183 THE VULNERABLE AUTHORITY AUTHOR OF THE are continuously challenged to enter into the mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection 53. How? By losing their lives and by serving all. In trying to do so, another paradox could become an interesting guideline. It is found in 9,24b: “I believe, help my unbelief!” and it contains the reaction of the father of the epileptic boy to Jesus’ words “All things can be done for the one who believes” (9,23b). The Markan Jesus’ paradoxical teaching demands a paradoxical answer by the reader 54. 2. The link between Jesus Christ and the paradoxes: a theological challenge We have seen that the personal fate of Jesus himself is inextricably linked to a full understanding of the paradoxes. The teaching in the paradoxes is not a marginal note of Jesus’ preaching. On the contrary, the verses are all the more a challenge because Jesus’ whole life is involved. Thus, for example, one cannot dissociate 10,45 from the teaching in vv. 43-44. The connection of 10,43-44 to 10,45 has a double function. First, Jesus’ life becomes a model to follow. In a unique way he has shown what it means to serve. Serving and being the slave of all can imply the gift of one’s life for others. But those who wish to be disciples should not be frightened by this implication. Because, It would be interesting from a reader response criticism to compare the 53 function of the open end of Mark’s gospel with the open form of the paradoxes. Just as the silence of the women and their disobedience vis-à-vis the command of the young man at the end of the gospel (16,7-8) is an appeal to the reader to complete the story, the incomprehension of the disciples and their failure to understand Jesus’ paradoxical teaching is a mirror for the reader to do better. The role of the short dialogue for the understanding of Mark’s gospel has 54 rightly been emphasized by S. ALKIER, Die Realität der Auferweckung in, nach und mit den Schriften des Neuen Testaments (Neutestamentliche Entwürfe zur Theologie 12; Basel – Tübingen 2005) 98-99: “Die emotionale Reaktion des Vaters [...] schreit die Unfähigkeit der Selbstkonstituierung des Glaubens aus und er gibt sich vertrauensvoll und ängstlich zugleich in die Hand Jesu. [...] Zielt das Markusevangelium auf eine Lektüre, die zum Glauben führen soll, der dazu befähigt in der Nachfolge Jesu den je eigenen Kreuzesweg zu gehen, getragen von der Hoffnung, auf diese Weise zum Leben zu gelangen, dann ist der verzweifelte Vater, der die Unmöglichkeit der Selbstabsicherung des Glaubens emotional spurt und zum Ausdrück bringt, das Modell des Glaubens im Markusevangelium”.