Mark wrote his Gospel to show that Jesus is the Savior, and that he saves us by suffering.

Tuesday, 1/15/13

Luke, in his Chapter One, stated his purpose in writing his Gospel, and St. John, in his Chapter Twenty-One, gave his reason for writing his Gospel. With St. Mark we are left to surmise his purpose by analyzing his chapters.

In a casual analysis we see the first eight of his chapters are given over to stories that show Jesus  to be the savior, while we see the second eight of his chapters demonstrating Our Lord’s plan for saving us by means of his suffering. 

That clear division could lead us to think that Mark wrote because people were objecting that Jesus could not be the Savior because he was executed as a criminal.  To that Mark first gave eight chapters of evidence to the fact that Jesus had to seen as the Savior. He followed that with eight chapters that showed that his heroic suffering far from being a weakness was the means by which he saved us.

Today’s reading gets a start on amassing evidence for showing Jesus to be the promised Messiah. One, he taught with authority. Two, the devils acknowledged him as the Holy One f God. Three, he drove out devils by his own power.