Reading the Gospel of Mark for God’s Mission
There is no more fascinating character in the Bible than Jesus. It’s in the Gospels where we find the stories about Jesus. There’s something unique that Mark has to show us about the nature and character and mission of God and what we can do to cooperate.
In church, we tend to conflate the four Gospels into a single narrative biography of Jesus. And in fact, the early church debated and ultimately rejected doing so. Each of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—have something distinct to teach us about the heart and mission of God.
While it shares overlapping stories with Matthew and Luke, particularly, the way Mark puts these pieces together—like jigsaw puzzle pieces—gives us a unique vision of Jesus, who he was and what he was up to.
When I encounter people who are discovering the Bible and the story of God for the very first time, the Gospel of Mark is where I direct them to get started. It’s short, succinct, and to the point. More than other Gospels, it reads like a novel.
The Jesus of Mark’s Gospel is constantly on the move. While Mark tells us that Jesus teaches and often shares with us the crowd’s reaction to Jesus’ teaching, it provides relatively little of what the teaching actually was compared to other Gospels.
Mark wants to tell us what Jesus did. I have a friend, who some years ago, during the height of WWJD mania, taught Bible at a Christian high school. He taught his students “HCYDWJDIYDKWJD” or “How Can You Do What Jesus Did If You Don’t Know What Jesus Did.” Mark is how we know what Jesus did.
The Gospel of Mark exists not to provide a biographical account of Jesus. Rather, it exists to offer a persuasive argument that God is undoing the devastating work of sin and death in the world through the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. The “good news”—the gospel—is that God is making everything right in the world. The kingdom of God is present in and radiates out from the person of King Jesus and his people.
Here are some tips as you read the Gospel of Mark:
Notice the big picture
Mark can be broken into four coherent pieces with a prologue and an epilogue. This outline follows the work of Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart in How to Read the Bible Book by Book:
The Prologue—Introduction to Jesus and the Kingdom (1:1-15)
The Kingdom Goes Public–Disciples, Crowds, Opposition (1:16–3:6)
The Mystery of the Kingdom–Faith, Misunderstanding, Hard Hearts (3:7–8:21)
The Mystery Unveiled–The Cross and the Way of Discipleship (8:22–10:45)
The King Comes to Jerusalem to Die (10:46–15:47)
Epilogue: The Story Is Not Over (16:1–8)
If there’s a thesis to Mark, it’s 1:15: “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” Everything that follows spins out of this proclamation.
Notice how the stories fit together
There’s an urgency to Mark’s narrative, which lends itself to reading large passages at time, even the whole thing in a single sitting. If you come from a church setting that only presents Jesus stories one at a time, reading longer passages in Mark can reveal all kinds of new, fresh insights.
There’s a strategy to the way Mark unveils the story. The individual stories aren’t random. They seem to stack, one on another, into a greater whole. When I first discovered the way the author of Mark builds one story into the next, almost like successive episodes of a TV show, it was like learning this world of Jesus all over again for the first time.
Think bigger than the chapter breaks, and even the section headings of most English translations. As you may notice in the outline above, they often artificially break up the flow of what Mark communicates.
Keep the book of Isaiah nearby
In any story, where the story begins is significant. And Mark begins not with the Christmas story, but with the prophet Isaiah. Several key passages in Mark call back to this Old Testament book (1:2-3; 4:12; 7:6-7).
Know a little bit of Roman culture
Words like “gospel/good news,” “kingdom,” “son of God,” “Lord,” and “Messiah” are significant words in the Gospel of Mark. And take an even bigger role when we remember these aren’t churchy theology words but rather words taken from the political world of the first century. These are Caesar words. These are Empire words. And Mark subversively flips our expectations each time he uses them and uses them to describe Jesus. Go and read 1:1-15 with this in mind.
Read as if this is everything you know
Try your best to forget everything you know about the story. Allow yourself to enter the story and dwell in it, episode by episode, like you would your favorite TV show or novel. Let the suspense build. Cultivate your curiosity as the plot advances and the character of Jesus develops.
Respond to the invitations in Mark
Mark invites us to be amazed and awestruck by Jesus
“Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened” (1:27).
“They were all amazed and praised God” (2:12).
“When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe” (9:15).
“This amazed them” (10:24).
“The disciples were filled with awe” (10:32).
“But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate’s surprise” (15:5).
Mark invites us into the mystery of “Who is Jesus?”
Speculation as to Jesus’ true identity sparks misunderstanding and mystery throughout the story. Nobody knows!
“What sort of new teaching is this?” (1:27)
“What is he saying? This is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” (2:7).
“Who is this man?” (4:41).
The demons know, but Jesus forces them to be quiet.
Finally, in one of the key passages in Mark, Jesus himself asks his disciples, “Who do people say I am?… But who do you say I am?” (8:27, 29).
Mark invites us to follow Jesus all the way to the cross
The third section of book begins at 8:22 with the healing of a blind man. This opens an important series of events that begin with the disciples blind to who Jesus is and slow builds to their beginning to understand. Three times in this section Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, immediately followed by the disciples grossly misunderstanding, and then Jesus giving an intense teaching about the nature of discipleship.
One third of Mark is devoted to the events between Palm Sunday and Easter. This is significant. The events of Holy Week are the key to unlocking Mark’s mystery about Jesus. Jesus ministry lasted three years, but Mark spends a third of the narrative on one week. Time seems to slow down. The cross, and the events leading to it, are the main event.
In Mark’s Gospel, the way of discipleship is a radical commitment to cross-shaped self-sacrificial love for others. Suffering has profound meaning in the life of Jesus, not in a masochistic sense, but rather in a rugged commitment of self-giving love.
Live as if you are the ending of Mark’s Gospel
Spoiler alert: There’s no ending to Mark. Well, if there was, it’s been lost to history. It just ends with 16:8. No closure. Many contemporary English translations provide a couple alternative endings, but those are late additions to the text.
Keep in mind, the original manuscripts would have been rolled up scrolls. It’s likely that the end of Mark wore off and was damaged in handling or transport. That’s one idea.
Or we can take form as is and imagine that you and I continue the story. The lack of closure invites us into the story. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book, and we get to continue the deeds of Jesus in the world.
God is on a mission, re-making the world. The Gospel of Mark presents God revealing this new kingdom through the suffering of the cross and the victory of Jesus’ resurrection.
In reading Mark’s Gospel, dwelling in the stories, imagining ourselves in this world, we cultivate our affection for Jesus. We find ourselves in a new world of thinking what Jesus thought, saying what Jesus said, loving what Jesus loved, and doing what Jesus did.
As you read Mark, find yourself drawn deeper into the heart of Jesus. Find yourself drawn deeper into the mission of God for the healing of the world.
If you want to go deeper, be sure to check out N.T. Wright’s Mark for Everyone or Ben Witherington’s The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.