In Mark chapters 4 through 8, Jesus travels with his disciples to both Jewish and non-Jewish regions around the Sea of Galilee. While the miracles probably came from earlier written or oral sources, they did not include the elaborate context that Mark’s narrative gives. One of Mark’s main goals in his story-telling was to convey to his audience that God’s kingdom was quite unlike the types of kingdoms or empires they were used to, and not at all what they would expect. Jesus’ miracle ministry unfolds by demonstrating that faith in God could come from non-Jews as well as Jews, and that faith was essential to the advancement of this heavenly kingdom. Most of the miracles in Mark come in doubles (two sea miracles, two healings, two food miracles, two exorcisms). It is interesting that the bulk of these miracles happen in either non-Jewish or mixed territories. It seems that Mark may be making a statement on empty religion that brings about the wrong kind of kingdom (for example, he cannot do many miracles when a region lacks faith, and he refuses when religious leaders demand miracles). Many of the miracles involve a physical touch of Jesus, and all of them are misunderstood by the disciples.
Mark’s elaborations on the miracle stories offer the reader (or listener) a context for the greater meaning of Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ first words in Mark are “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near…” (Mk 1:15). The miracle stories each carry undertones of what that kingdom is to look like – quite different than the Roman kingdom, in that the power structure would be inverted, the marginalized would become central, and the hypocrisy of the religious elite would be proven empty compared to those with humble faith. Mark used language familiar to his contemporaries regarding this new kingdom, which was to be an “alternative to the empire of Rome.” (Wainwright, Basileia Movement). Keeping in mind the context of when Mark’s gospel was written, I expect this imagery and mission of Jesus would have been incredibly powerful to his audience. For example, the Jews were facing war, the storming of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple at the hands of the Roman legion, so I imagine audiences would have had a strong reaction to the story of Jesus casting out the demon “Legion” from the possessed and violent man in Gerasenes. Like the man could not be restrained by the community while the demon Legion had invaded his body, so Mark’s audience may have felt powerless against the Roman legion invading Jerusalem. But in the context of this miracle story, Jesus’ ministry has expanded as he now come to cast out the Roman empire and set up God’s empire.
Further, the miracles themselves and the ones who experience the miracles paint a picture of something very different that the religious leaders were expecting (which would fit in with Mark’s prevalent theme of misunderstanding). Jesus chastises the Pharisees who criticize him for dining with tax collectors and sinners, healing on the sabbath, feeding his hungry disciples. Many like the Pharisees may have thought law-keeping would be key in God’s kingdom, and purity and religious status to be its characteristics. But Jesus, by visiting and healing non-Jews as well as Jews, by expressing compassion in his ministry over rules and regulations, and by having miracle success as a result of people’s faith (rather than their “rightness”) shows that the kingdom to come would be ruled in a very different way. The disciples consistent lack of understanding drive the point home even more to Mark’s audience – almost like letting them in on a secret that the characters in the story can’t seem to grasp. Jesus’ traveling miracle narrative is like the literal “way” that John the Baptist prophesied about in Mark 1:2-3, setting in motion the beginning of a new rule that according to Mark’s gospel, Jesus believed was at hand.