Miracle Chasers in the Gospel of Mark: The Immature Seek a Circus, Charlatans Give them One

Bread & Circuses

There is an oft quoted line that is ascribed to the Roman Satirist Decimus Junius Juvenalis that in Latin goes panem et circenses… “bread and circuses.”[1]  Speaking of the Roman people, Junenalis complains, “…the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, curtails its desires, and longs eagerly for just two things—Bread and circuses!”[2]

This speaks not just to once upon a time Roman populations, but the human condition. Selfish and corrupt hearts list to certain vices when those possessing them are not intentionally and with great discipline forcing their way upstream to more noble designs. We like sparkly things and easily sell great treasures of real value for the flashy bobbles offered by charlatans… conmen… corrupters.

Not Just a Church Phenomenon

So hear me well when I strike out against such people in the Church. This is not a church phenomenon, it is a human phenomenon and the Church is built of humans. Wherever people gather there are those seeking their good and others their harm, some seeking to uplift them, others seeking to dominate them, and still others seeking to pick their pockets.

Even among Christians, some lead and sacrifice themselves to lead well suffering deeply over the great need for education and discipline and faith amid the sheep of God. Others see in those same desperate people an opportunity for their own greed and ego. This is not a new circumstance. This is the human condition in every venue from the beginning of civilization to the present and on into the unrealized years ahead of us.

Using “Anointed” to Shield Charlatans

There is something particular that happens, however, when these false prophets and grifters bathe themselves in holy light. People are afraid to call them out.

Did not David warn in the cave lest he or any one of his men might harm Saul, the apostate king, saying, in 1 Samuel 24:6 “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed,” and in 26:9, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” It is usually abbreviated by those using these to shield them from criticism as “Do not touch the Lord’s anointed.”

Whose Says They are the Lord’s Anointed?

This of course begs the question. For Saul was literally anointed King over the people by Samuel the prophet. If David touched him, he would gain a throne destroyed in the very act of getting it. The pattern would be set. You gain power in Israel by killing those anointed to the position.

But what of those who merely style themselves “the Lord’s anointed,” yet traffic in spectacle and self-exaltation, bread and circus? What of those who merchandise the name of Christ, who turn prayer into performance and worship into theater? They fleece the flock instead of feeding it; they hawk promises of power while neglecting the slow, cruciform labor of discipleship. With mangled Scriptures and often manufactured wonders, they dazzle the undiscerning and substitute sensation for substance. They appeal mainly to the immature miracle chasers who prefer exhilaration to transformation and mistake carnival delights for the true essence of Christian service.

Ephesians 5:11: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

1 Timothy 5:20: “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.”

These pretenders boast in their supposed anointing, strutting like peacocks beneath stage lights while the ordinary means of grace—Scripture rightly handled, repentance, discipline, patient shepherding—are treated as dull and insufficient. They cultivate dependency, not maturity; excitement, not endurance; crowds, not disciples. In doing so they do not build the house of God but unsettle it, introducing confusion where there should be clarity and spectacle where there should be sobriety.

Like Simon Magus, they crave the appearance of spiritual power without submitting to the transforming authority of the Spirit. Peter rebukes such things in Acts 8:20–23 in the strongest words available to him in Scripture. He draws from the condemnations of Deuteronomy 29:17-20.

“May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

Paul Takes a Whack

The very idea that these carnival shows are the real stuff of the Holy Spirit is a false narrative that the Apostle Paul directly attacks in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and elsewhere, calling for order in the house of God, demanding clear messaging that leads to repentance not self-inflating spectacle… “Look at ME! Look at ME!”

No “Love” is Not Necessarily Love

This tension is akin to the tensions between early immature “love,” which is more often than not merely excited infatuation, and the true goal of a maturing relationship. Love is meant to settle into a committed discipline of body and soul. This settled maturity is frequently disappointing to those addicted to the highs of “newness”, but it is the real mark of true love… and of the mature believer. It is a mark of immaturity in both love and faith to flit about chasing down the latest and most exciting experiences… measuring realness by exhilaration rather than by commitment.

Discipleship Doldrums

90% of becoming a spiritually mature believer is bringing our selfishness into check through a disciplined devotion to Christ and the Word of God… to being a better parent, a better child, a better neighbor, a better citizen.

To the immature, however, this “steady Eddy approach” feels boring in the face of the spiritual circus being promoted by many traveling “evangelists” and “Faith healers” whose most distinctive work is picking the pockets of those flooding their events seeking a touch from God.

Paul, however, denounces the Corinthians who turn their services into a circus.

The Gifts are Real, But So Are Conmen

This is not a condemnation of the flowing gifts of the Holy Spirit… I’m a Pentecostal after all, raised in camp meetings and revival tents. I’ve seen real manifestations of the Holy Spirit and had the humble privilege of being thus used… like that donkey who carried Jesus into Jerusalem. But as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:32, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” We are not to blame our undisciplined responses to God as prompted by God Himself. It is not God who wants us to put on a carnival show… we make that embarrassing, immature, and arrogant choice… even, sometimes, when the gifting is real.

Jesus and Mark Take a Whack Too

This brings us to the promise in my title… The Gospel of Mark and Jesus’ engagement of miracle chasers. This example is most striking because the miracles were real, and so was the desperation that provoked the chase.

As the Gospel of Mark unfolds, beginning in 1:13, we find waves of growing crowds desperate for a miracle touch. Jesus feels compassion for those wandering about like sheep who have no shepherd, (Mark 1:40-42; 6:34) but they also prove the bane of his attempts at preaching the Kingdom of God and repentance (Mark 1:45; 2:1-2; 3:7-10). He goes on to draw a sharp distinction between these miracle chasers and those whom He Himself wants as disciples… those to whom He can entrust the building of the Kingdom of God in renewed human hearts (Mark 3:13-19). He alters his preaching methods as the crowds increase. He gives parables to the masses and explanations only to those who receive the word well and draw close to seek Him and not merely His benefits (Mark 4:1-25).

Of the miracle chasers, when they pursue him, he says things like, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, in order that I may preach there also; for that is what I came out for,”(Mark 1:38). He also does things like pushing off shore on boats so he can teach without their disruptive grasping… (Mark 4:1) then rows away without returning to shore (Mark 4:35).

Elihu Concurs

Jesus and Mark, echo the keen words of Elihu in Job 35:9-13, saying of the desperate masses of selfish humanity who cry out for the deliverance of God but not God Himself,

“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out;
they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.
But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’
There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
Surely God does not hear an empty cry,
nor does the Almighty regard it.”

Rise Up O’ People of God

May we expose, rather than pursue, those whose own egos and greed cause them to deceive and fleece the people of God, taking advantage of their desperation.

May we settle our souls to move in the gifts of the spirit, but with humility and in an orderly way, maturely and not in overwrought emotionalism.

~Andrew D. Sargent, PhD

[1] Juvenal, Satires 10.77–81 (Loeb numbering 10.81)

[2] Blended quote from https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/juvenal_satires_10.htm (3/2/2026) and https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/JuvenalSatires10.php ( 3/2/2026)