Saturday, 4/6/13
Today we have Mark’s account of Easter Sunday. It
is the briefest Gospel account of Easter, but it is important in being the
first account to be written. Matthew and Luke who wrote their Gospels ten years
later borrowed heavily from what Mark wrote.
Mark is also important in that he was actually
there. He followed the soldiers who took Jesus away from the Garden of Olives. He
was there after the Resurrection when the disciples gathered at the house of
Mary, Mark’s mother.
What moved Mark to write the first of the four
Gospels was that people were saying Jesus could not be the Messiah because he
was executed as a criminal. Mark gave over the first half of his Gospel to
presenting all the evidence that initially convinced the disciples that Jesus
was the Messiah. Then, half way through his Gospel, Mark presented the story of Peter saying he was convinced that
Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.
Having established from miracles and prophesies
that Jesus was definitely the Messiah, Mark went on in the second half of his
Gospel to show how it was precisely from his suffering and sacrificial death
that Jesus saves us.
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