MARK 1:1-8 MEDITATION - Part 1
The title that we have, The Gospel According to Mark, was perhaps not the original title. The word “Gospel” means ‘good news’. 1 Some translations have this instead of ‘Gospel’ in the opening verse. What strikes the reader as he reads the first sentence is that it is different in style from all that follows. It has the characteristics of a title: it is short, it has no verb, it is full of meaning and it points to the content of everything that comes after. We could compare it to the title of a book or the headlines of a newspaper article. Like a title or headlines, it creates a sense of expectation. The impact of this title-like sentence was enormous at the time, just as it can be today. The reason for this was that there was expectation in the very air the people breathed. Everyone was waiting for the Messiah.
There is no better place to start than at the beginning. The first book of the Bible begins with the words “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), the Gospel of John begins “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Here, in Mark, we have the beginning of the greatest news that ever hit the headlines. It is the news of Jesus Christ. This is breaking news, news the world had been waiting for ever since the tragedy that caused the forces of destruction and death to enter the world and brought in its wake hardship, misery, unhappiness, poverty, destruction, and evils of all sorts caused by man and by nature. At the beginning man chose death rather than life. That is the same choice that we ourselves now have before us. Man cannot free himself from the consequences of that first choice. Man is the cause of the evil that destroys him, destroys others and destroys his environment. Man, who was meant to enjoy abundant happiness and life, is surrounded by destruction and death. The good news is that now the situation can be reversed, each one of us can now make that choice, life or death and start afresh. Freedom has at last arrived, the Lord of Life has now come.
For centuries the people had heard the prophets foretelling the arrival of someone important, that God would eventually send. These first sentences resonated well because they corresponded to the expectations of the people. Everyone who knew the Scriptures, the Old Testament, was waiting for the arrival of a very special person who was to be saviour, liberator, a person who was to reveal the nature of God and the plan of God for each one of us. Mark is saying that he has now come, for them and for us, to save, to liberate, to reveal. To reveal us to ourselves, who we are, and what we can become; to save us from ourselves and to reveal the foundation on which all lasting relationships are built; to reveal how to relate to ourselves, how to relate to others and how to relate to our environment; to reveal the key and source of all lasting relationships; how we are loved and how we can love. All this is part of the breaking news that is about to be revealed. In a word the good news is how to find lasting, confident, triumphant happiness. This is the Gospel or good news of Jesus Christ. How to understand it, how to make it ours and how to live it and truly fulfil all our potential and be what we were meant to be, that is the journey we are about to embark on.
What are our expectations as we set out to discover the breaking news that is being announced? Do we have any expectations? Let us pause and reflect, let us open ourselves to why we are reading this text. Let us write down those expectations that come to mind and keep them at hand as we progress on our journey of discovery. If you are following this in a group you may want to share some of these expectations with the other members.
It is not just any good news; it is the good news, the good news of Jesus Christ. It is the good news not only about Jesus, it is not only news that comes from Jesus. Jesus is that good news. Listening to that news is listening to Jesus who is that good news. He is the one who reveals what God is doing now in and through him for the whole of humanity, for you and for I. We are about to find out what God wants to do in and through us as we walk alongside he who is life. Are you ready for that journey? Let us prepare the way, let us make straight the paths as we advance in the company of he who is the way.
You might say "I have heard it all before"; while reading these pages you will soon discover that this is not the case. What you will find here is 'news', it is forever 'new' and better still it will make you a 'new' person and give you newness of life. It is news such as you have never heard before nor will ever hear again:
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1Corinthians 2:9)
The name “Jesus” means Yahweh saves, Jesus is Yahweh. 2 Yahweh is the sacred name of God and means “I am”, I am existence itself, I am life itself, the source of everything that lives. Nothing lives apart from him. Jesus Christ said “I am … the life” (John 14:6). Jesus is the God who saves, Yahweh the source of all life. The Gospel of Mark will portray him as fighting against all that oppresses and destroys life. That same struggle which he is also calling us to participate in, the struggle against all that is within us and around us that is destroying us, against all that is hindering the coming of the Lord in us and around us, everything that hinders our true self-fulfilment according to God's plan for us.
The title “Christ”, means he who has been chosen by God and endowed with the power and authority to accomplish God’s plan for us. With Jesus we have the self-revelation of God, the revelation of his nature and plan for us and how to build our lives around this and on this.
This is the beginning of the Gospel or good news. Here we have abundance of love, joy, life and peace in action. We are about to read the most ground breaking news on record, we are about to witness that news in action. It is the greatest revolution that mankind has ever witnessed; it can change the whole direction of our lives. We have heard nothing like it on TV or in the newspapers. In fact, these often do their utmost to hide it, to deride it and to prevent you from discovering it. They will replace it with fake news. There are many forces of death and destruction that will draw you away from this news of Jesus Christ. Be strong and persevere; it is a question of life and death.
The gifts cannot be separated from the giver himself. If we want to listen to the good news we must listen to he who will communicate that news. To make the news our own we must make him our own by allowing him in to fulfill the content of that news from within. Therefore let us make straight his paths as John the Baptist says, prepare his way into our lives.
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NOTES
1The word “Gospel” comes from the Greek word
evangelion, meaning “good news.”
2 The name “Jesus” derives from the Hebrew name Yeshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation;” and “Christ,” from the Greek word christos, referring to the Jewish belief in an anointed Messiah, who would come to save God’s people. Mark tells us that his entire book is the Good News that Jesus is Saviour and God. The prophets Malachi and Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth that a messenger would bring the Good News of the coming Saviour.
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Mark 1:1-8 Text and Questions
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