Get Ready
The author of this book probably was the first “evangelical Christian.” He evidently coined the word in the first verse of his story of Jesus’s life and ministry: “evangel” is Greek for “good news,” and the story of Jesus ministry and work of salvation is definitely good news for everyone who believes.
Author
The gospel does not have any information about its author, but Papias, an early church leader in what is now Turkey, identified Mark as one of those who interpreted for Peter, the Apostle, probably while he was preaching in Rome. Even though Mark evidently was not a follower of Jesus during his life on Earth, his relationship with Peter puts him very close to the events he recorded. Many scholars belief he is the John Mark who traveled with Paul [Acts 12:25] as well as Peter [1 Peter 5:13]. Since Peter was killed some time between 64 and 68 C.E., Mark’s gospel was probably written during this same time, primarily to preserve the story of Jesus for the Roman church.
Context
Most scholars believe Mark wrote this Gospel in Rome near the end of Peter’s life or very shortly after his death. Rome was the political, military and economic center of the world during the first century. It probably had more than a million residents, most of them poor and many of them slaves. There was a small wealthy elite that ruled the city and the empire.
This was also a time of political upheaval as the heirs of Augustus fought for the throne. Nero, the emperor (54-68) supposedly blamed Christians for a disastrous fire in 64 and persecuted them. Christians also suffered economically when they refused to acknowledge Caesar as a god and were barred from membership in the powerful guilds of the city.
Structure
Mark is the shortest Gospel, both in length and in the period of time it covers. It begins with Jesus’s baptism; there is no information about his birth or life before he began his ministry.
The author organized the material for this Gospel (see Synoptic Gospels below) into three major sections:
- The first half of the Gospel describes Jesus’s public ministry, including many of his miracles and several of his parables [1:1-8:26].
- The next section focuses on Jesus preparation of the disciples for their role in his mission [8:27-10:52].
- The third section covers Jesus’s last week: his entry into Jerusalem, his trial and crucifixion, and his resurrection [11:1-16:8].
There is an final section which most scholars believe is a later addition (it is not part of the earliest available documents) included to authenticate Jesus’s resurrection.
Major Themes
Mark’s primary focus is Jesus – the Son of God: his ministry and his redeeming death on the cross.
The opening line is almost a newspaper headline: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” [1:1]. Mark declares Jesus to be God’s son and then backs up this claim by reporting God’s response to his baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased,” [1:11].
Mark then fills out his picture of the Messiah with details about Jesus’s public ministry and especially his miracles. The narrative is fast-paced and reads like a newspaper account: a man with an unclean spirit [1:21-28], Peter’s mother-in-law [1:29-31], a leper [1:40-45], a paralytic [2:1-12], a man with a withered hand [3:1-6] – all in the first three chapters.
Mark also spends considerable time on the cross. He reports that Jesus told the disciples on three different occasions that he must die and then be raised [8:31-9:1, 9:30-32 and 10:32-34].
Mark portrays Jesus as far more than a healer and teacher. He is the only Gospel author to include the Roman soldiers remark at the cross: “Truly this man was God’s Son!” [15:39]. The empty tomb is Mark’s final proof of Jesus’s divinity.
Get into the Word
1. Who wrote this book? What role did the author play in the early church? What information do we have about this person? When was this book written? Where was it probably written? Who was the initial audience?
2. What was the political and military situation when this book was written? What was the religious climate like? How did this affect the early church? Why were believers persecuted? How did this influence the way the author presents his material?
3. How is this Gospel organized? What are the major sections of the book? What topics does each cover? How do scholars feel about the final section of Mark?
4. Who was a major source of information for this book? What was the relationship between the author and his source? What other source did the writer probably have access to?
5. What is Mark’s major theme in this Gospel? How does he present Jesus? How does he describe him? What title does Mark give Jesus? Why is this so important to Mark? To his readers? What information does he provide to support his view of Jesus? How do you suppose his audience responded to these incidents? How do you respond?
6. What is the other major focus of this book? How does Mark deal with the subject of the cross? What does Jesus say about it? How do the disciples deal with the idea of Jesus’s death? Who announces the truth about Jesus first? Why do you think Mark used this person in this way?
Bible Trivia:
Mark is clearly the Gospel for modern times. It has a tight focus and includes only the important information a new believer needs to know. It would fit on an E-Reader.
Notes: Synoptic Gospels . . .
In the years after Jesus’s resurrection many people were able to share their experiences with him, including his healings and other miracles and his teachings. As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire and the Apostles and others who knew Jesus personally became fewer and less accessible, some believers began compiling written collections of the stories about Jesus.
Many scholars believe that Mark’s is the first written Gospel, although a significant group supports the tradition that Matthew wrote first. Scholars also believe that a collection of Jesus’s sayings, called “Q” (“source”) circulated at the same time and that both Matthew and Luke used it along with Mark in preparing their Gospels.
The commonality between Mark and Matthew and Mark and Luke is the basis for the idea that Mark’s is the first written Gospel. More than ninety percent of the information in Mark appears in similar form, although not necessarily in the same order, in Matthew; and more than half the material in Mark is also in Luke. Another indicator of Mark as the source is that whenever Matthew and Luke disagree about the sequence of events in Jesus’s life one of them agrees with the narrative in Mark.
All three Gospels were written before the destruction of the temple in 70, probably between 50 and 65 CE.
55: Parables – Mark 4:1-34
Get Ready
Are you a city-person or a country-person? Are you the type who enjoys planting and taking care of a garden and enjoying the fresh produce that results? Or are you the type of person who feels an occasional trip to a farmers’ market in a city park yields the same produce with a lot less work?
The Word
4Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundred-
fold.” 9 And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that
‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,
27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. Where is Jesus in this passage? Who is with him? Why do you suppose he is in a boat? What is he doing? What kind of teaching is he doing?
2. What is the first parable about? Who is involved? What is the person doing? What happens as a result of the person’s actions? How many different types of result can occur? How does Jesus end this parable?
3. How do you think the audience responded to Jesus’s teaching? How did the disciples respond? How might you have reacted?
4. What do the disciples ask Jesus? How does Jesus respond to their request? What does he say about parables? What do you suppose is the “secret of the kingdom”?
5. How does Jesus explain the parable? What is the seed? What are the different types of soil? What are the different results of the planting? Who is the real farmer?
6. What does Jesus talk about next? What image does he use? Who is he referring to in this parable? What is the result of paying attention? What is the result of ignoring the parable? What other images does Jesus use for the kingdom of God?
Get Personal
How do you picture the kingdom of God? How does God help you understand the parables and the spiritual nature of God’s “kingdom”?
Notes . . .
4:2. Parables — literally “things put beside each other” (the same Greek root as “parallel”). As Jesus used them, parables are stories in which something in the story stands for something in the real world. A parable forces the listener to think (and a listener who refuses to think will miss the truth).
4:3. Sower — farmers planted by walking through the field, scattering handfuls of the seed, inevitably some seed would end up on the path or in an area of rocks or weeds – and some would end up on the good soil. Note: Matthew and Luke also include the parable of the sower.
4:8. Hundredfold — Palestinian land yielded between ten and a hundred times what was sown; thirty times would have been a very good yield, a hundred a great crop.
4:9. Listen! — Jesus alerts his audience that they need to pay close attention.
4:12. Look, but not perceive — Jesus is paraphrasing Isaiah 6:9-10, which describes the Jews’ inability to see the truth of the prophets’ message. Things had not changed in Jesus’s time.
4:13. Do you not understand — this parable actually is the foundation of all the others: it is about “sowing” the Gospel and telling people about the kingdom of God. The other parables present different aspects of the kingdom. Jesus then explains the four types of attitude people could have toward his message to the disciples.
4:20. Bear fruit — become “sowers” themselves and tell more people about the Gospel.
4:21. Lamp — parables, like lamps, allow some people to see and understand Jesus’s teaching [Matthew has the same image at 5:14-16].
4:25. Measure — those who want to understand will gain more understanding, but those who refuse to understand will get nothing more.
4:27. He does not know how — the disciples will be like the farmer, they may “sow” the Gospel but God produces the “growth.”
4:30. Mustard seed — a very small seed that does produce a large plant – the 12 disciples would produce a world-wide group of believers.
Memory Verse
Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother, [Mark 3:35].
Next Lesson
Mark 8-9: Peter’s declaration and Jesus’s transfiguration.
