Shortest Gospel

If you have never ever read an entire book in the Bible, I would highly recommend the book of Mark. It is the shortest of the gospels, but jam packed full of the absolute best teachings and understanding of what it is to be a Christian, and why! You get Jesus's entire ministry on Earth in a mere 16 chapters, start to finish!

Background: Mark is not one of the 12 disciples. Who knew? He actually was BFF with Paul. Mark wrote this book to try and prove to the Roman Christians that Jesus was in fact the Messiah. I completely appreciate the fact that Mark was descriptive, but straightforward and to the point. (Kinda like me). :)

Here is my (non-abbreviated) cliff notes of the book of Mark:

*please note, this is my interpretation - not to offend - but simply help me digest the material, and possibly help others glean. All scriptures are based out of the NLT version. 

So, the book begins with John the Baptist proclaiming: "Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am - so much greater that I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit! " (Mark 1:7)

The book of Mark gives testimony after testimony of Jesus healing, casting out demons, speaking authority over evil or demonic spirits, and performing miracle after miracle.

Here are some of the main accounts:
-the blind man can see
-paralyzed man can walk
-extremely diseased is no longer with fever
-sends demons out of a little girl (7:24-30)
-a bleeding women stops bleeding (she had female issues he cured!) (Mark 5:30-34)
-crazy man has demons cast out of him, and Jesus sent the spirits into a herd of 2,000 pigs that ran down a hill side and straight into a lake of water and drowned. (Mark 5: 1-16)
-speaking peace over a storm
-heals all who touch Him (Mark 6:53-55)
-feeds 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish (Mark 6:30-44)
-brings a dead girl back to life. (Mark 5:35-43)
-walks on water to his disciples (Mark 6:45)
-feeds 4,000 people with 7 loaves (Mark 8:5)

Read it! It's in there!

You really see the frustration Jesus has with the religious leaders. Majority of them absolutely did not believe that Jesus was anything that he said he was and mocked his teachings. They accused him of getting his powers from Satan. (Mark 3:20-30). Several times they tried to trick him with weird questions or back hand compliments. Mark gives us several examples of this when they ask him about fasting, divorce, and taxes. All of which he answered with extreme eloquence and pose. (If I do say so myself). One of my favorite encounters is when the Pharisees were asking Jesus about taxes.

"Teacher," they said, "we know how honest you are. You are impartial and don't play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us - is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them, or shouldn't we?" Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, "Why are you trying to trap me? Show me a Roman coin, and I'll tell you." When they handed it to him, he asked, "Whose picture and title are stamped on it?" "Caesar's," they replied. "Well, then," Jesus said,"give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God." His reply completely amazed them. (Mark 12:14-17). BAM! Seriously, eloquent and pose right?! That is the kind of quick (but wise) natured words I desire.

Jesus quickly created a following and large masses of people would turn out to hear him preach. Can you imagine? No microphones, sound equipment, or high tech projectors and yet he still ministered to the thousands! When he taught, he often told parables (or stories) to help the people understand. After his sermons, he would further explain himself to his disciples, just to make sure they understood what he was really trying to say.

I think the most incredible part of reading Mark is the fact that miracle, after miracle he told the people to not tell anyone. Only one time he told the crazy man that had the demons go into the pigs, to go and tell his community of influence what He had done for him. When I was first reading through Mark, I really didn't understand this. Naturally, if I was doing all these miracles and setting people free, I would want them to go and tell anyone and everyone right?! I mean hello! But here is the deal: Jesus wasn't coming to Earth to show off. The devil was (and still is) doing just fine at that. However, Jesus came to be a personal one on one God. He wants YOU. One at a time, one heart at a time, one personal relationship at a time. He didn't (and still doesn't) want people speaking they follow Him with their lips but has no relationship with Him in their heart. Hope that isn't too deep, but do you get what I am saying? He cared single handily about each one of those people he healed or performed miracles on just like he cares about you and me specifically. Pretty neat huh?

Anyway, back to the book. Several times the disciples are just in aw and confused by Jesus. They say things like "who is this man?" I can only imagine; you have been the cool kids for 4 years and rule the high school and then comes this new guy. You accept him as "one of the boys" but then he starts doing things that are "weird" or "not normal" right? The disciples seem to constantly be questioning who Jesus is and half the time, not getting what He is trying to teach them! I think I would have been SO MUCH more frustrated with the disciples than He was. Talk about herding cats! Golly!!

Jesus speaks about the greatest commandment. Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31).

Jesus warns the disciples three different times in the book of Mark about His death. He walks them through what will happen. The book ends with the traditional Easter story. You have palm Sunday where Jesus comes in on a donkey and the crowds are flooded with people waving palm branches and laying them before His path. Four days later, what is now called, Maundy-Thursday, is the last supper. Jesus explains that one of you will turn me in and tells Peter he will deny Jesus 3 times before the rooster crows. Friday morning, Jesus is crucified. My study notes said it was predicted to be about 9am when he was nailed to the cross and 3pm when he took his last breath. He rose from the grave 3 days later. We now celebrate this series of events through the Week of Easter and on Easter Sunday.

The amazing part about Jesus raising from the dead is that he went down to hell put an absolute butt whooping on the devil and then went to Heaven. Good news for us - HE paid the price, so we don't have to! All we have to do is accept Christ and then walk in who He has called us to be. Seems so easy right? That is because it is!!

Seriously, I really enjoyed reading Mark. Again, I strongly encourage you to do the same. It is an easy read and filled with some awesome information about Christ's ministry while he was walking this Earth.