THE GOSPEL OF MARK (6)

Created byPaul Murphy, Eric McDonough, Jeremy DeGraffenreidt,

Matt Roche, Leo Rothman

Jesus as the Suffering Servant

Before you learn about his gospel, you must learn about who Mark was.

The author of Mark’s Gospel was a man named John Mark, a follower of Peter and Paul

Although he followed Peter and Paul, it is believed that Mark never met Jesus

It is believed that Mark’s gospel was written from 65-70 AD

WHO was MARK?

This winged lion is the symbol of Mark

It is believed that Mark’s gospel was written in Antioch, Syria or Alexandria, Egypt

This location is important because the Christians/Gentiles of this area were facing persecution by the Jews, and Mark wanted to relate their suffering to that of Jesus

Where was mark’s gospel written?

The first part of the Gospel of Mark talks about how Jesus revealed himself as a wonderful teacher

Jesus encourages people to ask forgiveness of their sins because, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Mark teaches Bible readers that Jesus is the Gospel or “good news” of the world, and that he has come to open the gates of the Kingdom of God for mankind.

Mark finishes his introduction with the story of Jesus’ forty days spent in the desert.

The number forty helps Jews and Jewish-Christians relate to Jesus because the Jews spent forty years wondering the desert

The revealing of jesus

Mark’s gospel shows Jesus’ when he works his miracles When performing miracles Jesus shows his power of

forgiving sins, especially when liberating people from their ailments

If a person had a strong faith in God, Jesus would forgive them of their sins and they would be healed

Jesus’ miracles prove Mark’s point that Jesus is the son of God because only someone with divine power could heal a paralytic, create wine from water, or bring a person back from the dead

The textbook says that Jesus could not perform many miracles in Nazareth because the people of Nazareth lacked faith in him

Mark’s impression of Jesus' miracles

In his gospel, Mark views Jesus as a teacher with authority Jesus was a very charismatic person, so people respected

and believed the things he said Mark gives examples in chapters one and two of times

when Jesus’ authority caused his first disciples to give up what their livelihood and follow him

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God is accepting of all people, not matter what social or economical class they come from

Jesus used parables to create a metaphor that people could relate to in order to understand his message

Jesus the teacher

In his gospel, Mark takes a different approach to looking at Jesus

Mark looks at Jesus’ human side He shows that Jesus, much like us, can be angry (10:14) Jesus also becomes angry when it takes his disciples a long

time to interpret a parable This helped people to see that Jesus was human, and not

just God, because like all human beings Jesus got angry

Jesus the human

In his gospel, mark talks about how Jesus aimed to hide his identity

As we now, the Jews were looking for a military messiah, not a messiah like Jesus

He kept his identity secretive and did not like publicity because he wanted people to come to him thinking about God rather than thinking about ridding the Romans from Israel

Jesus did not want to become a one man show where people could come out and watch him perform miracles, he wanted to reach out to those in need and to those who yearned for him

Jesus did not want to wow people into besiegement or test God

The messianic secret

Mark first reveals this aspect of his gospel when Jesus is teaching in Jerusalem

Mark tells us that Jesus said he is a humble servant of God Jesus predicts his death in this part of Mark’s gospel This is the first time in the gospel that Jesus says he will

suffer and die to forgive all sins

Jesus the suffering servant

On their journey to Jerusalem, Mark portrays the disciples as not understanding the meaning of being a disciple

Jesus tells them that they will encounter much suffering for being affiliated with Jesus

Like Jesus, many of his disciples encounter a painful, suffering death

Mark tells his readers that they, much like the disciples, should be ready to be persecuted for their belief in Jesus

Mark had to get this point across because a large piece of his audience were Gentiles who faced the most scrutiny from Jews

He needed to tell his readers to stay faithful to Jesus and not give up on him because they faced persecution

Discipleship

What makes Mark’s gospel unique is that he focuses a huge amount on the suffering that Jesus goes through on the cross

Also Mark notes that the Kingdom of God may have to be reached through suffering

Mark does this so his audience can relate the suffering they were enduring to the suffering that Jesus and many of his disciples went through because of their beliefs

Why mark’s gospel is unique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CGwJMPyqCw

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