The gospel according to Mark: it's one of the first
accounts of the life of Jesus and our earliest historical traditions
link this book to a Christian scribe named Mark, or John Mark. He was co-worker with Paul
and close partner with Peter. And in fact an ancient church
historian named Papias he recalls that Mark had collected all of the
eyewitness accounts and memories of Peter and then shape them in this account. But Mark didn't just
randomly throw the pieces together he's carefully designed the story of Jesus. In the first line of the book
Mark makes this claim about Jesus: “it's the beginning of the good news
about Jesus the Messiah the Son of God.” And it's interesting is that this is the only time Mark is going to tell you what he thinks. For the rest of the book is going to influence you by simply putting Jesus'
actions and words in front of you and showing you how other people react to Him. Now Mark design the story
of Jesus as a drama with three acts: the first one set in Galilee,
the third one is set in Jerusalem and the second act shows Jesus
on the way from one place to the other. In each of the acts he
focuses on repeated theme so in act 1 everybody's blown away
by Jesus and they’re wondering who is this Jesus In act 2 it's the disciples
who are struggling to understand what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah. And then in act 3 we watch the surprising
paradox of how Jesus becomes the Messianic King. Let's just dive in and you'll see how it unfolds. After the opening line Mark begin
with a quotation from the ancient prophets Isaiah and Malachi who said that
God would send messengers Israel to prepare them for when God would
show up himself to rescue His people and become their King. And Mark introduces John
the Baptist as the messenger and then right when you expect God
to show it personally Mark introduces Jesus. And as He comes onto the scene
heavens open, God's Spirit descends on Jesus and God says: “You are my beloved Son.” After this Mark places in front
of us a summary of Jesus' core message. He went about Galilee announcing the good
news that God's kingdom has come near. Jesus is carrying forward the
story from the Old Testament scriptures about God's rescue operation for His world Through Jesus God is
restoring His reign over the world by confronting and defeating
evil and its hold on people's lives. And them by inviting them to live
under His reign by following Jesus From here Mark given us a big block of stories showing us Jesus power as He brings God's kingdom. he goes about healing people whose bodies are sick or broken or under the
oppression of dark spiritual powers. And Jesus even does something that for
Jewish people only God has the right to do: he forgives people sins. And Jesus actions here
produce lots of different responses: so some people follow
Him and become His disciples, other people don’t know what to think
and still others reject Him completely, especially Israel's leaders
who accuse Him of blaspheming God and being powered by evil. But Jesus isn’t surprised by these
responses, in fact He draws attention to it. In chapter 4 Mark has
collected many of Jesus parables about the hidden
mysterious nature of God's kingdom. Jesus says that His message is like
seed falling on different types of soil: some receptive some not; or it's
like a mustard seed that's very tiny it seems insignificant but then
it grows huge and surprises everyone. Jesus' point is that He really is
the Messiah bringing God's kingdom, but it doesn’t look like what anybody expected. This growing confusion about Jesus
among the crowds is connected to a key idea Mark emphasizes at the end of Act 1 that even among Jesus disciples there's confusion even they’re struggling
to grasp who Jesus really is and that brings us to act 2. It begins with a crucial conversation: Jesus takes the disciples aside
and He asks: “who do you all say that I Am?” And Peter speaks up saying: “You are The Messiah,” but it becomes clear that for Peter this means that Jesus is a victorious
military King from the line of David will rescue Israel from the Romans, but for Jesus to be the Messiah means
that he is the suffering servant King of Isaiah 53 who will bring God's
rule by giving up His life in Jerusalem. An the disciples they don’t get it they think following King Jesus is
going to mean fame and status and importance. And Jesus makes it clear that far
following Him is actually like dying, like carrying your own cross. It means rejecting
violence and pride and selfishness and giving one's life out for
others and acts of service and love. He has the same
conversation with them two more times and it all culminates
in Jesus' important statement that the Son of man did not come
to be served, but to become a servant and give His life as a ransom for many. The disciples still don't get it
they respond confusion and fear. And so here in act 2 Mark has placed another
key story that echoes the books introduction. Jesus takes three of His
disciples up to a mountain and He suddenly transformed is
radiating with light and glory and a cloud envelops them. Now this is just like
the glory of the God of Israel that showed up long ago on Mount Sinai. And then the two prophets
who stood in God's presence on Mount Sinai, Mosses and Elijah they appear
next to Jesus as God announces again: “This is my beloved Son." Now by placing this story in the middle
of all these conversations in act 2 Mark is making an astounding claim that Jesus God's Son is the
physical embodiment of God's own glory. And Jesus the glorious God
of Israel is going to become King by suffering and dying for
the sins of His own people. It's a puzzling claim
that confuses and scares the disciples as they leave the mountain
which brings us to act 3. Jesus makes a very public royal
entry into Jerusalem for Passover. People are hailing Him as the Messiah then He enters into the temple
courtyard and He asserts His royal authority by running out the thieves and crooks
and stopping the sacrificial system. Then this kicks off a whole week of Jesus debating and confronting the leaders
of Israel condemning their hypocrisy and so they set in motion
a plan to have him killed. And Jesus warn His
disciples predicting that Jerusalem and it's temple will be
destroyed within a generation and His disciples will be persecuted just like Him until He return one day to bring
God's kingdom fully over the world And it all leads up to the final night Jesus has His last
Passover meal with the disciples, a symbolic meal, that told the story
of Israel's liberation from slavery through the death of the Passover lamb. And Jesus takes these
symbols and gives the new meaning: they point to the liberation from sin and death that will happen through the death
of the suffering servant Messiah From here the story rushes forward to Jesus arrest His trial before Israel's
priest in the Roman governor Pilate all resulting in Jesus' crucifixion. And culminates in a key scene
that matches the important scenes from acts 1 and 2. Except this time it's
darkness that descends not a cloud and instead of the divine voice from
heaven it's Jeusus’ crying out before He dies. And then most surprising is that it's
a Roman soldier who sees Jesus died who grasps and then announces who Jesus is: “this man was the Son of God.” He's the first person in the story to recognize the story
shocking claim about Jesus' identity that it's the crucified Son of God
who is the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, who died for His friend and for His enemies. After this Jesus' body is placed in a tomb and on the first day of the new week two
women from His disciples come to the tomb and they discover that the tomb
is empty, the stone is rolled away And then angelic man
informs them that Jesus isn’t here that he's risen from the death. And so he orders them to go and tell
this good news to the others disciples that Jesus is alive
that he'll meet them back up in Galilee. And the women they’re freaked out; Mark say that they fled
from from the tomb in terror, telling no one, for they were afraid. And that's how the book ends: with Jesus disciples showing
the same kind of fear and confusion that concluded acts 2 and 1. Now if you look at your Bible you'll see that the gospel of Mark has more to its ending where Jesus appears, He speaks to His disciples but there's also a note here telling you
that ending is not part of the original book that it's only found
in later less reliable manuscripts. Now it's possible
that the original ending got lost or that Mark actually never finished his account, but it's more likely that this
abrupt ending is intentional to make a point the entire story
has focused on the shocking claim the puzzle Jesus disciples from beginning to end; that is the suffering, crucified
and risen Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God that God's love
and upside-down kingdom were revealed as Jesus died for the sins of the world. And so the story ends without
closure and it forces you, the reader, to grapple with this very strange
and scandalous claim about Jesus. And are you gonna run away like the disciples, or you going to recognize Jesus
as your King and going tell the good news? And only you can answer that question. And that's what the gospel of Mark is all about.
