Throughout the first half of the gospel of Mark, Jesus displays a strong sense of authority in the way he goes about teaching and making a name for himself. Twice, in verses 1:22 and 1:27, the author of Mark specifically says that he taught with an authority that grabbed the attention of those watching. He shows this same level of command as he orders demons out of their victims with stern authority, such as in 1:25 when Jesus rebuked a demon saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” Then as he begins to show his healing capabilities, he heals in ways similar to how he teaches and how he commands demons, evident in the verse 2:5 when he tells a paralyzed man his sins were forgiven, then tells him to pick up his mat and go home.

Jesus came after much had happened with the Jewish people. Ever since the Northern Kingdom had fallen to Assyria in 722 BCE, God’s chosen people were constantly under the control of another much stronger nation, and many had come and gone who were supposed to have brought them out of oppression. If I was a member of Mark’s community at the time, I would find Jesus’ teachings impressive and would have been in awe of his healing powers, but his claims in verse 1:15 that the “Kingdom of God has come near” would leave me with skepticism because their people had been struggling for so long, surely this lowly man of Nazareth was simply an authoritative speaker who happened to have apparent healing powers.

Along with the skepticism that would come with hearing that, with Jesus’ arrival, the Kingdom of God was coming, his teachings could be interpreted as blasphemous to the Jewish religion and the Pharisees (among others) were justified in their disapproval of him. For instance in verse 2:5 when Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven, the Pharisees ask the question of who does this guy think he is to be forgiving sins, only God alone forgives sins. This carpenter from Nazarene heals a few people, then gets this idea in his head that he’s the equivalent of God? If I were a Jewish person at the time, I would find his statements blasphemous and narcissistic.

Overall, Jesus’ arrival to the scene in Palestine is met with many harsh criticisms from religious leaders and the Jewish people in general. He speaks with authority at a time when his people have no authority and power (and they haven’t for a while, and even still they don’t really have it again as evidence by the destruction of the Temple just forty or so years after Jesus’ death), and he claims to have power and ability that is comparable to their god, Yahweh. Jesus was a radical person at the time, and was not seen as the peaceful and influential person he’s seen as now back when he first began his ministry.