Why I Like the Gospel of Mark

For many Christians, especially those who love theology, the Gospel of John is a favorite.  There’s a good reason why it is used in the lectionary on high holy days–it reflects on the meaning of the events in the life of Jesus.

For me, however, the gospel of Mark has always had a special place.  I like the fact that it skips over all the complex birth issues and just gets right down to the meat.  Here’s Jesus.  He’s proclaiming the word.  Demons argue, but then flee.  Disease must give up.

In Mark, it’s a story much more than a theology.  Of course there are always theological considerations–that’s what gospels are for.  But there is a bright, crisp, sense of Jesus on a mission and what that did to the people around him.

When I had been out of the church for a number of years and then returned (see my testimony), one of the first things I did for devotional reading was to go through the gospel of Mark with an Upper Room guide.  It was so much fun and so refreshing to read the story of Jesus in short form.  Who was he?  What did he do?

Of course, one can’t answer all those questions from just one gospel, but one can get a good outline.  That is what the gospel of Mark is for me–the introduction to Jesus–in action.