Secrets of the Gospel of Mark

Mark is a deeply mystical book when one encounters the torrents of God's Spirit.  Things come to the surface that have been hidden deep down.  One discovers secret entrances, secret gates, secret words, secret numbers, secret places, secret miracles, and a lot of talk about a secret kingdom in Mark's Gospel.

I want to focus today on some of the secret locations or places where God meets us in Mark's Gospel.  The desert, mountain, lakes,  gardens, and city become mystical places in Mark.  The landscapes are spiritual locations where demons come out of the Sea and mystic prayer drips blood in a garden.  There is a movement to Galilee towards Gentiles in Mark as well as a move towards Jerusalem.  Suffering and martyrdom waits at Jerusalem.

There is a desert spirituality in Mark's Gospel. The desert is a place where we wrestle with our sin and find oneself in exile.  The desert is a place of preparation for new beginnings and divine vocation.  The desert has wild beasts and demonic temptations.  The desert is a place of prayer where one discovers miracles.  This wilderness is filled with both danger and wonder, abandonment and refuge.

We know very little of Jesus as a youth or child.  House  is the secret place where one is hidden with Christ.  It is in the home our faith is tested and proven or exposed for having no depth or root.  The house is the inner place our souls are nourished or neglected.   The sea is the place of terror, fear and monsters.  Many of Jesus demonic deliverances happened by the sea side.  The sea is a place where Jesus destroys the works of the Devil

Mountains represented spiritual high places where the gods did battle.  Mountains are high places to be near to God and to ascend in the spiritual life.  Mountains are places of transfiguration.  One must ascend a mountain but one must descend to go into the valleys and the city.  The city is often a place of opposition and resistance to the Gospel of Jesus.  Cities represented people, cultures and empires. 

Jesus went to a garden before he went to the cross.  One must go through the garden to get to the resurrection. The garden can be a place of barrenness or fruitfulness.  A place of promise or peril.  But the garden takes us to the cross which leads us to resurrection.  Resurrection leads us back to Eden and paradise with God.