In His Name Devotionals
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
In His Name Devotionals
THE GOSPEL OF MARK
Perhaps you, too, have occasionally overlooked the shortest of the gospels in favor of Matthew for his record of the Sermon on the Mount or in favor of Luke for his amazing details about the life of Jesus.
Mark presents a portrait of Jesus as he is writing the recollections of Peter near the end of Peter’s life. The collection of stories about the life of Jesus can easily be mistaken for a random collection of little snippets of His life, if you do not understand Mark’s overall purpose of telling us about the character of Jesus as He interacted with people. Mark teaches us about the character of Jesus from His actions as well as His words. Mark shows us the portrait of a King who serves rather than a King who is served. He presents a Kingdom that is not what the disciples expected, where the first are last and others, especially little children are important.
Throughout the book of Mark, Jesus helps the next person that He meets. Mark is filled with examples of these actions of healing, feeding or teaching the next person encountered. Jesus may not solve all of the world’s problems but He always helps the next person. Think about what a wonderful world this would be if we all had that attitude of helping others.
Mark introduces us to the gospel and to the desert scene where John the Baptist is baptizing Jesus. We are told that this Jesus is God’s Son and that God is pleased with Him. Later in chapter 9, at the transfiguration, Peter, James and John see Elijah and Moses pass away and hear God say again, “This is My Son” but now God adds “Listen to Him.” Some way the disciples had been following Jesus but had not been listening and thus not understanding.
In Mark 1:16, Jesus called four to follow Him. Peter, Andrew, James and John dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus as He cast out demons, healed people, taught and handled adversity as people opposed His teachings. Then in 3:13, Jesus calls all twelve apostles to follow Him as He travels about doing the same things and teaching in parables. Finally, in 6:16 He sends the twelve out to do what He has been teaching them to do. Even though they did not understand it all, they had seen how Jesus interacted with people and were now charged with the job of doing the same activities. They had witnessed how a King who serves expects his followers to act.
Although we cannot cast out demons other than through prayer and we cannot heal other than through prayer, we can teach, we can handle adversity and we can help the next person that we meet. We can sow the seeds of the kingdom as Jesus taught in the first of His formal teaching presentations in Chapter 4. We can live a life of purity based on what comes out of our lives rather than the rituals in which we participate, and listen to Jesus as He talks about purity in Chapter 7. We can certainly follow the admonition in Chapter 12, where Jesus declares the greatest commandment to love God, and the 2nd greatest—loving our neighbor.
