Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2003

The Gospels of Mark and Matthew

Last year at this time, we did a series of messages titled: The Spiritual Disciplines of Discipleship.  One of those six disciplines of Discipleship is this inclusion of regular study of God’s word into our routine of life.  One of the five values we hold here at Messiah Lutheran Church is the call to study God’s Word.  To be honest, not just a few of us let this discipline get crowded out of our life.  We are forever finding other things and responsibilities that take precedent.

First, I want to thank and congratulate each and every one of you who have taken up the challenge to listen or read through the New Testament these forty days of Lent.  I know you will feel a sense of accomplishment at having maintained the discipline.   I hope you will also consider this time to be a blessing.  To help provide you with some foundational material and background for your reading and listening, I would like to begin tonight a six -week series on the New Testament as all of us follow-up on our commitment these forty days.  Given the content of our service tonight, we won’t have time for questions and answers.  Other Wednesdays we will.

The Gospel According to Mark

In those days Jesus came from Mansfield, in the region of Ohio, and Jerry the Baptist baptized him in the Ohio River.  As soon as Jesus came up out of the water he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove.  And he heard a voice from heaven, “You are my own dear Son.  I am well pleased with you.”

As Jesus walked by Lake Erie, he saw two fishermen Sam and his brother Andy catching fish in the lake.  Jesus said to them, “Come with me and I will teach you to catch men.”  At once they left their nets and went with him.

He went a little farther on and saw two other brothers, Jim and John.  They were in their boat getting their reels ready.  As soon as he saw them Jesus called them; so they left and went with Jesus.

They came to the town of Mansfield, and on Sunday Jesus went into First English Church and began to teach.  The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught.  He wasn’t like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.

Jesus and his four followers left the church and went straight to the hospital.  There Jesus healed many of the terminally ill.

When evening came people brought to Jesus all the sick.  All the people of Mansfield gathered in front of the hospital.  Jesus healed the deaf, dumb, blind, and those the doctors could not heal.

On his travels throughout Ohio and the United States Jesus chose his twelve followers.  He told them, “I will send you out to preach, and you will have the power to heal the sick.”  These are the twelve he chose: Sam, Jim and John, Andy, Phil, Bart, Matt, Tom, Jimmy, Thad, Sammy and Jude.

Soon Jesus came under the suspicion of the President and the White House because of the vast political power that he had.  They plotted against him and contacted the CIA.

While Jesus was traveling through the streets of Dallas, Texas, a shot rang out.  Jesus had been killed.  The FBI arrested a man they said had killed Jesus but he was later murdered by another man.  The case of Jesus’ death was never solved.  The evil men in the White House knew the key to the mystery.  They knew the CIA had killed Jesus.

On the third day after his death, Jesus rose from the grave.  The entire nation rejoiced.  Jesus told all that if they believed in him they would be saved from sin and death.

This paraphrase of Mark was written by 14-year-old Mike Clinger, a Confirmand in my Confirmation Class back in 1975 when I was Associate Pastor of First English Lutheran Church in Mansfield, Ohio.  You can easily pick-up on the period in our American history that was uppermost on young Mike’s mind when he wrote it—the assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963, twelve years earlier.

I share this with you because it parallels much of what I want to tell you about the Gospel of Mark, the first of the four gospels to have been written.  It is short, factual, to the point and leaves out a lot of the details of Jesus’ life with which we are very familiar.  Let’s look first at the gospel of Mark

First, the word of gospel.  It literally means “good news.”  The name gospel was given to the book of Mark because no one had ever written such literature before. Mark literally invented this style of writing, a literary style that had one purpose, to not only present but also to convince the world that a new day had arrived led by God himself in Jesus Christ. 

Mark is the shortest of the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  It was written about 65-70 AD to teach the next generation of Christians about Jesus before all of the original eye-witnesses or more probably those who knew the first eyewitness had died.  Given how short and well crafted it is, many people find it helpful to read this gospel straight through in one sitting.   As you do, several characteristics jump out at you.

First, as one biblical scholar put it, Mark is all about the last week of Jesus with a long introduction meaning half of the book is given over to the passion of Jesus and the other half about the rest of his 33 years. 

Second, there is a sense of mystery that revolves around Jesus.  Who is he and for what purpose has he come?  People who encounter Jesus often don’t know what to make of him.  Not even his own disciples really grasp what is going on.  They often seem confused and, more than once, they let Jesus down in some very significant ways.

Third, the story is told with urgency.  Things seem to happen very quickly.  The word immediately is used over and over again.  As Joe Friday would put it, it includes ”just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”  People are always surprised at what is not here.  There are no Christmas stories, no Sermon on the Mount, no Gold Rule, no Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus doesn’t tell the Good Samaritan story or the prodigal son.  Lazarus is not raised and there is only a very brief account of the resurrection.  In short, many of the best loved stories about Jesus are not found in the gospel of Mark.  Why?

To understand this we might ask ourselves what we would do if we had the opportunity to tell people a little something about Jesus in a short period of time.  If our time was limited, we would have to pick the most important thing of all.  Most Christians today would agree that the very most important thing about Jesus is that he died on the cross to save us from our sins.  This was certainly the thinking of the apostle Paul, who once said to a church, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). The gospel of Mark reflects these same priorities.

The Gospel of Matthew

This gospel could very well be the most widely read book in the New Testament.  It has always been the church’s favorite gospel, quoted more than any of the others in official documents and statements.  Like Mark, it offers us a testimony of faith in Jesus Christ.  Also like Mark, it shares many of the characteristics of Mark I mentioned earlier.

A member of Messiah came up to me a couple of weeks ago saying that as he listened to Mark, he could swear that he had heard it all before as he was listening to Matthew.  There is a reason for that.  Matthew had the gospel of Mark in front of him when he wrote his gospel.  In fact, there are whole chapters of Matthew that are word for word the same as Mark.  Matthew copied from Mark but he added a lot more making his book 65% longer than Mark.

Matthew wrote his gospel for a church made up primarily of Jewish Christians.  For example, the book takes for granted Jewish concepts and traditions.  He quotes from the Jewish scriptures assuming that his readers know all about them.  He starts out with the Jewish genealogy of Jesus.  Jesus is described as a good Jew who ministers to Jewish people.  Matthew is trying to convince his Jewish brothers and sisters of the truth of Jesus.

Matthew’s Jesus does a lot more teaching.  Jesus gives five long speeches in Matthew most notably the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew’s church apparently had settled in for the long haul of living the life of Jesus.  Until his coming again, they needed guidance and Matthew provided that. Reading carefully, however, one notices that only unbelievers called Jesus “teacher.”  Believers always called him “Lord.”  For believers, Jesus is the one who saves his people from their sins.  In fact, this is why he is called “Jesus.”  The name Jesus is simply a Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “God saves.”

The church is almost as important to this gospel writer as Jesus.  Matthew is the only gospel in which the word church is used.  Matthew’s gospel tells us about his community through his description of the disciples..  Matthew’s gospel describes Jesus’ disciples as failures in order to make the point that Jesus remains faithful even to those who are not faithful in return.  At the same time, however, Matthew’s church is given a most important responsibility.