Hello friends! So, you've heard one account of the life of Jesus so far, and now we turn our attention to another in the Gospel of Mark. Despite the Gospel of Mark being the second gospel it was actually written first about 30 years after Jesus had died. For those of you with a teaching background you might find it funny that Matthew and Luke actually plagiarized the gospel of Matthew! Uh oh, someone send em to the principals office ;) Mark is much more conservative with his claims about Jesus. More than any other gospel he refers to Jesus as the "Son of Man" rather than messiah and tends to downplay his confrontations with the Jewish leaders. This makes sense as it was the first written account the author did not want to put him/herself in a bad position. Further, Mark was not one of the original 12 disciples but is speculated to be a student of Peter's who transcribes the events of Jesus' life from the aging Peter who never learned to read or write. Anyways, I'll probably have more to blab on later on in the questions to consider section. For now, I want to hear your thoughts on the text. What sticks out to you?
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
(hahaha this thumbnail is incredible)
Questions to Consider
What is different so far? What's the same?
Why do you think Mark omits the birth narrative?
Today we have a video from the Bible Project that isn't an overview of what you will reading as much as it is a theological discussion about the significance of the gospel of Mark. It's a little different than what you're used to but its good!
Praying the Hymns
Today's hymn seems kind of fitting for our reading as it's about the birth of Jesus but from the royal line of David. As Mark is about answering how Jesus is the Messianic King we are celebrating his royal line connection to David. I invite you to hum, sing, recite or meditate on the hymn as your prayer today.
1. Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed;
Mary, loving mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little child.
2. He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall.
With the poor, the scorned, the lowly
lived on earth our Savior holy.
3. Jesus is our childhood's pattern;
day by day, like us he grew;
he was little, weak, and helpless,
tears and smiles like us he knew;
and he feeleth for our sadness,
and he shareth in our gladness.
4. And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love; for that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heaven above; and he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.