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Introduction
Here is a way to distinguish the four Gospels. (I’ve slightly altered their normal order to make their logical distinctions easier to recognize and remember.)
- Mark – the shortest Gospel
- Matthew – the Jewish Gospel
- Luke – the Gentile Gospel
- John – the deepest Gospel
Mark was a helper of the apostles. Although the Bible doesn’t tell us how he came to write his Gospel, other history does. It seems that when Peter taught, he included his remembrances of Jesus’ ministry. These are what Mark transcribed, and thus did the Gospel According to Mark come to be.
Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four, probably the first to be written, and, like Peter, is full of action and light on contemplation. For this reason, I recommend reading Mark’s Gospel first, then Matthew and Luke (which are more expansive), then John (which is the most contemplative of all). The word “immediately” appears 39 times in Mark’s Gospel; this compares to 18 in Matthew, 16 in Luke, and 6 in John. This is all the more striking when we think about how much shorter Mark is than the other three.
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Mark 1
After an introductory sentence, Mark “immediately” begins describing how John the Baptist preceded Jesus. John made clear that he was only “the opening act” for someone much more important than himself – even though Jesus humbly submitted Himself to John’ baptism. After that baptism, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days (Matthew and Luke give more details about this.) After the temptations, Jesus began preaching the coming of the kingdom of God, calling the people to repent from their sins, just as John the Baptist had been doing. Yet Jesus accompanied His teaching with actions John did not take: casting out demons and healing the sick. Jesus also called men to follow Him who would become His representatives (apostles). Thus people began to see early in Jesus’ ministry what John the Baptist had meant when he said that the one he preceded would be much greater.
Mk 1:1 – This is a fitting sentence to begin Mark’s Gospel, and to begin all four Gospels. It’s even a fitting sentence to begin reading the Bible. The word “gospel” meant an important announcement or proclamation of good news. By identifying Jesus as “Christ” and as “the Son of God,” Mark was implying that Jesus was the fulfillment of what all the Jews in those days knew: that God had promised King David a thousand years before that a descendant of his would inherit his sovereignty. This promise is found in 2 Sam 7 (and 1 Chr 17). The words “Christ” (meaning “Messiah”) the expression “Son of God” were synonymous to ancient Jews because, when making the promise, God told David He would be a father to this descendant (2 Sam 7:14; 1 Chr 17:13).
Mk 1:2-3 – Mark quotes a combination (mash up) of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 but only cites the major prophet as the source. See OT Quotations in Combination for more explanation of this practice.
Mk 1:22 – (For a similar reaction, see Mt 7:28-29 just after the end of the Sermon on the Mount and the BSN note on it; see similar reaction in verse 27 of this chapter below as well.)
Mk 1:27 – See note on verse 22 above.
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Mark 2
This chapter begins with Jesus healing a paralytic. Aside from the miracle itself, what made this event noteworthy was that the building in which Jesus was teaching was so crowded that the only way for the paralytic to gain access to Him was for the paralytic’s friends to make an opening in the roof through which to lower him!
Jesus then takes the unorthodox step of calling a tax-collector named Levi to follow Him – unorthodox because Jews normally considered tax-collectors to be lacking favor with both God and men. We know this tax-collector as Matthew, the one who wrote the Gospel that bears that name. (These were multilingual times, especially in this corner of the Roman Empire, and individuals were often known by more than one name.)
Then a controversy ensues about the Sabbath, which was a frequent point of contention in Jesus’ ministry. The religious leaders of Israel had no substantive argument against the good things Jesus was doing, so they sought to catch Him on bogus charges – as if they had been able to heal people on any day of any week!
Mk 2:1-12 – The key verse in this paragraph is verse 9. Indeed, it is immeasurably easier to say “Your sins are forgiven” than to say, “Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk.” This is because, of course, no one would know whether God approved of the first statement, but everyone would know if He approved of the second.
Mk 2:14 – Matthew (Mt 9:9) and Luke (Lk 5:27) also record this event. Like Mark, Luke uses “Levi” but Matthew says “Matthew” – otherwise, I suppose “The Gospel According to Matthew” might be called “The Gospel According to Levi.”
Mk 2:17 – That Jesus came to help sinners is evidenced even in His name, for Mt 1:21 says “…you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
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Mark 3
This chapter begins with another Sabbath controversy. Then the chapter describes how Jesus chose twelve of His disciples to be the closest to Him, and therefore have the greatest access to Him and His teaching.
Jesus’ words and deeds polarized the citizens of Israel. The common folk were largely for Him, as they had largely been for John the Baptist. However, the leaders of Israel resisted Jesus and persistently sought ways to turn the common folks against Him.
Mk 3:11-12 – By calling Jesus “the Son of God,” the demons were identifying Jesus as God’s Messiah (see note on Mk 1:1 above). In the early stages of His ministry, Jesus was selective about disclosing His messianic identity; He didn’t want widespread recognition of that fact. Instead, He ministered as a simple man of God – a prophet like Elijah or Elisha. Prophets were not kings and the Messiah was nothing if not a king. In the end, Jesus would be crucified just for admitting He was the Messiah. He needed to get in a few years of teaching before He let that happen. Otherwise, the four Gospels would only amount to a handful of pages.
Mk 3:28-29 – See BSN comments on Mt 12:31-32 and Luke 12:10.
Mk 3:21 – This is a reference to Jesus’ earthly family. See note on Mk 3:31-35 below.
Mk 3:31-35 – Having heard news of the stir Jesus was creating throughout Israel, His earthy family set out to find Him and bring Him to His senses (see note on Mk 3:21 above). They now arrive to have their “intervention” with Him. After Jesus’ resurrection, his brothers (James and Jude) would come around, but at this stage of things, they were worried about Him.
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Mark 4
This chapter is full of parables. It gives the most attention to the parable Jesus indicated was something of a key to understanding the rest of them (see verse 13) – the sower and the seed. The chapter concludes with Jesus saving the twelve disciples from being drowned at sea by shutting down the wind that had been buffeting their boat. He shut it down with three words: “Hush, be still!” This experience shook the disciples as much as the storm had – which is to say, a lot.
The material in Mark 4 is paralleled in Matthew 13 and Luke 8.
Mk 4:2 – Where does Jesus get His ideas? From the Old Testament. See Ps 78:2.
Mk 4:13 – Jesus tells His disciples that if they struggle to understand this parable, they will likely struggle with all the parables. This makes sense because this parable is about the word of God itself, which is at heart what all the parables are.
Mk 4:21-23– Jesus didn’t teach in parables to keep people in the dark; He preached in parables to show them they were in the dark..and thereby draw them to Himself for enlightenment. Whenever His disciples came to Him for explanations, He explained. See verse 34. The entire Bible can be viewed this way. Is it a mystery to us? Yes. If we come to it seeking enlightenment, are we rewarded? Yes. God delights in revealing mysteries (Mysteries and Revelations). We don’t get to know everything, but we don’t have to stay completely ignorant either.
Mk 4:25 – Every day, we are growing smarter or dumber in the ways of God. We’re either going forward toward Jesus or backward toward Satan. The undertow of the world is always exerting its pull. We must seek God for “daily bread” (Mt 6:11).
Mk 4:34 – See note on verses 21-23 above.
Mk 4:35-41 – This incident seems to be a demonstration of the parable of the sower that Jesus taught in verses 3-8 and explained in verses 14-20. Jesus spoke the word about going to the other side (that is, sowed the seed in the soil), and then the obstacles to that word (shallow soil, rocks, thorns and thistles) had their effect.
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Mark 5
The central focus of Jesus’ ministry was proclaiming and explaining the coming of the kingdom of God – a subject which He learned from God (through the Scriptures) and from no one else. This teaching was accompanied by His healing of sick or otherwise disabled people and casting demons out of possessed individuals…in a quantity and of a quality never matched in human history before or since. Mark 5 is but a sampling of His works. To sum up, Jesus improved people’s quality of life in ways that would only be possible if God were with Him.
Mk 5:2-5 – Get a clear picture in your mind of just how bad off, and how dangerous, this man was.
Mk 5:15 – Considering the previous state of this man (Mk 5:2-5), the reaction of the local citizens to his healing is illogical. They’re frightened when they should be relieved and happy for the man. This negative reaction reminds us of the Pharisees who would get upset that Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath instead of rejoicing that a sick person was made better.
Mk 5:17 – The townsfolk continue acting irrationally. Why? Jesus explained elsewhere that “Men love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil” (Jn 3:19-21). Something in us doesn’t want God around because we might not keep getting to do whatever we want.
Mk 5:18-20 – Jesus is not one to stay where He is unwanted. Yet in His mercy, God is unwilling to leave folks without a witness to His goodness (Act 14:17), and so He leaves the healed man behind to remind everyone of God’s power and kindness. Similarly, when Jesus opens our eyes to His goodness, we want to go and be with Him in heaven, but He leaves us in this world to demonstrate to those around us that Jesus can make a crazy person sane.
Mk 5:25-34 – The woman’s focus on Jesus’ garments calls to mind the prophecy of Zech 8:23.
Mk 5:43 – Statements like this, found throughout the Gospels, add to their credibility. Who, making up stories about miracles, would include a sentence like this?
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Mark 6
There is a lot taking place in this chapter.
- Jesus gets the “a prophet has no honor in his own…” treatment in His hometown of Nazareth.
- Jesus sends out the twelve (in pairs) to extend His ministry beyond His own personal reach (preparing for and foreshadowing what will happen in the book of Acts).
- John the Baptist is executed by King Herod.
- Jesus miraculously feeds a multitude.
- Jesus walks on water to save His disciples.
- Jesus heals countless people.
Mk 6:3 – Although it doesn’t say so explicitly, it appears from Jesus being identified by the local townsfolk as “the son of Mary and brother of…” that Joseph is deceased by this time. The “James” mentioned is the author of the book of James, and the “Judas” mentioned is the author of the book of Jude (“Jude” be a variation of “Judas” as “Mike” is a variation of “Michael”).
Mk 6:5 – This is the flip side of Jesus saying to the woman in the previous chapter “your faith has made you well” (Mk 5:34). Our faith matters.
Mk 6:12 – That is, men should change, change for the better, improve, become more like Jesus. And repentance is not just a decision – it’s a lifestyle.
Mk 6:17-18 – John the Baptist obviously did not subscribe to the idea that preachers should refrain from engaging politicians.
Mk 6:20 – It’s good that we enjoy reading the Bible, but our enjoyment is not a guarantee that we’re putting it into practice.
Mk 6:34 – Sheep who don’t want a shepherd are know-it-alls. The one subject on which we most need teaching is righteousness, and the one person most qualified to give it to us is Jesus. And there is no better place we can go to learn His teaching than the Bible. In ancient times men had to go to a synagogue to have access to the Bible; nowadays all they have to do is go to their bookshelves, computers, or even just look on their smartphones.
Mk 6:52 – We’re supposed to be gaining insight from the things Jesus does.
Mk 6:53 – Gennesaret (or Genneseret) was a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, just south of Capernaum.
Mk 6:56 – The reference to people seeking to touch “the fringe of His cloak” implies that word had spread about the woman who had been healed of her hemorrhage by touching His garments in the previous chapter (Mk 5:25-34; see note above on Mk 5:28-30).
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Mark 7
The main focus of this chapter is Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees and scribes, which was that they overrode God’s commandments with their own. Later in the chapter, Jesus has an encounter with a Gentile woman that surprises nearly everyone but the woman.
Mk 7:5-13 – It is so easy for the traditions and commandments of men to get tangled up in the commandments of God. We don’t have the same traditions as these 1st-century Pharisees and scribes, so we have to periodically stop and examine what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, for our generation surely has obsolete traditions and man-made commandments of our own. We need to identify those habits and attitudes that no longer have any spiritual value or even that directly conflict with a commandment of God, so that we can discard them and get back to the commandments of God. (1 Cor 7:19) ***** Cautionary note: Although the Gospels (and specifically only Matthew and Mark) only record Jesus speaking about traditions negatively, Paul uses the in a positive sense as well as in a negative sense. See traditions for a breakdown. (An example of a positive tradition was the Lord’s Supper, but even it had an expiration date.)
Mk 7:17-23 – In this one statement – “Thus He declared all foods clean” – Mark makes dramatically clear that Jesus was interpreting the Law of Moses in a radically new way. Moses taught which foods were kosher; Jesus teaches what thoughts are kosher. Moses and Jesus used the same text – that is, the Old Testament. But Moses’ interpretation was literal, according to the flesh; Jesus’ interpretation was spiritual. Thus we must read the Old Testament spiritually if we are to follow Jesus. Moses has no problem with this because he said from the beginning that the Messiah’s interpretation would take precedence over his (Dt 18:15, 18 especially as quoted by Peter in Act 3:22 and by Stephen in Act 7:37).
Mk 7:24-30 – We need to keep reminding ourselves that in the time of the Gospels Jesus ministered only in Israel and only to Jews. “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24). Of course, He knew His mission would ultimately include all the Gentiles, but it wasn’t time for that yet. That time would come in Acts 10 with the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household. In this situation and throughout the Gospels, Jesus seems to fully embrace the teaching of Ecclesiastes that there’s a time for everything; specifically, righteousness includes a sense of timing. We need to develop a keener sense of timing for our good deeds (Heb 5:14). It is not always time to do everything; righteousness is doing what’s most necessary and appropriate in the moment (Eph 4:29; Tit 3:14). All that said, the Gentile woman’s persistent faith eventually compelled Jesus to dispense her some early grace. Righteousness can accommodate worthy exceptions to rules.
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Mark 8
In this chapter, we see more of what we’ve seen in previous chapters from Mark – feeding another multitude, dealing with the Pharisees and their criticisms of Jesus’ ministry, dealing with confusion among His own disciples, and healing a blind man. Then something new happens: Jesus addresses with His disciples the subject of His identity as the Messiah and what this will mean – especially His crucifixion and resurrection, neither of which do they understand. So, even while Jesus is giving more explanation of what He’s doing, His disciples keep succumbing to confusion about His mission.
Mk 8:1-10 – Jesus feeds a crowd of 4,000 just as He had previously fed a crowd of 5,000 (Mk 6:33-34). The disciples seem to have completely forgotten the first miracle, and this dullness of heart was foreshadowed when Mark said in Mk 6:51-52 that they’d “gained no insight” from the miracle. The next section of this chapter gives Jesus occasion to explain to the disciples why they’re struggling so to understand Him.
Mk 8:14-21 – We usually think of “hardness of heart” as a condition that only afflicts unbelievers, but it only afflicts them to a greater degree than it afflicts believers. Obsession over earthly concerns dulls the spiritual senses of believers, too. This is why we should seek to be circumcised in heart (Rom 2:29-29; Dt 10:16).
Mk 22:22-26 – As for the process of sharpening our spiritual senses, the incident with the blind man in Bethsaida illustrates an important growth dynamic – that our spiritual sense of sight is often improved in steps rather than all at once. This incident also reminds us of how the Scripture often uses trees to illustrate truths about human beings. For example, the righteous man of Psalm 1 is “like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,” Jesus is portrayed as “the tree of life” at the end of the book of Revelation, Jesus teaches us that a man is known by his deeds just as a tree is known by its fruit – that “grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes,” and so on.
Mk 8:27-30 – Another example of Ecclesiastes’ emphasis on the importance of timing. In the book of Acts, the apostles are “shouting from the housetops” that Jesus is the Christ, but here (as in Mark 3:11-12 earlier when He was shushing demons), Jesus is trying to keep the knowledge of His identity as Messiah contained.
Mk 8:31-33 – Peter illustrates how foolish we look when trying to give God advice. (Cue Tony Bennett singing in the background,”If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring…”).
Mk 8:34-38 – It does not work to add Jesus to our lives; it only works to forsake our lives and follow His.
Mk 8:38 – As for the fact that Jesus “comes in the glory of His Father,” this was prophesied by Isaiah in Is 22:24 (see BSN note on same).
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Mark 9
After the revelation about Jesus’ impending crucifixion and resurrection in the previous chapter, there is now a vision involving Jesus on a mountaintop, witnessed by three of the twelve – Peter, James, and John. Some people call this experience “The Transfiguration.” Whatever it’s called, it was intended to affirm the revelation about Himself that Jesus had given. Coming down from the mountain, Jesus returns to the same ministry He has been conducting – preaching the gospel and healing the sick. Meanwhile, He periodically reminds His disciples of what He has prophesied to them about His death and resurrection. Even so, they just could not comprehend or retain it. But once it was fulfilled, it all made sense.
Mk 9:1 – The Bible was not divided into chapters until the 13th century AD. Most of the divisions make sense, but this one is odd. The problem is easier to see if you have a red letter Bible. It is that verse 1 clearly belongs with the last few verses of chapter 8. (Chapter and Verse divisions)
Mk 9:2-8 – This vision was intended to confirm the conversation Jesus had with His disciples the week before (Mk 8:27-30). That is, God was confirming through this transfiguration what Jesus had said about Himself – that He was indeed God’s long-promised Messiah. This vision was to strengthen the faith of the disciples for the upcoming crucible, for they weren’t to share it with anyone else until Jesus was raised from the dead.
Mk 9:7 – This statement from heaven echoes the one made from heaven at Jesus’ baptism (Mk 1:11): “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
Mk 9:8 – Moses and Elijah personified and represented “the Law and the Prophets.” Going forward, they would be eclipsed by Jesus. Thus, the conclusion of the vision was that the Law and the Prophets were subsumed in Jesus – that is, Jesus came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them (Mt 5:17).
Mk 9:9 – Surely the apostles reported this incident far and wide in their preaching. We see an example of this when Peter shares it in one his letters (2 Pet 1:16-18).
Mk 9:10 – We benefit so much from hindsight. The disciples had no idea what resurrection was going to look like, nor did they know it was going to lead to heaven. Neither did they know that Messiah was going to be resurrected forty years before the rest of the human race. We are Monday morning quarterbacks and should be very humble about what we would have done in the twelve’s shoes. (See BSN note on Lk 7:11-17)
Mk 9:11 – The scribes were the ones who handled the Scriptures and they would have gotten this idea from the last two verses of the prophet Malachi (Mal 4:5-6).
Mk 9:12-13 – Jesus is implying that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of Malachi’s Elijah reference. With his reference to “Elijah” coming before the Lord (Mal 4:5-6), Malachi was speaking in a fashion similar to Ezekiel when he said on behalf of God, “Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd” (Ezek 34:23).” In such situations, the prophets are using a type of the person to identify the person. That is, they are saying that Elijah was a type of John the Baptist and David was a type of Jesus.
Mk 9:19 – Jesus was not always “nice” to people; sometimes He was exasperated with them – but not so much that He refrained from doing good to the person.
Mk 9:23 – Belief (faith) connects this verse with verse 19. As lack of faith was that generation’s undoing, so it is ours.
Mk 9:25 – Jesus had a constant concern about crowd control because he cared as much about people’s safety as He did their nutrition. Crowds can easily get out of control and become dangerous even when they don’t have evil intent – and even more so when they do.
Mk 9:30 – Jesus knew He was going to be killed for being the Messiah, but He didn’t want it to happen prematurely. It had to happen according to the Scriptures for it to be redemptive.
Mk 9:32 – No one wants to look stupid.
Mk 9:40 – We shouldn’t demand that people do favors for us; it’s good enough that they just don’t do us harm.
Mk 9:48-50 – In verse 48, Jesus is quoting the very last verse of Isaiah (Is 66:24). If you read that verse in context, Isaiah is describing the new heavens and new earth where judgment is taking place all over the world. Fire represents various forms of judgment and corresponds to the water of Noah’s flood. The common theme is that judgment (wrath) destroys and thus cleanses the earth of evil. There is a way to escape the effects of this fire and that is by the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. It’s clear to see that hell is all around us, but our goal is to avoid even the smell of smoke in our clothes. Isaiah himself had written earlier the question “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?” and answered with “He who walks righteously” (Is 33:14-15). And let us remember that the righteousness of God begins with faith in Him, which is why I referenced the three in the fiery furnace. See also Mk 9:19, 23 as referenced above.
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Mark 10
Jesus was always surprising people with His teaching. We see some notable examples of this in Mark 10 where Jesus teaches on marriage, children, and wealth. The rest of the chapter reveals that Jesus’ disciples still do not understand some of the most important aspects of His mission. They know He is from God, and they know they want to follow Him, but they don’t understand at all how His death and resurrection fit into His being the very special king God has been promising for over a thousand years.
Mk 10:1 – Jesus is always reflecting the nature of God (Jn 1:18). Although Jesus is constantly surprising people with the things He says or does, He also manifests habits or patterns of behavior (“His custom”). This measure of predictability makes His presence comforting. We may not know what a day will bring forth, but we know the sun is going to rise in the east. That’s a good balance. Fathers should follow this example.
Mk 10:2-12 – Jesus Asked about Divorce (I say more about this exchange at the notes on Mt 19.)
Mk 10:2-9 – If God doesn’t want us monkeying with the “joining together” then He doesn’t want us monkeying with the “male” and “female” either.
Mk 10:10-12 – Moses’ application of the Law was to outward behavior (the flesh); Jesus applies it to the thoughts and intentions of the heart (the spirit). Get the spirit right and the flesh takes care of itself. Why didn’t Moses teach it this way from the beginning? For one thing, Moses wasn’t sinless. For another, he wasn’t God in the flesh. For yet another, the documentation for Messiah’s life had to be substantial and had to be put in place before He was born so that every aspect of it could be a fulfillment of prophecy. This would be an extraordinary and unprecedented affirmation that Messiah’s ministry was truly from God, clearly distinguishing him from every other human being who ever lived.
Mk 10:13-16 – A child would have a hard time comprehending the rituals of animal sacrifice in the temple, but Jesus is someone people of all ages can relate to. That’s why the kingdom of God is built on the person of Jesus.
Mk 10:17-31 – A Rich Young Ruler Comes to Jesus (I say a few things about this exchange in the notes to Mt 19:16-30, which I try not to repeat here.)
Mk 10:17-22 – A lot of good people have trouble believing that Jesus has a better place for them than their comfort zone.
Mk 10:23-31 – Jesus wouldn’t ask us to give up stuff unless He had more stuff to give us. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Mt 6:33).
Mk 10:24 – Jesus addressing His disciples as “Children” is a foreshadowing of the role He would one day take on. #Hints
Mk 10:31 – One of the many things that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus teaches us is that our ultimate field position on earth doesn’t really matter; what matters is the heavenly field position our performance on earth will gain us. Jesus ended His earthly life at the bottom…but it secured Him a position at the top for eternity. As He played for long-term field position, so also should we.
Mk 10:32-34 – The disciples expected Jesus to be a king of Israel like David – successful in battle. Statements like the one He’s making here would seem nonsensical to them.
Mk 10:35-40 -Because the twelve thought this son of David was going to follow the path of David, they were seeking to be like “the mighty men” of David heralded in 2 Sam 23:8-39 (1 Chr 11:11-47). They didn’t expect their roles to be easy, and they were willing to fight to the death – but they could not imagine the way things were actually going to play out, even though Jesus was spelling it out for them. They wanted to sit with Jesus in his glory and they could not imagine that glory being anywhere else but on earth. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).
Mk 10:41-45 – To see authority as a way to get control is human; to see it as a way to serve is divine.
Mk 10:46-52 – Of all the things the man could have used his regained sight to do, he used it to follow Jesus. Wise, wise man.
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Mark 11
In this chapter, we see recorded how Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey as heir apparent to the throne of Israel. As always, Jesus polarized people, but this time, in Jerusalem, Israel’s ruling elite would be politically strong enough to sway the crowds in their direction as the week progressed – a direction that would lead quickly to legalized assassination.
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is found also in Matthew 21, Luke 19, and John 12.
Mk 11:9-10 – As required by the Law of Moses, Jews were gathering in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover which would begin in just a few days. As Jewish males, Jesus and the twelve were fulfilling their responsibility to travel there and participate. After two or three years of preaching throughout Israel, Jesus had become quite well known and naturally attracted a crowd. Various individuals began shouting from Psalm 118. Specifically, Mark is mentioning Ps 118:26 and the word “Hosanna,” which is derived from Ps 118:25 – a cry for the Lord’s help. Hopes for Messiah’s coming were prominent in 1st century Israel and Jesus appeared to the crowds as a good candidate to rule them as king and stick it to the hated Romans. Alas, these crowds would be swayed to reverse their verdict before the week was out.
Mk 11:11 – See note on Mk 11:15-16 below.
Mk 11:12-14 – See note on Mk 11:20-26 below. (As we saw in Mk 5 with the stories of Jairus’ daughter and the woman with the hemorrhage, Mark will begin one story, interrupt it with another story, and then return to finish the first story. We ought not to think that Mark or Peter were scatterbrained but rather that the two stories have something to do with each other.)
Mk 11:15-18 – Recalling that Jesus had come to the temple the day before (according to verse 11) and surveyed the scene, His disruption of the commercial activities taking place was likely premeditated and not the result of impulsive anger. We would expect Jesus to be slow to anger and his quotation of two prophets intertwined as a single statement in verse 17 (Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11) is further evidence that Jesus had probably planned this demonstration of righteous anger in His quiet moments overnight. (For Matthew’s account of this incident see Mt 21:12-13 and the accompanying BSN note, and for Luke’s see Lk 19:45-46 and also BSN accompanying note.) A teacher is always looking for effective ways to get His points across. The fact that the chief priests did not have Jesus arrested for this act indicated that He had caught them red-handed in their larceny and they had no stomach for defending their profiteering in court.
Mk 11:20-26 – The fig tree incident and the temple incident are pointing to the same truth – that God was coming to Israel – His fig tree – looking for fruit, and wasn’t finding any. Therefore, He would now be turning away from it – leading ultimate to Jerusalem’s destruction about forty years later (70 AD). As Israel’s ruling elite were rejecting Him, He was responding, “Then I will go.” If we don’t want Jesus, He’s not going to break down the door. He just leaves us to our own devices until we come to our senses like the prodigal son and repent. A separate point to draw from the fig tree incident is to wonder what farming would have been like for Adam if he and Eve had not sinned. Instead of being under the curse of “the sweat of his brow” when tilling the land (Gen 3:17-19), we’re prompted by Jesus to imagine Adam rearranging trees and mountains on farmland by his words just as God, in whose image Adam had been made, had established the world with words.
Mk 11:27-33 – It was completely fair for Jesus to answer His religious opponents’ question with a question, for in answering His question they’d be answering their own question. In other words, if these religious leaders had thought the matter through, they would have realized that Jesus’ authority came from God and not had to ask Him. His question, and their unwillingness to answer it, revealed that the problem was rooted in their will. That is, they didn’t know the truth because they were unwilling to know it. They didn’t want to allow for the possibility that Jesus spoke for God, or that John the Baptist did either, because it might lead to their having to submit their will to God’s. That thought was repugnant to them, but, obviously, they did not want to make this admission to Jesus or to the crowd. And thus they sought refuge in the coward’s paradise that is called agnosticism (“We do not know”).
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Mark 12
This chapter consists mainly of the public challenges issued to Jesus by various factions of Israel’s ruling elite in Jerusalem. Through these confrontations, tensions increased during the week such that the stage was set for the Jewish leaders to turn the crowds against Jesus. The Jewish masses wanted freedom from Roman oppression, but while they initially had hope in Jesus as their king, that hope quickly dissipated as it became apparent that He was not assembling an army and would more likely invite even greater wrath from the Romans rather than defeat them. In the end, Jewish rulers convinced enough of the crowd that it was better to let the Romans kill Jesus than to incite the Roman army to come down hard on the entire Jewish population.
Mk 12:1-12 – Beginning with the first two verses of Isaiah 5, Jesus constructs a parable from the content of that chapter. Isaiah – eight centuries earlier – was challenging Israel’s leaders as Jesus is challenging them here. Jesus making the point in story form was like putting Isaiah’s medicine in a spoonful of sugar. That said, there’s no amount of sugar that can make paregoric taste good.
Mk 12:2-5 – These slaves represent Israel’s Old Testament prophets – like Isaiah – who were typically persecuted for their preaching, just as John the Baptist and Jesus were being persecuted.
Mk 12:6 – Jesus’ point was that His preaching was Israel’s last chance. God would send no more prophets to Israel after Messiah (“he sent him last of all to them…” italics added).
Mk 12:7 – The vine-growers in the parable don’t like the son because they never liked the owner. They’re only doing to the son what they would have done with the owner if they could have gotten their hands on him. Their motive (“come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!”) was the same thing the serpent suggested to Eve (“you will be like God” – Gen 3:5). Secularism is the same thing: leaving God out so that man can be the supreme being. Unrepentant man hates his Creator…and wants to kill Him.
Mk 12:9 – These religious leaders crucified Jesus about 33 AD. God destroyed “the vineyard” in 70 AD. That is when Jerusalem was burned to the ground. Muslims built the Dome of the Rock on top of the temple site in the 7th century AD. Thus, Jesus’ warnings to Israel’s leaders were not idle talk.
Mk 12:10-11 – Here Jesus is quoting from Psalm 118 (Ps 118:22-23). This is the same psalm being quoted in shouts of “Hosanna” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” for Jesus that we read about in the previous chapter. (See note on Mk 11:9-10 above.) Psalm 118:22-23, quoted here, is a riddle. Jesus is giving the leaders a chance to solve it…which would mean saving themselves and their families from impending doom. Alas, these leaders are too self serving and self-willed to open their eyes and see the answer.
Mk 12:12 – Mark makes clear that the religious leaders got Jesus’ point, didn’t like it, and were going to make Him pay for it…dearly.
Mk 12:13-17 – You may recall that Jesus told His disciples not to worry or prepare what they will say when they are challenged – that the Holy Spirit would give them what to say in that hour (Mt 10:19-20; Mk 13:11; Lk 21:14-15). It is apparent from the spontaneous answers Jesus gives to challenges like this that He practiced what He preached. Matthew describes this same incident; see BSN notes on it at Mt 22:15-22.
Mk 12:18-27 – (For more extensive comments on this passage, see the BSN notes on Mt 22:23-33.)
Mk 12:18-23 – The Sadducees thought they had an airtight argument against the idea of a resurrection. It would be a good argument, except that…
Mk 12:25 – Jesus reveals that resurrection would not be to earth again, but to heaven – where male and female distinctions are obsolete. The “airtight” argument of the Sadducees never foresaw that possibility. People today talk about the possibility of life after death in heaven, but forget – or never knew – that Jesus was the one who first preached the concept. His contemporaries had never considered that as an option God might consider – much less the route He would certainly take.
Mk 12:26-27 – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived and died hundreds of years before Moses. Jesus’ point to the Sadducees therefore was that if this life is all there is, then God would have told Moses, “I am was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” instead of “I am…”The Sadducees weren’t just mistaken – they were greatly mistaken.
Mk 12:28-34 – If anyone wants to know what the King of the kingdom of God desires to see from us, here it is in this passage. The will of God is that we keep these two commandments. And that starts with recognizing that Jesus is the Lord our God referred to in the greatest commandment.
Mk 12:35-37 – Jesus presents here another prophetic riddle – this one from the first verse of Psalm 110. The only solution for this riddle is the only solution to the riddle of Psalm 118:22-23 – resurrection. That is, the rejected stone can only be made the cornerstone if he was going to have life after death. Similarly, the only way David could consider his descendant an elder is if the descendant was going to be resurrected to new life before him. As Jacob supplanted Esau in the plan of God, and as Ephraim supplanted Manasseh (see Gen 48:1-22 and accompanying BSN notes), so Messiah would supplant David in the resurrection that would occur within just a few days and even God when Christ came again in that generation, which was the coming of the kingdom of God.
Mk 12:38-44 – Comparing verses 38-40 with verses 41-44 which immediately follow it provides a striking contrast: those with the greatest power in Israel juxtaposed with one having the least power. God supports the weak over the strong. And just as God was move by the widows generosity, so He was moved to raise Jesus from the dead after the high and mighty crucified Him.
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Mark 13
In this chapter, Jesus tells His disciples that the impressive buildings of Jerusalem, including the temple of God that was at its center, would all be destroyed. When the disciples ask Jesus when these things will take place, He gives them a timetable.
People often think that in this chapter Jesus is speaking of the last days of the human race. Actually, He’s speaking of the last days of ancient Israel.
The contents of this chapter parallel the content in Matthew 24-25 and Luke 21. Regardless of which of these three Gospels is being discussed, because almost all the dialogue takes place on the Mount of Olives, it is sometimes called “the Olivet Discourse.”
Mk 13:1 – It was, and still is, common for the capital of a nation to have impressive buildings. The nation of Israel was no exception. Its temple was particularly impressive, and all the more so because it not only represented the nation, but israel’s God. The disciples expected Jesus to one day reign as king of Israel and so they solicited His thoughts about this magnificent infrastructure He was going to inherit.
Mk 13:2 – Jesus surely shocked them with His answer that all these great buildings would be destroyed. “How does this fit our plan?” the disciples must surely have wondered.
Mk 13:3 – Peter and Andrew are brothers, as are James and John. All four had been working together as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee before following Jesus.
Mk 13:4 – This is the question to which the rest of this chapter is the answer.
Mk 13:5-6 – Jesus makes clear that it will be possible for His followers to be misled, and therefore they must guard against it. False teaching became rampant as is evidenced by the epistles that fill out the New Testament.
Mk 13:7 – International conflicts will arise but that is not yet the end.
Mk 13:8 – There’ll be earthquakes and famines as well, but they won’t mark the end either. On the contrary, all this is just the beginning of woes.
Mk 13:9-13 – “Meanwhile, you guys will be preaching My gospel throughout the whole world to people great and small, getting persecuted mercilessly in the process.” Jesus often confused His disciples with the things He said, but their heads must have been spinning backwards by this point in His discourse. They thought they were helping David’s descendant regain David’s throne, but this future Jesus is laying out probably sounds to them like a Mission Impossible sequel script put together by a couple of drugged-up wannabe screenwriters.
Mk 13:14-23 – Up to this point, Jesus has been answering the disciples’ first question (“When will these things be?”); in this section, He answers their second (“What will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?”).
Mk 13:14 – The apostles’ writings – like the Gospel of Mark – were written to be read in the synagogue. That is how most Jews consumed written material in those days – go to the synagogue on the Sabbath and hear the Scriptures read. The “reader” was supposed to be able to explain complex passages and that’s who the parenthetical expression is addressing. ***** “abomination of desolation“
Mk 13:21-22 – Jesus is confirming that His second coming would not occur before or during this great tribulation. It would only come after.
Mt 13:24-27 – The period of great tribulation, having been cut short by God, opens the way for Christ’s second coming – which is a heavenly event to be appreciated on earth.
Mk 13:28-32 – Jesus now uses the fig tree as a parable because a fig tree can tell you the season it is but cannot tell the day or hour – it’s just not that precise a timepiece. To be specific, Jesus states that His second coming and everything leading up to it would take place within that generation (verse 30). He’s giving them as precise a date as He can, but He cannot give them the day or hour. He can only describe the season in which the day and hour will occur. And even looking in hindsight, we cannot pinpoint the day and hour it happened – but we do know that the signs were fulfilled and that the designated season is long past. If the earthly portion of Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled, then surely the spiritual portion was as well.
Mk 13:30 – This is the critical part of Jesus answer. I say this because the critical part of the disciples’ question was “when.” His answer is crystal clear – especially when you consider that the day/hour were not knowable – only the season. He was telling them, “It will happen before all of you die.” He had already made this point to them on two previous occasions (Mt 10:23; 16:28), so this answer was just confirming what He’d previously said.
Mk 13:33-37 – Jesus concludes His long answer to the disciples’ question with an exhortation. He exhorts them to stay “on the alert!” We saw how they would fall asleep in Gethsemane. If is was possible to fall asleep when Jesus’ movements were visible in the flesh, how much more when His movements would be in the spiritual realm!
Though I say less in the BSN notes for Mt 24-25, there are some additional points made there. For a more thorough explanation of all of this, see the book The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact.
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Mark 14
This chapter describes the events that occurred the night before Jesus died – including the Passover meal (the Last Supper), praying in Gethsemane, His betrayal and arrest, His trial before Jewish authorities, and Peter’s denial that he even knew Jesus.
Mk 14:1-2 – These were the first two feasts Moses instituted for the Israelites when they became a nation around 1500 BC. In hindsight, it could be seen that these feasts foreshadowed Jesus Christ, including the events that are unfolding in these final chapters of Mark’s Gospel. The apostle Paul alludes to Jesus’ connections to these two feasts specifically in 1 Cor 5:6-8, and more broadly to all the feasts in Col 2:16-17. The purpose of these feasts was to impress upon the Jewish mind the principles that would be present when Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, but they were also God’s way of making sure a large crowd would be present to witness His suffering.
Mk 14:3-9 – Jesus knows He’s come to Jerusalem to die. The woman knows it, too. But the rest of the room just doesn’t get it. Just like most of the world doesn’t seem to get what’s going on today. ***** We always have the poor with us. We can do good to them whenever we want. Jesus judges our attitude toward us as our attitude toward them (see His parable in Matt 25:31-46). ***** They would not always have Jesus in the flesh. Indeed, we all known Him in another way since then – resurrected from the dead. See 2 Cor 5:16.
Mk 9:10-11 – It’s only natural that Judas sought a monetary reward, for he had been treasurer for the group and had been pilfering from their funds (John 12:6).
Mk 9:12-16 – It’s reasonable to assume that residents of Jerusalem might let out parts of their homes for the many visitors that came annually to the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread just as residents of South Bend, Indiana or Augusta, Georgia let out their properties, respectively, for football games or golf tournaments. Of course, here we have a homeowner who’s willing to donate housing to the Lord and His men – a generosity in notable contrast to the thievery of Judas mentioned just before.
Mk 14:17-21 – God’s plan for Jesus Christ included a traitor. The traitor demonstrates Satan’s role in the fall of man. For while Adam and Eve clearly sinned and cannot pass the buck, it’s a fact that the serpent tempted and deceived Eve in the garden. God was betrayed by an angel who should have been faithful to Him, and this act was undeniably a step in the sequence that led to the need for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It is helpful to have this role included in the fall and redemption story because it reminds us that while we can’t blame Satan for our sinning, but must remember that he’s there to tempt us and we must be on guard against his schemes (2 Cor 2:11). All this goes to explain why Jesus would knowingly include a traitor among His 12 closest associates.
Mk 14:22-25 – The covenant about which Jesus is speaking is the new covenant God had promised through the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34) in the 6th century BC. All that animal blood from one end of the Old Testament to the other couldn’t get the job done, but His blood was going to be more than enough to secure our salvation from sin. ***** This Passover meal was commemorated regularly by the 1st-century church and called “the Lord’s Supper.” ***** That Jesus Himself wouldn’t Himself partake of the Passover until His Second Coming was something Paul would mention in one of his letters. (See 1 Cor 11:26.)
Mk 14:26 – I remember the first time I ever heard men singing a hymn. It was my first day of seminary classes and the morning chapel was full of men, mainly in their 20s and 30s. I was was unprepared for how wonderful it would sound.
Mk 14:27-28 – Jesus is quoting Zech 13:7. And, of course, it’s proverbial that if you cut off the head, the body falls. And, indeed, when Jesus was struck down, all His apostles fell away.
Mk 14:29-31 – It wasn’t just Peter who overpromised, though he’s the one who gets the rap.
Mk 14:32-42 – Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane was going to the Father focused on settling what was the will of God…just as He had taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:9-13). Jesus always practiced what He preached.
Mk 14:43-50 – The chief priests and the scribes and the elders sent soldiers to capture Jesus under the cover of darkness, and that’s why they needed Judas Iscariot. That is, they needed someone “on the inside” who could pick Him out in the dark. All this subterfuge was because they feared the crowds might rise up in defense of Jesus. ***** Just as Jesus knew would happen, His disciples quickly forgot their promises of allegiance. They didn’t want to be arrested, too.
Mk 14:51-52 – It’s hard for me to think that this is not (John) Mark, the author of this gospel, speaking of himself. We know from Act 12: 12, 25 that his home was in Jerusalem. And such an enigmatic statement only seems to fit in the story if he knew his audience would recognize a self-reference by the writer. I can imagine Mark being wakened by one of Jesus’ other followers that night to come and see what was going down in the darkness of Gethsemane. Since he was a “young” man, I can see him rashly and naively jumping out of bed with only the bed sheet to cover him because time was probably short and he likely had no interest in getting involved – only in getting a peek at what was going on. For all I know, he might have been relatively inconspicuous given that his covering could have looked like a Roman toga, especially in the dark. In any case, I’m not telling you what happened – just telling you how I think about this unusual passage.
Mk 14:53-65 – It’s telling that the only charge Jesus’ accusers could make stick was the assertion that when He told the truth in response to a direct question about His identity that He had no right to be telling the truth.
Mk 14:66-72 – Peter was so confused that night. Reading through the entire Gospel of Mark, we have seen Peter and the others struggle over and over to fully understood their Teacher. I believe they had all thought through the possibility of having to die with, or for, Jesus in battle, but this circumstance – with Jesus convicted as a criminal before He even had a fighting chance to take the throne – was one they just couldn’t have anticipated and couldn’t figure out. He had told them multiple times that He was going to die and be raised from the dead, but that didn’t fit their preconceptions of Messiah, the king like David. In the simplicity of her faith, the woman above with the “alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard” (Mk 14:3-9) understood what was going down that week in Jerusalem, but Peter, trying to figure it all out, just couldn’t wrap his head around it. It’s the reverse of what happened in the garden of Eden. There, the woman was deceived, but the man knew what was going on. On this night, the man is being deceived while a woman knows what is going on. The good news is that Jesus died for all our sins. Let’s accept that forgiveness and get back to righteousness.
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Mark 15
This chapter records what happened when the Jewish rulers turned Jesus over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Jesus was subjected to denunciations, mocking, and beatings…as well as crucifixion.
Mk 15:1 – Some translations will say “Sanhedrin” instead of “Council” but the meaning is the same. “Sanhedrin” is a Hebrew and Aramaic word that means “assembly” or “council.” The Roman Empire retained the sole right to exercise capital punishment, which is why 1) the Jews had to turn Jesus over to the Pilate to get Him legally executed, and 2) the reason Jesus died by crucifixion (a Roman form of execution) instead of stoning (which was the more typical method of capital punishment for Jews). By the way, the normal means of execution by the Romans for their citizens was beheading, which was far less brutal way to die than the torture of crucifixion, which was reserved for non-Romans and the worst criminals.
Mk 15:2 – By getting Jesus to admit He was the Messiah at His trial, the Council was able to present Him as a political threat to Rome. “Hey, this guy says he’s supposed to be our king.” The Romans had only authorized that Herod could be the Jewish king, and only with limited authority at that. They would assume that any new king would be a threat to their rule.
Mk 15:3-4 – Ironically, rather than inducing Pilate to immediately sentence Jesus, the combination of harsh charges by the accusers and silence from Jesus provoked Pilate to coax a defense out of Jesus.
Mk 15:5 – Jesus distinguished Himself not only by the things He said (Jn 7:46), but also by the things He didn’t say. Pilate was “amazed.” Thus Jesus impressed people by not speaking as much as He did by speaking (John 7:46).
Mark 5:6-9 – Number of people healed by Barabbas? Apparently, zero. Number of people healed by Jesus? Innumerable. Even the notoriously brutal Pontius Pilate can’t get this crowd to recognize its insane mob mentality.
Mk 15:10 – Even the unrighteous can recognize hypocrisy when they see it.
Mk 15:11-12 – The mob didn’t become insane without having been prodded to it.
Mk 15:13 – The crowds of Jerusalem that had been shouting “Hosanna!” over Jesus just a few days before were now, because Jewish government manipulation of public opinion, turned against Him. That is, the chief priests, scribes, and elders had worked up the crowd until they were a panicked mob – afraid that if they didn’t crush Jesus, the Romans would crush them.
Mk 15:14 – Pontius Pilate had no reputation for fairness or mercy. His interest was solely in avoiding an uprising which might jeopardize his standing with his Roman superiors. Pilate knew that Jesus still had sympathizers among the people, but the bloodlust of mob mentality was cowering anyone who wanted to defend the innocent man. Thus did the voices demanding crucifixion prevail.
Mk 15:15 – Once Pilate was sure which part of the population was the most dangerous, he placated them by ordering the crucifixion.
Mk 15:16-20 – Death by crucifixion was humiliating enough, but mockery was heaped on Jesus that day. He endured it – and everything else – because He loved the world so much.
Mk 15:21 – Compare with Mt 27:32 (and see BSN note on same). Also, this could be the same Rufus mentioned in Rom 16:13 (see also accompanying BSN note).
Mk 15:22 – Golgotha is sometimes translated as “Calvary.” Both terms mean “Place of a Skull.” Golgotha comes to English directly from the Hebrew, while “Calvary” was first translated to Latin before being translated to English.
Mk 15:23 – Wine mixed with myrrh was a way of dulling the pain. Jesus chose to face reality head on. Our drugged-up culture shakes its head in disbelief.
Mk 15:24 – His clothes obviously weren’t rags if soldiers were gambling to see who won them. Must have been donated by the same kind of woman who would use “very costly perfume” to anoint Him for burial (Mk 14:3-9) or the same kind of man who would donate a tomb for His final resting place (Mk 15:42-47). (Only His final resting place wasn’t going to be on earth.) Obviously, it wasn’t only the poor who were following Him.
Mk 15:25 – By 1st-century Jewish reckoning, this was 9 am.
Mk 15:26 – To the Jews, this title for Jesus was blasphemous; to the Gentiles, it was a joke. To God, it was the fulfillment of all those Old Testament promises He had made about giving Israel – and the world – a king who would save them.
Mk 15:27-32 – There was just no limit to the abuse that day.
Mk 15:33 – By Jewish reckoning, noon until 3 pm.
Mk 15:34-37 – Jesus is quoting the opening lines of Psalm 22 but “some of the bystanders” hear “Eloi” and think He’s crying out to Eli for help. Far from an expression of hopeless despair, Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm expressing belief even when there’s no outward reason to believe. In fact, its 31 verses are a triumphant declaration that even when things look their worst, God can and will deliver the one – including “The One” – who trusts in Him. The people thought Jesus was making a last-ditch request to escape death, but the escape from death He was seeking was so great, and included so many people besides Himself, that He would actually have to be dead for a little while for it to work. He couldn’t very well break out of Sheol (Hades) unless He first descended to it. And He couldn’t descend until He died. The jailbreak He instigated from those depths has no equal in the annals of human history. This is why the prophet Micah could call Him “the Breaker” (Mic 2:13) – for leading this cosmic breakout. (It would have to wait until the Second Coming, however, for the rest of the dead to follow Him; fortunately, that happened.)
Mk 15:38 – Given that this veil was 30-60 feet high, this doesn’t sound like the work of vandals. Maybe God?
Mk 15:39 – Even the way Jesus breathed gave Him away. Anyone who pays the least bit of honest attention to Jesus knows He’s the Son of God.
Mk 15:40-41 – A man is designed for marriage, but there are special cases – and Jesus is one of them – in which marriage doesn’t make sense. Given His mission as Messiah, it would only have meant He would leave a widow and orphans in His wake. The marriage He was seeking was with the human race; that was “the new covenant” He was entering.
Mk 15:42: In other words, it was Friday. The Jewish sabbath has always been the 7th day of the week – Saturday.
Mk 15:43 – This fulfills the part of Isaiah 53:9 that says of Messiah, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, / Yet He was with a rich man in His death.”
Mk 15:44-45 – Sometimes crucifixion could take 2-3 days to kill a man. The blood Jesus had lost from the beatings He’d had that morning from the Roman soldiers and the evening before by the Jewish soldiers, and having no apparent opportunity for sleep in the previous 24 hours, all contributed to Jesus being in a very weakened condition before He was ever nailed to the cross. That said, it was not shocking to Roman authorities that someone would die after just six hours on the cross – just something Pilate appropriately wanted to verify, especially given the political sensitivities surrounding this prisoner and the possibility of mob uprisings if He showed any sign of life. What Pilate had no way of imagining was that Jesus would soon be attracting crowds once again – only the kind that seek peace, not violence…and the kind that look to heaven, not earth.
Mk 15:46-47 – These people showed Him respect and reverence, bless their hearts, making sure His dead body was properly interred. Alas, it does not appear anyone decided to camp out so as to be present on Sunday when He would keep His promise to walk out of the tomb.
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Mark 16
This last chapter of Mark reports how Jesus presented Himself to His disciples after His resurrection from the dead.
Mk 16:1-3 – No one – not even the women going to His tomb – expected Jesus to be alive. Yet, on three different occasions (Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-32; 10:32-34), Jesus had prophesied to His twelve disciples that He would be killed and then raised from the dead three days later. Why didn’t they believe Him? What can this teach us about ourselves?
Mk 16:4-8 – Even when they were told that Jesus had risen from the dead, the women hardly knew what to do with the information. Again, what does this teach us about the human condition and our slowness to believe? (See Luke 24:25.)
Mk 16:9-20 – Your Bible probably has a footnote or study note about the way Mark ends. There is uncertainty about whether this part of the chapter was part of Mark’s original composition. The uncertainty is caused the absence of this part in early manuscripts that have been preserved. The only other passage of this size (12 verses in length) in the New Testament that is so questioned is John 7:53-8:11 (also 12 verses long), which is the story about the woman caught in the act of adultery. Apparently, there just isn’t enough manuscript evidence to settle the issue on either of these two passages. I’m just shocked and pleased about what this says about the reliability of the New Testament – that there are only two passages of this length about which scholars cannot agree. Think of how certain that makes the text of the New Testament as a whole. It is, in fact, the best attested text of any in antiquity – religious or otherwise.
Mk 16:9-14 – The women may have been slow to believe, but the men were even slower. Many modern people think that ancient folks were gullible and that’s why they were convinced Jesus was raised from the dead. The unbelief cataloged in this passage looks just like the unbelief we saw in the first eight verses of the chapter (whose authenticity is not questioned.) Being slow to believe is not an indication of whether one hails from modernity or antiquity.
Mk 16:15-18 – Jesus’ instructions to His disciples here follows the same pattern we saw at the end of Matthew 28.
Mk 16:19 – The ascension of the Lord portrayed briefly here is portrayed by Luke briefly at the end of his Gospel and a little more extensively in his first chapter of Acts.
Mk 16:20a – What Mark describes in one sentence, Luke writes the entire book of Acts to cover.
Mk 16:20b – The last two sentences, which are probably bracketed in your Bible, appear in some manuscripts right after Mk 16:8 per the explanation given above about the disagreement about the authenticity of Mk 16:9-20.
The Duty of a Man 