Slideshow image

“I know who you are, the holy one of God.” 

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!”

- Mark 1:24-25

Are you ready to get nerdy with me?  The Gospel passage for this Sunday from the Gospel of Mark has a chiastic structure. 

But before I tell you what that is, I need to tell you about Pr. Deb.  She was my supervising internship pastor when I was still in seminary. And I have this very distinct memory of her geeking out about chiastic structure, every time it came up in the Bible. On the surface, it was kind of strange. Pr. Deb was is one of the most personal, down-to-earth and relatable people you could meet – not the type that you would peg to be a geek for Greek grammar (say that ten times fast).

But anytime we hit a passage that had chiastic structure, she would light up like a tree on Christmas. Because whenever you notice chiastic structure, you can catch a glimmer of exactly what the author wanted you to know. No guesswork involved! 

Here’s how it works:

Chiastic structure is a “literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order” causing a “mirror effect”.  But in the middle of that repeated pattern, is a central idea or a main point that the author is trying to convey.  Structurally, it looks like this: Point A à Point B à Main Point à Point B à Point A.  See the mirroring effect?   

And this is what it looks like in our story today:

(A) Jesus comes into the synagogue 

(B) Jesus teaches with authority and people are amazed 

(C) A man with an unclean spirit cries out 

(X-main point) The demon recognizes Jesus is the holy one of God. Jesus commands him to come out.

(C’) The unclean spirit cries out and leaves

(B’) People acknowledge Jesus authority and are amazed.

(A’) Jesus leaves the synagogue

In the structure of the writing, we can see what the author wants us to know!  Point “X” tells us that who Jesus is (the holy one of God), and proves the point by Jesus casting out the demon.  Cool right? … Right? (*crickets*) Well, maybe ‘cool’ wasn’t the right word, but it is interesting. 

The chiastic structure tells us exactly what the Gospel writer wants us to know.  Who is the Jesus? The holy one of God.  How can we know it’s really him? Because he can cast out demons. 

I think that’s pretty cool. 

To learn more about Chiastic Structure, click here. 

To learn about how it applies to this passage, click here.