The Gospel According to Mark: Jesus the Suffering ServantSample

Mark’s account of Jesus’ life starts off at a sprinter’s pace and never slows down. Watch for the word “immediately” as you read.

Mark skips the birth and childhood of Jesus and jumps right in with, “This is the Good News of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.”

Right from the beginning, Mark grabs his readers’ attention with a shout about what’s coming. But strangely, even though Mark races ahead from event to event without a pause, the very first thing he does is look back hundreds of years to a promise made by Isaiah (one of the most well-known prophets of the Jewish people, and one of the longest books in the Old Testament).

Mark writes: “It began just as the prophet Isaiah said it would,” with a messenger shouting, “Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!” Back in the days when kings and queens reigned, this was just the kind of thing a herald would say when a king was approaching a town, village, or neighboring kingdom.

And that’s exactly what John the Baptist did here: announced the arrival of a king, of the King. But things weren't going to look the way people expected. The arrival of this King was going to change everything from that moment forward.

Mark is going to tell us and show us why.

Focused Reflection

verse 1 (Mark makes the announcement)

• What do you think the “Good News about Jesus” is?

verses 16-20 (Jesus calls his first followers)

• Think back to when you began following Jesus. Where were you? What did you experience? What drew you to him?
• What things have you left behind in order to follow Jesus?
• What new things have you learned and made part of your life as a follower of Jesus?

General Reflection

• What do you learn about Jesus from this passage?
• What do you learn about following Jesus from this passage?

Extra Info

• John the Baptist was related to Jesus. You can read about his own miraculous birth story in Luke 1. Verse 36 says that John’s mother, Elizabeth, was a relative of Mary. When Mary and Elizabeth were both pregnant, John leaped within his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice (Luke 1:39-40).
• The events in verses 9-11 show the presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit together as one, but still distinct from each other. This is called the Trinity.