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