Mark 4 - 6

Now I understand that my assignment is to reflect on Mark’s words in chapters 4-6, and believe me, I will, however first I feel compelled to discuss a broader topic. 

As of recently I have read a few (and I only mean a few) books on apologetics, which have included commentaries written by theologians who are both Christians and skeptics.  As I was reading their commentaries on the Gospels I felt like Christians would say that the Gospels are divided into two parts, the Synoptic Gospels, and John.  They would further comment that the synoptic Gospels seem to present a lot of common material between them, while the Gospel of John is very unique.  Skeptics would then seem to say something similar, but take it a step further and claim something like – “Well, we really don’t have 4 Gospels, we have 2 Gospels, Mark and John, and 2 more carbon copies of Mark which we call Matthew and Luke.”  So, after having read both of these commentaries, I almost felt like the general consensus of both parties was that the synoptic Gospels are so incredibly similar that there is really no point to reading more than one.  However, now that I have digested the perspectives of these theologians, and gone back and read all of Matthew and dipped into Mark, I think it is wrong to be so dismissive of Matthew as I believe he presents a lot of rich Scripture that is not present in Mark. 

Let us just compare the first six chapters of Matthew with the first six chapters of Mark.  Matthew opens up with the genealogy of Jesus (1), followed by a detailed description of both the events leading up to Jesus’ birth (2), and His birth itself (3).  Furthermore, he mentions the escape to Egypt (4), and the run through Nazareth (5).  Let us pause for a moment … Are any of these 5 events in Mark?  Not a tich.  Okay, moving on.  Matthew then discusses a few events that are common with Mark until we get to … The Sermon on Mound!  Which again is NOT present in Mark.  Matthew struck gold here!  The Sermon on Mound is so dense between not only the teachings on how to live a Christian life, but also, you’ve got Jesus claiming that He has come to fulfill the law (5:17-20)!  I don’t know what Mark was thinking when he left this out!  My point is this … I feel like all too many people hate on Matthew for plagiarizing Mark, and while there may be a few examples of plagiarism, let us not discount Matthew because of it.  His testimony has a lot of new points, and these points are not just fluff, its stuff like - The Beatitudes, and the “Our Father”.  Matthew’s testimony completes the Gospels, and really does provide life enriching Scripture.   

But okay, enough about Matthew, we are done with him, he is history (literally).  Onto Mark.  Chapters 4-6 include one of my favorite events in which Jesus is sighted walking on a lake.  I could talk about this for a while too, but this is getting kinda long and I think my friend says it way better than I do, so I divert you to the link below.  Its only 3 min.  Ch-ch-ch-check it out.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjdndrY78t4