I mentioned last week that of the gospels, John has taken me the longest to connect with. This week we find ourselves in Mark, though, and Mark has long been my favorite. Maybe gospels are like children and we’re not supposed to have favorites, but I guess do. (Have a favorite gospel, I mean, not a favorite child.)
Mark’s gospel has a fast pace to it. For the grammarians among us, there are a lot of sentence fragments that start with “And then…”. The versions of shared stories that appear in Mark are typically short and lack some of the editorial detail or theological explanation. And yet, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a theological thread through Mark; it just means we get to piece it together from the way the stories are told and how the whole book is put together. I love this responsibility that is given to us, the readers, disciples of Jesus, the body of Christ.
The story we explore this Sunday, the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry and the calling of his first disciples (Mark’s version), gives us a huge hint about Mark’s theology and ultimate message about who Jesus is, why he lived, died, and lives again, and what it means to be his followers, his disciples.
The worship video for this sermon is available here. (The sermon is really from Mark, not Matthew, no matter what I said when introducing the scripture.)
For Some Reason 