One of the accounts of the
gospel I love is that of mark. When I set my eyes on this book my Adrenalin
goes on a high pedestal. It’s like being taken through a whole season of Game
of thrones in a single episode. Its in this book that the author loves to
display the flow of events using words as,’once’ ‘Immedeately’’then Jesus said
or did’ .There seems here to be a seamless flow of events which is very
captivating .
Mark 1:21And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he
entered the synagogue and was teaching (esv)
The author
isn’t interested in giving a detailed account of the genealogy of Jesus. He
just plunges us into action. It’s not to belittle the account of Mathew who
dedicates almost a whole chapter to give an account of the genealogy of Christ.
The author just plunges us into action boom, Jesus’’ ministry.
Mark 1:23-26 and immediately there was in their
synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out,
24 "What have you to do
with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God."
25 But Jesus rebuked him,
saying, "Be silent, and come out of
him!"
26 And the unclean spirit,
convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him(esv)
I can imagine how Jesus
storms into a religious meeting and starts teaching about the kingdom of God.
He was a student of no one neither had he any reputation against the scholars
of the day, nevertheless he storms right there and begins his teachings and all
who were around were amazed at how he spoke with such authority, immediately off
course .
Mark 1:40-42And a leper came to him, imploring him,
and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean."
41 Moved with pity, he stretched
out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."
42 And immediately the leprosy
left him, and he was made clean.(Esv)
After Jesus storms into a religious meeting and his
authority is made manifest before the people , a case study actually does the
icing sugar on the cake . Here comes a leper imploring and kneeling before him
but immediately Jesus reveals himself , who he is, Lord manifest in the flesh
but moved with pity . I am thinking the first thing that immediately must be
registered in my mind is about the compassion and the loving kindness of our
lord . He always precedes our diverse situations such that even before the
leper came imploring jesus to heal him, he was already moved with
pity/compassion .
Well that’s how the Book of Mark rolls. You may
want to read it for yourselves and get captivated in its thrill but what’s the
point here ?
The word ‘immediately’
or once as used in the gospel of mark in Greek is eutheos which when translated
means straight away, at once , directly . This is what captivates me about this
account of the gospel . While the religious party are caught up in their
normalcy , Jesus enters the scene and straightaway introduces a new way of
ministry, a new message that completely disrupts the normal flow of events, of
understandings or conceptions . I think that’s what the gospel does by immediately
pervading our lives and scandalizes all the misconceptions we have heard about
God, about the gospel and even about ourselves.
The gospel when immediately enters the heart of a
sinner , that sinner is immediately made a saint . Its not about the process. the
religious folks in Jesus’ time were so much into process, into methodologies. “Who
is Jesus? Where is he from? Who taught him these things?” etc the gospel is the
good news of God towards mankind that when proclaimed immediately enters human
hearts and dislodges everything that is not in accordance with it.
The whole point of the use of this ‘euthos’
language in the book of mark is to display the ministry and the works of jesus;
his message of the gospel and how it breaks into human life making all things
new. It sounds like the effect the gospel has in us , how it lands on us like
ton of bricks submerging us in it and making us all new .
As you enjoy reading the book of mark, How about
being submerged in its breathtaking narrative, How about being aware of Gods immediate
activity of pervading your life, after all that’s what being baptized in Christ
really means .
Romans
6:3-4Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
4
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life. (Esv)
6:3similarly through baptism we have been murdered,
dead and buried. Sin is now a dead foreign language.
6:4 the baptism of Christ In which we share In an
equal stature shows us how dead we are and how alive and active we have raised
up to life to walk in a kainos new way of life to the glory of God.(Kainos
amplified)
The gospel is as the
murdered life . The person and the being opf God has immediately pervaded our
lives, we are dead and buried. Sin becomes a foreign language and now the
reality in experience is how we can live and walk his life in a newness of way
so to say. We live now for his glory .
