Gospel of Mark - Bible Survey

Mark ("a defence") gives a terse, energetic account of the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he portrays Him as the perfect Servant of God. His language is direct and simple, and his description of events is in chronological order, that is, in the order in which they actually happened. None of the other Gospel writers follows this order, but each uses an order that is appropriate to his particular theme. But the lowliness and unwearying service of the Lord Jesus shines out beautifully in this Gospel, as rapidly passing from one scene to another, He meets the need of unnumbered souls, at the perfect time and in perfect manner.

Mark's Gospel. Here the Lord is looked at more particularly as to His service. We have therefore no genealogy, no account of His birth, and His ways are traced from the baptism of John to His sitting at the right hand of God. Throughout, as the elect and righteous Servant, He is seen doing most perseveringly the will of Him that sent Him. We find the word translated "immediately," "straightway" and "anon" much more frequently than in any other Gospel. The looks and feelings of the perfect Servant are referred to in a way we have not elsewhere. We are told that "He looked round about on them with anger;" that "He sighed;" and that "He sighed deeply in his spirit." He went on so diligently serving with His disciples, that "they had no leisure so much as to eat;" and again, "They could not so much as eat bread," so that His friends went out to lay hold on Him, for they said, "He is beside himself." The sufferings of Gethsemane and on the cross are briefly recorded, and, having accomplished the work of redemption, as risen from among the dead He sends His servants into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature, and afterward, though received up into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God, He confirms their ministry with signs following.

Mark gives us the ministry of the Lord. His account is brief; and there are few events which are not recorded by Matthew and Luke. Nevertheless, what a gap there would be in our view of the Saviour's life and work here below if we hid not Mark! In none have we a more characteristic manner of presenting what is given us. In none have we such graphic, vivid life-touches of our Master: not only what He said and did, but how He looked and felt. Besides, there is the evident design of drawing our attention to His Gospel service, and all the incidents chosen, and the peculiar mode in which they are handled, will be found to bear upon this weighty and affecting theme: the Lord God as the servant, in lowly, faithful ministration of the Gospel here below.

The Gospel according to Mark has a character that differs in certain respects from all the others. Each Gospel, as we have seen, has its own character; each is occupied with the Person of the Lord in a different point of view: as a divine Person, the Son of God; as the Son of man; as the Son of David, the Messiah presented to the Jews, Emmanuel. But Mark is occupied with none of these titles. It is the Servant we find here — and in particular His service as bearing the word — the active service of Christ in the gospel. The glory of His divine Person shows itself, it is true, in a remarkable manner through His service, and, as it were, in spite of Himself, so that He avoids its consequences. But still service is the subject of the book. Doubtless we shall find the character of His teaching developing itself (and truth consequently shaking off the Jewish forms under which it had been held), as well as the account of His death, on which all depended for the establishment of faith. But that which distinguishes this Gospel is the character of service and of Servant that is attached to the life of Jesus — the work that He came to accomplish personally as living on the earth. On this account the history of His birth is not found in Mark. It opens with the announcement of the beginning of the gospel. John the Baptist is the herald, the forerunner, of Him who brought this good news to man.

Any person who looks at Mark, not merely piecemeal, though it is evident in any part, but, much more satisfactorily, as a whole, will rise from the consideration of the gospel with the fullest conviction that what the Holy Ghost has undertaken to give us in this history of Christ is His ministry. It is now so much a matter of common knowledge, that there is no need to dwell long upon a fact that is generally confessed. I shall endeavour to show how the whole account hangs together, and bears out this well-known and most simple truth — how it accounts for the peculiarities in Mark, for what is given us, and for what is left out; and of course, therefore, for his differences from the others. All this, I think, will be made clear and certain to any who may not have thoroughly examined it before. Here I would only observe, how entirely this goes along with the fact that Mark adheres to the order of history, because, if he is giving us the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, and particularly His service in the word, as well as in the miraculous signs which illustrated that service, and which were its external vouchers, it is plain that the order in which the facts occurred is precisely that which is the most calculated of all to give us a true and adequate view of His ministry; whereas it is not so, if we look at the object of either Matthew or Luke.

In Mark we have our blessed Lord as the Servant, the perfect Workman, the divine Minister, the diligent Preacher and Teacher whose days were given to work and His nights to prayer. He could hardly find time to eat or sleep — the most laborious Worker who ever worked in God's great harvest field. Mark tells us by the Holy Spirit what the Savior did and how He did it. His gospel is a marvelous record of work from first to last. We have no record of our Lord's birth — no genealogical chain stretching back to David, to Abraham or to Adam. There was no need to trace the pedigree of One who came to serve, to work, to toil night and day. The question in Mark is not so much who He was as what He did. We are simply told He was “Jesus Christ the Son of God.” Then the inspired penman plunges into his subject and gives a rapid survey of a life of unparalleled labor — a path of service pursued with unflinching decision from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, and resumed in resurrection and carried on from the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. See Mark 16:19-20.

Mark presents the Lord Jesus as the devoted Servant of God, doing His will during His sojourn on earth, though His glory as the Son of God is carefully guarded, both at the beginning and at the end, (1:1, and 15:39). Consequently in this Gospel the acts of our Lord are the prominent feature, rather than His words.

The Gospel according to Mark is the shortest gospel and in presentation the most dense one. Mark does not so much describe the teachings but more the actions of the Lord Jesus. Very often Mark uses the present time in his accounts instead of the past time. The word “and” (Greek: euthys) is very striking and appears more than forty times. Neither the genealogy nor the birth of Jesus are mentioned. In the very first chapter Mark starts his account of the Lord Jesus' ministry.

The Gospel of Mark I believe to be the declaration of the personal ministry of our Lord, "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God," and the circumstances of that ministry, to trace from circumstance to circumstance the character of minister in our Lord, His personal character, not in broad facts or prophecies the Messiahship, the faithful and true Witness, the Lord from heaven, the Son of God, one with the Father, but He who was all these become the patient considerate Servant, in actual ministry of those with whom He was conversant. Hence it commences with His ministry or baptism, giving no account of His birth.

In Mark we find the servant and prophet. This Gospel begins with His ministry, preceded by that of John the Baptist. We find at the end His meeting with the disciples in Galilee after His resurrection as in Matthew; but besides an appendix from verse 9, in which what is found in Luke and even in John is briefly stated, that is to say, the heavenly side of these last events, and a commission given to the disciples more general and more universal. It carries salvation or condemnation to all the creation under heaven.