Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” - Mark 1:14-15
The Gospel According to Mark tells the story of Jesus' life and ministry as the Messiah and Son of God. This is the point in history to which humanity has looked since the fall and from which it derives hope until he comes again. Mark says that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The text presents Jesus as a teacher and healer who challenges the established religious authorities. He is welcomed as a king and then rejected as a blasphemer, being crucified on a cross despite his innocence. But Jesus rises from the dead just as he said.
Mark is concerned to present Jesus as the true Christ and Son of God, leaving no doubt as to his identity. He is also concerned to present the contrast to the religious authorities and establish Jesus as in line with the Law and Prophets rather than against them. Finally, Mark is concerned to present Jesus as the one whose death guarantees the hope of eternal life for those who believe.
I have taught the Big Idea of Mark in this way: Jesus is God's Anointed Son Who Brings His Kingdom.
An Outline of Mark
1-3: Jesus' Ministry Established
In chapters 1-3, Jesus’ Ministry is established. Mark gives no attention to Jesus’ life before his ministry. Instead, he introduces John the Baptist right away, then brings in Jesus immediately after. Jesus is baptized and tempted in the wilderness, then begins to preach that people should repent and believe in the gospel because the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus calls disciples, heals the sick, casts out demons, forgives sins, and establishes that the purpose of his visit is to call sinners to repentance rather than to hobnob with the righteous. He claims to be lord of the Sabbath and completes the gathering of his twelve disciples. His family thinks he has lost his mind and the Pharisees claim he is ruled by a demon himself. But Jesus says that those who do the will of God are his family. Thus Jesus’ ministry is off to the races.
4-6: Jesus' Identity Confirmed
Jesus’ identity is confirmed in Mark 4-6. It is not that Jesus does not prove his identity in other parts of Mark, but that there is a particular emphasis on the question of his identity and the signs that he performs to show that he is who he says he is. Mark 4 begins with the parable of the soils. This is fitting because part of the point of the parable is that not everyone is able or willing to hear and respond to Jesus’ message. Jesus calms a storm, commands a horde of demons, heals a woman just by her touching him in passing, raises a girl from the dead, and is still rejected by those of his hometown. Mark relates the story of John the Baptist’s death at the hands of Herod, then feeds a crowd of five thousand and later walks on water. Mark 6 ends with people flocking to Jesus to be healed by merely brushing with him.
7-10: Jesus' Call Clarified
Jesus’ call is clarified in Mark 7-10. This is to say that Jesus clarifies the the call to discipleship and what it implies. He rebukes the Pharisees for their hypocrisy in chapter seven, then teaches the people that corruption comes from within rather than from without. Jesus heals, helps, and feeds more people before speaking with the disciples about his identity. He tells them he must die and that anyone who follows him must be ready for the same. Jesus is transfigured in chapter nine, then performs more miracles and gives more teaching to clarify for the disciples what is truly important. He answers more questions from the religious leaders and also has an interaction with a rich man who is unwilling to part with his possessions. Jesus clarifies again that he will be betrayed, killed, and resurrected, but the disciples are more focused on who will be the greatest in the kingdom they think he is setting up. Jesus heals a blind man, who then follows him.
11-13: Jesus' Identity Misunderstood(?)
In chapters 11-13, Jesus’ identity is misunderstood. At least, it is sort of misunderstood and sort of not. The Triumphal Entry features in chapter eleven, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem to cheers and adulation from the people. He clears the temple the next day, and then evades the trap set by the religious leaders about his authority. Jesus tells a parable against the leaders and then evades various traps from them until they finally give up. Jesus then gives what is known as the Olivet Discourse in chapter thirteen, in which Jesus discusses teaches about the end of history when the Son of Man will return.
14-16: Jesus' Ministry Fulfilled
In the last few chapters, Jesus’ ministry is fulfilled. The section opens with the Passover two days away, during which time Jesus interprets a woman’s anointing as preparation for death while religious leaders prepared to kill him. Judas makes a plan to betray him, then Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper. Jesus heads to Gethsemane, where he prays for a way to avoid the suffering he knows is coming. He is betrayed, arrested, tried, mocked, whipped, crucified, and resurrected. An angel meets the three women who come to see Jesus, and the angel tells them that Jesus will see the disciples at Galilee. There is a disputed passage at the end of Mark that does not seem to be original to Mark, yet is included anyway in most versions out of deference to the long tradition the passage enjoys.
Benefits of Mark
Like with Matthew, and really any book of the Bible, it is difficult to narrow down the benefits of Mark. One striking feature of Mark is the relative rapidity with which Mark moves from one event to the next. There are few extended narratives and even fewer extended sections of teaching. Yet Mark spends a significant amount of space to give us the Olivet Discourse. Given that Jesus is discussing the return of the Son of Man and the signs that will accompany it, we do well to consider the implications for us.
In a Gospel where Jesus so clearly demonstrates his identity as the Son of God who brings the kingdom, we must remember that the return of Jesus, and not his first coming, is the climax of history. Mark devotes significant space to the narrative of the crucifixion. This is what Jesus came to do and where everything up to that point had led, thanks to the shape and structure of Mark. But we can tend to so emphasize the crucifixion of Jesus that we forget that Jesus’ cross does not represent all that Christians look to in their worship of him, but his crown. We do not worship a person who died for us and is still dead. We worship someone who died and is alive again and will return again in glory and as king. The cross of Jesus is the means by which we can enter the kingdom, but the cross is not the end of Christianity. The glory of the Son of God as he returns on the clouds, and our presence with him forever, is our great hope.
We value the life, death, and burial of Jesus because he was resurrected. All the amazing signs, interactions, and teachings set the point of Jesus’ life in context. We can be oddly short-sighted, focusing on the cross but forgetting the crown, glorying in Jesus’ death for us but neglecting the glory he is preparing for us later. We tend to think of Jesus and what he did in the past, but we can lose sight of the present and what Jesus is doing now. The cross is the lynchpin of history, the crucial event through which our anticipation of Jesus’ victory over sin and sinners may fill us with hope rather than dread. If not for the cross, if not for the clear signs, if not for the clear teaching, we would have no hope. But all of this is forward-looking, not backward-looking. Hope looks to the future and not the past. But the believer’s hope looks to a glorious future made possible by a horrific past. The shadow of the cross looms large over all of history, but its darkness will be obliterated by the splendor of the glory to come, the glory of the kingdom of God in which all who repent and believe in the gospel are made partakers.