Mark 1 - The Good News
January 4th, 2026 “The Good News” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Mark 1:1-20
Since September we have been racing through the Bible, looking at an overarching narrative of the story of God’s relationship with God’s people. We are going to slow down now and spend the next 3 months in a deep dive in the gospel of Mark. Who does Mark say Jesus is, and how does that influence later writers and theologians? You might want to pull that Bible out today as we pick through these first 20 verses.
We can see from our reading today that Mark is written at a breakneck pace. No sooner do we sit down in the gospel car Mark is driving, then he hits 80 miles per hour, and we don’t even have our seat belts on. There is no birth story like we talked about in Luke last week. In fact, the first 20 verses of this gospel cover several chapters in our other gospels. As soon as we sit down to read, we jump through John the Baptist, the temptation in the wilderness, the first teachings of Jesus, and the calling of the first disciples. It won’t take long for you to notice that one of Mark’s favorite words is “immediately” for as soon as he describes one story he immediately jumps to the next. In fact, there are so many “immediately”s in the gospel of Mark, that our modern translations take most of them out for the sake of making it easier to read.
Scholars believe that the gospel of Mark was written between 66 and 70CE, either right before or right after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. We base this on Jesus’ words in the gospel about the temple destruction. Remember we talked last week about the Romans crushing a Jewish uprising at that time, destroying the temple and crucifying hundreds of people. The assumption is that the author knows the temple will be destroyed and so puts those words in Jesus’ mouth instead of the author recording a prediction Jesus makes about the temple. Let’s imagine that Jesus dies around 33CE, so Mark is written about 35 years after Jesus died. The gospel is written in conversational Greek, for a Greek audience. We call it the gospel of Mark because traditionally it was said to be written by John Mark, a character in the book of Acts, but scholars no longer believe that. The gospel itself is anonymous, but we will call the author Mark because that’s easiest.
Mark is the creator of a new form of literature, the gospel, “euangelion” in Greek, or “the good news”. Paul is our oldest New Testament author, and he is the one who coined the phrase “good news” as a reference to preaching about Jesus Christ. Mark tells us in verse one that he is writing “the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, and his style of writing, a narrative about Jesus’ life and ministry is what will come to be known as a “gospel”. As I said last week, Matthew and Luke will copy Mark to write their gospels. John will write his own gospel. And there are numerous other gospels that did not make it into our canon like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Nicodemus.
There is a lot in Mark’s first sentence. Not only are we introduced to the term gospel, but we also hear that Jesus is called the Christ. It is always good to remind ourselves that Christ is a title and not Jesus’ last name. Christ is a Greek word that means anointed. The Hebrew equivalent is Messiah. During Jesus’ lifetime messiah did not have a fixed meaning. Rather, anyone who claimed prophetic status and had followers was referred to as a messiah or a christ. The same is true of the title, “Son of God”. That refers to someone within the line of David’s kingdom and not literally the son of God. Also it was not used exclusively for Jesus. It isn’t until after Jesus dies and is raised and the gospels are written and spread that the terms Messiah, Christ, and Son of God, begin to be associated with Jesus exclusively in the Christian tradition. This of course is simultaneous to the cultural references to the gospel of Ceasar who is also called a son of god and a savior bringing peace to the world.
After his introduction, Mark tells us, “As it is written in the prophet Isaiah” and then he offers us a quote about the messenger and the voice crying in the wilderness. Mark is quoting both Malachi and Isaiah here, and he is trying to create a bridge between what came before Jesus and the time of Mark’s writing.
Mark tells us about John baptizing in the wilderness. His strange clothing and location are meant to call the readers’ attention to Elijiah. Like Elijah, John is a prophet sent by the Lord. John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance. Not like the baptism that we practice now which is entry into a new covenant with God.
Jesus comes with the masses and is baptized by John. This is scandalous for later authors who want a Messiah who is sinless and doesn’t need repentance, but it doesn’t seem to bother Mark at all. Jesus is just there as one of the crowds and it is not clear whether John recognizes him or not.
At the moment of baptism Jesus sees the heavens opened, sees a dove alight on him, and hears a voice from God claiming, “you are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” Since no one else in the story hears or sees this, it seems to me that Mark is writing this scene for his readers. Like an aside to them, Mark shows the readers who Jesus is before other characters in the story know. Some modern theologians argue that this is where Jesus becomes the Son of God in Mark’s gospel, since these words were also used as the legal language for adoption in Rome at the time. This is an interesting theory, and Jesus as the adopted son of God is certainly something to ponder.
There is no time to pause here though, as Mark continues to hurry us along. We rush through two verses of temptation in the wilderness, and then headlong into the start of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist is arrested and removed from the scene, so Jesus takes up the mantle of preaching about the coming kingdom and the need for repentance.
Two verses later and Jesus is at the seashore gathering his first followers. Two sets of brothers Simon and Andrew, and James and John are pulled from their families and their livelihoods and compelled to join Jesus in his ministry.
Especially in this first chapter it is really hard to read the gospel of Mark and let it stand on its own. As modern Christians, we always want to layer on voices from the other gospels as we go. We imagine Luke’s Christmas story as part of the story of who Jesus is. Or Matthew’s description of John the Baptist arguing with the Pharisees. We imagine John the Baptist begging Jesus to baptize him instead of him dunking Jesus, and we imagine the wonder of all gathered at the river when they hear the voice from heaven telling them to follow Jesus. When we think of the temptation in the wilderness, we imagine the back and forth between Jesus and Satan with all the familiar challenges and dialogue.
We want to layer all this knowledge on top of Mark but if we are going to be good biblical scholars we mustn’t do that. We have to let Mark stand alone. Look again at who Mark says Jesus is. “This is the good news of Jesus who is the Messiah”, Mark promises and so we look to see how Mark will prove that Jesus is the Christ.
John proclaims that one is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, but when Jesus comes John doesn’t recognize him. Jesus is baptized with the crowds and Jesus himself is told that he is the Son of God. The Spirit is right there at the beginning with him, descending like a dove and driving him into the wilderness. 40 days he is in the wild with Satan, the accuser, but we don’t know what happens. When John is arrested and his ministry at the Jordan ends, then Jesus’ ministry begins. His first sermon is “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” Jesus passes the sea of Galilee and calls to the men fishing there, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”
Who is this man whom God has claimed as beloved? Who is this man who spends 40 days in the wilderness? Where does he come from and where is he going? He takes up the mantle of John the Baptist, preaching repentance. But then he leaves the river and goes to claim other followers. He must be compelling as men leave their families and livelihoods to join on his mission.
As we continue through this gospel, we will seek to find a pure example of who Mark says Jesus is. This is not Jesus born in Bethlehem and visited by shepherds and Magi. This is not Jesus existing as the Word, the light that has come to all people. Instead, this is a Jesus who appears late on the scene, the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and call us to repentance. Let us leave behind our old assumptions and like Peter and Andrew, James and John, follow where Mark’s Jesus leads us. Amen.
