Mark
Welcome to the book of Mark, one of the four stories (often called gospels) that describes Jesus’ life while he was walking the earth. Although all the gospel writers are writing about Jesus, they each have specific ways that they want to help us understand Jesus - and they focus on slightly different things. One of the areas Mark wants to address is the question of Jesus as "the Messiah” - the long-awaited saviour of Israel. Jewish people at that time would have been waiting for God to send someone - as he had promised. They would have had ideas about what this saviour would be like and what he would do. Maybe he would overthrow the Roman oppressors?
Mark shows that Jesus came as a servant. He doesn’t mention his royal roots in history like Matthew, and he gets right into the action of what Jesus was up to! Instead of installing himself as the King of Israel and fighting back the Romans, Jesus says the way he will rescue us is by suffering and dying. Throughout Mark you will see how Jesus was teaching and demonstrating his kingdom of power through healing and other miracles, but also that Jesus came to serve and to love the least, the last and the lost.
