Mark reads the way it does because it is a story of action, written to the Romans who were a people of action. This second of the biographies of Jesus found in the Bible serves to show us Jesus was a man of action. He and His disciples didn't wait around waiting for the report on the report of the subcommitee to investigate what a certain group of people might possibly think if this theoretical policy were implemented, hypothetically speaking. Rather, our Lord went forth spreading His message and doing His Lord's will.
Chapter 1
v1-11: Mark opens with an introductory verse, then alludes to how the events he is writing about were foretold by his ancestors, citing Isaiah's prophecy about John the Baptist*
Mark then quickly moves onto the ministry of John the Baptist himself, including His baptism of Jesus.
*For the uninitiated, Baptist in this case means one who baptizes, not the first member of the Baptist denomination.
v12-13: Mark then gives a brief summation of Jesus' time in the wilderness and temptation by Satan.
Jesus, the second Adam, was with the wild beasts, but was not harmed by them, just as the first Adam wasn't before he sinned. This is because Jesus had perfect dominion over the animals.
v14-15: Jesus' coming signified a new era, where the inner kingdom of God had arrived and simultaniously would be coming, culminating in Christ's second coming which Christians today eagerly await.
v16-20: When Peter, Andrew, James, and John were told by Jesus to follow Him, they got up and did so without hesitation, just as anyone should respond to Jesus when they hear the Gospel.
Zebedee and his sons were successful fishermen because they could afford to hire people. They were well-off by the standards of their day and nation, sort of middle class.
v21-28: The scribes, who wrote down what the Pharesies said, could teach based on what they thought the Scriptures said, but Jesus, being the author of those Scriptures, could teach with real authority exactly what they truly meant.
Jesus also shows His authority here by casting out a demon. Being God, Jesus had authority over the devil, as we have already seen in this chapter, as well as his fallen angels.
I'm not exactly sure what "had torn him" means, but you can be sure the demon left violently, possibly putting up resistance. Maybe this "tearing" took the form of convulsions or something.
v29-31: All joking aside, Peter cared for his mother-in-law.
As opposed to when demons leave someone, sickness leaves gently when Jesus heals it.
The immediacy of the first healing recorded in this Gospel prefigures the believer's being caught up into glory at the return of Christ when, "In the twinkling of an eye" as Paul says, Christians will go from their earthly bodies with all their attendant problems to our glorified, perfect bodies that never get sick, injured, wear out, or die.
v32-34: Jesus heals and casts demons out of many people as an announcement that the kingdom of God has arrived on Earth, a kingdom (eventually) Satan will never bother again and where there will be no more sickness.
Jesus wouldn't permit the demons to speak because, just like the possessed girl in Acts, those evil spirits might speak truth, but they would do it in such a way that would turn people away from worshipping God.
v35: Jesus went off to pray by Himself and Christians should practice this, too.
v36-39: After Jesus' time of seeking the Father, it was time to get back to work.
v40-45: First, note that the affirmative answer to our prayers is always contingent on God's will. Not giving us what we want doesn't mean God loves us any less.
Second, note that the now cleansed lepper sinned by telling people about his healing when Jesus expressly told him not to.
Jesus didn't want the lepper to publicize being healed because the essential purpose of Christ's ministry was to glorify the Father, not merely to do things for people for the sake of doing those things.
Chapter 2
v1-12: If we as Christians have had any answers to our prayers, then we have that much more assurance of our salvation in Jesus Christ and that our sins have been forgiven by Him.
Sin is the problem that causes all other problems.
v13-22: Tax collectors were looked down upon in this society (even more than they are in ours) because they were seen as working for the man, the Roman oppressors of the Jews. Thus, Matthew's only friends would have been either co-workers or the lowest of the low.
The point Jesus is making in these verses is that everyone needs the Great Physician for their spiritual and all other healings: no one is well, including (and maybe especially) the scribes and pharisies.
In fact, we're so sick we need new hearts, referring to the new garment and the new bottle. Unbelievers can't just start doing Christian stuff. Rather, they need to be born again. Acts 2 38
v23-28: Again, the pharisies only cared about outer things like rules regarding what could and couldn't be done on the sabbath. Jesus brings people back to the original intent of this day which is meant for man as a day of rest, not something that man had to strain to keep as it had been made into by those whom people thought were representing God's law.
Chapter 3
v1-6: Jesus continues to defy the manmade rules about the sabbath by going into the synagogue and healing a man.
The pharisies' hearts were so hard Jesus had to ask them rhetorically if it was right to do good on that day of the week. Afterword, the pharisies were so angry they took counsel with Herod's people about how to have Jesus killed. This is what adherence to the letter of God's law rather than the spirit does to people. 2 Corinthians 3 6
v7-12: Jesus continues to be popular among the common people, whatever the teachers thought of Him.
v13-19: We don't know too much about the backgrounds of most of Jesus' disciples.
v20-30: Satan can't cast out himself or do any healing that bears the fruit of someone going on to truly fill the God-shaped void within onself.
What Jesus is saying about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit here can be paraphrased, "Look, guys, I don't care what you say about me. Saying I cast out demons by Satan can be forgiven. However, if you blaspheme the Holy Spirit by rejecting His impression on your heart to believe in Me, you will get no second chance to come to Me after death."
v31-35: The Catholic church places too much emphasis on Christ's earthly family. Jesus Christ's family is made up of those who follow Him.
Chapter 4
v1-20: Christians can't lose their salvation, but they can throw it away. We need to deepen our faith by praying, meaning conversing with God, not just talking to Him. Christians also need to study the Word of God, not just read it, and to meditate, meaning actively think about, what they've read and studied. That way, neither persecution nor temptation to fall back into sin will cause us to abandon Jesus.
As to our Lord's words in verse 12, there are people out there who will just not believe, will just harden their hearts and make every effort they can not to understand what Scripture says.
v21-23: Even though Christians are going to face persecution, we need to proclaim Jesus and continue to confess Him because He's going to return and be proven right eventually.
v24-25: I have experienced the truth that when one passes on the truths one has been given from God, more truth is received.
For those who lack the truth of the Lord, even the supposed truth they think they have, whatever false belief system that may be, will be taken away and shown for the false hope it is in the end.
v26-29: We Christians preach the Word in whatever form we do that and unbelievers listen, getting more and more interested until they come to believe (Acts 2 38), and then we disciple these babes in Christ, teaching them all we've been taught.
v30-32: We start out as new Christians with very little real faith in terms of the greater faith that comes from daily experiencing life in Christ. As we grow as Christians, however, our real faith grows to the point where we provide refuge for others, comforting with our faith, truth and godly counsel.
v33-34: See verse 12.
v35-41: The disciples didn't have much real faith at this point. Their faith was hollow at least partly because they hadn't yet had enough experience of Jesus. They needed to learn that He did indeed care about them and that doing the impossible really meant doing everything that was not humanly possible. We are on this journey today as well.
Spread the seed of the Word because the One in whom you believe has the power and the authority to calm storms.
Chapter 5
v1-20: There were two demoniacs but only one is mentioned in this account because he was the demoniac who got delivered.
The man who formerly had a whole legion of demons in him now becomes the first missionary.
v21-43: Just as with the woman who had the issue of blood, our actions as Christians spring from our faith and this faith is what allows God's people to accomplish things.
It's one thing to heal the sick, as Jesus has already done, but could He raise the dead?
After the girl is brought back to life, Jesus prompts those standing around to act, demonstrating once again that He is a man of action and Christianity, while it certainly contains that most important element of contemplation, is a faith of action.
Jesus, being God, is the one who has the power and authority over the devil, his fallen angels, and the curse of death.
Chapter 6
v1-6: As a Christian, many times the people closest to you are the hardest to reach.
Verse 3 proves that Mary, in fact, was not a perpetual virgin as the Catholic church teaches.
In verse 5, it doesn't mean that it was impossible for Jesus to do miracles in His hometown: just that, because of the people's lack of belief about who Jesus really was, our Lord did not respond by doing miracles and healings, but for a few exceptions among those who perhaps went against the majority.
v7-13: Contrary to some, well in particular one fringe sect out there, the commands given to the disciples here were specific for this particular mission. However, there is a bit of an application in what Jesus said about shaking the dust off your feet in verse 11. It's not that we, as Christians, ever give up on people, but some people are just two hard to reach with the Gospel. We should by all means tell such people about Jesus, but just know that there will come a time when God tells you to stop preaching to them.
Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart, then God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
v14-29: Just like John the Baptist in verse 18, Christians need to let the world know what they do violates the Law of God.
The words in verse 20 should not be misconstrued to say Herod believed John's message. A lot of people like to listen to preachers and may even obey some of their teachings. This, however, does not mean they have professed any true, heartfelt belief in the Saviour.
Contrast Herod in this passage with everything this chapter, and of course the rest of the Gospels, say about Jesus.
v30-38: The disciples are rejoicing, yet tired, after completing the mission given them by Jesus earlier in this chapter, so Jesus takes them away privately into the desert to recharge their batteries. However, thousands of people follow them and, rather than commanding them to go away, Jesus has empathy and teaches them. This is because that multitude were like people today, sheep without a shepherd, willing to look anywhere for what might seem like a satisfactory answer to the big questions of life.
The disciples' idea of further empathy to this, as would be ours, is to let the crowds go before things drag on any longer so they can get something to eat. Jesus, however, has things go according to His definition of empathy and tells the disciples to do the impossible by feeding them.
Keep in mind the loaves were more like buns and the fish were about the size of sardines.
v39-44: As we also see in 1 Corinthians 14, God is a God of order.
In this passage, Jesus fulfills several things in Psalm 23.
While the selfish puppet king is kissing up to his underlings at a lavish banquet, Jesus is giving of His heavenly resources to feed the common people.
Keep in mind there were probably a lot more than five thousand people there. The text says five thousand men. If many of these had brought their wives and they had at least a few (more likely several) children, then that is many more than a flat 5 thousand indeed, and they still collected up twelve baskets of leftovers.
Materially and spiritually, I have had times of this abundance from God.
v45-52: The disciples had just seen Jesus feed thousands and thousands (a general numerical phrase I think I can use without contradicting Scripture) with five buns and two sardines with twelve baskets worth of food left over. Yet, it did not occur to them here to think "If the Master can do that, maybe He can also walk on water."
We, as Christians, do the very same thing. In my own life as well as many of you readers, it seems like every new situation we get into where we need specific help from Jesus presents the need to remind us that God can actually do what we're asking Him to do, even though we shouldn't at all feel that way due to the sheer number of times He's helped us out of seemingly impossible situations in the past. As I mature in Christ, this happens less, but it regretibly happens too much for me to be comfortable with.
v53-56: See the story of the woman with the issue of blood.
Chapter 7
v1-23: Jesus isn't saying it is wrong to wash your hands before you eat. Rather, the washing of hands referred to here is ceremonial washing of hands.
The Pharisees had a tradition that you could earn a huge amount of favour by giving lavishly to the temple. They allowed people to do this so those people then would not have enough money to take care of their aging parents and thus could get away with not looking after them if they didn't want to.
Again, Christ is emphasizing that it is our inner selves that are important because that is the place from which outward sins proceed.
Verse 19 declares we no longer have to observe the Old Testament food laws.
v24-30: The Syrophenician's woman's daughter was healed because the woman humbled herself, admitting she was a dog, undeserving of anything. All people must approach Christ with this attitude.
v31-37: Jesus heals in different ways and takes different amounts of time to do so in individual cases.
In this passage, Christ fulfills verses in Isaiah 35.
Chapter 8
v1-21: The disciples continue to demonstrate the immaturity of their faith by questioning how to feed a multitude when, two chapters ago, Jesus just fed more people with less food. They further demonstrate this immature faith by thinking, when they were in the boat, that Christ was mad at them for forgetting to buy bread, as if the One who fed 9 thousand men in total plus women and children with a few buns and some sardines couldn't make bread out of nothing, as if the One who spoke the entire universe into existence, creating it from nothing, couldn't make bread out of nothing.
Signs were being given: the Pharisees just didn't want to recognize them.
v22-26: Again, we see Jesus healing in different ways, by process instead of instantly.
v27-33: Peter understood who Jesus was, but then Satan took an occasion in Peter to try to prevent Jesus from fulfilling His earthly mission.
v34-38: The Christian life is about not doing the sins that our fallen selves want to do, having an attitude of being willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel the way our Lord did, and doing the things Jesus wants us to do.
We have to take the eternal view. It's our eternal life in Christ that's important, not all the things on which the world places importance, though some of those things might seem like matters of life and death. The direction of our souls is the true matter of life in death.
All of this is why to deny the Lord, to not confess Jesus Christ, is so important, because confessing Jesus is part and parcel of the true Christian's earthly life and purpose.
Chapter 9
v1: The kingdom of God with its attendant power was ushered in when Christ rose from the dead and was truly activated at Pentecost. It will exist a lot more fully when Jesus returns and the millennial reign begins, then it will be fully realized in eternity.
v2-10: I wonder how Peter, who related a lot of what Mark wrote down for this Gospel, and the other disciples thought when they were telling the Gospel writers all this stuff that they were now free to reveal after Jesus' death and resurrection.
Moses represents the law, Elijah represents the prophets, so the two of them are in essence pointing to Jesus.
v11-13: Other Gospels reveal Jesus here was talking about John the Baptist.
v14-29: This passage tells us two very important things.
First, disability and other maladies can be caused by demons. The devil's minions are not always responsible, but it would be foolish for Christians to rule this out 100 percent of the time.
Second, lack of faith and/or lack of dedication to prayer and fasting, if it is indeed required for a given situation, can cause our prayers not to be answered. Again, lack of faith and not praying or fasting enough isn't always the reason we don't get what we've asked God for, but again, don't 100 percent exclude this possibility.
We are weak but Jesus is strong.
v30-35: The stuff in these verses would be expanded upon in the chapters to come.
The disciples didn't ask Jesus about what He'd said because they were afraid of the answer, due to the fact what Jesus was talking a bout wasn't what they wanted for Him.
v36-41: Whatever a Christian does in Jesus' name, with the new heart God has given him, will be rewarded, however unimportant, insignificant, unpleasant, or miniscule that task may seem to that Christian.
Also, just because someone calling themselves a Christian doesn't believe everything we believe and isn't in our circle of brothers and sisters, this does not necessarily mean they aren't a Christian.
The disciples just failed to cast out a demon in Jesus' name, yet they rebuked someone else who was successfully doing the same thing in the same name.
v42: This is why I support the death penalty for pedophiles. Nothing can hinder a child's coming to faith in Jesus like that. Either under the blood or under the sod.
v43-50: The Christian life is one of freedom, but individual followers of Jesus may need to exercise personal legalisms, abstaining from things which are not forbidden to Christians but would be a hindrance to that person's particular walk with the Lord. For me, this involves not having TV service, as I would spend too much time channel surfing ungodly programming just to kill time. These things are what help us stay seasoned for God like good salt and aid us in having the mindset we need in order to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace as Ephesians 6 talks about.
Chapter 10
v1-12: The point being made in Mark's version of Jesus' answer to this question is that people need to think of and keep always in mind what marriage is supposed to be. God instituted marriage as a lifelong commitment, but more so a device where two people, a man and a woman, would become one. It is not for human beings to take this thing of marriage lightly and break the one in two whenever and for whatever reason they feel like it. In fact, Jesus basically says here that to do so constitutes the commission of adultery which is a capital offense under God's law.
Note here, too, that Jesus affirms Biblical literalism by pointing to the Book of Genesis as if the events therein actually occurred.
v13-16: In this society, children were loved but were not esteemed, to say nothing of being esteemed and even idolized to the extent they are today in certain quarters. Children were seen a lot as an inconvenience, at least till they attained the age when they could help their family earn money. Jesus shows His love and valuing of children, as He loves and values all those created in His image.
People must receive the kingdom of God like a little child, that is having no claim of accomplishment or reasons that we have earned a place in God's kingdom. All our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64 6) and therefore any claim we could make to, for example, be a good person who just needs a little help from Jesus to go all the way are false, stupid and blasphemous.
v17-31: First of all, this passage is not commanding every Christian or everyone who wants to become one to get rid of all their worldly possessions. This is contradicted by 1 Timothy 6. Rather, this was a specific commandment to one young man and those like him who put their material wealth before God, violating the first of the ten commandments.
Jesus loved this young man and it would have been possible for the rich lad to do what Jesus specifically commanded him if he had let Jesus and His Heavenly Father truly take control of his life.
In becoming Christians and denying ourselves Christians now have a whole family of believers all over the world and those believers ought to, as in Acts, hold things in common. This does not mean having a communistic attitude where we say, "Hey brother, what's yours is mine so give it here." Rather, this means having a God-born attitude of "What's mine is yours."
Christians also have eternal life in a perfect paradise to look for and this is the view God's people need to keep constantly in mind as we endure through this world.
When Christ returns the people of this world who get ahead by putting God last and other things first will be counted least, whereas Christians, the offscourings of this world as 1 Corinthians 4 13 says, will be the greatest, ruling the world with Jesus Christ for a thousand years.
v32-45: Jesus tells His disciples what's going to happen to Him in Jerusalem and all James and John seem to care about is who will be greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, seemingly not paying attention to what Jesus said at the beginning of this passage, nor the previous one.
The two brothers would indeed drink the cup Jesus drank, with James being the first martyr and John not being martyred but instead living a long life wherein he suffered much persecution.
The ministers of the institutional church don't touch on verses 42 and 43 very often.
The method of leadership that is acceptable in God's eyes is servant leadership. People in leadership roles in the church are there for the purpose of serving others.
v46-52: This passage does not contradict other gospel accounts of this incident. Matthew says there were two beggars, but this passage in Mark chooses to focus on the one perhaps because the readers would have known Bartimaeus or his father.
Also, there were two Jericos, so Jesus and His disciples could have been leaving Jericho and entering Jericho simultaneously.
The quote from the disciples at the end of verse 49 I believe could be rendered, "Boy, are you ever going to get it now for disturbing the Lord."
In verse 50, Bartimaeus casts away his garment (meaning his outer garment, his cloak), symbolizing how Christians need to cast off the old life when they get saved (Hebrews 12 1-3.)
He also threw away his garment as part of not continuing his old life, as when Jesus told the man at the pool in John 5 to arise, take up his bed and walk. Christians shouldn't leave the trappings of their old, sinful lives set up for them to go back to. In verse 51, Jesus asks the blind man what he wants, Jesus being one of the very few people in history to ask this of a disabled person instead of just presuming what Bartimaeus wanted and then either going ahead like a bull in a china shop or else coming up with some lame excuse why he couldn't help Bartimaeus in the way he thought the blind man wanted.
Bartimaeus' faith made him well, just like the woman with the issue of blood and just like our faith makes us well as Christians, whether we're talking physical healing or, most importantly, our spiritual healing through our beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ. Acts 2 38
Chapter 11
v1-11: This passage describes Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus would indeed take the rule of the world from Satan and those who followed him but the opposite way from what people thought. Instead of going into Jerusalem and then onto Rome, kicking butt all the way, our Lord would gain the victory over God's enemies by dying the most humiliating death one could at that time, then rising from the dead three days later, truly overcoming all His foes. Zechariah 9 9
Verses 3-6 show God's dominion over all things.
v12-14: The fig tree represents the old covenant.
Jesus has authority over His covenants and His house.
v15-18: Many preachers have turned God's house into a den of thieves today. The house of prayer, in many instances, has become a noisy marketplace. Isaiah 56 7
The priests had allowed shop to be set up in the place where those gentiles who had professed faith in the Most High God were supposed to be able to pray and worship.
v19-23: When Jesus tells me I can speak to a mountain and cast it into the sea, I get the feeling one day He is going to expect me to do that very thing.
v24: The thing is, our desires have to be conformed to God's will.
v25-26: It's not that our failure to forgive leads automatically to our being kicked out of Heaven, but the unforgiveness we harbour toward other people will come between us and God to the point where, if this unwillingness to forgive isn't checked, we will fall away from the faith as Hebrews warns about, no longer loving our Lord or caring about serving Him because we would rather spend our time being bitter at those who have wronged us. I think this is one of the things Jesus meant a few chapters ago when He talked about the cares of this world choking out our faith.
v27-33: The Pharisees didn't recognize John the Baptist, the one who rolled out the red carpet for Jesus, so why would they recognize Jesus Himself.
Jesus does not reward unbelief.
Chapter 12
v1-12: In this parable, Jesus tells of the history of God's people, foretells His soon to come death and speaks of His vindication by the Father.
As Jesus states plainly in John, the religious leaders of His day who were against Christ were the spiritual so to speak, descendants of those Jesus is referencing here who killed the prophets. They would prove this shortly.
v13-17: In verse 14, the Pharisees were making a feeble attempt to flatter the Lord, lying through their teeth.
What belongs to God? Everything. Therefore, if you are going to make the government your god, give everything to it, but if you are going to let God be God, give Him everything.
v18-27: First of all, I'm wondering how all seven of these brothers died. Was the oft bereaved woman a black widow?
Seriously, though, Jesus makes a very important statement in these verses concerning marriage. Marriage is not, as the world likes to think of it, forever. Therefore, anyone practicing a religion where permanent love spells are involved, such as hoodoo, is a fool.
Those who had faith in God who have died, such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are not dead. Their souls are just elsewhere and they will be fully alive again, that is physically, at the first resurrection.
v28-34: Real Christianity is about loving God with everything you've got and loving your neighbour with the same quantity of love you love yourself, which is an enormous amount, even for people who claim to hate themselves. Real Christianity is not about a bunch of rules, rituals and other outward things.
v35-37: In this passage Jesus declares that He is God as well as the Son of God.
v38-40: The most outwardly religious people are often the biggest hypocrites, twofold more sons of Hell as Christ refers to them in the Gospel of John. It will be worse for these false believers than for those who never claimed to believe at all.
v41-44: What are you going to do with what I guess would be their equivalent of two nickels, the cheapest coins we've got? That sum of money won't allow you to invest in anything in order to improve your situation. When you realize the good or the worth you think you have in yourself is less than two nickels to God, that it is in fact worth nothing, turn that worthless life of yours over to the Lord instead.
Chapter 13
I believe the signs of Jesus' coming, of the end times, started to be fulfilled after His ascension, possibly particularly with the destruction of the temple in AD 70. I think of these things as waves on a beach, that get stronger and stronger as the tide comes in. These signs are now getting stronger and stronger all the time and will culminate in the tribulation period.
I do not believe in the pretribulation rapture. Christians will be here for the whole thing, which is why we need to stick close to the Lord. We don't know when exactly it will be, as Jesus says here, but I have a feeling Jesus will return within my lifetime.
Members of families who are Christians will snitch on and betray one another in times of persecution, as has happened throughout the last 2000 years.
I believe the abomination of desolation refers to sacrifices being offered in a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Sacrificing animals in the style of the old covenant would, in its way, make desolate Christ's sacrifice once for all on the cross and would thus of course be an abomination.
As to the days being shortened, I'll just say for now have you noticed it seems like there's less time in the day all the time?
When you see a tree bud and leaf, you know what seasons are coming up. Watch the signs of Christ's coming like you watch the signs of nature.
The earthly temple was destroyed, but God's true temple (as spoken of in 1 Peter 1) will last forever.
Chapter 14
v1-9: First of all, note the attitude of a lot of people who seem to be all about helping the poor, whether they actually do anything to aleviate poverty or not.
Second, note that, by Jesus' words in verse 7, humanity is never going to eliminate this social problem.
v12-16: Note here, in the acquisition of the upper room, how Christ is showing His dominion over all things, just like with the donkey Jesus used for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
v27-31: Events later in this chapter show why boasting is a wrong and foolish thing to do.
v32-36: It isn't that Jesus was trying to back out of fulfilling His earthly mission and going to the cross. Jesus was fully God and fully man. No man wants to willingly experience pain, especially as much pain as our Lord endured for us, if they can help it. This is why Jesus is saying here, "If there's any other way for You to save humanity, Father, let me not have to do what I'm about to do."
v37-42: Not ten verses ago, Peter was thumping his chest about how he would have the Saviour's back to the end, even if Peter had to die with Jesus. He couldn't even stay awake for the little while Jesus was praying, even though he was told to do so three times in the garden as well as on the Mount of Olives in the previous chapter.
v51-52: Scholars think the young man referred to in these verses was Mark, the author of this book of the Bible.
Mark would rather undergo the shame of being naked in public than the shame from the world of sticking with Jesus.
v54-65: Sanhedrin trials were supposed to be held during the day, this one was at night. They were to take place in a courtroom, this one was at the high priest's house. Sanhedrin trials also weren't supposed to be held at the time of a festival, this one was. The court was supposed to hear from the defense first, that never happened. Verdicts were to be deliberated till another day, the verdict in this trial was reached on the same day.
Jesus didn't conquer in the way we think of conquering. Rather, He did so by suffering, dying and rising again.
Chapter 15
v3-5: The God of the universe doesn't have to answer to those who are grossly misrepresenting His religion.
v33: Amos 8 9
v37: Normally, people who were crucified died specifically by suffocation, thus not being able to cry out in defiance of death at the end. However, Jesus cries His triumphal war cry, then dies.
Chapter 16
v1-8: It is significant that women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb and were told by the angel to tell others because in those days women really didn't count for much and were not looked on as being capable of giving reliable testimony. Thus, if this were a made up story we would be reading about men in these verses.
The women were trying to finish up the burial process.
People say verses 9-20 were added to Mark later and were not originally part of this Biblical book. I hope and pray the following notes aid in convincing you their conclusion isn't true.
v9-12: Again, the first person to actually see our risen Saviour was a woman, followed by another woman who was on the road with her husband, these details being present in other Gospels.
Note, too in verse 12 that our resurrected Lord appeared to two ordinary people as they were walking along the road into the country. A conquering hero would normally lead a procession into a city. Jesus didn't make His first appearance, or any appearances as far as we know in the temple or in Caesar's palace in Rome for the purpose of announcing, "Hey cruel world who just committed the most unjust act that will ever occur in history. Guess what! It's me!" No, Jesus appeared to the kind of people with whom he most liked to associate: the common person.
Also, of course, the very first person Jesus atypically appears to as the conquering king is a former prostitute.
v13: Atheists should keep in mind Jesus' disciples didn't believe He had risen either at first. It is not as they portray with them all immediately having some sort of impossible mass hallucination over a forty day period and automatically believing Jesus had done what He said He would fulfill.
v14-16: The narrative of these verses is what happens to each individual believer. We are hardhearted and unbelieving, whether or not we've grown up in the church. Then, in a spiritual way, Jesus appears to us and we believe, changing our minds about who He was, which is what repentance really means, to change our minds.
We then go on to tell others about Him and what He did for us, fulfilling the great commission given here.
Verse 16 is why I emphasize Acts 2 38 all the time.
v17-20: I believe this passage was part of the original manuscript of Mark's Gospel. We see evidence of a lot of these signs being present in the Book of Acts as well as all the signs occurring throughout church history. It is ridiculous to think Jesus would tell us to go into a dangerous world that is hostile to Him and His message and not give us anything supernatural to aid us in this Christian life, or that God would give us these signs for roughly the first hundred years of our mission and then have them cease. You really have to twist the Scriptures in order to support this doctrine.
This book ends with Jesus' ascension and His followers doing what He told them to do. If this is a novel, then it's the worst one in the world, but if it's true, Mark ends this perfectly. Jesus doesn't take over the world in the way we would define taking over the world. Instead, He leaves us on Earth to do His work along with Him up in Heaven. Jesus Christ is the true hero who did and does everything opposite to the way of our heroes.
Bizarrely from the world's standpoint, this work includes accidentally picking up snakes, as Paul did, being given poison to drink, and healing sick people. You would have thought, if it were fiction, the disciples would have been commissioned to sit pretty in Rome or at least Jerusalem forcing everybody to give them the royal treatment in the name of the Lord. His ways are not our ways.
