Mark

Mark is the second and shortest of the four Gospels, and by wide agreement the most fast-paced. Church tradition attributes it to John Mark, a companion of both Paul and Barnabas and later of Peter, and holds that it preserves Peter's eyewitness preaching, likely written for Roman readers. Mark skips the birth narratives entirely and opens at a run: 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,' with John the Baptist in the wilderness and Jesus baptized and tempted within the first thirteen verses. The word 'straightway' drives the narrative forward again and again.

The first half of the book is packed with action - demons cast out, Peter's mother-in-law healed, the paralytic lowered through the roof, the storm stilled, Legion delivered, Jairus's daughter raised, the five thousand fed, and Jesus walking on the sea. The turning point comes at Caesarea Philippi, where Peter confesses 'Thou art the Christ,' and from there Jesus repeatedly tells the twelve that the Son of man must suffer, be killed, and rise again. The final week in Jerusalem - the entry, the temple, the last supper, Gethsemane, trial, crucifixion, and the empty tomb - fills more than a third of the book.

Mark matters for its stark portrait of Jesus as the Son of God who is also the suffering servant. Its key sentence sums up the whole gospel: the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Mark calls readers to take up the cross and follow, whatever the cost.