Gospel of Mark series: Section 2: Part 1: the mission of Jesus.

Welcome to my Gospel of Mark Series. During 2012-13, 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 today's post, we explore chapter 1:14-15 which is the mission of Jesus.

In the prologue of Mark's Gospel (1:1-13), Mark gives us a supernatural insight into the true identity of Jesus.  At the beginning of this second part, we are given two verses (1:14-15) a summary of the whole mission of Jesus.   After John is handed over, which already prefigures Jesus' own end, Jesus came announcing the good news of God.  It is of God because it is from God and because it is about God.  The gospel, a word from the old English, 'god-spel'' meaning good news, is immediately not something we are commanded to do, nor is it a message, but the Gospel is the power of God, something God does.

The divine action of God becomes visible in the words, human actions and, above all, in the human personality of Jesus.  Jesus made the gospel fo God uniquely audible, visible and tangible by His words, His actions, and by the kind of person he habitually was.  Actions proclaim the gospel louder than words, but people proclaim the good news of God's action loudest of all.

The Gospel is God giving us life, God healing our human brokenness, and God bringing the differences and diversity of the world into unity and harmony.  It is the good news that God continues to be our creator, our redeemer or lliberator, and our reconciler.

The favourite phrase of Jesus for the gospel was the "kingdom of God".  The kingdom already begins to become a visible place in the world when it is genuinely proclaimed, as Jesus proclaimed it, by words, by actions, or by a personal witness of life.

The kingdom of God also begins to be visible in the world wherever people respond to God's initiating action by a radical turning or conversion, from self to God, and continue to respond by the believing, or faith in the gospel.

In our journal and/or our discussion group we may wish to reflect on this passage as follows:

• Name the key points that you have learnt about the person of Jesus in this passage of scripture?
• Reflect on the key words in this passage for they contain the substance and purspose of all the things Jesus said and did- His mission.
• Try to get in touch with any desire you truly feel in your sel fof rht epower of God to free from evil, which Jesu called the kingdom of God.
• Consider how do we presently proclaim the kingdom of God in our life.
• Consider what changes we will make to proclaim the kingdom of God in our lives. 
• Reflect on a time in our lives where we have felt the conversion of heart after we have repented.
• How can I repent and believe the good news?
• What do these words proclaim, repent and believe to me in my life?
• What is my attitude to the sacrament of reconciliation- what problems (if any) do I encounter when I think of this sacrament?
• Make a list of areas in my life that need a change of heart and develop an action plan on how this change of heart might occur. (eg name an area and name one/two changes that you will implement with God's help.
• What impact does the mission of Jesus have on you (1:14-15). .
• How has this passage spoken to you- what does it say to you personally?

It is important to remember that St Mark wishes us to know the person of Jesus. 

What does this passage of scripture tell you about the person of Jesus?