John Mark, the Famous Quitter
Acts 13:5-13
John Mark, a favorite name for many boys, is not exactly a household name of Bible heroes. Many of us have named our son this name. While scripture is not abundant about, what we learn and piece together can be instructive for the growing Christian.
John Mark had a great heritage of faith. His mother’s name was Mary and it was their home that was used as a meeting place for Christians. He may have been the nameless man carrying a jar of water (Mark 14:13) that led the disciples to the Upper Room where Jesus hosted his last Passover meal. It was at Mary’s house that the Christians gathered to pray when Peter was in prison (Acts 12:12). In spite of the danger of persecution, she provided the meeting place for the new church. Her home was large enough to host them and she had a servant who guarded the door. Can you imagine John’s opportunity to learn to know the apostles and perhaps Paul when he visited with the Christians there?
His uncle was Barnabas, Mary’s sister. Barnabas was a respected, trusted leader in the new church. His generosity led him to sell his personal land and finance a benevolent ministry by the church. It was Barnabas who befriended Saul (Paul) after his conversion and urged the Apostles to accept him. When news came to the Jerusalem church about the new, different church in Antioch, Barnabas was sent there to see if it was a trusted group. It was Barnabas who found this new church worthy of support and brought Paul (Saul) from Tarsus to help him lead the church. It was Barnabas that was chosen with Paul to be the first foreign missionaries sent out by the church.
Simon Peter called John Mark “my Son” (I Peter 5:13) inferring he may have been the person who led him to trust Jesus or he had assumed a spiritually father role in his life.
John Mark had a great opportunity.
When the church in Antioch was led to send out the very first missionary team to the pagan world, Barnabas and Saul (Paul), John Mark was asked to join them.. At that point Barnabas was the team leader and Acts 13:5 makes note “John was with them as their helper.” Though it is obvious he was to be their “goffer”, he was aboard that first mission trip. He would have the opportunity to learn and serve. He was fortunate to be among them. When they sailed to Cyprus, John Mark observed the power of God at work in the Governor’s house. He saw this important leader embrace Christianity.
John Mark faced his greatest challenge at the next stop on the trip. Something had happened on this first leg of the journey that was a challenge to John Mark, and he quit the team and went home. It has been suggested that John got homesick for home and mother or he tired of his helper role on the team. It has also been suggested that he looked ahead to the next part of the journey, a long hike through rough and dangerous mountains, and chose not to go.
However, the most realistic explanation is there was a change in leadership in the mission team. The journey started with Barnabas being the leader. In the events on Cyprus, Paul emerged as a powerful and persuasive leader and assumed that role. In Acts 13:13, the scriptures say “Paul and his companions sailed.” John Mark was not comfortable with the change of leadership. Of all the reasons why members leave a local church, the most dominant one is a change of leadership. While this is most likely in a change of pastor, there are lay leader changes and conflicts of leadership that cause others to leave. Paul’s style of leadership was radically different from that of Barnabas and his expectation of team members was demanding. Mark chose to go home. Can you imagine the emotions of that trip home? Relief from the stress of Paul’s demands soon changed to sorrow of a failed mission. He would sail and think for many days. Then he must sail back into Antioch where he would be met by those church leaders who sent him off. He would then make his way to Jerusalem to his Christian friends and his mother. While the stoic’s axiom is “don’t explain, don’t complain”, it would be hard not to do both.
What would he do next? The scriptures are silent about the next two years. Did he go to church or drop out? Did he assume leadership roles or take a back seat? Did anyone understand and reach out to him? Perhaps Peter did. Perhaps he came to John Mark for help. After all, the stories of the gospels were distributed only orally. One Apostle had been killed, others would die off and the gospel story, the story of the life and ministry of Jesus, would die with them. This needed to be written down while these were still alive. Perhaps Peter enlisted Mark to be his scribe and told him about all Jesus had said and done. Perhaps they read portions of the writing to the other disciples and gathered their input. However it happened, this may have been the time Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark, the first written record of Jesus’ ministry for others to copy and distribute. Matthew and Luke would use this manuscript as they were led to write their books of the New Testament. This may be why Paul, twenty years later, asked that John come to him because “he was useful to him” (II Timothy 4:10).
However it happened, God had a redeeming chapter for Mark to live. When the second missionary journey was being planned, Barnabas asked that John Mark be able to join them. Paul refused, calling him a “deserter.” Barnabas saw more value for him to work with John Mark than go with Paul. Paul left with a new partner, Silas, and Barnabas left with John Mark to go back to Cyprus, their beginning point of the first journey. Though the rest of the New Testament is primarily about Paul, John Mark finds his place later in some of the churches Paul has planted. In Colossians 4:10 and Philemon, John Mark is mentioned as active in the ministry.
What were the factors in the redeeming of John Mark? We could easily describe the major problem of Mark as immaturity. After all, it is always present in young adults and often a continuing problem of older adults. It is the presence of self-centeredness, the attitude of arrogance, the absence of the experience of learning failures. The redeeming quality of such issues is the growth of a decided heart in a believer. From the commandments of “one God” to the warning of Jesus, “you cannot serve two masters,” the call of God on our life is to grow a committed heart for God. Andy Andrews, in his book The Traveler’s Gift, speaks of the “decided heart” in this way. “Most people fail at whatever they attempt because of an undecided heart. Should I or should I not? Should I go forward or go back? The undecided heart searches for an escape. A committed heart does not wait for conditions to be exactly right. Conditions are never exactly right. To wait, to wonder, to doubt, to be indecisive is to disobey God. I must have a decided heart.”
Somewhere in the twenty years between John Mark deserting the mission trip and Paul’s request that he come to him, Mark developed a “decided heart.” It may have been as he wrote the words of that first gospel, listening to the stories of Jesus or it may have been on that mission trip with Barnabas. The news about Mark’s ministry in his later years speaks of his decided heart.
Perhaps you remember the account of Thomas Edison’s search for the proper ingredients for a light bulb. He lacked only one thing, the tiny strand that would connect the two electric poles that would not burn up when the current is turned on. After hundreds of trials, using up to two spools of thread in experiments, he finally found a mixture of tar and that worked. He did not give up. He had a “decided heart.”
The story is told of a man wanting to become a gold prospector in the days of the Gold Rush. He sold all his possessions, bought a tool kit and bag for prospecting, and began his search. He had heard that a rich gold vein was in a certain area and he went there to find his fortune. After a long time of fruitless search, he buried his tool kit where he was last searching and walked away. A few years later a large company with the instruments to detect gold came to the area. They found the large gold vein and on one side of the vein they discovered the prospector’s tools. He was six inches from his fortune. He lacked a “decided heart.”
