In our comfortable day, where toil and suffering are quickly becoming foreign concepts, it is essential that Mark be preached.
The Gospel of Mark has received much attention in the last century from scholars and Bible critics, but less from those who use God’s Word for preaching. This problem is not new. Historians tell us the early church wrote no commentary on Mark until the fifth century A.D. Many saw Mark as more of a summary of Matthew. To this day, few preach entirely through this short gospel. May these two pages encourage us to understand why we must change this pattern.
The Big Picture
To preach an expository message on Mark, one must faithfully set forth Christ as Mark did, with Mark’s choice of words, characteristics, and scenes. Expository preaching follows the thought flow of the passage, verse by verse, allowing the passage to structure the message. Too often Mark is broken apart (especially in Sunday school) as if it were merely a collection of unrelated stories. Now and again, each gospel must be examined and preached as a whole. The preacher must show how each evangelist sought to portray Christ by including certain scenes and discourses and leaving out others. He must ask, “How does this gospel portray our Lord?” “Which of Christ’s glories does it bring forth? “What do we see in this gospel that we do not see in the other three?”
Mark’s Unique Characteristics
A careful study of Mark in a harmony, or parallel, of the gospels will reveal that Mark has almost no stories or teachings unique to his gospel (except for 4:26-29; 7:31-37; 8:22-26). Mark’s portrayal of Christ is not unique in what he includes, but in what he leaves out. Mark leaves out all but the briefest details of the birth of our Lord. In twenty verses he hurries us through Christ’s forerunner, birth, introduction, temptation, calling of the disciples, and commencement of ministry! Mark wants to show us Christ at work. He devotes far less space to the teaching and parables of our Lord. While other gospels tell us what Jesus taught, Mark simply tells us that he taught or gives an abbreviation of His teaching. Of the thirty-one major parables in the gospels, Matthew mentions fifteen, Luke nineteen, but Mark only five. On the other hand, of the thirty-three major miracles in the gospels, Matthew recounts nineteen, Mark seventeen, Luke nineteen and John only eight. In some of these accounts, Mark actually has more details than the other gospels. Finally, His account of the Lord’s death remains quite similar to the other gospel writers. Keep these features in mind when ministering on Mark.
A second key to preaching on Mark is to focus not only on what Mark says, but on how he says it. Mark is a book of action, full of snapshots, with minimal commentary. Over one-hundred and fifty times Mark speaks of past tense events with a present tense word1, increasing the dramatic atmosphere. His use of the Greek word euthus (straightway, immediately) forty-two times, immerses our Saviour in activity and provides us with the key word for his gospel. The word “and” (Greek kai) begins most of Mark’s chapters and is used by Mark more than by any other gospel writer. Mark records the crowds calling for the Lord’s attention (1:33,?35-37,?45; 2:2,?13;?3:7-9,?20,?32; 4:1; 5:21,?31; 6:31,?54-55; 8:1; 9:14-15; 10:1,?13,?46; 14:43) to such an extent that twice he mentions there was no time to eat. Finally, a significant feature of Mark is that he constantly adds vivid, eye-witness details not found in the other gospels. A few examples include: “wild beasts” (1:13), “hired men” (1:20), “just as He was” (4:36), “in the stern” (4:38), and “in His arms” (9:36).
The preceding examples are the kinds of things a preacher should use to focus the listener on our Lord in the way Mark sought to portray Him. Most commentaries and introductions will mention some, but not all, of these characteristics. Consult several of them. Out of the many, Merrill C. Tenney’s New Testament Survey gives an excellent and enjoyable overview of Mark’s general characteristics. And the introduction in the Mark commentary of the Hedrickson-Kistemaker New Testament Commentary set gives extremely helpful listings of Mark’s unique features. For example, it gives four pages of eye-witness details that Mark adds.
Thus, Mark sets before us Jesus as the Servant of the Lord, fervently at work. One gets the sense of a quick pace, long hours worked, selfless service, and our Lord’s determination to give His life at Calvary. All of Mark is outlined in verse 10:45, which nearly every writer cites as Mark’s theme verse, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Those that wish to correlate Mark to the ox of the famous four beasts in Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:72 should remember that while the ox is humble, it is not weak. It is powerful, unwavering, enduring, and productive. Mark presents Christ’s deity through this kind of brute power over nature and illness, along with a high number of confrontations with demons. While preaching, compare our Lord’s deity and power to His tireless concern for the lost and burdened. Doing so will bring out the true character and moral glory of His person and work.
A Basic Outline
Almost all commentators find Mark difficult to outline. Most structure the book by its geography in variations of the following: (a) 1:1-13 (b) 1:14-8:30 (c) 8:31-10:52 (d) 11:1-16:8 (e) 16:9-20. Some further divide Christ’s ministry around Galilee (b) into smaller parts. Peter’s pivotal confession (8:27-30) can end section (b) or begin section (c). Be certain to bring out our Lord’s shift in focus towards the cross that occurs after 8:30. Here, Christ predicts His death three times (8:31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34), the disciples misunderstand three times (8:32-33; 9:32-34; 10:35-40), and He teaches on the cost of discipleship three times (8:34-38; 9:35-37; 10:41-45).
Additional Topics in Mark
Finally, note how often Mark includes conversations that suggest the question, “Who is this man?” and also records our Lord’s hiding of His identity (1:24-25,34,44; 3:11-12; 4:41; 5:6-8,43; 6:50-52; 7:36; 8:17-21,26,27-29; 9:9,30-32; 11:28; 14:61; 15:2). While there was a practical reason for Jesus’ secrecy3 (1:45), and a prophetic reason according to Matthew (12:16-20), Mark may be connecting it to his portrait of Christ as the Servant of the Lord. This secrecy vanishes at the cross, when Christ’s identity is plainly proclaimed (15:26,39). It becomes clear that our Lord wanted no major proclamation of His true identity before His work was finished. Disciple and reader alike must understand that Messiah’s first coming was not to side with the Jewish aristocracy against Rome, but to do the Lord’s work as a suffering servant. There is no true discipleship without understanding this (8:34; 10:38-39). Glory follows suffering. As with the Master, so with His followers (Lk. 24:26, 1 Pet. 2:21). Discipleship in a hostile age includes not only mountain top victories and power over obstacles (Mark 1-8), but also opposition and suffering (Mark 9-15).
Other topics for preaching from Mark include:
• the responses and emotions of our Lord
• the failures of the disciples (1:37; 4:13; 4:40; 5:31; 6:36-37; 6:52; 7:18; 8:4 following 6:52; 8:16-21 with Jer. 5:21; 8:32-33; 9:6; 9:18b; 9:33-37; 10:35-38; 14:10,?19,?50,?66-72)
• a comparison of Jesus in Mark with the suffering Servant of Isaiah (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12)
In our comfortable day, where toil and suffering are quickly becoming foreign concepts, it is essential that Mark be preached. Without Mark we have an incomplete portrait of Christ. And an incomplete portrait of Christ will impoverish the Christian’s life!
Endnotes?1 Look up Mark’s use of a grammatical feature known as the “historical present.”
2 Matthew-lion, Mark-ox, Luke-man, John-eagle
3 This famous topic is known as “the Messianic secret” and is clearly emphasized in Mark.