PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Jesus as the Vindicated Sufferer in Mark
Mark’s Gospel especially presents Jesus as the one who personifies the Davidic figure of
the Psalms of royal lament. 36 Mark 3:20-21 reports the reproach of Jesus’ family
concerning his mission, a motif of Psalm 69. In Mark 9:12 Jesus says that it is written that
the Son of Man must be treated with contempt, arguably an allusion to the Greek version
of Psalm 22:7. Mark 14:18 sees Jesus betrayed by one who eats with him, an evocation of
Psalm 41:9. In Mark 14:34 “it seems that Mark takes a recurring phrase from Pss 41:6,12
[that is, 42:5, 11] and 42:5 [that is, 43:5] and weaves it into his story by putting it on the
lips of Jesus”: 37 the downcast soul of the Psalmist is personified in Jesus. The casting of
lots for the divided clothing of the Davidic Psalmist in Psalm 22:18 is evoked in Mark
15:24, in the actual experience of Jesus. Mark 15:29-30 evokes the common Psalmic
motif of the figure who is reviled by passers by, a motif utilised in relation to the Davidic
persona in Psalm 22:7. Mark 15:34 brings this use of the Psalms firmly into the
foreground, with Psalm 22:1 heard from the lips of the dying Jesus: “My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?” And Mark 15:36 is reminiscent of Psalm 69:21, with the
suffering figure offered vinegar to drink.
For Mark then, the identity and project of Jesus may be approached by hearing him as the
speaker of the Davidic lament psalms, in this way identifying himself with Israel, as a
figure whose sufferings cry out for divine vindication, and constitute a path for the
community to follow. 38 These Christians for whom Mark writes are summoned to express
36 Here I draw especially on two resources aside from the Gospel of Mark itself: Stephen
P. Ahearne-Kroll, The Psalms of Lament in Mark’s Passion: Jesus’ Davidic Suffering
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); and A.Y. Collins, “The Appropriation of
the Psalms of Individual Lament by Mark,” in The Scriptures in the Gospels (ed. C.M.
Tuckett; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1997), 223-241. My references are to the
Psalms as numbered and versed in the Christian tradition.
37 Ahearne-Kroll, Psalms of Lament, 67.
38 Donald Juel rightly notes: “The Psalter played a critical role in the development of the
passion tradition. In all the Gospels, the story of Jesus’ death is narrated with features
taken from Psalms 22, 31, and 69, to name the most obvious…. Nor is it surprising that
Jesus’ followers turned to the Psalter to understand his crucifixion…. In numerous
psalms, innocent sufferers bring their case before God in the form of complaints and
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