Project 119: Introduction to Mark
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
Mark 1:1 gives us a summary of his work: it is “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1). This word gospel, in the Greek, means good news. Mark’s gospel shares the good news of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. The tradition of church history affirms that Mark was the first of the four New Testament gospels to be written. In some senses, then, Mark was the first person to put the verbal “good news” or “gospel” of Christ into a written form for an audience. Most scholars believe that Mark wrote his gospel somewhere in the mid 50s to mid 60s AD. It was likely written from Rome to a primarily Gentile audience, which is the reason that we see Mark carefully explaining several Jewish customs in his gospel. While Mark was not an eyewitness to the life and death of Christ, many believe that his account came from Peter. The gospel originally spread through oral accounts from the disciples, but later, these accounts were written down to edify and encourage the church (so that they might read again the testimonies they heard from the disciples). A further benefit of these written testimonies is that they could be sent to other places and thus the gospel might be proclaimed “to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
You’ll observe that Mark’s gospel is remarkably different than the other gospels in the New Testament in some ways. It is the shortest of the gospels and contains less of Jesus’ direct teaching than any other gospel. You may also notice that Mark’s gospel leaves out Christ’s birth narrative entirely. However, Mark contains many “unique, once-only events (not recorded in the other gospels) especially those connected with the death and resurrection of Jesus” (Hans F. Bayer, ESV Study Bible). While we can’t know why one gospel decided to include some events and others didn’t, we must remember that gospels are not thorough, linear biographies of Christ in the way that we understand biographies. Rather, the gospels, written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, each look at the life of Christ from a different lens. For instance, Mark highlights Christ as both the Jewish Messiah and the Lord over all, connecting Christ’s fulfillment of Jewish messianic prophecies with the truth that He came to bring salvation to the Gentiles along with the Jews. Another theme repeated in Mark’s gospel is the theme of discipleship. Christ, faithful to the Father, walked obediently all the way to the cross. As Christians, we too are called to follow in His footsteps, which will inevitably mean that we will face opposition from the world and suffering because of the presence of sin.
As you read through the gospel of Mark during this Lenten season, our prayer is that your heart will be opened to the good news of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and that you will respond in obedience to this call to come and follow Him, whatever the cost.