Mark: Class 1
We had 10 people for class last night and got all the way to Mark 1:1!We spent some time talking about our personal experiences with the Gospel. Most of us had never studied it in a church setting before. Mark is overshadowed by the other three Gospels.
Indeed, Mark has been largely disregarded by the church for its entire existence. Early on, it was thought to be nothing more than an abridgement of Matthew. The language is coarse Greek. The transitions are inelegant. In short, Mark has never thought to be much of a writer.
Until, that is, the past century. Scholars started to wonder if perhaps Mark had reasons for writing the way he did. If so, then maybe we've been missing something for a very long time.
Why are the disciples treated so shamefully by Mark? They never seem to get it. And Mark includes none of Matthew's grace notes, redeeming the disciples when they fall short. But it makes sense when we realize that Mark was, in essence, writing Peter's Gospel. In most of the stories, the eyewitness was Peter...Mark was just the recorder. And this was the same Mark who deserted Paul and Barnabas; he could relate with Peter's desertion of Christ.
So the Gospel of Mark becomes a Gospel of redemption, a Gospel of forgiveness. And when we think of our own failures and shortcomings, Mark reminds us that Jesus stands ready to receive us back and forgive us completely.
posted by Thurman8er @ 8:05 AM
2 Comments:
Mark is very fast paced. I like to think of it as an adventure story told by an old man to his grandkids. It is the gospel alright, but it doesn't necessarily do a lot of heavy-duty theology. It's a gospel for the doer rather than the thinker.
Mark is extremely fast paced...for the first 13 chapters. Then it slows down a LOT. Jesus final week is measured in days...his final days measure in hours. At the end of the Gospel, things seem to have come to a complete stop.
I would disagree about the relative lack of theology though. Mark has been overlooked for so long because of that misconception. When we pay attention to how Mark said what he said, a great deal of brilliant theology/Christology appears.
It is a book of action though. Jesus is known more by what he does than by what he says.
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