Mark 1:1 ( ESV )
The author’s name is not given to this book. We believe from external evidence and internal evidence that it is the same Mark that is spoken of in I Peter 5:13. So much of what we read about in this Gospel account may largely be influenced by what Peter saw. With this in mind, right from the very start, we begin to see that Mark wants us to understand that Jesus came into this world as a servant. Like his Savior, Mark comes quietly into the room and does the work he is called to do. So, Jesus would come into this world and do the work, which His Father had called Him to do.
Instead of addressing the book as the Gospel of Mark, the author begins the story by saying,” This is the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus is brought up front and center in this Gospel reading. He may have come into this world the first time as a servant but He is the very Son of God.
What an incredible opening statement to one of the Gospels. The author wants us to know this is just the Beginning of the Good News. This story of Jesus does not end at the end of this book, but will continue on throughout all of eternity. It’s almost like he is saying, “Hey, I am just getting started.”
In a world that is filled with so much sorrow, grief and pain isn’t it a blessing to hear some Good News? If you are like me, quite often I just don’t even want to hear the local, state, national or let alone the worldwide news. Wars, famines, mass murders, and the like fill the media machine constantly. We should not try to become hermits and try to hide ourselves from these realities. They exist, and we cannot change that truth. Hell exists, even though we have men who try to say that it does not, or that it is not eternal. We have to acknowledge the truth. Yet, as believers we have hope, in that there is Good News to be had.
The Good News that Mark writes about in this book deals with the account of Jesus life, teachings, miracles, His death and also His glorious resurrection. Basically, Mark’s gospel is going to deal with the facts of who Jesus was while He was here on earth.
Jesus would later on read the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring GOOD NEWS to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives..” This Good News is available to all of mankind and offers us hope when we do not deserve hope at all.
The beauty of this Good News is given to us just in the names and titles of Jesus in this opening verse.
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His name is Jesus. This is the name that means Yahweh is Salvation or Jehovah Saves. It is in Him alone that the Good News is fulfilled. He alone is the one, who can save man from his greatest dilemma which is, because we are sinners, we cannot save ourselves. We must come to the one alone who can save us. He is the way, the truth and the life and no man can find any other entrance to Heaven’s doors than through Him alone.
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He is the Christ. He is the anointed one or the deliverer of Israel. I love reading the words of Jesus when He asks who do you think I am? Peter replied to Him without any hesitation, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” They were caught up in their Messiah being the one who would deliver them from the Roman’s hands that many of them missed out on the greater issue about His first coming which was they needed deliverance from their sin and from Hell. Here, now stood their Christ, who alone could offer them the spiritual deliverance that they so desperately needed. Jesus would testify to this fact when at His trial He would be asked, “Are you the Christ?” Jesus simple reply was, “I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Jesus told them clearly that He was Messiah. He also made it clear that He would come again a second time as the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.
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He is the Son of God-Why can He deliver us? Why can He declare Himself to be the one who saves? He can do these things because no mortal man can do them, but He as the very Son of God, CAN. He is God in flesh and yet He has come as the Good News into this world. He is the very best of news that this world has or ever will see again.
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