Mark Chapter 1

My friend Blair and I have decided that we are going to go through the Gospel of Mark in a bible study, and possibly more Gospels too.
So I've decided to record what I find, and interesting points Blair brings up also.

Mark 1

I enjoy the beginning of this book, i enjoy how the reference to the old testament is immediate, the fulfilling of prophecy, also the part where John is baptising and then says "After me will come one more powerful than I,
the thongs of whose sandals i am not worthy to stoop down and untie, I baptise you with water but he will baptise you with the holy spirit.

Then we see Jesus being baptised and the holy spirit coming upon him then it says "At once the spirit sent him out into the desert"
It wasn't a time of rejoicing in Gods presence,there was no back to his ordinary life from this point straight from baptism the battle began, Jesus compelled by the Holy spirit goes into the desert alone for forty days.
Temptation set in, not only temptation but the actual presence of satan himself.
The popular view of Satan is horns pitchforck etc, i perhaps think that in this scenario, he was much more appealing, I believe that Satan appeared to the human eye at least, a very attractive person, very charismatic, very smooth.
I think to anyone of us he would have seemed logical, appealing.
But Jesus remains unfazed by it. Other books go into more detail than this one and there are reasons for that i believe none that i can remember at present.

I love this part because, his life prior had been training for what he must do, prior to his baptism was all his apprenticeship for this moment, not only that, as soon as his apprenticeship is over, he goes straight to work, no holiday, no time off, no preperation but straight into the desert... Brilliant.

Again the immediacy of the actions in this chapter i love, Jesus meets Simon and Andrew casting a net into the lake.
At Jesus' request they leave their boat, net (which is in the water) and follow him.
I think this is a great metaphor... the net is opportunity, they had the opportunity to draw in their net, take what they could and follow Jesus.
But they cared nothing for what they had with them. They at the words of Christ, merely the words and presence of Christ got out of a boat, leaving it unattended and followed him.

The same with James and John, they are in the boat with their father, they leave their own father to follow their lord.
Without two words, i wonder if sometimes we place to much focus on our families, believing that serving them is serving God, i think the same can be said of relationships, i think we emphasise the importance of our romantic partners.

Something a friend said to me once was "My wife and I love each other, we love our children and are a close family, but we will never live for one another, we will always live for God"
(Part of a brilliant book he wrote on the Cost of Christian mission "Costly Mission" http://www.michaelduncan.org/pages/books/summary_of_books)
I think this is the kind of lifestyle choice that James, John, Simon and Andrew choose, i wonder if we are willing to do the same.

Perhaps my favourite part of this chapter is in the next verses, where the people in the synagogue are amazed at Jesus because "he taught them as one who had authority"
i love this part
Because there is a distinct difference between power & authority, power is given by position, e.g. prime minister, president, CEO, all those kinds of things, you get to talk because of where you are in the ladder.
Jesus speaks with Authority... with understanding, he is listened to because he comes from a place of respect.
Its the same reason people listened to people like Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi it was because of the life they led before the words, their words mirrored their actions.
If a person who had never ever had a drink before in his life told you about hte dangers and costs of drinking, you wouldnt listen to him and rightly so.

If a person who had experienced loss pain and suffering because of drinking spoke to you about it you would be far more inclined to listen.
And its for this same reason that Jesus was listened to, because he had been in the desert for forty days being tempted, people listened.
Because he had credibility to his claims.

This chapter also combines the elements of missional life, acts of service, so this is the healing, the preaching and the walking, especially walking.
its so wonderful because Jesus didn't just sit around, he walked everywhere, headed towards his goals all the time.
Until prayer, In this chapter Jesus is constantly moving until prayer.
He stops for prayer.
He goes from being the center of attention in verses 29-34 to being alone in verse 35.
He approaches the poor and sick (man with leprosy) and cares about him the scripture says "filled with compassion Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man"
What beauty, a man with leprosy, a disease which transfers through contact, and this man touches a leper.
What a man.
His companions must have thought he was insane, but he cared enough about this other man to do him the dam decency of physical contact.

Its a beautiful chapter i think.