Daily Thoughts from the Gospel of Mark: The Beginning of the Gospel (Mark 1:1)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (Mark 1:1, ESV) 

Tradition says that Peter was the apostle behind the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is the John Mark who was related to Barnabas and who accompanied Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:1-5).  For some reason he quit the company during their travels and returned home (Acts 13:13).  When they were preparing to go on another missionary journey later Barnabas wanted to take John Mark but Paul refused (Acts 15:36-41).  Paul and Barnabas parted ways.  Later, however, at the end of Paul’s life, we are told that he wanted Mark to join him in Rome where he was imprisoned (2 Timothy 4:11).  Mark had become very valuable to Paul.

Mark was closely associated with Peter.  It was Mark’s mother whose upper room Peter and the other disciples used right after Jesus’ ascension to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Mark was a young, early disciple of Jesus and became, eventually, Peter’s secretary to write this Gospel.

Mark calls this the “beginning of the good news of Jesus the Messiah” and shows us how God used John the Baptist to announce him.  To say Jesus is the Christ or Messiah is to say Jesus is the fulfillment of all Israel’s hope for a deliverer who will usher in the kingdom of God.

To call Jesus “the son of God” however, is to add a notion of Jesus as deity that has been the stumbling block for many Israelites and many Gentiles as well.  How could this man be God?  It introduces the idea that has moved the church to think of God as a Trinity, that God is three persons who share one divine essence, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is an idea that makes preeminent sense as we see the life of Jesus unfolded for us in Mark’s Gospel.

There have been times I have doubted the faith, but I have found affirmation of the faith in the character and life of Jesus.  Mark’s Gospel in particular has served to squelch my doubts with worship as I contemplate the extraordinary and unsettling wisdom and power of Jesus.  There just is no one like him.  No one could have made him up.  He is so brilliant and life-changing in his interaction with men and women (and children) that it is self-evident that he is the Messiah and the Son of God.