Book Review Andrew McDonald 1

MARKED BY STEVE ROSS

We keep our eyes down and our mouths shut do you

understand? he tells his young son. Behind them a helpless backpacker is
dragged, beaten and executed. BANG! I dont give a damn, the father
says as he shrugs away, bent, defeated and bound by his own fear.

Such is the world of Steve Rosss graphic novel, Marked. A whacked

out, Orwellian dystopia populated by desperate citizens, stone faced
troopers, social climbers, misfits, losers, prostitutes, prophets, demons,
television celebrities,
corporate magnates and
swine. From amidst the
collision of this world with the
prophetic lunacy of a
homeless bum named John
there emerges an
anonymous, yet strangely
familiar, figure of intense
compassion, anger, naivety and redemption. Meet the Messiah. He may
be a lot of things but he is not NICE!

It makes me wonder, reading, or rather soaking in the images of this

novel, whether many of us have really allowed the Gospels to shape us
like they could. The narrative that Steve Ross introduces to his readers is
one in which human dignity actually matters, not something that is
peripheral especially not where God is concerned. While Ross obviously
cannot convey all the nuances of Marks gospel, the style, imagery and
themes that he works with create a dramatic tension, full of raw emotion
and surprise.

But really, that is all

academic. I am moved almost to
tears by the way in which even the
minor characters are brought to life
with such poignant effect. Ross
allows himself and the reader to
venture into the possibilities of lives
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being touched by the unnamed Holy One of God. The characters might
seem ludicrous at times, and there is a lot of opportunity for laughter as I
turn the pages, but then suddenly some human predicament will manifest
with a single accusation sinner! Or perhaps it will be the slightest
expression of a character that will embody the painful world of someone I
know. This is perhaps the deepest, soul wrenching, fictionalisation of any
gospel I have ever encountered.

Why I have chosen to review this comic? Because the Jesus and
the world that confronts me within its pages makes my heart shudder and
ache with redemptive longing. That is a longing for the world that
surrounds me and for my own vulnerable engagement with that world. For
those with whom I relate to on a daily basis and those who I repel on a
daily basis. There is an image near the beginning of Marked, (it relates
Jesus preaching and demonic encounter in the synagogue), of all the
people in the church with blindfolds on and the windows boarded over.
The young messiah cuts the cord to the microphone to silence the
arrogant blustering of the preacher and snips away the blindfolds of the
congregation. Dont be afraid, he reassures them, It may hurt a little
until your eyes get used to the light. The point is that religion can blind us
to the world we live in rather than sharpen our eyes to the actual shape of
our social reality. Sometimes it hurts to see reality, but I suspect that is
exactly the kind of seeing that God is trying to give us.

On the other hand this kind of seeing is to recognise beauty as well.

I love the scene in Marked where Jesus meets a young, depressed, tax
collector naked Lionel (a.k.a. Matthew) and takes him home for lunch
with all his new friends. Lasagne! Here is what he tells them all: I am
honoured by your company and pleased that you all accepted my
invitation. You are my friends, now and forever. I would lay down my life
for each of you. But it isnt an easy world in which to say this kind of thing.
You dont want to befriend the wrong kind of people. Even his mother
looks a bit concerned with the weirdoes her
son is hanging about with. But he has found
his people and my response is, YES! I want
to love people with that kind of fullness too.

Marked has a raw, gutsy realism that

perhaps only a graphic novel could convey.
On top of a pile of junk in the Gerasenes the
demon possessed man sits with broken
chains and a revolver pointed to his head.
Of course within him seethe an
insurmountable party of demons who dont
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want to leave. He invited us in. It would be rude to leave. Impolite.

What strikes me as so utterly insightful here is the demoniacs own
resistance to being cleaned out. No! Stop it! Theyre telling the truth! he
complains as the Son of man begins yanking them from his mouth,
Theyre mine. Theyre me. But there is an urgency and love and
assurance that accompany Jesus confrontation with the demonic
powers that breaks through into an incredible moment of trust and
liberation.

What I really detect in Marked is the blueprint for pastoral ministry. It

is the way of redemptive community that Jesus is leading me into. There is
more than that to it of course; even here there is the recognition that his
naivety is holy whereas mine is all too often insecure and self-seeking. Like
Peter as he tries to take a photograph of Moses and Elijah, I also get
caught in the act of trying to secure my own posterity and reputation at
the expense of true relationship with God and others. Everything
changes, Jesus explains to a pretty shattered looking Peter, Everything
dies. The question is whether you want that to be the end of the story.
So what if my pastoral ministry consists in surrendering myself into Gods
act of death and resurrection? Death as the act of risking it all for the sake
of abundant life emerging in those our lives touch. Resurrection as the act
that only God can
perform in our lives;
an act that
vindicates the very
impulse of risking it
all. Yes, I am
scared, but I want
to risk it all for that
kind of life. Terrified
actually, but
somehow Marked
makes me more
scared and more
determined at the
same time.

More than anything this adaptation of Marks gospel gets at me in

the very same place I feel God getting at me when it really comes down
to how I am going to live my life. Am I going live in a blissful isolation from
others that results in death, or am I going to live in a vulnerable availability
that leads to life?

Andrew McDonald, Epiphany, 2008