The Roar of the Lion - Mark's Jesus

The Roar of the Lion - Mark's Jesus

The lion's appearance

Symbolism and meaning

The opening of any ancient biography usually tried to say something about who the subject was and where he came from. Often the first words included the subject's name, and, perhaps, a brief comment about his family, ancestry or home town. Unlike modern biography, however, there was no need to cover the birth, all the early life, and education in great detail. Often, the narrative moved swiftly through several decades to the subject's arrival on the public scene.

Mark's opening is uncompromising and direct: "The beginning of the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Who is this person and where does he come from? We are not told - just the subject's name, as in many ancient Lives. Mark may give us some information in the titles for Jesus: "Christ" is the Greek translation of the Hebrew "Messiah", someone who "has been anointed". While Paul's letters use "Christ" as almost a surname for Jesus (as here), elsewhere Mark uses it as a title, "the Christ". Furthermore, the phrase "the Son of God" is missing in some ancient manuscripts; modern editors disagree whether it was in Mark's original. So, we begin simply with the name of Jesus: there are no birth stories, no mention of Bethlehem, and no genealogy or Davidic ancestry. Mark does not have time for these preliminaries. Jesus just arrives fully grown, of indeterminate age, from Nazareth to be baptized by John in the Jordan. One is reminded of Aslan, the great lion in The Chronicles of Narnia of C. S. Lewis, who suddenly appears from over the sea without warning but exactly when he is needed: "Aslan was among them though no one had seen him coming."

Thus we come to the lion symbol for St Mark. Since the Fathers usually link the symbols to the opening of each gospel, the lion is a symbol of John the Baptist, the "voice crying in the wilderness". Others suggest that the lion, as king of the beasts, represents Jesus' royal power in Mark. While the lion is often seen as kingly in other Ancient Near Eastern cultures, this is not the main image in the Bible. The earthy wisdom of Proverbs compares the roar of a lion to a king's anger, and even to a wicked ruler. More commonly, the lion is seen as a predator suddenly appearing out of the forest to attack flocks or human beings; the Psalmist uses lions as symbols of his enemies. When the prophets liken God to a lion, it is as a symbol of judgement and destruction, rather than royalty, and a cause of lamentation. The lion is thus an uncomfortable image in the Bible and not the most obvious choice for "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild"! However, let us see what happens if we read Mark's story with the image of Jesus as a lion before us. After all, we are often told that "Aslan is not a tame lion" - even if, surprisingly, that exact phrase never occurs in C. S. Lewis' books!