Mark 1:1-5
Scholars believe that Mark was the first gospel written, probably around zero 70, around the time the Romans invaded Jerusalem and destroyed both the city and the Temple. But they didn’t just drop out of helicopters, land outside Jerusalem, and do what they did. They marched through the entire countryside because the people of Judah had revolted against the Roman Empire. They had not only revolted in zero 66; they had managed to drive out the army and create their own government.
That lasted four years. Then the Romans came back through the countryside, retaking control, like a resurge of a virus or a plague. Towns and villages fell to their merciless onslaught, to their boots and swords.
Radio and television didn’t exist in those days. Journalists did not stand outside those towns and villages, reporting the devastation, warning the people in Jerusalem to prepare. But they had runners, people who escaped and ran away, people who ran to the next village or town, people who ran to Jerusalem to warn the inhabitants and their leaders.
So the people in Jerusalem knew. They knew what was coming. Some prepared to defend the city, and others tried to continue life as it had always been. Surely the Maccabee’s army would stop the Romans.
Weeks passed, and the Roman army came closer and closer. And then they were at the city gates, literally. There was no escape from the city. When the Romans breached the walls, there was no escape inside the city.
When it was all over, the city lay in ruins, and the Temple no longer existed. Thousands of people had died. And the Romans controlled Judah once more.
Somewhere around this time, a man we have named Mark sat down to write what he knew about the story of a man who had died some 40 years earlier. Mark titled his scroll, “The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
“The Beginning …”
Matthew and Luke give us the backstory. They tell us about the birth of this man, about the circumstances before his birth. They even go back further and give us his genealogy. Because backstory matters. God incarnate did not just drop out of the sky to live among us. Jesus had parents, relatives, and a history.
But Mark took a different path. Mark was in a hurry. He didn’t have time to tell all that. People needed to know right now because they were hurting. Not so much physically, although probably many did. People needed good news right now. They needed hope. They needed to be comforted.
And so he begins telling the beginning of the story, right in the middle, right where the action starts. He writes as fast as he can, stopping only when his eyes won’t stay open, and his hand can’t control the inked feather. As he twists up the scroll to move on to the next section, crumbs from his meals are caught within the rolls.
Finally, he sits back, puts down his feather, leans back, and sighs. “That’s it,” he tells his wife. “I have written the beginning.”
Every time he reads his scroll to the Followers of the Way gathered around him, his voice becomes more urgent as he reads the last few lines: “But he said to the women, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”
Then Mark pauses, looks around the room, and reads his last sentence, slowly, deliberately: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” He finishes rolling up the scroll and drops it into his lap.
And always, someone asks, “That’s it? That’s all there is to it? They don’t tell anyone?”
With a hint of a smile playing on his lips, Mark answers, “No, they don’t. And that’s why you have to.” His finger moves around the room, “It’s up to you … and you … and you …,” a reminder to each and every person sitting in front of him that it’s up to them to continue the story. Not to finish it, because the message must be told over and over and over again until the end of time, whenever that is.
Mark wrote the beginning. Countless Followers of the Way have lived and proclaimed more chapters, some of which have been recorded, but most of them have not. And our assignment is to continue what Mark began.
Until, as he wrote near the end of his gospel: “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.”
Will that be the ending? I don’t know. I can’t see that far ahead. I only know today. I can only live today. We can only live today. But if Mark were to write our time into his story, what would he write?
For consideration:
General Questions
1) How does this story follow its Scripture?
2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?
3) What is the message of this story?
4) How does the message apply to us today?
Specific Questions
5) Many people fled Jerusalem before the Romans reached the city, and more fled after the destruction. How would that spread Christianity?
6) Why do you think Mark was in a hurry to write his gospel?
7) What was important about writing the beginning of the story?
8) If Mark were to write our time into his story, what would he write?
