Gospel of Mark Series: Introduction Part 2- purpose, style and structure.

WELCOME TO GOSPEL OF MARK SERIES

Welcome to my Gospel of Mark Series. During 2012, each week, I will write a post about the Gospel of Mark as I review and explore each of the 16 chapters and how it may be applied in our daily lives. My goal is to understand and pray the Gospel of Mark.  I hope you will join me on this journey as we travel through the liturgical season of Year B.

In last week's post, I set the scene and talked about the Gospels in general and defined and discussed the meaning and implication of the Gospel in our lives.  This week, as promised, I wish to explore the Gospel of Mark examining the purpose of Mark's writing and its style and structure.  

Mark sought to capture for his readers the events, and meanings of this Good News of Jesus Christ's life, as well as what the early Church made of it all.  Mark made it clear that there could be not be a faith community apart from Jesus, since Jesus and the meaning of His life are only available when individuals and communities seek in faith to meet and understand Him.  In Mark's time (unlike our own where we have technology), Jesus could only be received in community, through reflection, prayer and openess to God's Spirit. In our own time, the availability of technology provides opportunity for evangelisation and learning in a different type of community ( eg blog community of readers).  However, the other means at Mark's disposal to receiving Jesus still are valid for our own time as well.

The particular purpose of Mark's Gospel is to introduce people to Jesus. His gospel is long on story and short on explanation. He may have said, (just like we can say to others) something like

" I would like you to meet Jesus" or He's quite a person and I think it would be great for you to get to know Him".  Perhaps we can keep this as our mind set as we journey through Mark's gospel.

Mark certainly acknowledged the Jewish heritage of Jesus (chapter 2), but his gospel is a consistent reminder that Jesus is breaking all patterns of thinking that would too narrowly define Him and His mission. The structure of the gospel demonstrates this view of Jesus, with the linchpin being chapter 8, to which all the earlier stories of heaing, teaching and miracles point.

The remainder of Mark's Gospsel is an unfolding of the messiahship of service and suffering rather than of honours and power.  For Mark, it is critically clear that knowing Jesus will alway be a matter of learning service and accepting sacrifice.

Next week, let us begin to explore chapter 1. Perhaps with openess to God's Spirit, you may wish to reflect upon Chapter 1 as preparation or you may wish to continue to get a overall view of the Gospel with these introduction pointers in mind. 

 Look forward to continuing the journey next week.