Dear friends in Christ at Peace and Grue,
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1
Mark is doing in his prologue (1:1-13) what Matthew and Luke were doing in their stories of supernatural birth and infancy, that is demonstrating that Jesus was in fact the eternal Word of God become flesh.
At first sight these verse look like a brief rather simple account of a number of unconnected events that took place over several months. In fact, the narrative is anything but simple, and the incidents form a fully coherent unity. The prologue stands apart from the rest of the Gospel as a sort of curtain-raiser, in which you, the reader, are made aware of the true theological situation. When the curtain goes up in verse 14, you-unlike the characters in the story-know who the principal actor is so you can follow the full meaning of the events.
As we enter this new year, the year of Mark, here is what you need to know. Mark’s Gospel is written from a very definite perspective. Mark believed that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Jewish hope had been fulfilled. In the earthly life of Jesus the beginnings of God’s final intervention in history had begun. Jesus death and resurrection was the first and decisive step in the overthrow of the powers of evil and the establishment of God’s sovereign reign. That was clearly grounds for rejoicing, and the early Church called it the good news or gospel of Jesus Christ.
Mark realized that his readers might ask, as the people in the Gospel asked, about the authority or credentials of Jesus. On what grounds did he and his followers see in Jesus’ life the presence of God and God’s intervention. To a considerable extent the answer lies in the events themselves. The aim of the Gospel is to describe these events in such a way that they can be properly understood.
And yet Mark wrote in such a way that Jesus himself deliberately prevented the events from speaking for themselves. (This hidden or secret identity of Jesus and the fact that everything, but the crucifixion, happens immediately are the two most distinctive feature of Marks Gospel.) Certainly a criminal’s death and his cry from the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”, did not suggest God’s presence.
Yet it is only after Jesus dies that the centurion standing at the foot of the cross, recognized that “Truly this man was God’s Son!” The only human character in Mark’s Gospel to make such a recognition. But certainly not the last as millions have come to know Jesus, God’s Son, through Mark’s Gospel, including us as we once again have the privilege of focusing this year on Mark’s version of the greatest story every told.
Blessings during this Holiday Season,
Pastor Dan