Mark 1:1-3
The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah,
the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will
prepare your way”—
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight
paths for him.’”
Today, we a begin a journey through the Gospel of Mark, the
first to be written of the four gospel accounts we have in the New
Testament. John Mark, the traditionally
agreed upon author, was an associate of the Apostle Paul and traveled with the
Apostle Peter. Papius, a first century
church historian, asserts that Mark, a scribe, got the material for the gospel
by collecting and recording Peter’s eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus as
they traveled together. Mark took all
the accounts and then organized them into straightforward story that has three
basic sections: (1) Jesus’s ministry in
Galilee - chapters 1-8, (2) The journey from Galilee to Jerusalem – Chapters 8-10,
and (3) In Jerusalem – chapters 11-16. Mark
heavily influences the writing of Matthew and Luke as the authors of those
gospels use much of Mark’s material, sometimes even word for word. 90% of Mark’s material appears in Matthew and
50% appears in Luke.
The phrase that Mark uses to introduce his Gospel is the
only time in the entire account that Mark expresses his opinion about Jesus:
“The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah,
the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:”
This is important because what Mark does in the rest of the
Gospel is use all the eyewitness accounts he collected to convince his readers
of the truth of his opening assertion. Jesus
is the long-awaited Messiah and He is the Son of God.
After his opening, Mark quotes both Isaiah and Malachi to
support the notion that the Messiah will be preceded by a messenger that will announce
and “prepare the way” for the Messiah. Tomorrow,
we’ll find out who that messenger is, although I’m sure many of you already
have a pretty good guess. 😉
For now though, I encourage us to consider the idea of
preparing the way for the Lord as we begin our journey through arguably the
most influential account of Jesus ever written.
Maybe you’ve read this gospel a dozen times before or maybe you’ve never
read all the way through even once.
Regardless, this simple, direct, gospel has proven over and over through
the last two centuries that we can encounter Jesus in powerful ways every time
we read.
Question: Are you “prepared”
to encounter Jesus is new ways?
Prayer: God, prepare
our hearts to receive Mark’s gospel as if we had never read any of it
before. Use this ancient text to warm
and transform our hearts. Amen.
Song: People Get
Ready – Jeff Back & Rod Stewart
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