The call to conversion and faith, which commences Mark's story of Jesus, is comprehensive in its intent. All who appear in the drama are subject to the demand and all, except perhaps demons, have the opportunity to respond. Up until this point we have been principally concerned with examining the positive response to the call by minor characters in situations of extreme need and by the disciples. But at the very outset of the story an ominous note is also sounded. By launching the kingdom programme against the backdrop of the ‘handing over’ of John the Baptist (1:14), who also demanded repentance (1:4), the narrator warns us that the eschatological initiative of God has already encountered opposition. Similar opposition to Jesus soon begins to emerge (2:6ff) and in 9:19 the entire generation which Jesus addresses is evaluated as chronically ‘faithless’ (γɛνɛὰ ἅπιστος), locked fast in unbelieving resistance to the reality and demands of the dawning kingdom (cf. 8: 12,38). In this chapter we will examine six passages which deal with the issue of unbelief. But first by way of introduction something may be said about the larger pattern which the motif of unbelief creates in the narrative.

The intersection of the universal demand for faith and the entrenched unbelief of the contemporary age has two main effects in Mark's story.