01 | Gospel of Mark: The Time Has Come
Mark 1:1-45
The Gospel According to Mark is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a fast-paced account originally written to followers of Jesus living within the Roman Empire who were experiencing persecution under the Roman Emperor. Writing mainly to a non-Jewish audience, Mark somewhat forces his readers to get rid of their preconceived ideas about what God is like and how God operates. Mark zeros in on the person of Jesus and focuses on his royal nature as the true Son of God and his redemptive mission as Israel’s Suffering Servant. Mark wastes no time getting straight to the point of what he believes about Jesus as he introduces his account with this immediate declaration in his opening sentence:
“The is beginning of the good news of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”
According to Mark, Jesus is the true Son of God and the promised new King of Israel (the Messiah) who had come to defeat evil and restore God’s rule over the world.
Let’s quickly look at those two titles, Son of God and the Messiah.
Son of God
The title “Son of God” begins to take on a whole new meaning when we understand that this was also the title given to the Roman Emperor during the time of Jesus’ life on earth. In the Roman world in which Mark is writing, this title was synonymous with the role of Emperor — the one who was widely believed to have been given ultimate authority by the gods to rule over all the earth. And so when Mark refers to Jesus as the “Son of God”, he has this idea of an Emperor (or a King) who has been given ultimate authority over all the earth in the forefront of his mind.
Messiah
The title “Messiah” is a Hebrew title that means “the anointed one”. It is a title that can refer to a prophet, priest or king. This title is important to Mark because it was most popularly understood in the Jewish world to refer to the promised future king from King David’s lineage through whom Yahweh would rescue his people from exile and restore them back into his kingdom.
And so, as we read through the rest of chapter one of Mark’s Gospel, we see Mark introducing us to Jesus by highlighting his majesty, his message and his ministry as the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel.
His Majesty
From the start, Mark makes his great declaration that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, and he backs that declaration up by referencing some key passages from Israel’s ancient prophets. In referencing these Old Testament (OT) passages, Mark labels a first-century prophet in Israel named John the Baptist as the special God-ordained messenger who was commissioned to prepare God’s people for the return of Yahweh himself.
[Yahweh, also YHWH, is the ancient Israelite name for God and is often translated as LORD (all caps) in our English translations.]
There was a long-standing hope that one day Yahweh would return to Israel to rescue his people and to restore his rule and presence with them (Isaiah 40:3). Mark identifies John the Baptist as the prophet in Israel who was announcing that this day had finally come. John was trying to get everyone ready for what was getting ready to take place.
N.T. Wright puts it this way:
“John was like the messenger going ahead of royalty, getting everyone ready for the ‘stronger one’ who was coming after him. Israel as a whole needed smartening up. Each individual within Israel needed to smarten up. Someone was coming who would put even John in the shade.”
So Mark’s purpose in mentioning John the Baptist is primarily to focus our attention on the one whom John was preparing the people for — the coming Messiah — the promised new King of Israel who had come to defeat evil and restore God’s rule over the entire world. In doing this, Mark is making it clear that the Jesus movement is not necessarily something that was entirely brand new; it was the culmination of the story of ancient Israel that is told throughout the Old Testament. It was the climatic chapter in God’s unfolding plan for all of creation.
Mark goes on to hammer this idea home even further in the details described surrounding Jesus’ baptism and immediate temptation in the wilderness. In Mark 1:10-11, Mark writes:
“And when Jesus came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This particular scene at the baptism of Jesus seems to draw our attention back to that other familiar point in Biblical history where we hear that the Father spoke, the Son acted and the Spirit of God fluttered over the face of the water.
Timothy Keller points out how this scene resembles the Genesis account of creation (Genesis 1:1-2) when he writes:
“Just as the original creation of the world was a project of the triune God, Mark says, so the redemption of the world, the rescue and renewal of all things that is beginning now with the arrival of the King, is also a project of the triune God.”
The baptism of Jesus was a landmark event that signified the confirmation of his identity as the anointed one (the Messiah), and it also signified the commencement of his redemptive mission. And then, just as the redemption plan had been initiated, we read that, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness… to be tested by the satan” (Mark 1:12). All of this is meant to get our attention and to remind us of images from the Old Testament story.
Just as the creation sprang from the waters and immediately experienced the testing of the serpent (Genesis 1-3), Jesus springs from the waters and into the presence of the satan’s lies and subtle schemes. Just as the people of Israel’s exodus from Egypt came out of the parted waters and immediately into the wilderness of trials and temptation, Jesus comes out of the water and into the wilderness to be tested and tempted as well (Exodus 15). But where Israel failed to pass the test, Jesus succeeded; and where the first humans had served themselves, Jesus served his Father in heaven.
Therefore, Mark is telling us that a new human greater than the first humans has come onto the scene. And that the hope of ancient Israel has now been reduced to One Israelite. Mark has intentionally arranged these opening lines of his Gospel to announce that the time has come for a new creation and a new exodus.
His Message
The true Son of God has arrived, and Mark sums up his main message in this one simple declaration (1:15):
“The time has come, and the kingdom of God has arrived; turn back to God and believe the gospel.”
To make sure we understand Jesus’ message, we need a clear understanding of the word gospel. The word gospel means “good news” but in a magnified sense. Historically, the word gospel is used most often to refer to important events regarding world rulers and their kingdoms.
Therefore, the word gospel refers to a royal announcement that has life-altering implications for those who hear it.
Timothy Keller describes it this way when he writes:
“A gospel is an announcement of something that has happened in history, something that’s been done for you that changes your status forever.”
And it is precisely this that sets the Jesus movement apart from every other belief system and major world religion. Whereas a religion focuses on advice and instruction, Christianity is based simply on good news. This is fundamental to the Christian faith, and it presents questions that must be asked of those who claim to be Christians: Do you view the Bible as a message of instruction or as a proclamation of good news? Do you view the Bible as a ‘How To’ or a ‘Look What’?
The Bible is not a religious manual; it’s the revelation of good news.
So if the Jesus movement is based on God’s good news, what is the obligation of the person who wishes to be a follower of Jesus?
Jesus says, “Repent and believe the good news.”
The good news was the announcement that the time had finally come for God to rescue his people and restore his rule as the King over the entire world. It was the good news about a new exodus that was taking place. And so it was an announcement to wake up and join in on what God was doing.
This is still the message for us today. To repent means to change your mind or to turn around and head in the right direction. Whatever it is that we feel gives us our main reason for living, we have to turn away from that and turn to Jesus as our reason for living today and our hope for the future.
The good news of Jesus the Messiah is that he has defeated the evil that was holding his world captive and he has restored God’s rule as the unrivaled King over all creation. Therefore, we must respond to this royal announcement by turning away from living our lives according to our own definitions of right and wrong and swear our allegiance to God by living a new way of life based on the life and teachings of Jesus.
His Ministry
As the rest of the first chapter unfolds, we begin to see two prominent themes that will be revisited throughout Mark’s Gospel. First, Jesus’ unprecedented authority — most notably in the way that he taught and the way that he exercised power over diseases, demons and death. And then second, we begin to notice that in the kingdom of God — the realm or domain over which God’s rule and authority is realized — those you would assume to be the ‘outsiders’ are invited in to be the ‘insiders’ and those you would assume to be the ‘insiders’ seem to make themselves into the ‘outsiders’.
As we will see, the ministry of Jesus is full of the unanticipated and the unexpected. This is clearly no ordinary man. This is the Son of God and the Savior-King who has inaugurated the kingdom of God — a kingdom unlike anything else this world has ever seen. A new world order has been launched by Jesus, and we see this unfolding as we observe the shocking events described throughout the rest of this first chapter:
Some Galilean fishermen immediately left the family business to follow Jesus.
People were astonished at the way Jesus was teaching. They claimed that he was teaching with a level of authority unlike anything they had ever seen or heard before.
Forces of evil were speaking through demonically-oppressed people and yelling at Jesus saying, “We know who you are — the Anointed One of God.” Jesus demonstrated power over these evil forces and people were amazed that he could tell demonic spirits what to do and they would do it.
Mark states that immediately Jesus’ fame spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region. People were so amazed by Jesus’ power over diseases and demons that they kept bringing more and more people to him who were sick or oppressed by evil. The whole city would gather outside the house where Jesus was staying to see him heal people.
Jesus had to wake up very early in the morning while it was still dark in order to have some peace and quiet to pray. Even then, he would be interrupted by people who were asking for him or looking for him.
One time, a man with leprosy did the unthinkable (and unlawful in Jewish society) and got close to Jesus, and then Jesus did the unimaginable and touched the man! Shockingly, Jesus wasn’t infected by touching the leper; the leper was healed by the touch of Jesus.
Mark ends this first chapter by pointing out that news of what Jesus was doing began to spread so fast that he could no longer openly enter a town publicly. He had to stay outside of town in desolate places, but people still kept coming to him from all over the region.
Imagine what this scene might look like today. Breaking news headlines on every channel, reporters and camera crews everywhere, eyewitnesses to miracles being interviewed, social media blowing up, iPhones recording all the action. This region of Galilee on the far eastern edge of the Roman Empire is all of a sudden the place to be in the first-century. The kingdom of God has come, and the true King of the world has arrived. But as we’ll see, Jesus’ ascension to the throne is going to look a lot different than what everyone is expecting.
More Resources:
BibleProject Guide: The Book of Mark
King’s Cross by Timothy Keller