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“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God.’ ”(Mark 1:1; 15: 39)
These two comments frame almost the entirety of Mark’s witness to who Jesus is. Mark has come to understand clearly that Jesus is the Son of God. His gospel, however, is the story of others who only slowly come to realize this identity of Jesus and to understand what this means for them. In fact, at certain key points, Jesus even tells those who have come to understand His true identity not to tell others, such as after Peter confesses Him to be the Messiah. So, Jesus purposefully hides His identity as Messiah and Son of God. This is called the “messianic mystery” in Mark’s gospel.
Why in the world would Jesus hide His true identity?!
Jesus cannot be put into any human box. His proclamation of Himself as God made man is something radically new! We cannot understand Jesus simply by reciting a list of statements about Him. Rather, the only way to truly understand Jesus’ identity is to follow Him as His disciple. We cannot know the experience of knowing Jesus except by following Him. Only in our personal encounter with Jesus through the Church and the sacraments can we understand who this amazing man is. Do we limit our encounter with Jesus to what we know about him? Do we try to meet Him not just in our head, but by authentically striving to know Him through prayer and good actions? What are some ways that we can meet Jesus in ways that we never have done before?
“He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” (Mark 8:31)
For the Jewish people of His own time, they were tempted to misunderstand Jesus as a Messiah in the sense of a political revolutionary who would overthrow their Roman oppressors. Jesus is not a political messiah, but rather the suffering servant Messiah who will save His people only by suffering and dying. Anyone who is to understand Jesus’ Messiah-ship must understand the suffering it entails. Do we put Jesus into our own boxes? Do we limit in what things we actually trust Jesus? Do we try to see Jesus how we want to see Him, how will make us comfortable rather than what will challenge us?
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” (Mark 1:15)
In Jesus, the Kingdom of God dawns on the earth. Jesus’ message is not static or boring, not the merely the declaration of some new doctrine, but rather the proclamation of the arrival of the Kingdom of God is the very person of Jesus! Where Jesus goes, there He brings news of the Kingdom because there He brings the Kingdom by His presence. When we live in the presence of Christ, we are truly living in the Kingdom, not of course in its full blossoming, but in its seed-like form. When we meet Jesus in the sacraments and in prayer, do we act like people living in the Kingdom and transform our entire lives, or do we let them become another mere activity we have to do? In what ways can we help the Kingdom to grow in our midst?
“Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him . . . And they all left him and fled.” (Mark 14:40, 50)
Mark depicts the 12 Apostles in a less than admirable way. In fact, the 12 are never presented as models of discipleship, but rather as models of faithlessness. Mark clearly understands that Jesus does not call perfect people to follow Him. In fact, he often chooses those who the world considers weak. Nonetheless, He still calls the 12, knowing that they will often not get it right, just as He still calls us to radically follow Him even though He knows that we will not always get it right. What gets us frustrated, especially in trying to follow Jesus? What are ways that we can continue to follow Jesus and ask for forgiveness even when we know that we have strayed? Do we have faith that despite our own unworthiness Jesus still calls us to the incredible privilege of discipleship?
“Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” (Mark 1:2-3)
The lion is the image usually associated with Mark’s Gospel. Mark’s gospel begins with the roaring cry of John the Baptist. Further, Mark’s gospel is very high-paced. Jesus is constantly moving, going from place to place, and doing things. Mark depicts the whole story of Jesus in only 16 chapters. In words of Richard Burridge, “The sheer pace of it all is unrelenting.” (Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus?, 37). Jesus is dynamic and intense. Are we prepared to go out of our comfort zone and encounter the man who will take us on the most intense journey of our lives? Can we stay rooted and focused on Jesus even when the pace of things seems too much to handle?
So who was Mark?
The evangelist Mark was likely a traveling companion of Paul and Barnabas for a time and, at a different time, closely connected to Peter, possibly even serving as his interpreter.
When and to whom did he write?
Mark’s gospel was the first Gospel to be written, sometime between 60 AD and 71 AD, though a date closer to 60 AD seems more likely. He was almost certainly writing to the Christian community in Rome, composed mainly of Gentile Christians, along with some Jewish Christians. |
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WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM? Mark’s Perspective: |
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St. Mark is usually depicted with a lion. This is because his Gospel account begins with the “roaring” cry of John the Baptist — ”Prepare the way of the LORD!” |
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Mark 8.27-38 And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
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