How significant are our teen years? Can events that take place between 13 and 19 impact us for our entire lives? Surely. Take John Mark, for instance. As a young man he witnessed the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The Last Supper may have taken place at his home. Some speculate that he was the young man in Chapter 14 who ran away naked from the arrest of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mark’s mom, Mary, was a believer. He also had influence from his cousin Barnabas.
All these events and people swirling around this young undoubtedly had a huge impact. It’s quite possible that the Apostle Peter actually led Mark to the Lord has he calls him “my son” in 1 Peter 5:13. In A.D. 44 Peter was in prison and the church prayed for his release. When the Spirit miraculously set him free, Peter went to Mark’s house. Through Barnabas, Mark accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey (A.D. 50). That one didn’t end up too well. John Mark apparently fled and went back home so Paul and Barnabas actually split up when Barnabas wanted to take his young cousin on the next journey (A.D. 51).
The good news is that John Mark matured and was actually called to help Paul later on in life (Col 4:10-11, 2 Tim 4:11). Throughout he maintained a close relationship to Peter and so became the apostle’s writer for his gospel. Mark is definitely the author of this gospel, as attested to as early as 110 A.D. by Papias:
Mark, who was the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately all that he remembered, whether of sayings or doings of Christ, but not in order. For he was neither a hearer nor a companion of the Lord; but afterwards, as I have said, he accompanied Peter, who adapted his instruction as necessity required, not as though he were making a compilation of the Lord's oracles. So then Mark made no mistake when he wrote down thus some things as he remembered them, for he concentrated on this alone — not to omit anything that he had heard, nor to include any false statement among them. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III , p. 39)
Mark is what I would call the Reader’s Digest of the gospels. It is the shortest, and concentrates on Jesus’ actions rather than His words. If the gospels were TV shows, Mark would be in the action-adventure genre. The accounts are short, and to the point. Mark wants us to see Jesus as a man of action—one that we need to heed and follow. It was likely the first gospel (55 – 65 A.D.) and Matthew and Luke used it as source material. Mark wrote it from Rome, based on Peter’s verbal stories. In fact, he is probably writing to a Roman Christian audience. He quotes few Old Testament Scriptures, has no account of Jesus’ birth (important for those Jews looking for the coming of the Messiah), and has to explain a lot of Jewish customs and translate Aramaic words into Greek. He’s writing to Gentile Christians who are in the midst of suffering persecution—giving them hope and certainty of their redeemer.
Also, when you read Mark, hear Peter speaking. Peter told these stories orally and then Mark wrote them down: Jesus, the Ultimate Action Hero. So the two aspects of Jesus’ initial ministry we see today are: 1) The hero commissioned, and 2) The hero tested.
1
I love how Mark opens the book: “The beginning of the gospel.” Gospel means “good news” and the good news for mankind began when Jesus came on the scene. But the even better news is that the good news never ends. Mark’s book may end, but Jesus will never stop rescuing us. He also tells us two important things right off. 1) that this is about Jesus the Messiah—the promised Savior, and 2) that this Christ (it means “anointed one”) is also not just some ordinary person but the Son of God. Many heroes have come on the human scene, but only One was anointed with the Spirit and as God’s only Son, given the job of actually saving humanity. No big introductions, no Christmas story, no Jesus as a little boy, no heavy theological statements like “the Word became flesh.” It’s like the hero flies into the scene fully adult and ready to do battle against the enemy.
2 – 3
Every action hero needs someone to call on them and introduce them. Superman had Lois Lane, Batman had Commissioner Gordon, and Jesus has his cousin John. Mark does it by quoting one of the few (fewer than 15) Old Testament passages contained in the gospel. It’s from Isaiah 40:3 – 4. I love the bookend of this passage. Isaiah says in verse 1 “Comfort, comfort my people … announce to her that her time of servitude is over, her iniquity has been pardoned” and verse 5 “And the glory of the Lord will appear and all humanity will see it together.”
John is saying much more than just “make way” but that no longer will humanity be enslaved to sin and will receive comfort, for not just anyone is coming, but the “glory of the Lord” who appears in the form of Jesus.
So Mark next jumps right into the action—a scene Peter likely witnessed as one of John’s disciples (see John 1:40).
4 – 8
John was a pretty wild character. Dressed in a rough camel-hair garment, and eating bugs and honey. Not your typical religious man. John wasn’t religious at all. His job was to call the nation of Israel into preparation for the coming of Jesus, to introduce Him and participate in the launch of His ministry, then get out of the way.
Many people came to John not out of real repentance but out of curiosity, including Israel’s current religious rulers. The Pharisees came and accused him of religious malpractice since he wasn’t claiming to be the Messiah or Elijah (John 1:24 – 27). In Matthew (3:7) John saw the Sadducees and Pharisees coming and said “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance.” In answer to their accusation John says, basically, “I’m not the one you need to focus on or worry about but One far more powerful than I.”
There are a variety of reasons why people come to hear about Jesus today. For a hard heart, the message of the gospel will just bounce off. But the one who is truly curious and open the gospel of repentance is freeing and full of fruit as God does an amazing work of salvation by leading to Jesus.
Jesus was coming to usher in a new age and throw out the evil tyrants that had taken over and enslaved the people under laws they could never hope to obey.
John hints at what is coming—a baptism with water as a prelim to a baptism with the Holy Spirit which is what makes this new life in the new age possible.
9 – 11
The beautiful thing about Jesus’ baptism is that he identified with sinful man in a baptism by water for repentance, though He Himself had not sinned. Yet at the same time He was baptized for His mission and affirmed by the Father. Notice the presence of the Trinity here: the Son, baptized by the Spirit, and spoken to by the Father. Cool.
There are several reasons for Jesus’ baptism: for the nation’s sins like Isaiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah had done (Isaiah 6:5, Nehemiah 1:6, Ezra 9:2), to inaugurate His public ministry and rescue mission, to support John, and, as I said, identify with broken humanity.
I love how the Holman says “as soon as He came up…” Mark is full of these references to the immediacy of it all. Notice he says the heavens were “torn open” It represents God intervening in the affairs of men. God is “tearing through” to rescue us. The Spirit descending was a sign to John of the Messiah (John 1:33).
The Father’s words to Jesus of delight are in a tense that tells us that His pleasure in Jesus is constant. Jesus didn’t become the Messiah on that day, he was proclaimed the Messiah! By the way, this proclamation comes from Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42:1-17, both describing the Messiah.
No time to bask in this recognition, however, Jesus is on a mission and it starts right now!
12 – 13
This account is very much shorter than that found in the other gospels (Mark 4, Luke 4). Jesus wastes no time in taking the battle to the enemy. When it says the Spirit “drove” Jesus it wasn’t that Jesus went reluctantly but very purposefully. Jesus relied on the Spirit for direction (as we must) and this was a vital part in the Spirit’s plan. Jesus here showed there that He was sinless and could withstand the greatest temptations ever leveled at a human.
The 40 days he spent in the wilderness is very significant. It represents man’s imprisonment to sin. The flood was 40 days (a judgment for sin), Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness (a judgment for rebellion), Goliath taunted Israel for 40 days (representing the enemy’s taunt that we cannot be saved), and Elijah spent 40 days in the wilderness in fear of the enemy Jezebel (even as we are totally cowed and frightened by our captor).
Satan tempted Jesus just as he tempted Eve in the Garden. But the new Adam did not bend, signifying a new victory was at hand. He came to Satan in the wilderness. No longer a garden, it signifies the fall, even as God said the ground would yield thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18). He was there with wild animals including jackals, boar, wolves, foxes, leopards, and hyenas. Mark is the only one who mentions this but it shows us that it was indeed hostile territory that Jesus had entered, both physically in the Judean wilderness, but also symbolically in the territory (planet Earth) owned by Satan.
He was also “ministered” to by angels. This could mean tending to His physical needs but also to His spiritual, as they will do in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Conclusions
This whole thing about Jesus in the wilderness with the wild animals is even more significant when you look at a prophesy buried in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 34:23-27
“I will appoint over them a single shepherd, My servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.
25 "I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous animals in the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest. 26 I will make them and the area around My hill a blessing: I will send down showers in their season—showers of blessing. 27 The trees of the field will give their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; My flock will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslave them.”
The shepherd—David, is of course the son of David, Jesus. In Psalm 22, the crucifixion Psalm, Jesus describes wild bulls and dogs surrounding Him—they represent the enemy, who put Jesus to death. So though the wild animals here did not harm Jesus, He would later subject Himself to really dangerous wild animals and die, in order to come back to life and rescue us.
Through Jesus, the wilderness of our lives, put into subjection through rebellion to Satan and ravaged by his evil, will be restored to a wonderful garden of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control (Ephesians 5).
Next time, we see the hero declare his intentions and put together his sidekicks.
