Sunday, 2/1/15
Our Gospel today is from the first chapter of the Gospel according
to Mark.
Mark, as a boy, following Jesus about, had been a hundred
percent convinced that he was trailing behind the Messiah promised to Moses. But
coming to forty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Mark was more
an more hearing people say that Jesus could not be the Messiah, because he
suffered and died a criminal’s death.
Before Matthew, Luke or John got the idea of doing it, Mark
decided he needed to put into writing the divine impact Jesus had on them all.
He divided that written testimony into two equal parts. Through his first eight chapters Mark brought us along with
him and the Apostles as they were convinced over and over that Jesus was the
Messiah. Then, at the end of Chapter Eight he recorded how Peter, speaking for
all of us, said, “You are the Messiah.”
With that point nailed down, Mark used the second eight chapters of
his Gospel to show us that the suffering of Jesus, far from being a cause for
people to disregard him, should put them in awe of him. It was his bravely
accepted that suffering and that ignominious death that Jesus saved us. It was
with every ounce of his courage that he fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that
stated,
“While we thought of
him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted, he was pierced for our
offenses, crushed for our sins.
“Though he was harshly
treated, he submitted, and opened not his mouth, like a lamb led to the
slaughter.”
Today’s reading from Mark’s Chapter One treats us to the
early evidence that showed Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus taught with authority
from heaven. He was recognized by the demons to be the Holy One of God. He
drove out those demons by a single word. And, if we read on a few more verses,
we will witness his heavenly powers curing every manner of physical and mental
ailment.
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