The passion of Christ: A comparison between Mark and John’s narratives.

 The passion of Christ; A comparison between Mark and John’s narratives.

Jesus nailed on the cross (internet photo)

By Moses Muwulya

The narrative of the passion of Christ in Mark’s Gospel has similarities with that in John’s Gospel. These similarities are more pronounced in the pivotal events of Jesus’ passion which include; the triumphal entry, prediction of Peter’s denial and the story of how it eventually happened, the arrest of Jesus Christ and subsequently His trial, crucifixion and resurrection.

Both Mark and John proclaim Jesus’ triumphal entry. In this pivotal event in the passion story, the duo recount Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (a scene of the ancient prophecy in Zacharia 9:9) amidst praises piled to Him by the crowds that shouted “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:7-10 and John 12:12-14)

Both Mark and John proclaim Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denial and the story in which it happened. Mark proclaimed that Jesus told Peter that will deny Him three times before the rooster crows twice (Mark 14:30) just as John proclaims in chapter 13:38. The duo also account how this happened (Mark 14: 66-72 and John 18 :15-18,25-26).

Both Mark and John proclaim Jesus’s arrest which happened in the garden at night when soldiers who came with Juda grabbed him and seized Him. They both proclaim the cutting of the ear of one of the servants of the high priest (Mark 14:43-46 and John 18:12).

Both proclaim the trial of Jesus by the high priest and Pilate, who after, trying him amidst mockery and found him blameless, delivered him for crucifixion after bending to the demands of the crowds which crowds were also motivated by the chief priests to ask for the release of Barabbas who had crime and crucify Christ who was blameless.

Both Mark and John proclaim that Jesus was crucified on the cross at Golotha; and that an inscription written by Pilate with words “King of Jews”, was put on the cross.  And what the soldiers did after crucifying Jesus which was dividing His garments (Mark 15:21 -31 and John 19:17-23)

Both Mark and John proclaim Jesus’ death and burial in the tomb. In their narrative they both talk of Joseph of Arimetha to have requested for the body of Jesus from Pilate for burial Mark 16:32 and John 19:38)

But despite these similarities, the narrative of the passion of Christ in Mark and John's Gospel has differences.  These range from the variations in sequency of some of these pivotal events that I have given as similarities, to the differences in the details captured by each writer in these very events. Other differences are seen in the omissions in John’s narrative. I now expound these differences starting with the ones in the sequence of events of the said events.

While Crucifixion is one the key events that both Mark and John proclaimed, Mark accounts that it happened after Jesus had taken the Passover meal. John, on the other hand, proclaims that Jesus never ate the Passover. The meal that John shows that Jesus ate before crucifixion was last supper but not Passover. According to White (n.d), John's proclamation of this was intentional because John wanted to show that Jesus was the Passover lamb and could not eat a Passover meal, but rather, be crucified as others earth the slaughter lambs for the Passover.

The other differences are seen in omissions and these include;

Omission of the institution of Lord’s supper. While Mark recounted the command of the Lord’s Supper after talking about the Passover with the disciples (14:12-24), John omitted this command. He instead replaced it with the command to wash one another’s feet. He taught, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Huntsman (2015) contends that this image of the greatest serving the least as illustrated by Jesus, is significant, given the clearly stated divinity of the Johannine Jesus. Because John was obsessed with showing the deity of Jesus, he could, for this reason, have omitted the institution of the sacrament of eucharist.

Omission of the agony in the garden. Mark recounted the Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed in great agony with petitions to even have the father let the cup pass him (Mark 14:33) but John omitted the scene of agony simply states that Jesus crossed the brook Cedron and came to a garden, not even mentioning the names Gethsemane (John 18:1). John simply brings the garden in the narrative as a scene of Jesus arrest (John 18:2–12) nothing like an account of prayer before the arrest.  The prayer John recounts happened before Jesus entered the garden, but also in this prayer, there is no element of agony but rather a prayer of one who is impatiently waiting or passionate for the hour. He is actually telling his father that the hour has come to him up.  According to Koester (1991), the play of the word “lift up” meant that when Jesus is physically “lifted up” onto a cross, he will also be “lifted up” or “exalted” in glory.  This then means that he was just passionate about the hour of death which Mark, in his narrative shows he was afraid of and only did because it is what His father willed. Explaining the possible cause for omission, Huntsman contends that “the theological focus of John’s Gospel is on the death of the Lamb of God rather than on His suffering, he omitted the suffering in the garden for literary reasons. Perhaps the divine Johannine Jesus, who rarely even grew tired or thirsty, could not easily be depicted as suffering”

Omission of the Long farewell discourse. Mark doesn’t recount the long farewell discourse that John has in which; Jesus talked about Him being the way the truth and life (14:1-13), Jesus the promised the disciples of the Holy Spirit and His work, Jesus consoled the disciples that their sorrow (over His death) shall turn into joy (after he resurrects) and finally the priest prayer in which He prayed for God to lift Him up as well as praying for the unity of His disciples.

Lastly, are the differences seen in the narration of the very events that each proclaimed. Idiom goes that "the devil is always in details". Indeed, in the details of some the pivotal events that shade the picture of are the similarities in the duo's narrative, lies a number of differences.

Starting with the arrest which took place in the garden as proclaimed by the duo, Mark talks of the betrayal kiss by Juda, that is believed to have aided the soldiers to identify Jesus of Nazarene to avoid arresting a wrong person since it was dark (Mark 14:45) John doesn’t proclaim this. He narrates that Jesus Himself took the initiative to identify himself upon asking the soldiers whom they were seeking for; and once they replied that they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, He identified himself, saying, “I am he”, which saw the soldiers draw back (18:5-9).  

 

In the proclaimed scene of Crucifixion by both Mark and John, Mark recounts that Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus to carry the cross to Golgotha (Mark 15:21) while John recounts that Jesus carried the cross himself to be crucified (19:17). Mikaylaa (2015) contends that Jesus himself carried the cross in order to remove all sin from sinners. While I don’t refute or ignore this thought, I wish to think that Jesus did to show to a good example to us because he said the cost of following him involves carrying ones cross and follow him (Mathew 16: 24-26)

Also, at the point of crucifixion the duo has variance in the time at which it was done.  Mark records that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, about nine in the morning (Mark 15:25) while John recounts the sixth hour, or about noon (John 19:14) as the time at which Jesus was crucified.

Regarding the last words that Jesus said on the cross, Mark differs from John. The former recounts that Jesus’s last words on the cross was His cry: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Mark 15:34–35) while John recounts that Jesus’ last words were: “it is finished” (John 19:30) and after saying so, He bowed his head and gave up his spirit to the Lord. 

In conclusion, whereas the narrative of the passion of Christ in Mark and John's Gospel has some similarities it is mainly seen in proclamation of the key events in the passion. But by and large, the narratives differ in many ways as discussed above.  The cause for this difference is due to the variance in purposes of writing and a critical look at these differences tell you why they had to be so. 

For Mark, who purposed to have Jesus as servant, he had to somehow differ from John whose purpose was to show the divinity of Jesus Christ right from the start of his entire Gospel. 

A general analysis of the narratives show that Mark is intentional in showing Jesus as a servant to His master (God) who was ready to do the will of the master (His Father) even when he never wanted it. You smell this when Mark brings the story of the agony in which Jesus even wished that the cup is taken off him but later says not as he wish. You also see this when mark says Jesus last words was asking why His father has forsaken him. You also smell Juda had to kiss him for identification

While John shows Jesus who was ready to die and loved to save the world which readiness is seen in many aspects of the narration, like no prayer of agony; no need for a betrayal kiss but simply identifies himself, “Iam he” a response which according to  Koester (1991), Jesus was  recalling the name of God in Exodus 3:14 and such expression in the Greek Old Testament is used as a divine name; he then commands his arrest,  he carries his cross to Golgotha, his last words is it is finished. All these amounts to a conclusion that Jesus was ready and willing to die as had John had already proclaimed in 10:17-18 that the laying His life down of his own free will, and as it is in my power to lay it down, so it is in my power to take it up again. 

 

References

White. The Gospel of John, online article accessed from The Frontline,https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/john.html#:~:text=Whereas%20in%20the%20three%20synoptic,very%20different%20for%20John's%20gospel on 9/05/2022 at 9:30 am

Craig R. Koester (1991).  The Passion and Resurrection According to John, Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, https://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=faculty_article

 

Mikaylaa (2015) John’s versus Mark’s Gospel,online article accesed from University of Oregon https://blogs.uoregon.edu/rel223s15drreis/2015/05/04/johns-versus-marks-gospel/