Who is MARK?

Did you notice that when Peter wrote from Babylon he had ‘Marcus my son’ with him. Here’s what we know about John Mark...

• His mother Mary had an upper room where Christians in Jerusalem met
• His mother’s brother was Barnabas from Cyprus
• Mark also joined apostle Paul’s team but soon abandoned them, heading home to Jerusalem
• Later Uncle Barnabas also abandoned Paul and took Mark off to Cyprus
• In the end Mark was useful again to apostle Paul

Gone AWOL

In Jewish prophecy, the Messiah is presented four ways as the ‘Branch’ of David: as King, as Servant, as Son of Man, and as Son of God. Yes, it will take four gospel accounts to present our Lord Jesus Christ and guess who, in cute irony, gets the job of presenting the Servant?

The guy who once shirked duty!... John Mark.

“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many”

                                                   

It seems that Mark preferred to run away from uncomfortable situations, even abandoning Jesus at His betrayal. Finally he settled down and wrote especially for Roman readership, highlighting the gross injustice meted out to this lowly Servant.

(Minister comes from Gk: diakoneo – a deacon who does the menial tasks perhaps no-one else wants to do... maybe even clean the church toilets!)                           

NEXT:

We open Mark’s gospel to see what this Servant... DID

CLOTHED WITH HUMILITY?

It’s time for Peter to wrap up his first letter: suffering now will be followed by eternal glory.                                       

So what is called for in the meantime?

“Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God...”

Hang on a minute....                                     

Who has Peter just been addressing?  
The church hierarchy?   
The ‘Executive Pastor’?         

No, it is the ELDERS of the church that are meant to be feeding the flock and overseeing it – not under you and not for ‘filthy lucre’ either!

What else does he have to say to the elders? 

“Neither as being lords over God’s heritage...”                                 

Well guess what....                                            

‘Heritage’ comes from the Greek word ‘klerios’ which became ‘clergie’ in French, then ‘clergy’ in English.            

Rather than accept the biblical governance of elders, the clergy have presumed to be God’s heritage!

Are we trying to say that all pastors are greedy for money?                             

Certainly not, but we sure seem to have not taken Peter seriously on this, who was “a witness of the sufferings of Christ”.

Do you think maybe it’s time for all of us to be ‘clothed with humility’?