Day 10: Mark 1-3. Off and Running with Mark, the Evangelist
There is no introduction to the Gospel of Mark. There is no genealogy, no birth story, nothing to pad the entrance of Jesus onto the scene. Well, that's not exactly true. There is that one sentence, "the beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God's Son," and the prophecy (a mix of Isaiah and Malachi) about the Messenger who will prepare the way. But that's it. John the Baptist blows in, baptizes, and blows out. Everything is happening very quickly. When Jesus is baptized, the heavens don't just open, they are split open. And the Spirit doesn't just lead Jesus into the wilderness, he drives Jesus into the wilderness. In Mark, Jesus is tempted by Satan, but we don't get to know the content of the temptations (which I kind of like, by the way; more room for the imagination). With such a spare description, I notice that out in the wilderness, Jesus is among the wild animals. This sort of reminds me of "The Peaceable Kingd...