Faith In Mark's Gospel

Throughout the entirety of Mark’s gospel, there are numerous examples that show the importance of having faith. In Mark’s gospel, the importance and power of having faith is shown through the healings that Jesus performs, through Jesus’ conversations with the Twelve, and also through the exchange with the rich man. In each of these instances, an individual’s faith is shown and that individual is granted salvation, or an individual lacks faith and that individual will remain absent from God’s kingdom. An individual’s faith ultimately leads to God’s kingdom, however in Mark’s gospel many confuse God’s kingdom with human expectations of what a kingdom should entail. This is the root of the rich man’s misguided faith, and it also leads to Jesus’

Jesus is often faced by faithless opponents who do not believe anything can be done to save these people. This leads to Jesus becoming angry at this generation in an attempt to show that people, even his disciples, need to have enhance their faith. The importance of having faith is shown why Jesus heals the boy with a demon. In this exchange, the father asked Jesus’ disciples to get the demon out of his son, but they could not. The father asks Jesus if there is anything he can do to help. In response Jesus exclaims, “If I can! Everything is possible to one who has faith” (9:23). This quote nearly exemplifies Jesus’ message on the importance of having faith. The father and the many bystanders question the power of God when even the disciples cannot help the boy. This leads Jesus to utter the aforementioned quote about the importance of having faith. This proves that Jesus believes that anyone can be saved, if he has faith in God. This could even extend to the rich man. If the rich man had faith in God, he too could be saved. Jesus often became angry when people in the crowd would question his ability to save people, as this, to Jesus, only showed their lack of faith. Jesus, before saving the boy from the demon, says, “O faithless generation, how long will I be with you? How long with I endure you?” (9:19). This shows Jesus’ dismay in the people’s lack of faith that he is acting as the son of an all-powerful God, who can save all. Jesus observes many people who do not trust that God can save them, and this makes Jesus furious because it shows how little faith the people have in God. This lack of faith is something that Jesus attributes to this entire generation, as if to say that all the people he lives with have no faith. If all these people lack the faith necessary in order to be granted God’s kingdom, then surely it will be hard for these people to