Reminder:
Our approach to introducing the student to each book within any section of the New Testament will be structured as follows:
1. We will first seek to be able to grasp the overall Central Message of the book as a whole.
2. We will then seek to be able to understand why the Lord has chosen to place the book where He has [by His providential oversight] in the New Testament canon.
3. Then, we will seek to understand the distinctive contribution the book makes to the overall message of the New Testament. [What would be ‘missing’ if the book were not in the canon of the New Testament?]
4. We will seek to develop a very basic outline of how the Central Message is developed throughout the book.
5. We will seek to cement into the student’s mind a number of General Impressions of the book that can provide simple guidance as the student studies the book in detail.
The Central Message of the Book
The central message of the Gospel of Mark may be stated as follows: Lining up with the Lord Jesus Christ means following Him by faith into a life of amazing servanthood.
Two details serve to suggest the amazing nature of His service in this wonderful book. One is the fact that of the sixteen chapters in the book, twelve of them begin with the word “and” in the English.[1] The other is the use of the words “straightway,” “immediately,” and “forthwith” in this Gospel. These three words are used at least forty-nine times in this Gospel. Concerning this Blair writes the following.
The Second Gospel presents Jesus in action, and the frequently occurring word euthus, translated “at once” or “without delay,” signals the rapid movement of the narrative.[2]
Concerning this ceaseless activity another writer suggests the following.
Another recurrent feature of these texts [the Gospels] is the tendency to speak of God by the use of verbs instead of nouns, not in terms of who God is but of what he does. Of such verbs there is an almost unlimited profusion and diversity. God is one who:
speaks and listens sees and is seen
gets and gives blesses and curses
promises and threatens rewards and punishes
gathers and scatters reveals and hides
brings in and casts out forgives and condemns
builds and destroys plants and harvests
calls and sends seeks and finds
rules and judges sends peace and a sword
attacks and defends hastens and delays
heals and harms gives life and kills
Why this reliance on verbs of action? All of them imply that God is to be known through what he does. All imply that not only is God’s activity comparable to human activity but also that it is somehow coordinated with the daily behavior of quite ordinary individuals. What should we infer from these linguistic features? Do they indicate where we should look for evidences of God’s presence and power? Should they reverse our tendency to think of God in terms of God’s governance of nations and planets, rather than governance of minds and hearts? Should the frequent reference to God’s threats and curses correct current language habits that speak and think only in terms of blessing and loving?[3]
Understanding this message identifies why the Jews of Jesus’ day did not generally align themselves with Him. Had He been a royal King, inviting them to join his entourage, undoubtedly they would have flocked to Him. But, being their true King, yet calling them to a servant’s life, He openly challenged their understanding of the ways and purposes of God.
The same thing may be said for many in the present day that have no heart for living the life of an amazing servant. When Christ is preached in this manner the crowds become painfully thin and sparse.
The Place of the book in the New Testament Canon
There are a number of reasons that it is appropriate for the Gospel of Mark to occupy the position it does in the New Testament. One writer suggests the following.
The Sovereign is now portrayed as Servant. After looking at the regality of the King we must see the humility of the Servant.[4]
The placement of it following the Gospel of Matthew exhibits wisdom in that it suggests that the theory of the “priority of Mark”[5] is not to be taken seriously. However, the fact that the Gospel of Matthew reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the despised and rejected Saviour-King Who eternally occupies the throne of David suggests another reason that Mark ought to follow Matthew. The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark is that of the Amazing Servant of God, who came not to be ministered unto, but to lay down his life for his people.
This is precious because it carries the revelation of Christ as the King in Matthew’s Gospel to even greater heights. The true King, the anointed One of God, literally steps down to ascend His throne. This is utterly contrary to the instincts of the flesh, and it sets aside the typically Jewish concept of a King altogether.
If in the gospel of Matthew we are shown that it is the nature of Jesus of Nazareth [the Palestinian carpenter’s son] to reign, in the gospel of Mark we are shown something even more incredible. According to Mark, it is the nature of this same Jesus, the King of Kings, to serve. He does not serve, even stooping all the way to the cross, because He has no choice. He serves on this deepest, most profound level because it is His nature to do so. This is the very essence of the Gospel. The Gospel is rooted in the very nature of the Christ Who purchases it.
The Distinctive Contribution of the Book
The distinctive contribution of the Gospel of Mark lies in the fact that it presents the clearest revelation of the foundations of Christian service anywhere in the Bible. This revelation of the foundations of Christian service is centered in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If through the Gospel of Matthew God is seeking to make His people King-ruled saints, then through the Gospel of Mark God is seeking to make His people amazing and astonishing servants. The call in this book is for God’s people to surrender themselves to a life of amazing and astonishing service through Christ their Slave-King.
An Outline of the Book
The Foundations of the Lord’s Amazing Service 1:1-15
The Nature of the Lord’s Amazing Service 1:16-ch. 13
The Climax of the Lord’s Amazing Service chapters 14-15
The Continuation of the Lord’s Amazing Service chapter 16
I include the following excerpt from another writer who suggests what I consider a very appropriate breakdown of the Gospel of Mark.
A convenient outline of the Gospel is: Birth and Baptism; Ministry and Miracles; Condemnation and Crucifixion; Resurrection and Results. The character of the Servant is in them all: the birth and baptism is the identity and fidelity of the Servant; the ministry and miracles is the Servant at work; the condemnation and crucifixion - the Servant “obedient unto death”; while the resurrection and its results are to be viewed in the light of the Servant working in co-operation with His earthly servants.[6]
[1] The word is kai in the Greek.
[2] Joe Blair, Introducing the New Testament (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 73.
[3] Paul S. Minear, The God of the Gospels (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988), 60.
[4] Eric W. Hayden, Preaching Through the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1964), 183.
[5] This theory suggests that Matthew and Luke copied copiously from the Gospel of Mark, a theory that puts aside the important doctrine of verbal inspiration of all Scripture.
[6] Eric W. Hayden, Preaching Through the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1964), 183.