John Mark

Summary:

John Mark followed Jesus as a young boy. The process of maturing was a little rocky, but Jesus stuck with him, and he stuck with Jesus. He was the center of one of the biggest rifts in the Christian church, and it probably hurt his feelings. But in the end, God used Mark to write one of the brightest and most powerful narratives of Jesus’ life, the Gospel of Mark.

Big idea: Jesus is not looking for perfect people, he’s patiently growing faithful followers.

Introduction

My first sermon lasted maybe 10 minutes. I was 15 and had just attended a lay pastoral training weekend focused on preaching. When I was scheduled to preach at church, I raced through my notes and stepped down. It was maybe 11:45 and the saints weren’t sure what to do with themselves. One nice lady pulled me aside afterwards to give some constructive criticism, “you need to slow down. Us old folks can’t follow when you speak so fast.” — She had no idea what my sermon was about. Maybe God did some miracle and made my words impactful for some teachable soul, but in my memory, that sermon was, at best, an embarrassing teachable moment.

Today’s Follower Story is about a young, immature boy who grew into a man. Maybe he was a teenager when this journey with Jesus began, but I think he was about 10 or 11 years old when he first met Jesus.

This story is filled with twists and turns, scary moments, divisive conflict, and redemption.

Here’s the point I want you to catch today:

next

Jesus is not looking for perfect people, he’s patiently growing faithful followers.

Introducing John Mark

Acts 12:12 gives us a good starting place for Mark’s story. This tiny tidbit about Mark is sandwiched into Peter’s story of a miraculous release from prison in Jerusalem. An angel came to him, unlocked his chains, and led him past two guards and through locked doors until he was on the street. Verse 11 says, “when peter came to himself,” suggesting that the whole time he was with the angel he felt like he was in a dream. But once they were actually outside the prison walls he realized that God had freed him from prison.

Acts 12:12 ESV

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

This house of Mary’s and John Mark’s was in Jerusalem. It was a place that Jesus and his disciple frequented. It’s likely that this was the house they ate the last supper in. The house they hid at after Jesus was crucified. The house that Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection. And the house that they were at when the holy spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

John Mark’s house was the center of huge movements in Jesus’ ministry; probably even more than the Bible explicitly tells us about.

Let’s start in John 2 verses 13-22: the first time Jesus cleansing of the temple, shortly after his ministry started. While the story doesn’t include John Mark, or even children, I think you’ll forgive a little creative license since, when Jesus cleansed the temple the second time, children flocked around him.

In the Temple with Jesus

title

His parents called him John, but like most kids, he had two names: a Jewish name, Yohanan, and a Roman name, Marcus. Let’s call him Mark, just to keep things simple.

As our story begins, Mark was a young boy somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. His mom, Mary, had heard John the Baptist preach. One day she and Mark had visited the Jordan river where the Baptist was baptizing. Mary saw a man come up to the baptizer and John treated him different than the rest. After he was baptized, a glowing, brilliant dove flew down on his shoulder, and a booming, thundering voice came from a clear sky. She didn’t know what the voice said, but it was so obviously different, she knew this man was special.

But Mark… he just knew they had traveled all day to get there, and now they had to sleep in the little town of Bethabara, or Bethany beyond the Jordan, as many translations put it. The next day, Mary and Mark took the days journey back to Jerusalem to resume their normal life. Or so Mark thought.

About a month went by and Mary was acting a little different after listening to John the Baptist—more conscientious about things. And Mark thought she was a little nicer than she used to be. And then there was the passover. So many people were in Jerusalem, so Mark would run around town and earn a few coins helping people cary their things, recommending a place to lodge, or helping watch the sacrificial animals they brought while families were getting things sorted out for the passover. While he was scurrying around Jerusalem, Mark ran into a group of guys with that man who his mom had pointed out several weeks before at the baptism. There was something different about him, and he heard the group of men call him, Jesus.

Curious, Mark followed them as they headed for the temple porch where people were trading their perfectly good lambs for temple lambs that had been blessed by the priest. It was noisy, and the people were arguing with the traders because they couldn’t just trade their sheep for a temple sheep, they had to pay a steep price for the blessed sheep. Disappointed and angry voices filled the space until Mark heard Jesus shout above all the noise, ““Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” (John 2:16)

As he spoke he turned over the money changers tables and opened up animal pens, cracking a whip he had made from some chords and chasing after the bewildered tradespeople. Even the religious leaders and priests who were in the square were afraid of Jesus and ran out.

But something drew Mark to Him. Even a ten year old could tell that Jesus wasn’t angry at the good people who had come to make sacrifices. He was angry at the people who were being unfair and charging steep prices and making religion into a money making scheme. Mark didn’t like it when people were unfair. People had treated him unjustly, simply because he was a kid. But Jesus was obviously different and Mark wanted to get to know him.

So, when other kids started to come up to Jesus, Mark nudged his way in so he could meet Jesus too. And, amazingly, instead of talking to the big people, Jesus played with the children. He grabbed Mark by the hands and spun him around. And then He picked up one of the kids even younger than Mark and plopped down on the ground with her and began to ask her questions about herself. For a few minutes all Jesus cared about was Mark and the other kids.

Before Mark realized it, he had spent the entire day with Jesus. As the sun was starting to go down, he knew his mom would be cross with him for not coming home earlier, so he raced away, taking one last look back at Jesus.

Bethesda

A year went by and John had another birthday. He was 11 years old when Passover came around again, and there was Jesus again with a group of people around him. Mark saw him go into the area by the pool of Bethesda and out came a man that Mark knew had been a cripple for most of his life! A buzz of excitement went through the streets and people who saw it described Jesus healing that man. But not long after he had come, Jesus left, and Mark went back to his house.

The Feast of Tabernacles

Every once in a while Mary would tell Mark about things she heard from her friends: Jesus healed some people with leprosy. Whole towns were healed of all kinds of diseases. An evil spirit was cast out and a person had become sane again. A dead boy had been brought back to life. It was SOOO exciting. Mark couldn’t wait to see Jesus gain. But it took another year and a half before Jesus came back to Jerusalem.

This time Jesus had come for the feast of tabernacles. Mark was big enough to go out into the woods and cut down branches to sell to the people making structures for the festival. As he was cutting he saw Jesus’ group of followers walking toward Jerusalem. He was so excited he dropped his branches and ran to follow behind them and see where Jesus would go. Over the next few days Mark hung out around the disciples as much as his mother would let him. They mostly ignored him, and sometimes asked him to help them out with a task. When he could, he would listen to Jesus.

The religious leaders and pharisees kept pestering Jesus. One time they came with a woman who they said they caught in adultery. He knew that whatever adultery was, it was really bad. But the guys that brought her to Jesus seemed unnecessarily rough and mean, and that seemed really bad too. And then Jesus quietly bent down and started writing with his finger in the dust on the ground. One by one the mean men slunk away and that just left the woman on the ground in front of Jesus. Mark heard him say, “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.”

Over and over again Mark saw Jesus relate to people with compassion and kindness, and Mark knew he wanted to follow Jesus.

The last week

About six months later Mark heard that one of Jesus’ friends, Lazarus, the nephew of Simon the Pharisee, had died and Jesus brought him back to life. That was hard to believe, but there were so many amazing things about Jesus that Mark figured it must be true.

Not long later, on the first day of the week, all of Jerusalem was in an uproar. Mark hadn’t been there, but everyone was talking about it. Jesus had come into Jerusalem like a king, riding on the colt of a donkey, and all the people were waving victory branches and shouting, “Hosannah to the son of David!” It made the temple officials really mad.

A few days later, Mark’s mom, Mary, had asked him to set up the symposium—a large upstairs room that they used to entertained guests. “Who do we have coming over?” Mark asked. Mary replied that she didn’t know. She just felt that she was supposed to make it available for someone. Before Mark went out to play and find odd jobs, he set up the table and pulled out extra pillows. But as he was stepping out of the house he recognized a couple of Jesus’ disciples who were headed strait towards him.

“The master would like to use your house for the passover meal,” they said. Mark ran back inside to get Mary. When she heard the proposal, she welcomed them right in and showed them where they could prepare the meal.

That meant that Jesus was coming to Mark’s house! How exciting!

Jesus and the rest of the disciples came into the house and went up to the room where they ate the passover meal. Mary didn’t allow Mark to go into the room, but he listened at the door as long as she would allow. As the night stretched on Mary sent Mark to put on his PJ’s. It was getting warmer at nights, so he just wore a linen robe to bed. After Mary sent him to bed, Mark made sure the door to his room was open a crack so he could still hear Jesus.

Mark knew something important was happening. Jesus got up and took the disciples outside. Mark felt like he couldn’t help himself. Up he got and went to the door. He slipped on his sandals and followed them out, keeping to the shadows.

Mark was about a 13 year old, and he didn’t want to be left out of the grown up conversations so he kept close enough to hear Jesus. He heard him the disciples, “abide in me and I in you…” He watched as Jesus led them through the grape vines, and then the olive groves. He sat down in the grass when Jesus told the disciples to stay there and wait for him as he went to pray. Jesus went deeper into the grove to pray, and all the disciples went to sleep waiting for him. Mark found it hard to keep his eyes open, and soon he was curled up, too.

He startled awake to the sound of marching feet and the clattering of armor as the temple guards led several priests up the trail. They were there for Jesus, but they grabbed all the disciples and Mark. He twisted and turned in the hands of the guard while he heard Jesus ask them, “who are you looking for?” When they said, “Jesus,” Jesus said, “I am he… And since I am the one you want, let these others go.”

Mark had no idea that this was going to happen. It was really scary. The other disciples tore away from the guards and into the darkness. Mark tried to get away, but he couldn’t, until Peter swung his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. That’s when the guard holding him reached for his sword with one hand and Mark saw his opportunity. He pulled himself down and away from the guard’s hand that he was holding Mark’s PJ’s with and suddenly he was free… but the guard still had his PJs. Like a lightning bold Mark fled into the darkness, sticking to the shadows all the way home. He was so glad there were no street lights and that most everyone was asleep. Otherwise it would have been really awkward.

He went to bed worried for Jesus. The next morning he heard they had taken him to Pilot and then to Herod, and that he was now back at Pilot’s court being sentenced for the crime of claiming to be God.

“I’m sure He is God,” Mark thought.

His mother, Mary, was distressed by the whole trial. She went to protest, but by the time she got there Jesus was carrying a beam for a cross down the street on his way to the hill where they crucified people. Mary wept along with several other women and Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Luke 23:28)

Mark picked his way through the crowd and was able to see Jesus as they put him on the cross. It was terrifying and awful, but there was something beautiful about it too. As they nailed his hands and feet and stood the cross up and then dropped it into its hole, Jesus’ only words were, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

The midday sun was mysteriously blacked out, leaving the place eerily dark. Mark made his way back to his house with a heart full of worry and confusion. Later his mom came home and she told him that Jesus was dead, and they were burying him in a tomb.

The disciples who had been there just the night before came back to get their things and Mary encouraged them to stay. All day Sabbath they huddled together talking and crying. Mark listened from the corner. Some of them tried to sleep, but it was hard because they were worried someone would come for them at any moment. Then, on Sunday morning, Mary went with several of the women who traveled with Jesus to take spices to the tomb and probably prepare the body. But Jesus wasn’t there! They went back to tell the disciples that Jesus was gone and they told them that they had seen an angel saying, “Jesus is alive!”

Peter and John ran down to the empty tomb and sure enough, Jesus was gone.

Mark’s house was chaos and people talked over each other. Mary Magdalene encouraged the other disciples, telling them that Jesus had predicted this would happen. But the men didn’t pay her much attention. Afraid that maybe the priests would think they stole Jesus’ body, Mary locked her doors and put up a barricade so people couldn’t break in. Then, suddenly, without any of the doors or furniture moving, Jesus showed up in the room and greeted them, “Shalom. Peace be with you.”

Mark becomes a missionary

The disciples stayed at Mark’s house for the next couple months. Jesus would come and go, teaching them at the house and taking them on long walks. But then one day they came back and Jesus wasn’t with them. They said he had floated up into the air and disappeared into the clouds. But, they said, angels had appeared to them saying, “this same Jesus that you saw go up into heaven will come back down again and take you to be with Him.

For ten days they spent nearly every moment in that upper room in Mark’s house—praying, talking through disagreements and forgiving each other, discussing Jesus’ teachings, and wondering what it meant that they would receive power someday soon.

And then it happened. Mark heard a rushing noise like there was a huge wind outside. He raced to the room the disciples were in and found that they had bright lights like flames above their heads and their faces were joyful and determined. Brushing past him, Peter headed outside and started to talk to the people where were just outside the house. The crowd quickly grew and by the end of the day 3,000 people joined them in their new Jesus movement.

Like me when I preached my first sermon, Mark was a young man when he decided to follow Jesus. He was immature so Peter didn’t take him on his preaching trips, but when he was in Jerusalem, Peter would come and spend time with Mark, teaching him more and encouraging him to serve Jesus in some way.

His uncle, Barnabas, also took an interest in Mark. Barnabas became a follower of Jesus and donated pretty much everything he owned to support the new church.

The Bible doesn’t say what Mark did as a young adult, but I like to think that he tried his hand at some industry before he became a missionary. Maybe he sold things in the market. Maybe he worked in the hospitality industry. Or maybe he helped the deacons in the church and lived with his mom for the next 17 years. We don’t know. But I think that Mark was dissatisfied with whatever he was doing. He had given himself to the crucified and risen king of the universe. Surely he could be more useful than a porter or an assistant.

When the church laid hands on Barnabas and Paul Mark was bugging uncle Barnabas asking if he could go with them. Soon they agreed and took Mark on their first missionary journey. This puts Mark in his late 20’s or right about 30 years old. He’s a young man. Not yet married. Still discovering who he was as an adult.

Acts 13:4–5 NLT

So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and then sailed for the island of Cyprus. There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went with them as their assistant.

title

Mark carried their bags. He made their lunches. He helped them write letters. But it was so frustrating. He saw amazing things happen, including the governor of Paphos who became a follower of Jesus. And a sorcerer who Paul looked in the eyes and told him, “Elymos, You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and the enemy of all that is good! …You will not see the sunlight for some time.” (Acts 13:9-11) And instantly Elymos was blind. Things were incredible, but also really frustrating. All Mark got to do was be servant to these two missionaries. When he complained and asked to be more involved, it was like Paul didn’t hear him.

So, when Paul and his crew left for Pamphylia, Mark took the boat back home to Jerusalem. To Paul it was a selfish, self-centered, and proud way to act, and Paul didn’t have any time for people like that.

But Barnabas saw the struggle in Mark’s heart and he had compassion.

When Paul came back to Jerusalem some time later, Mark was interested in getting back into mission work.

As they were packing their things to get going on their second missionary journey, Barnabas suggested they take Mark with them, but Paul wouldn’t even consider it. He didn’t think it was wise to take a flake like Mark back out in the field. He was immature and unreliable. How can you trust someone who ghosts you like that?

It was a heated conversation and in the end, Barnabas told Paul to go on by himself, he would go somewhere else and take Mark along. Paul recruited Sylas and they headed off for Syria. And Barnabas gathered some provisions and took Mark with him to Cyprus.

This was one of the biggest divisions in the church up to that time, and it was all because of Mark.

Conclusion

This conflict was the last time we hear of Barnabas. Luke went with Paul and the story of the early Christian church is told through Paul’s ministry lens. Surely Barnabas and Mark did great work, we just don’t know much about it. For more than 10 years we don’t hear anything about Mark, until about 61 or 62 AD—about the same time Paul met Onesimus in Rome.

Paul wrote a letter to the church in Colossi and included this tiny tidbit:

Colossians 4:10 ESV

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him),

And with that little snippet Mark it pulled out of obscurity and given a role of significance in the church.

About that same time Paul told Philemon that Mark was a “fellow worker” of his. (Philemon 24)

A couple years later Mark was back in Rome ministering with Peter. Peter calls him, “Mark, my son.” (1 Pet 5:13)

And in 66 AD Paul told Timothy to “bring mark… he is useful to me.” (2 Tim 4:11)

By this time Mark would have been about 39 years old. A mature man with significant experience in the church, and a close friend of Peter.

next

About 30 years later, Papias, a Christian writer, says,

“Mark, having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately whatever he remembered of the things said or done by the Lord, though not in order.”

And that is how we find ourselves with the Gospel of Mark.

A little boy followed Jesus. A barely teenage boy fled from arrest. A young man grew up in the newly formed Christian church. And then, when he was called into service, he flaked. He fled. He abandoned his position. Maybe he had a good reason, or maybe he was just an immature young man that made a bad choice.

next

Here’s what we find in Mark’s story: Jesus is not looking for perfect people, he’s patiently growing faithful followers. Jesus didn’t need Mark to be a perfectly mature person all at once. He was glad to have little Mark on his knee. He was delighted to have teenage Mark tag along in the shadows. He was grateful that Mark was willing to prepare a place for him to spend time with his disciples. And he was thrilled to have him become a missionary for Him. Even when Mark found himself running away, Jesus didn’t see it as abandonment. He knew Mark was young and He didn’t mind sticking with Mark through his maturing journey.

Notice how Jesus connected Mark to his uncle Barnabas who put his own ministry on the line to support Mark.

And He gave Mark Peter who was willing to call him a son and provide restoration and mentorship.

And even Paul came around as he saw God working in Mark’s life, eventually publically affirming him.

title

Mark’s legacy is the gospel he wrote. Sure, it was Peter’s story, but Mark was the author, through and through.

Mark is the earliest gospel written, probably in the mid 60’s. There are no long sermons in Mark… Jesus is constantly moving. Everything is happening right now. “Immediately,” Jesus heals, travels, teaches. It’s almost like you’re little Mark with his short feet running to keep up with Jesus.

Mark shows Jesus more than explains him. While Matthew gives long sermons, Luke gives beautiful stories, and John gives profound theology, Mark says, “watch Jesus.”

More than the other gospels, Mark gives subtle and interesting details:

Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the back of the boat (Mark 4:38)

The grass was green (Mark 6:39)

Jesus looked around with anger (Mark 3:5)

Jesus sighed deeply (Mark 7:34, 8:12)

The rooster crowed twice (Mark 14:72)

Jesus’ looked at the rich young ruler with love (Mark 10:21)

These are Mark’s touches of detail that show he saw Jesus through his young eyes.

It’s as if Mark is saying, “look at Jesus. Pay attention to Him. He won’t ever let you down.”

Whatever age you’re at right now, you can seek Jesus out too. Just hang with him. Sooner or later he’ll make it clear what He wants you to do for Him. Whether it’s being a helper for someone else, or having a leadership role, that doesn’t really matter. After all, Mark was a helper and a scribe, and in those humble roles he was used to be a powerful influence in telling Jesus’ story.

I think Jesus will do something similar with you.