Building on Bedrock - Messiah Immanuel - Response to Chapter 2
Messiah Immanuel:
It is a rare thing, in modern Christianity, to find someone as eager as Mark to honor the Messiah in His true biblical context. In Chapter 2 of Building on Bedrock, Mark traces the hopes of Israel for the coming Immanuel, the “God with us” foretold by the prophets. He explores the dramatic fulfillment of these prophecies in Christ, the miracles surrounding the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, and the inauguration of the New Covenant. It is a chapter brimming with Scriptural quotations, reverence for prophecy, and a deep desire to show that Jesus is the One to whom all the Old Testament pointed.
On these core affirmations, Catholics and Mark are (at least in principle) united. The Catholic Church has always proclaimed, without hesitation, that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Messiah - true God and true man, the fulfillment of every word spoken “by the mouth of His holy prophets, since the world began” (Luke 1:70). But beneath this apparent harmony, key questions remain. How is the New Covenant established? What does it mean that God “writes His law in our hearts”? Did Christ abolish, change, or fulfill the law of Moses? And, most crucially, how does the Messiah’s work continue in history - through private “Bible study,” or through a visible Church?
In this chapter, Mark’s arguments begin to reveal a deeper confusion. By clarifying the Catholic position, we can bring light to the beauty and fullness of the Gospel: a fullness only possible in the Church Christ established.
1. Immanuel: The God Who is With Us - And How
Mark rightly points out that the Incarnation, the coming of God in the flesh, stands at the very center of Christian faith. Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa 7:14) is the heartbeat of the Gospel: “A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The angel’s announcement to Mary, the miracle of the Virgin Birth, and the witness of the Gospels all confirm: Jesus is not merely a prophet or teacher, but “God with us”: the living God entering human history.
But we must press further. “God with us” is not a mere feeling, perspective or a private experience of the heart. Throughout Scripture, God’s presence is always bound to His covenant - to visible, historical acts that establish and bind a people to Himself. The tabernacle in the wilderness, the Temple in Jerusalem, the cloud and the fire: these were not just “symbols,” but real, physical guarantees that God was dwelling with His people. When Jesus, the true Immanuel, comes, He does not abolish this principle - He brings it to perfection. He does not offer us “invisible church” Christianity, but a real, visible Body, the Church, in which He abides until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
Catholicism alone preserves this reality in full: The Church is not just a society of like-minded believers, but Christ’s actual presence on earth - His Mystical Body, animated by His Spirit, bound together by the same new and everlasting Covenant sealed in His Blood.
2. The New Covenant: Written on Hearts, Not Emptied of Form
Mark appeals to Jeremiah 31 and the promise of a New Covenant, in which God’s law will be “written on their hearts.” This is a glorious prophecy, and at first glance, Mark seems to understand it well. But he subtly shifts its meaning: for Mark, the “law in our hearts” is taken as a replacement for any visible structure, ritual, or authority. The “spirit of the law” now simply becomes private conviction or personal inspiration, disconnected from any objective authority or sacramental reality.
This is a serious error. The Catholic Church, echoing both Scripture and the Fathers, teaches that the New Covenant does not eliminate form and structure; rather, it elevates them and infuses them with the Spirit. Jesus does not do away with worship, sacraments, or priesthood - He fulfills them. The Law is not merely external, nor is it a matter of private conscience; it is a living, objective reality, made possible because God’s Spirit now empowers us to live as His sons and daughters within His visible family, the Church.
This is why the apostles, after Pentecost, did not dissolve into a loose association of “Bible readers.” They gathered “daily in the temple and from house to house” (Acts 2:46), devoted themselves to the “apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). The New Covenant is written on hearts through the sacraments, above all baptism and the Eucharist, which join us objectively to Christ and His Church (cf. Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 10–11).
3. The Messiah and the Law: Fulfillment, Not Mere Continuity
One of Mark’s repeated claims is that “Jesus changed nothing in the law.” On the surface, this sounds like pious zeal for God’s commandments. But the Gospels themselves correct this misreading. Jesus explicitly declares, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). “Fulfill” does not mean “change nothing”; it means bring to completion, perfection, and maturity.
Throughout His ministry, Christ both upholds the heart of the Law and corrects its misinterpretation. For example, when asked about divorce and remarriage (a burning issue for Mark and his followers), Jesus responds by restoring God’s original plan for marriage: “Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Far from simply reaffirming Moses, Jesus clarifies, raises, and completes the law. He brings the people back to the Creator’s intention, correcting misunderstandings and abolishing the permissions given only for human weakness.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), Jesus again goes beyond the letter to the spirit: “You have heard that it was said... but I say unto you.” He demands a deeper obedience: not just refraining from murder, but conquering anger; not just avoiding adultery, but rooting out lust. This is the true “law written on the heart”: not the abolition of external commandments, but the power to live them in their fullness by grace.
The Catholic Church, following Christ and the apostles, does not pit the Law against the Gospel, nor does it fall into the error of legalism or antinomianism. Rather, she teaches that the moral law is fulfilled in love (Romans 13:10), made possible by the Spirit poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5).
4. The Prophets, John the Baptist, and the Birth of the Church
Mark rightly points to the seamless thread of prophecy running from Isaiah to Malachi to John the Baptist. He notes that John fulfills the role of Elijah, preparing the way for the Messiah. The Gospels and the Church’s liturgy celebrate this truth every year.
But what is missing in Mark’s account is the recognition that the Church is the intended fruit of these prophecies. John’s birth, Christ’s Incarnation, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost all point not to scattered believers, but to the gathering of a new People of God, the Church. The very reason Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary and to Zacharias is recorded is not simply to inspire private faith, but to show that God is acting in history to gather His people in a new and final Covenant, as promised to Abraham.
Catholic tradition, drawing from the earliest Christian writers, has always seen the Church as the true Israel, in which the promises to David and Abraham are kept - not in a merely earthly or ethnic sense, but as a universal family of faith, “from every tribe and tongue and nation” (Revelation 5:9–10).
5. Tradition and the Fullness of the Christian Faith
A final and crucial correction: Mark insists that Jesus’ teaching was “100% in line with Moses’ Law and the Prophets” in every respect, including divorce, oaths, and war. But the New Testament itself refutes this reading. Jesus’ own words on marriage, swearing of oaths, and love of enemies are far more demanding than Moses’ law. The apostles and earliest Christians, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, interpreted these teachings as inaugurating a “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20), with real consequences for doctrine, morality, and worship.
It is not enough to appeal to Scripture alone; one must receive Scripture as it was handed down, lived, and interpreted by those closest to Christ: the apostles, their successors, and the historic Church. To deny the visible Church and her authority is to separate oneself from the very tradition that gave us the Bible and preserved its true meaning. The Catholic Church alone, with her visible unity, apostolic teaching, and sacramental life, is the continuation of the Messiah’s work on earth - His presence, His law, and His love.
Christ, the Law, and the Living Church
Mark’s reverence for prophecy and his recognition of Jesus as Messiah are not misplaced. But his understanding is incomplete and, at times, dangerously misleading. Jesus is “Immanuel,” God with us: not in sentiment, but in historical fact, in sacramental presence, and in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. The New Covenant is not a retreat into private faith, but the creation of a visible family, governed by apostles and their successors, and animated by the Spirit.
If you seek the Messiah, you must seek Him where He promised to remain: in His Church, which preserves His law, makes His presence known in the sacraments, and fulfills the hope of Israel for all nations and all times.
“Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11) - and that foundation remains visible in His Church, until the end of the world.
