The New Testament begins with four accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, books that we call the “Gospels.” Although they are printed at the beginning of our New Testament, they were all probably written after Paul’s Epistles. They were never intended to be biographies of Jesus in the modern understanding of that word but four accounts that present a different, yet fairly comprehensive, understanding of His life and death.
Most scholars view the Gospels as written for particular Christian communities, rather than nonbelievers. However, it is also very possible that each author expected his work to circulate widely among the churches scattered throughout the Mediterranean world. Indeed it is very likely that when Matthew and Luke sat down to write their Gospels, they both possessed copies of Mark’s Gospel, which they used as a common source for their books.
I think Mark was probably the first Gospel to be written. It likely was written to Christians in Rome between A.D. 65 and 73, around the time of the Jewish War with Rome, a period of difficulty, danger and persecution when the threat of literally “taking up your cross” and following Jesus was a very real possibility. Unlike Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels, it omitted stories surrounding Jesus’ birth, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, the raising of Lazarus, the instruction to “love your enemies” and Jesus’ resurrection appearance — at least in the most authentic and earliest manuscripts.
Mark was a vivid storyteller, and his book might have been read or told in one sitting. He gave us a fairly tightly constructed plot in which characters interact with each other — a tale that, as one writer said, “is filled with mystery, conflict, irony and pathos.” Ernest Best, late professor of divinity and biblical criticism at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, spoke of Mark’s purpose as primarily “pastoral.” He wrote this Gospel to build up his readers in faith and equip them to face persecution and resist the temptation of their culture to run away from faithfully following Jesus.
The Gospel begins in a dramatic way with the statement “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,” and the first section ends in verse 15 with the call of John the Baptist to “believe the good news.” If the word “gospel” means “good news,” then this book helps us to understand some of the basics about Christianity’s message: It focuses on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Mark uses the term “gospel” to speak of Jesus and His message. The gospel brings salvation, the rule of God into the experience of this world, yet it is the news of the gruesome death of its hero, who calls His followers to give up everything to follow Him. His coming brought restoration and forgiveness, yet His closest followers’ response was failure to comprehend, running away, abandoning Him in His hour of deepest need.
Mark reminds us that the good news is not primarily about a set of beliefs and teachings but, first and foremost, a person. The Gospel that he wrote concerns “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Morna Hooker, professor emerita at the University of Cambridge in England, suggests that the “whole book is focused on the figure of Jesus.” This is an important detail that we often overlook. It is why, within the Gospel, various titles are used for Jesus to describe not only who He is but also what He accomplished in living, dying and rising for us. He is the Son of God, Son of David, the Christ and, perhaps most important of all, the Son of Man. This latter “title” may be a reference to the fact that Jesus is genuinely human and His ministry was one of a servant, for He said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for all” (Mark 10:45). These titles are a sort of shorthand way of summarizing some important aspects of who He is.
One particular concern of Mark was to portray Jesus as a real human being. Indeed, when you compare Mark’s account of Jesus with Matthew’s, you discover that Matthew changed the way Mark described Him. Mark’s stress on His humanity was lessened. Matthew dropped many references to His human emotions, such as pity (Mark 1:41), anger (Mark 3:5), grief (Mark 3:5) wonder (Mark 6:6), indignation (Mark 10:14) and even love (Mark 10:21). References to the disciples “worshiping Jesus” and calling Him “Lord” or “Son of God” were added to stories taken from Mark (cf Matt. 14:32–33 with Mark 6:51–52).
For Mark, Jesus was thoroughly human. He completely identifies with us in every aspect of our humanity. Christian theology insists that the only way to fully know God is in and through an encounter with Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. This reminds us that God is willing to humble Himself, limit Himself, pour Himself out for the sake of others. It is so easy, even in Mark, to jump too quickly toward Calvary, because the cross occupies so much of Mark’s depiction of Jesus’ ministry that you forget that He was a real human being. Incarnation means God’s full involvement with humanity as Jesus lived a full human life, immersing Himself in our world. As Swiss theologian Karl Barth once said, “There is no hidden God behind Christ.” It was in His humanity, suffering and death that God supremely revealed Himself to be one with us and one of us, becoming vulnerable, risking everything for our sake. The Incarnation was a genuine entering into the possibility of all the experiences to which our bodies are exposed, including hunger and thirst, weariness and pain, seeing and hearing.
Secondly, within Mark’s account of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, it is clear that the good news is about the unconditional nature of God’s grace and the forgiveness and acceptance He offers to all who come to Him. John the Baptist, prefiguring this message, proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). In Mark 2, when Jesus healed a paralyzed man, He said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven” (5).
Mark also makes it clear that the good news of Jesus is liberating. Mark uses the term “the kingdom of God” to speak of the impact that Jesus’ coming had on people’s lives. The kingdom of God impacts the whole of life, spiritually, socially and physically. The term probably is better translated the “kingship of God,” because the emphasis is on God’s rule over every aspect of human life, rather than territory. Although there are verses that speak of the full experience of this reign of God being in the future, Mark implies that it can be entered and enjoyed here and now (10:14f; 12:34). His Gospel contains several incidents of healing and exorcisms, and we read, “He cured many who were sick of various diseases and cast out many demons” (Mark 1:34).
Relationship, not ritual
Sometimes it is difficult to read these stories without feeling cheated that we have not encountered such healing for ourselves. However, although the mystery of illness and death itself is often confusing to faith, these stories remind us at the very least of God’s involvement in every aspect of our lives and His concern to demonstrate His presence with us at the best and worst of times. Wherever people are in pain and suffering today, Jesus’ healing message needs to be applied, identifying need and ministering to bring relief where it is needed.
The coming of His Kingdom also reminds us that the gospel is about relationships rather than ritual. One conflict Jesus encountered was with those who wanted to maintain religious rituals such as strict Sabbath-keeping and food laws. Jewish leaders criticized the disciples for wandering through the cornfields and plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath, which they considered forbidden. Jesus responded, “The Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was given as a gift for rest and refreshment, but many Jews had turned it into a ritual; their rigid requirements hindered the enjoyment of God’s goodness. The same had happened with food laws, and some Jews were horrified that the disciples were “eating with defiled hands.” Jesus told His disciples, “It is not what goes in that defiles but what comes out of our hearts” (Mark 7:18–20). Sometimes it is easier to follow religious rules and regulations — even tithing, attending church, wearing respectable clothes, saying the right things — than seeking the inner transformation of the heart. Jesus is reminding us that the real problem in life arises from human motivation. Keeping rituals can be a means of covering over the cracks and not dealing with issues of attitudes that lead to real actions of integrity.
Mark shows us that there are two other instances of the way the good news that Jesus proclaims brings liberation and a sense of inclusion and equality to people. First of all, on two occasions in Chapters 9 and 10, Jesus took the example of children as illustrations of the coming of the Kingdom. Children felt at ease, safe in His presence. People were bringing little children to Him so that He might touch and bless them. The disciples “spoke sternly to them” (Mark 10:13), but Jesus “was indignant and said — let the children comes to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. … And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them and blessed them” (Mark 10:14–16). The child in antiquity was a nonperson. Children should have been with the women, not hanging around a teacher and His disciples. Jesus treated children, who were socially invisible and unimportant, as “first” and important. How we treat children is a good indication of our discipleship. Within the life of the church, we are called to view children as being on a journey, within God’s family, and we are called to nurture their faith development.
A final example of the way Jesus’ message brought liberation in the face of oppression is the way He gave a prominent place to women. Women often figure in Mark’s Gospel. This includes Peter’s mother-in-law, Jairus’ daughter, the hemorrhaging woman, the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter, the poor widow and her child and the woman at Bethany who anointed Jesus. Then there is the instance of Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome, who stood by the cross and visited the empty tomb. Mark drew a comparison between the disciples, who ran away, and the women, who demonstrated courage, showed faith and offered service. They exemplified the marks of true discipleship. It was the women who acted as witnesses to the events of the cross and the empty tomb, even if their testimony would not have been valued in a court of law. Jesus’ ministry in life, death and resurrection empowers women and men to walk upright freed from oppression, enfranchising all people to experience liberation and wholeness in the midst of structural injustices.
Mark’s Gospel has often been described as a “Passion narrative with an extended introduction.” The key word in Christian discipleship is the cross; so each time Jesus makes one of His so-called “Passion predictions” (Chapters 8, 9 and 10), there immediately follows a scene in which we see what it means to be His disciple. We read that “if anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Jesus’ three statements concerning the cross intensify, and by Chapter 10, He tells His disciples, “They will condemn me to death; hand me over to the Gentiles; mock, spit upon … flog … and kill [me]” (33–34).
Mark’s emphasis on the cross reminds us that Christian theology is an attempt to explore its meaning and implications for every area of life. To stand under the cross is to realize that our relationship with the crucified Christ involves pain, darkness and struggle as well as love, joy and peace. Like a great piece of architecture, such as a cathedral, the cross is something we are called to contemplate over and over again so that we capture the glory of this “wondrous cross” and discover that it provides an inexhaustible stream of spiritual life in which we can discern the “length, breadth, height and depth of the love of Christ … that surpasses human knowledge” (Eph. 3:18–19). We look back to the events of Calvary not only as a historical memory but also as a source of life, nourishment, spiritual renewal.
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