Why I Like the Book of Mark

The Gospel of John gets a lot of well deserved accolades. You can often go into a Christian book store and buy it alone, separate from the rest of the Bible. I know of a few churches which give out copies of the Gospel of John when doing evangelism. Ask most fundamentalists where you should start reading in the Bible, I bet most will tell you the book of John.

I think Luke comes in second place. After all, Luke has a splendid account of Jesus’ birth and gives us, in my opinion, one of the most well-rounded looks at the life of Christ. Luke has a nice flow into Acts making it a great place to start reading for one who is studying Christ and his affect on the early Church.

Matthew is popular and well spoken of as well. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5 and 6) and many of Jesus’ teachings are well transcribed in Matthew. Many believe Matthew may have been the first of the Gospel’s written which gives it a special status among scholars and Bible geeks.

But, what about Mark? To me, at least, it seems Marks does not get enough credit. To be completely honest, it might be because we do not really know who Mark’s author is. Some think it is Peter, others think it is John Mark, to be honest, no one except God knows.

Mark is like me. It is not really eloquent and sometimes seems to have ADD. Mark tends to start sections with words like; “next, Jesus went here…” or “The following day, Jesus was walking through…” It is a quick and action filled book of the Bible. It seems intent on showing us a lot of what Jesus was doing. Most of Jesus’ sermons are captured in a couple of quick sentences as opposed to the lengthy paragraphs of the other Gospels. Mark 4 acts as more of a summation of Jesus’ teachings than it does a transcription. You could call it the “matter of fact Gospel.” It sticks to “just the facts” and not much else.

I often wonder why we do not suggest it as a good starting point for Christians. In today’s culture, we already have shorter attention spans which crave more action. To be honest, the first Gospel I read was Mark. The flow of it was quick and I enjoyed reading about the works of Jesus. Knowing what He did made it easier for me to understand what He said. I studied Mark in depth, and it actually helped me understand the philosophical beginning to the book of John (“In the beginning was the Word…).

So, here it is, my public pitch for the book of Mark. May it get more of the respect it deserves!

-Don-