Daily Devotional for Monday 15th April
John the Baptist prepares the way
Today sees us start a new series looking at the Gospel of Mark for our daily devotionals.
Mark’s gospel rattles along at quite a pace – it’s shorter and more focused than the other two ‘synoptic’ gospels (Matthew and Luke), which most scholars think were written down after Mark, to expand on his account. There’s no Christmas story in Mark – but that makes sense if he got his material from one of the Disciples (by tradition, Peter). They, of course, weren’t around in Bethlehem 30 years earlier. Mark is probably the man referred to in Acts as ‘John Mark’, who was a fellow-spreader of the ‘good news’ with Peter and Paul.
So why does Mark start with John the Baptist – what makes him such a key figure? Maybe the clue is in the quote from Isaiah which opens the book – Mark sees straight away how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. This is a theme picked up many times throughout the gospel. More than any other of the writings in the New Testament it is about who Jesus really is – often demonstrated by showing that His closest followers didn’t always understand it fully at the time! And John here is a witness, right at the beginning, before any miracles, before any teaching, before any revelations, that Jesus is unique and far more than just a good teacher. People probably treated John with a mixture of awe and incomprehension – maybe a bit scared of his zealous intensity – but his message was loud and clear: It’s not about me!
Cue for a song:
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You
It's all about You, Jesus
Time to reflect…
It is all about Jesus isn’t it? If you’ve never thought of it like that, Mark is the place to start a deeper understanding of the Christian message. Because, as we shall see, Jesus is actually God.
Pause to pray…
Our prayer for today is to see Jesus in all His glory – as Paul says in Colossians (chap. 1 v15)
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
