving towards?

It is God's activity that triggers the action in the narrative. Through the words and actions of of God's agent Jesus, God's rule challenges every other claim to power... In all of this the rule of God generates conflict because it ruptures the conventional conception of God and creates a new understanding of God. Instead of guarding boundaries, God now crosses boundaries. Instead of remaining in the Temple, God breaks out and is available everywhere. Instead of withdrawing from defilement, God spreads holiness. Instead of working from the centre, God works from the margins. God sends an anointed one who does not dominate but who undergoes persecution and death in the service of others. In all of these matters, the authorities are trapped inside the old wineskins of their conventional views, unable to see the new wine in their midst. By judging the new wine by the categories of old wineskins they destroy the wine — and they also end up destroying the wineskins as well.

Mark As Story, Rhoads, Dewey & Michie