The book of Mark - Fast-paced

The book of Mark is so fast-paced - probably more than any other book in the Bible - it reminds me of the Bourne movies. There are usually multiple cool things that warrant reflection, application & comment in every chapter. Mark is the shortest of the Gospels (16 chapters), so it's like he's squeezing in as much info as possible and cutting out any commercials or scene changes. (yes, I realize that Mark wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the book is exactly the way God intended - I'm just saying it makes it tough to blog on).





It is interesting how exciting and adventurous Mark's Gospel is (really all the Gospels, but especially Mark). It makes one ponder how exciting our lives are in comparison to Christ's life. Granted, we are not Him (understatement of '08 so far). However, if I claim to be a Christ follower and my goal is to be more like Him everyday (God's goal is certainly for us to be molded to be like His Son - see Rom. 8:29), then is my life adventurous and exciting? Certainly, some people followed Jesus around because it was a circus and a show - a total escape from their normal, boring, sad, hard, mundane life. Back in the day, people didn't change jobs every 3-4 years - you were a fisherman and you would be until you died. So when Jesus comes along and does these amazing things and says these amazing truths (totally counter-culture), I can imagine people absolutely dropped what they were doing to check out this guy who seemed to live an abundant life. Do I live such an abundant life that non-believers have to question me about why my life seems so much richer, fuller, more colorful? Not if I am pursuing the same God of comfort and ease they are. I'm not saying we should be "out there" just to draw a crowd - in fact, those "followers" of Jesus that were there for the show ended up moving on pretty quickly when he laid out the cost of truly following Him (read John 6). So it may not be that you have to take up rock-climbing or extreme sports, but is there a bold move that we need to take that will be radical to others (and may result in ridicule from non-believers and believers), yet show us to be different - and definitely not boring? Again, not bold for boldness sake - an adventurous new path for your life that you decided to take because you were Spirit-led.

Now for "quick hits" from chapters 4-6

• 4:1-20 - Parable of the seed sower. God is clearly the sower in this parable, but we can also take comfort in knowing that not everyone will respond the way we want when we are sowing truth. The toughest lesson to learn in ministering to someone else is that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink. What someone does with truth is not the point - I need to be faithful to throw it out there.
• 4:21-34 - not enough time here, but notice that Jesus is describing the Kingdom and is not limiting it to just "praying the prayer." As I mentioned in a previous post, the Gospel is the Good News about the Kingdom of God, a part of which is the great story of how God redeems man and he gets to be a part of this Kingdom.
• 4:35-41 - Jesus calms the storm - the 12 ask Jesus if He cares that they might die - I wonder if they recall asking Him this when they saw Him crucified or when they saw Him after He had conquered sin/death for them. I think the answer to whether He cares about the fact that we are dead/dying was fairly well answered by Him. In fact, He's the only One who could calm the storm that day and provide a way out from the sin/death problem.
• 5:1-20 - Jesus does these amazing things, but the people beg Him to leave their city (???). Yeah, the pig farmers got a raw deal out of this (their business literally drowned), but come on - did you not see the crazy, demon-possessed guy completely healed? We're all a little bit like this - God can do amazing things around us, but we miss it.
• 6:1-6 - for all those who are Christ followers and whose families don't think well of you for being one, just know that Jesus knows what it's like to have people doubt if you are "for real."
• 6:7-13 - true discipleship involves "doing." Jesus's discipleship model included a ton of on-the-job training and not a lot of "let's fill in some blanks in a notebook and meet every Tuesday at 6:30." We confuse accumulating Biblical facts with discipleship.
• 6:14-29 - 2 quick things here - (1) Herod gets himself backed into a corner because of the "lust of the eyes", and (2) stories like this are very problematic for modern-day, American, evangelical Christianity - ask yourself, "Was it fair? Was the way John the Baptist's life ended fair? Had John been faithful to God?" Our brains can't handle this tough truth, but God has made it clear that He bought us and our lives are not our own.
• 6:30-44 - greatest talk I've heard on this is from Gary Haugen (International Justice Ministry)
• 6:45-56 - why were they scared by seeing Him walk on water? Granted, it was at night and it's not something you see everyday. However, they were with Him in a boat on that lake when He calmed a storm, merely by speaking words. He had clearly made the point that He is not bound by the normal rules of this planet (i.e. gravity, weather patterns, etc.). I wasn't there, so I don't know how I would've responded if I'd seen Him, but it does make you wonder if they ever started just smiling or laughing when He did his 500th or 1000th or 5000th miracle. Did it ever get to the point where His healing of a person became ho-hum?