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As we prepare for the Christmas season ……

Baby Jesus 399 SXAs we look forward to celebrating Christ’s birth in a few weeks’ time, Rev Suzanne Cooke looks at what we can learn about the real Jesus from Mark’s gospel.

 
As the church prepares for Advent and we begin hearing those familiar Christmas tunes, I’ve been thinking that the gospel of Mark could be thought of as the most ‘un-Christmassy’ of the four gospels! 
 
It starts, not with the story of Mary and Joseph making their way to Bethlehem, Mary having to give birth in a stable and the wise men visiting from the East.  No, Mark’s Gospel starts with the coming of John the Baptist. 
 
Similarly at the gospel’s conclusion, the oldest versions of the story conclude with women running from the tomb in terror at the reality that their Lord has been raised from the dead - news that so shocked them they were quite literally dumbfounded, and told no one of what they had seen and heard. 
 
Compared to the Christmas images that fill our shops, homes, workplaces and lives over the next few weeks - the story that Mark tells us seems sparse and lacking in that little bit of Christmas sparkle. 
 
Also, the gospel is shorter than all the others, for instance leaving out some of Jesus’ more in depth teachings.  It is thought that Mark is the oldest of the gospels, and some writers suggest that it could have been written by ‘Mark’, personal assistant to the apostle Peter. 
 
It is likely that it wasn’t written down word for word - like a kind of dictated biography - but rather that the stories were recorded by Mark in the manner of a journal. He would have written what he had heard and been told by someone who had been an integral and key part of the ministry of Jesus.  He recorded stories that had already begun to change lives, both in the hearing and in the telling and retelling.
 
The Gospel is ‘action’-orientated and yet, frustratingly, seems to be at great pains to play down some of the great miracles Jesus performs.  In Mark’s gospel the disciples are told repeatedly to tell no one of the wonders they have seen. 
 
So, if we take away the virgin birth, wise men from the east, miracles and resurrection appearances, what’s left?  Surely it’s all these things that help to make Jesus, his life and his story, so remarkable? Without shouting about just how amazing this ‘man’ was, doesn’t it become more difficult to convince people that he really was the Son of God? 
 
So what is Mark’s gospel is all about?  Well maybe it’s all about helping us to understand that, by entering into a relationship with God’s son, Jesus Christ, we enter into the greatest mystery, the greatest miracle of all - that the Son of Man came amongst us to change for all time the connection with have with God.
 
Any number of miracles or healings have no effect on that one overwhelming fact.   In Mark, the truly amazing, miraculous things that Jesus did were done, I believe, out of a sense of compassion for the people he encountered. Because he was moved by their faith or by their suffering, not to ‘big himself up’ in front of those who saw them, not to ‘prove’ that he was the Son of God.
 
The Jesus of Mark’s gospel reminds us of just how much our relationship with God has changed with Christ’s coming.  There needs to be no miracles for that to be true - if we listen to Jesus’ words and have ears to hear them, to allow them to transform our lives, then that is the real miracle, one that transforms, and is the true healing we seek.
 
So, the gospel of Mark may be missing those parts of the Christian story that we have come to associate with Christmas. But in the humble man Mark invites us to come to know, we see and are reminded of the one thing we all come to see at Christmas time - that tiny baby, lying helpless in a manger - the ultimate symbol of humility.
 
The image above is courtesy of Debbie Schiel at http://www.freeimages.com/

 


Suzanne CookeRev Suzanne Cooke is the priest-in-charge of the Upper Tas Benefice in South Norfolk and the founder of Soul Circus, a regular creative, experimental service supported by the Diocese of Norwich and the Youth Task Force.  You can find out more at www.soulcircus.org.uk

The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norwich and Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users. 
 
We welcome your thoughts and comments, posted below, upon the ideas expressed here. 
 

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