Thomas hurriedly ate his dinner and began what my daddy calls “chomping at the bit” before my husband had filled his plate or tasted his first bite. He’d been waiting all afternoon for Poppy to get home to take him fishing. Now he half paced, half bounded around the kitchen table, before announcing, “All right, everybody. It’s time for fishing!”
His new fishing rod was a gift for his fourth birthday but this was his first opportunity to use it for real. The sky looked threatening and the forecast agreed, a storm was coming. Nobody seemed to feel the same sense of urgency that Thomas was feeling, but he was doing a pretty good job of communicating his excitement. Paul chuckled as he scarfed down his last few bites and stood to say, “Let’s go fishing, little buddy. We just need to grab the worms from the garage.”
About midway through listening to Mark chapter one in the ESV (English Standard Version), I pressed paused long enough to glance over the actual text. Surely I had misheard. Every other sentence began with the word immediately. I highlighted several instances and compared multiple translations. Some used suddenly, instantly, at once, or right away, but the repetitions were consistent. One translation I regularly check, The Orthodox Jewish Bible (TOJB2011) gives the anglicized text with some of the words translated into English parenthetically. Ofen ort, from the Hebrew, literally translates “at that place or immediately,” placing emphasis on the instantaneous nature of an action or event. This is the Jewish phrase repeated by Mark throughout his gospel account.
His narrative begins with John the Baptist announcing, then baptizing Jesus. Immediately heaven opened and the Spirit descended as a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””
Mark 1:11 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.1.11.ESV
“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.
And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”
Mark 1:12-13 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.1.12-13.ESV
John was arrested as Jesus began calling His followers. Immediately he called them and immediately they followed. Immediately Jesus is accosted in the synagogue by a man with an unclean spirit and immediately Jesus casts the spirit out. So it continues. Jesus was healing and teaching and going away into solitary places to pray before healing some more, always with immediacy, and that’s just chapter one.
How young was Mark when he wrote his gospel account? I ask because I am reminded of reading my younger son’s writing assignments. We homeschooled his junior and senior years during a season when his unpredictable seizure activity began interfering with his school attendance. His writing was selected to be published by a local university following a contest opened to high school students in our state so I can confidently say he is an excellent writer, but this reading of Mark’s gospel made me chuckle remembering.
John Mark is assumed to have been young, possibly a teenager during the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, having accompanied them on more than one missionary journey. Tradition holds that Mark’s gospel is told from Peter’s perspective and was likely the first gospel account to be written down. When counseling young children to read their Bibles daily, Mark is a great book to start. It’s definitely fast paced and action packed, offering concise, comic book style vignettes of Jesus’s activities, jumping quickly from scene to scene, maximizing shock value but always laser focused on Jesus.
Mark’s condensed version predates Matthew’s recorded Great Commission statement of Jesus and his gospel ends by recording how God began working through the obedience of Christ’s followers.
“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
Mark 16:15 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.16.15.ESV
“And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.”
Mark 16:20 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.16.20.ESV
Mark wrote originally to a Roman audience. Unless you have Jewish ancestry, he composed his gospel account for someone like you or me, a Gentile, a non-Jew. We may better understand the history of the Jews today, Biblical and otherwise, because of our hindsight, but ask yourself why Mark or any of the writers of scripture would have bothered to prepare a detailed account of the life of Jesus or of John or Paul or Peter or Moses or Elijah in the first place? Scripture answers this question very succinctly.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/2ti.3.16-17.ESV
“Prophecy never came simply because a prophet wanted it to.
Instead, the Holy Spirit guided the prophets as they spoke.
So, although prophets are human, prophecy comes from God.”
2 Peter 1:21 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/2pe.1.21.NIRV
The entirety of scripture introduces the God of the universe, creator and sustainer of heaven and earth and His Son, Jesus Christ. Mark’s narrative is part of a greater story that God is telling, a story that began before our earth existed and goes on forever. If the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of His hands, we were made to know and acknowledge Him as Lord. (Psalm 19:1, John 17:3, Matthew 10:32)
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/mat.10.32-33.ESV
“Suppose anyone is ashamed of me and my words among these adulterous and sinful people.
Then the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:38 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/mrk.8.38.NIRV
Thomas bolted through the garage door half an hour later, completely unaware that his baby brother was already sleeping upstairs. “I caught four fish! I picked up worms by myself and I squeezed them apart to put on my hook,” he exclaimed, pride beaming on his face. “Show them the pictures, Mama.” He could hardly contain himself as she scrolled through her photos, echoing his excitement. He had already FaceTimed his dad, who was working over the weekend, to share his catch. His eyes searched the room for anyone else to tell. Oh, that we would have his enthusiasm when sharing our faith in Jesus. There are still so many who need to know the gospel message, so many who need to be told the best good news they will ever hear.
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John 20:30-31, 21:25 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.20.31.ESV
Have you trusted God through His one and only Son, Jesus? If not, His invitation stands.
““Look! I stand at the door and knock.
If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.”
Revelation 3:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.3.20.NLT
“You are my friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:14-15 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jhn.15.15.ESV
If Jesus is your Lord, go and tell the world!
“Jesus came and told his disciples,
“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.
And be sure of this:
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””
Matthew 28:18-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.28.18-20.NLT
A Fitting Reply 