FROM THE PASTOR

Year of Mark

This year of the Lectionary is the Year of Mark and most of the Gospel lessons in this season come from this Gospel.  I want to share an outline of Mark with you so that you can refer to it from time to time during the coming year.   

The Gospel of Mark is arranged in an outline of three sections, and in each section there is a seeing miracle. 

Part One, the Galilean ministry shows us Jesus as very successful in his ministry.  There is bread, success, healing (almost every miracle in the Gospel of Mark occurs in this first part), controversy.  And always the crowds.  Jesus dazzled the people, especially the poor, the ill, and the vulnerable.  This section ends at Caeserea Philippi with the first passion prediction.  For the first time Jesus speaks about the cross.  Before Jesus speaks about the cross at Caesera Philippi there is a seeing miracle, but Jesus has to do it twice (“those people look like trees”).  Mark is saying in the details, that if all you see is the fame, the miracles, the crowds you have not yet seen it all.  For Mark it is all about the Cross of Jesus. 

Part Two.   After the first passion prediction Jesus moves on the Way toward Jerusalem.  Bartimaeus’ sight is healed.  One shot does it.  As the cross comes into view we are beginning to see.  There are few miracles along the journey to Jerusalem, the crowds begin to fall away.  We see Jesus steadily extricated from the crowds, the success, the bread, the closer he moves toward the cross.   

Part Three is the week of the passion in Jerusalem.  Jesus dies abandoned, alone (the only word from the cross is the cry, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”) At the cross, the seeing miracle is the Centurian.  Seeing the abandoned one on the cross leads to faith and testimony.   At the foot of the cross we say with the Centurion:  “Surely this one is the Son of God.”   

Pastor Stephen Paul Bouman