Good evening. So for the last few weeks, back this whole summer, we've been studying the Bible, not just studying the Bible, but studying how to study the Bible and how to learn about the Bible. If you've been with us, we started off talking about the entire Bible and how it was put together in the story arc of the Bible, and different literary styles and those sort of things, and the grand narrative of the Bible. From there we progressed into overviews of the Old Testament, a couple weeks on that, a couple weeks over the New Testament.
And the last few weeks we've been putting some of the techniques that we've talked about to use. Tonight we're going to talk about the Gospel of Mark. And I was thinking back, a few weeks ago, back in July, I did an overview of the entire New Testament in about 50 minutes. And if I kind of prorate that and do the math, it seems like I should be done tonight in about two minutes, if I'm only doing one book of the Bible.
So start your watches. We'll see how that works out, won't we? The book of Mark was the first of the four Gospels to be written. Matthew Mark, Luke, and John, of course, are the four Gospels.
Mark was the first, it was written sometime around 64 AD. It's one of the synoptic Gospels in that it overlaps greatly with both Matthew and Luke, which are the other two synoptic Gospels, or they share the same overall synopses. Now John is not considered one of those. John is significantly different than Matthew, Mark, or Luke, so it stands on its own.
Mark is believed to have been written by John Mark. John Mark was a one-time companion of Paul, and it is said that he derived his information from Peter. He was also an acquaintance of Peter. And we find Mark mentioned in the Bible three times.
The first time he sees Mark mentioned in the Bible is in the book of Acts, and it says in Acts the 15th chapter, it says Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with him. But Paul did not think it was wise to take him because he had deserted him in Pamphylia and had not continued with him in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they party company, and Barnabas took Mark himself for Cyprus. So the first time we see Mark is not really in the best light, is it?
Paul is kind of ticked off at Mark at this point in the story, and doesn't even want him to go on the next missionary journey with him. The next time we see Mark, Paul is in prison. And he's talking in one of the prison epistles Colossians about Mark, and he says, my fellow prisoner, Erestarchus, sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Barnabas, you have received instructions about him if he comes to you, welcome him.
And we see then that Mark is now with Paul again, obviously. And we get a little insight on why Barnabas supported John Mark in the book of Acts and why he eventually took him with him, because apparently he was his cousin. And finally, the last time we see Mark mentioned his first Peter. Like I said, it is believed that John Mark got his information from Peter.
In the first Peter the fifth chapter, says she who is in Babylon, now that's a metaphoric reference to Rome. He's referring to to Rome. So if you could read that she who is in Rome, chosen together with you, send you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. Peter loved Mark very much at the point that he called him his son.
The titles of all the Gospels refer to their authors. It's obviously the Gospel of Mark. We do believe this written by Mark John Mark. And it's significant to point out that these titles were circulating very, very early in church history throughout the Roman world.
And that they are believed to be quite reliable. Likewise, we are quite certain, based on historic evidence that it really was written by Mark. So where does this fit in the Grand Narrative? We've talked about the Grand Narrative several times this summer, the Grand Narrative of the Bible.
Creation, fall, redemption, and in restoration. This fits squarely in, this is the first book we've come to, squarely in redemption. Mark tells in fact the whole story in the short book, the whole story of redemption. That's where we fall in the Grand Narrative.
The historic context of this, the most common belief regarding Mark's audience is that he wrote his Gospel to Roman Christians during the Great Persecution in Rome. In AD64, there was a devastating fire in Rome. And, suspiciously enough, Emperor Nero's estate was left unscathed by this fire. To divert attention from himself, to divert blame from himself, Nero looked for scapegoat.
And the Christians were a very easy target for Nero as a scapegoat. He blamed them for the fire. And then he began what can only be called as a horrific. And I mean, horrific persecution of Christians.
It is said that Nero took Christians and burned them alive in his garden to use his torches. And not only that, but he killed them very violently as public entertainment, whether to the animals or in other horrible means. It's estimated that Nero killed during this time thousands of Christians, thousands. However, we need to remember also that there were many Christians during this time that did survive, they did escape.
And it's to these people that John Mark is writing what we believe he is writing his Gospel to. The book of Mark then, if you think about that, if it was written in AD64, was written before the Jewish revolt in 66, two years later. It's when the Jewish revolt started in Palestine and the zealots and others rose up against Rome. And that didn't end well.
In 70 AD, Jerusalem was finally destroyed. Jerusalem destroyed and the temple was totally destroyed. And if you consider that, consider that Mark was written before that happened. It was written years before that happened.
And I know I'm getting a little off course here, but consider this prophetic verse from Mark 13. It's a situation where Jesus is leaving the temple with his disciples. And one of his disciples points out all these magnificent buildings, the temple itself and the ones that surrounded it. And here's how Jesus responded in the second verse of Mark 13.
Do you see all these great buildings? It's why Jesus, not one stone will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down. Now, Mark wrote that before the war with Rome, before the revolt.
And it's amazing that six years later these words came true. When we read the historian Josephus, Josephus writes, he was there at the siege of Jerusalem, he wrote for the Romans, and the devastation that Josephus describes of Jerusalem in the temple is just amazing. It's astounding to read. It is so complete.
And Mark wrote this as Jesus prophesied it, a few years before it happened. Now, Mark's audience, I said it was written to Roman Christians. Mark's audience was primarily Gentile, not Jewish. And one thing that we notice in the book of Mark that kind of points this out is Mark makes it, he takes an effort to point out Jewish customs to the readers and to point out and explain Aramaic terms that these Gentile readers wouldn't understand.
For example, Mark 541, he took her by the hand and said to her, Talita Kohm, which means little girl, I say to you, get up. He felt a need to translate the Aramaic to his readers. In this next verse, Mark is describing an incident where Jesus was in Galilee, and the Pharisees came from Jerusalem, and the Pharisees noticed Jesus' disciples were eating without washing their hands. And as Mark is telling the story, he feels that he has to point this out.
The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing according to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat until they wash, and they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pictures, and kettles. And they wouldn't understand these Jewish customs. And finally, there's one other, actually there's a couple more, I want to read one is Mark 734, he's healing somebody and it says he looks up to heaven, and with a deep-sized f-photha, which means to be open.
Again, he's translating Aramaic. And finally, this is a very famous well-known quote from the cross. Three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out, and allowed Eloi, Eloi, Eloi, Lima, Shabbokthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Again, pointing out the fact that Mark is writing obviously to a non-Jewish audience.
And one other observation with regard to that, when Mark tells the passion story about what happened, he doesn't name the high priest. He just says the high priest, but he doesn't say who it is, because ostensibly to a Gentile audience in Rome, nothing would connect, you'd say their name. It's like me going to California and talking about our mayor and calling him Jim Langfeller, right? I mean, it wouldn't mean anything Jim Langfeller.
However, Mark does name Pilate, who was a Roman governor, and that would maybe have some connection with his Roman audience. Now, the literary style, we've talked in the last several weeks on and off about different literary styles, that are in the Bible. And I want to tell you that I think genre is important. I think literary genre is important, because our expectations of the kind of writing something is influences how we read it.
For example, poetry tends to be more figurative than literal, right? Whereas prose is more literal, and the type of genre, the type of literature it is, then helps us know how to receive that writing. The gospels themselves, speaking about all four of them, the gospels are considered ancient biography. And ancient biographies did not necessarily emphasize the same features as modern biographies do, but they were still a form of historical writing, and Jewish writers modeled their biographical writings off of the Old Testament biographical narratives, which everyone considered to be very reliable.
And I don't mean to denigrate biographies in a way to say that not as reliable as historical writings, because on the continuum between careful and less careful writers, the writers of the gospels are definitely most careful. When we see how Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source, it's clear that they follow their sources very carefully. Now, think about this. Mark was written about 35 years after Christ was crucified and buried in Rose again.
So eyewitnesses of these events were still in positions of authority in the church, and oral traditions could still be checked quite easily at this time. This supports the accuracy of Mark in that biographies of contemporary characters are always considered more accurate than biographies of someone that lived in a different past. And when Mark wrote his Gospel, Jesus was still considered a contemporary character. Now, Jesus' words differ a little bit from Gospel to Gospel, and that's to be expected.
For ancient readers, the writers of the Gospel followed the literary conventions of their time, and paraphrasing sayings was a common technique of ancient writers. In fact, there were some schools of thought where they taught you to paraphrase instead of just copy something in the exact form. And those who concluded that the gospels are inaccurate, or they contradict each other, because some of Jesus' sayings aren't exactly the same, are showing that they just don't understand how ancient biographies were written. It is to be expected because of the genre, and understanding genre, again, is important.
It should be noted that, however, even though there are slight differences, that there is still a style and a rhythm to Jesus' sayings in all of the gospels. In fact, as I already mentioned, there are Aramaic sayings that they just left in Aramaic. So the Gospel writers did not take a lot of freedom in paraphrasing or changing things, and we do see that in the scripture. Also, writers of topical biographies had freedom to rearrange their sources.
So it should not surprise us that Matthew and Mark have events in Jesus' history, sometimes in different order. And again, people to say this proves that the gospels are not accurate, just don't understand the literary style of ancient biographies. Again, understanding the literary style is important. Now, although Jesus, like other teachers, surely repeated the same sayings of separate occasions, some of these sayings occur in different places, simply because the writers were exercising the freedom ancient biographers used to rearrange the material.
And this allowed the writers of the gospel to preach Jesus and not just report about him and still maintain accuracy. And I think this is important because we've talked about this all in all several times throughout the series. The Bible is both descriptive and prescriptive. Mark, along with Matthew, Luke and John, did not just set out to write history or just to report about Jesus.
That wasn't their goal. Ancient historians had particular themes, and sometimes they were moral themes, that they wanted to emphasize, and the gospel writers wanted to preach Jesus. And even though it's historic in nature when you read it and it's telling about him, the gospels are also prescriptive. They were written with a purpose, and the gospel writers had these purposes very much in mind.
One prominent Palestinian-Jewish teaching that Jesus employed to make his points that we've seen in the gospels is the use of parables. Parables must be read, understand this, in the same way that Jesus' Jewish hearers would have understood them. And that demands some understanding of cultural context. Now, you heard Pastor Mark, if you're here lastly, Pastor Mark mentioned traditions.
And how important that is. And traditions is one part of that understanding cultural context. You obviously have to understand traditions and also other cultural things. Parables were illustrations, and they were used to convey truth.
And we need to remember when we read parables that some of the details in the parables were used to move the story along. And I think sometimes we can get ourselves turned into little sideways if we try to read too much into the details that aren't really the point of the story. We need to understand what is the truth that Jesus is trying to convey, and we need to capture that truth and focus on it. And be careful not to let random details of the stories get us away from the main focus.
You read the mark, and you see parable after parable after parable. In the 33rd and 34th verse of Mark 4, it says, with many similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without parable, but when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. Now, one more note regarding the literary style of the gospel.
Ancient biographies were meant to be read all the way through. Rather than jumping from passage in one book to passage in another, each of the four gospels was written separately to different readers and was meant to be read on its own terms. Before the reader read another of the gospels, we should therefore work our way through ourselves, work our way through each gospel individually. Following the flow of that gospel's thought.
Now, Mark is the shortest of the gospels, and Mark was meant to be read quickly like a track. It's something that I hadn't realized that I thought was interesting. For example, the word immediately occurs 34 times in Mark, causing the reader to constantly go from one topic and one instant to another. Matthew, on the other hand, was written to be studied more as a training manual.
Luke wrote like a good Greco-Roman historian. So all three of those have, even though they're all this in optic hospitals, they all have a different focus and a different manner in which they were written. And it's widely believed, and I kind of alluded to this earlier, it's widely believed that both Matthew and Luke used Mark's gospel as a source for writing their own gospels. It's widely believed that.
I'm listening to how Luke describes his process in Luke 1. He says, many have undertaken to drop an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an order-way account for you, most excellent theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. Now, apparently, Mark's gospel was part of Luke's investigation of everything from the beginning, because he borrowed quite a bit from it.
He reported quite a bit from it. And there has been a lot written about how Matthew and Luke both share material from Mark, how there's some material they share with each other, and then yet there's some material that all of the gospels have that's unique from each other. And the three of them, the three that's not the gospels, along with John, then what they end up doing is they provide this rich, rich telling of a life of Christ in his ministry and his mission. And there's theological perspectives.
You put all these together, and it's just a genius. I mean, God does not do things randomly. He does not. And the way the four gospels work together, I think is just wonderful.
Now, real briefly, I want to talk about the structure of Mark. First, I consider this introduction the first 13 verses of Mark. Mark doesn't have a nativity story. He doesn't say anything about the origin of Christ.
Matthew does, Luke does, and John takes a more existential view, right, in the beginning was the word in words with God. And John wrote, in my opinion, the most beautiful passage in the Bible in his first chapter. Not so with Mark. Mark is like, got a story to tell.
Let's get on with it, you know? And this is the verse that he starts with. The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. Two important things that he's laying out here in his opening thesis.
Two very important things. One, Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ. And two, Jesus is the Son of God. And now he lets the story show that.
In fact, he jumps right into it. Immediately, John goes right to these proclamations. He goes through the counting of the baptism of Jesus by John, the baptism of the Jordan River. And that begins in the second verse and goes through the 11th verse.
And here's what it says. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him. And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin and the whole Judean countryside. And all the people of Jerusalem went out to him, confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
John wore clothing made of camels hair and leather belts around his waist. And he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message. After me comes the one more powerful than I.
The straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And at that time Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee. And baptized by John in the Jordan.
Just as Jesus is coming up out of the water, he saw a head and being torn open. And the Spirit is sending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased.
Now, the reference to Isaiah, and actually Mark said Isaiah, but the first verse was actually from Malachi as well. The verses from Malachi and Isaiah, along with the statements that John the Baptist makes, concerning Jesus identify him as the Messiah. And the voice of God the Father out of heaven. Man right away confirms him as the Son of God.
And we didn't see the Mark records that Jesus in goes out in the wilderness. And it's interesting, again Mark's, let's go, let's go, Timpo. This is what Mark says. This is two verses.
Two verses. At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He is with the wild animals and angels attended him. That's it.
We don't have the account of these three temptations by Satan and Jesus answering by scripture. That's slowing down Mark's story. Come on, let's get the story rolling. So we go right into the next section.
And the next section of Mark is the rest of the first eight chapters. And it's talking about his miracles and his ministry to the multitudes. Aside from the first thirteen verses that we just read, the first half of Mark features Jesus preaching to multitudes and performing miracles primarily, primarily in Galilee. For example, during this time, he called the storm, he healed multitudes, he cast out demons.
He fed multitudes of people twice. And Jesus enjoyed immense popularity during this time. He cast out demons and I mean people were just enthralled with him. But as early as the third chapter in Mark, already we see Jesus offending their religious leaders.
And it says they began plotting to kill him. That early in his ministry, the third chapter of Mark we already hear that. The next part or the second half of Mark is when Jesus now turns south and he heads down towards Jerusalem and his ultimate mission, what he had actually come to do. Now the turning point or the watershed event here appears in the eighth chapter, is in the twenty-seventh verse.
Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is north of the Sea of Galilee. He hasn't become coming down south yet. He's way up north of the Sea of Galilee.
And on the way he asked them, who do people say I am? They replied, since I John the Baptist others say Elijah, still others, one of the prophets. What about you? He said, who do you say I am?
And Peter, I love Peter, he jumped right in. You are the Messiah. And then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He began to teach him that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
And he must be killed and after three days rise again, he spoke plainly about this. And Peter took him aside. Come over here, took him aside from the rest and started to rebuke him. And Jesus turned and he looked at all of them.
And he rebuked Peter and said these words, get behind him, Satan. That had to cut Peter to the quick. Get behind me, Satan. He said, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.
Then he called the crowd. This was all done in private with the disciples. Did he call the crowd to him along with the disciples? He said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Now understand, this was a nation of people under Roman rule. And they had seen the brutality of the Romans. And when Jesus mentions a cross, they understood how horrible that was. And they saw in their mind images of convicted criminals carrying that cross through the streets heading to the place of crucifixion.
And it was a terrifying thought. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for God's will save it. For what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul?
Can anyone give an exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me in my words and is adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the Holy Angels. Well, there it is. Somebody finally said it besides the author mark.
Peter said it. He just said that Jesus was the Messiah and Jesus was the Christ. And then Jesus told him, don't tell anybody about this. And proceeds with this second profound statement talking about how the son of man must suffer many things be rejected.
And by the good guys, the religious leaders, he was going to be rejected by the end of the elders, the high priest, the teachers. And he would be killed. And in three days rise again. And I wonder if they really caught that last phrase.
It seemed like they focused on the being killed part, right? This was the first time Mark records Jesus predicting his death. And Jesus would go on to predict his death a second and third time in the ninth and the tenth chapters of Mark as well. And after the rebuke of Peter, nobody challenged him again whenever he brought the topic up.
And then there was another pivotal event that happens in the middle of Mark. And that is the Transfiguration. In Mark chapter 9, it says, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John with them and led them up a high mountain where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before him.
His clothes became dazzling white, wider than anyone in the world could bleach them. And he appeared before them Elijah and Moses who were talking with Jesus. Peter said that Jesus, Rabbi, it's good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters.
One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. He did not know what to say. They were so frightened. You ever do that?
You're so scared. You just battle something. Mark is kind of explaining that here. Okay, there's nobody saying.
He's just talking. Then a cloud appeared and covered them. And the voice came from the cloud. Again, we're hearing this.
This is my son, who my love. And he says, listen to him. Suddenly when they looked around, they don't want to show anyone with them except Jesus. They were coming down the mountain.
Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the son of man had risen from the dead. And they kept them out of it themselves, discussing what rising from the dead meant. This is the second time Jesus said that. And they're discussing it with themselves.
What does he mean? And that's a fair question, right? It hadn't happened before. This is a revelation of Jesus as the son of God.
And he's revealed in glorified state to these disciples, along with Moses and Elijah. And it wouldn't be long after this event that Jesus, as I mentioned, turned his sights towards Jerusalem. He heads down south. Or as they said in Jerusalem, they went up to Jerusalem.
One thing I understand, in ancient Palestine, north did not mean up, south did not mean down. East or west did not mean going out. He is out west. Everything went down from Jerusalem, right?
Whether you're going north or south. So from this point, he went up to Jerusalem. Mark records that Jesus has a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He records that Jesus driving out the money changes from the temple, and debating with all the teachers of the law and the scholars.
And we read about the last supper in the Book of Mark, the Garden of Gethseman, his arrest. His interrogations by both the Jews and Pilates, and finally his crucifixion and death. And we read all of that in this section of Mark. And then there's the ending.
There's Mark the 16th chapter. Mark's Gospel originally ended very abruptly. As abruptly as it started. Mark 16, the angelic person was into empty tomb, and had given them instructions to three women, and told them to go tell them the disciples in Peter.
And Jesus will meet you all up in Galilee. You didn't say y'all. But Jerusalem is in the south of Israel, so maybe he did. And this is what the last, what had been the last verse in Mark said.
Trimbling in the will, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. And that's how it ended. And it seems abrupt, but also when you read the rest of Mark, it seems kind of to fit Mark's style.
I mean, Mark goes through this story, like a machine gun. I mean, he's not slowing down to include any details that he doesn't think are important, not maybe overall, but important to what he wants to say. And I kind of get the feeling that it's, I could feel as if Mark felt that he made his case, and he was done. He was done.
He's going to wrap it up. So the remaining verses, there are, and most of you may have Bibles that have a footnote that actually will say that those verses aren't in the earliest, most reliable manuscripts. They're believed to have been added at a later time, but it should be noted that most of the things that were added, we do find in other gospels. Although, even still, keeping kind of in the style of Mark, there's a brief reference to this encounter with the disciples in the road to Emmaus.
And again, it's covered in like two verses. You know? So we were added things. They were just as abrupt, I suppose, as the original Mark was.
Before we finish, I just want to talk briefly about the themes. There are some themes in the book of Mark's and main themes. Obviously, it tells the story of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, and of course, redemption is prime, because it talks about Jesus dying for us, and rising again, defeating death. But there are main themes that we find in the book of Mark.
And the people who had heard Mark, would have heard Mark read, because that's how most people would have known about Mark, was it would have been read in their church meetings. Most of them already knew the stories of Jesus. A lot of these had been oral tales that had been told, oral stories that had been told and told and repeated, as Christians gathered together. What Mark does is connect these stories for the first time.
It was the first time that we have recorded it into a biography of Jesus to emphasize certain moral themes. And the first one we've talked about, this divine identity of Jesus. Remember, that's how he started his Gospel, right? That's what he said the Gospel was all about.
Messiah and the Son of God. And then he continues to give evidence throughout this first with the baptismal count, baptismal count. It's reaffirmed during the transfiguration. Of course, you see Peter's testimony that he makes, and even a Roman centurion.
He said, Mark says he was standing in front of Jesus when he died. And even that Roman centurion said surely this man was the son of God. So we see this theme throughout here. See, identifying Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God is fundamental.
This is really fundamental to Christianity. And it must be accepted to be a follower of Christ. We all have to get this. This is a non-negotiable.
And this is a key truth, the broad validity back in the first century. It brought some validity to a sect of Judaism that was actually considered a radical sect of Judaism. This brought validity to it by Mark making the case for Christ actually being, for Jesus actually being the Christ in the Son of God. Another thing that we see is this repeated theme of the messianic secret.
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus conceals his messianic identity as much as possible from the public. He repeatedly told people not to tell anyone that he had healed them. Repeatedly he told people not to do that. He commanded demons, not to identify him as the Son of God.
And he even told that disciples, after Peter makes his proclamation, he tells the disciples, don't tell anyone else that I'm the Messiah. Now, there are a couple possible reasons for this. And I just want to talk about one that seems reasonable. And you want to question anybody that says they know for certain something that the Bible actually doesn't say specifically, because the Bible doesn't actually say specifically why Jesus kept secret.
Jesus' mission was completely different from any of the political views about messiahs that were circulating at that time. The notion of the Messiah that they had in Palestine, living in under Roman rule, was a little different than Jesus' presentation of messiah. Therefore, messiah's ship was an inadequate category for him until he could define it by the character of his mission. He had to define what that word meant.
And that's what he was doing, living his life and dying and rising again. His mission as messiah could be understood only retrospectively, only looking backwards in light of his death and Jesus' resurrection. Not sure if that's exact reason, but it is indisputable. It's indisputable when you remark that Jesus was trying to keep his identity as messiah's secret.
And here's something that's interesting to note. Throughout Mark, people spread the news that they were instructed to be quiet about. Jesus said, don't tell anybody, they tell somebody. It happened several times in the Gospel of Mark.
And then we get to the end, and an angel looks at these three people, these three women, and says, go tell disciples in Peter that Jesus has risen, he's going to meet them in Galilee. And what does it say? They don't do it. Fine.
You know, Mark not only ends it suddenly as it began, but it ends with just a little bit of irony. It's got to make you laugh, right? It's just got to make you laugh a little bit. Another theme real quickly, the disciples' weakness is displayed time and time and time again throughout this book.
Ancient writings often would play down the sensibility of secondary characters and kind of make them the foil of the hero, if you think of ancient plays and drama and comedy. In Mark, I say this nicely, the disciples are a bit slow at times with regard to Jesus and their own missions, both with the charismatic part, the working of miracles and everything, and with the suffering part, really understanding the suffering part. Throughout Mark, we see the disciples fearing and doubting whether it's in a boat in a storm, not one but two occurrences of feeding thousands of people. I mean, Jesus had already fed 5,000 men plus all the women and children, and they've got 4,000 out of feed, and the disciples say, Lord, how are we going to do it?
Where were you? We've done this once. We've been here already. Peter telling Jesus, arguing with them, telling not to go to Jerusalem and be in rebuke or telling Jesus, I'm never going to deny you and what does he do?
He denies them. And then the disciples, even abandoning him and his death, Joseph of Eremathea was left for the task of doing something with his body. His disciples were gone. And even at the empty tomb, like I said, we see these three women who were told, hey, I've got great news.
Go tell the disciples in Peter that Jesus is alive and they don't do it because they're afraid. I don't want to be disrespectful. Please don't think I am, but the disciples in Mark, see the book of Mark, seem a little dense. But lest we be too judgmental, understand that we would likely be the same way.
You know, until John the Baptist, there had not been a prophet in Israel for 400 years. And since Elijah and Elisha, there had been no prophets that did anything like the miracles that Jesus did. So, this Jesus comes out of nowhere, because that's what Nazareth was, was nowhere. And he can do all these miracles.
Well, yeah, they should be a little caught by surprise, maybe. And not only that, but the conventional understanding, like I said, of the Messiah was markedly different than the Messiah that Jesus was presenting. What I think we should consider is that the readers of Mark, and that includes us, can be reminded that through the failure of the cycles, that if we have not yet received or achieved the radical lifestyle that Jesus has laid out for us, that he's still going to work with us, work with us patiently. He did it with his disciples.
We see it in Mark. He was so patient. I mean, I don't see any place where Jesus looked at as disciples and looked at as disciples and said, you guys are dumb as a boxer ox. He doesn't, does he?
Jesus is so kind. He's so merciful. He's so patient. And we need to take that message for ourselves.
No matter how hard it is sometimes for us to get it, Jesus is very patient with us. And remember, remember this. In spite of the weaknesses of the disciples after the resurrection, after the ascension, after being baptized in the Holy Spirit, they birth the Church of Jesus Christ, and the world has not been the same since. Yeah.
And finally, I want to talk to you about two others very quickly. One is miracles. There were a lot of miracles that are mentioned in Mark. Mark actually records 27 miracles in any other gospels, a higher proportion of the gospel itself is dedicated to miracles in any other gospels.
But Mark doesn't just record these miracles. He records them and then he explains that these are divine miracles performed by the power of God. And he points that out early in his gospel, Mark 3, verse 22. And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, he is possessed by the elves above.
By the Prince of demons, he is driving out demons. The people said, it's two Jesus. They said it about him, but he heard them. So he called them Lord to him.
And it began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand. His end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house.
And then he says something that's kind of a bit chilling. He says, listen, truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins, and every slander they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of an eternal sin.
He said this because they were saying he has an impure spirit. Jesus had the Holy Spirit. And in the power of God, he did these miracles and cast out demons. And it's one thing for them to criticize, but Jesus said, careful boys, don't blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
So miracles by the power of God is a theme in Mark. And finally, the last thing I want to mention is suffering. Back up, I told you that the Mark had written this gospel to Christians in Rome during the Great persecution in Rome. This was a community that needed to be reminded that God heard prayers and would work through their witness and faith.
And they also needed to be reminded that on my cost in their lives, the Messiah that Jesus presented in Mark was the servant, the suffering servant that we see in Isaiah 53. And even though Mark doesn't quote Isaiah 53, as other gospel writers do, it's that same image that we see presented in the Book of Isaiah 53. And that's not exactly what people were expecting or what they wanted. Jesus said in Mark 1045, And it's important, and I really want to stress this, that the portrayal of Jesus as the suffering servant does not minimize his divine nature, nor his title in Messiah, or as the Son of God, both of which Mark is very clear.
Right? We've already talked about this. Mark is very clear about that. And see, this is consistent with a letter that at this time would have been circulating among the churches that a man named Paul had written a couple years earlier in 80s, 62, when Paul was in prison, one of the prison of his son, was Philippians.
And this is what Paul wrote in the Book of Philippians. And this was prior to Mark writing his gospel. He says in relationships with one another, have the same mind, says Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God did not consider him in considered quality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every nation, and heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Amen. What a picture. The suffering servant is a perfect model of humility and service, and yet he is exalted to the highest place as Lord.
That's my Jesus. That's my Jesus. That's the Jesus of Mark. Praise God.
Now, I would encourage you this week. Read the book of Mark. Read the book of Mark through in its entirety. And if you could, it would be nice if you could carve out a long enough time that you could just sit down and read the whole thing at one sitting.
That would be great. Read through the book of Mark. And try to imagine how first century Christians in Rome would have received this if you were them reading it. In the real world context of which it was written, the persecutions of the Christians of Rome under Nero, the accounts of the miracles of Jesus, the failure of the disciples, and Jesus's denial by Peter himself, as well as Jesus' triumph over death, would have been powerful in the world.
And the death would have been powerful symbols of faith, hope, and reconciliation. So let's let the Gospel Mark speak to you in the same way. Amen.