St. Mark

On this day, April 25th, the Church celebrates the feast day of St. Mark, Evangelist, Bishop, and Martyr. He is called an evangelist because he penned the gospel that bears his name, though it was Peter, not Mark, who witnessed the events and related them to Mark. He is called Bishop because it is believed that he became the first bishop of Alexandria in northern Egypt. And he is called Martyr, because, according to tradition, an angry mob, resentful of his preaching, place a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead.

But the elderly Mark who faithfully suffered a gruesome death some thirty-five years after the crucifixion was hardly the man we read about in the Gospels or the book of Acts. There we find a much younger man, accustomed to a soft life of ease, unacquainted with hardship, and not yet willing to suffer for the sake of Christ.

Mark does not seem like evangelist material, at least not at first. But to be fair, neither do any of the twelve Apostles. You may recall that all the disciples were cowering in fear on the day of Easter. A week later Jesus found them still hiding. And today, on the fourth Sunday of Easter, he rebukes them again for their unbelief and hardness of heart (Mk 16:14). And immediately after rebuking them, Jesus commissions them to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation!”(Mk 16:15).

Well, if Jesus can turn fearful and hard-hearted unbelievers into apostles, then perhaps there’s hope for Mark after all. So what do we read about Mark in the gospels? Well, it depends. He’s there, but you might not have recognized him at first. In the same way that the Apostle John does not mention his own name, but instead calls himself, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” Mark also does not mention himself, at least, not directly. But in chapter 10, we encounter a certain unnamed well-to-do young man who desires to follow Jesus. You know this story. Matthew and Luke also record Jesus’ interaction with the rich, young ruler. He says to Jesus, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mk 10:17b). But Mark’s account adds one important detail not found in the other gospels: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘One thing you lack. Go sell your possessions…then come, take up your cross, and follow me.’ ”

We are told that the young man, who is very likely Mark, went away sad. We’re not told whether he does as Jesus says or not, though if he is indeed Mark, we know that he did. In that case, he was sad because he was preparing to give up his possessions, which he enjoyed very much. Jesus doesn’t tell Christians to pretend that we are happy about our crosses. He tells us to bear them.

We find Mark, or rather, that certain unnamed young man once again on the night that our Lord was betrayed and arrested. All the disciples have abandoned Jesus and fled, but one young man is following the soldiers a little too closely as they lead Jesus away. They seize the young man by his cloak, but he leaves it behind and runs away naked. This is an embarrassing detail that would only have been known by one who was there, and only Mark records it.

Mark, it would seem, has made a habit of being around Jesus, but not too close, lest he lose his possessions or his life. We find a third example of this in the book of Acts. The disciples had been in the habit of meeting in the home of Mark’s mother. In fact, her upper room might have been the very same upper room where Jesus held the Last Supper. It would seem that Mark’s family has been using their wealth to support the preaching of the gospel, as Jesus had directed. In chapter 14 of Acts, Mark, perhaps taking advantage of his family connection to the apostles, accompanies his uncle Barnabas and the apostle Paul on their first missionary journey. But somewhere along the way things get tough and he abandons the mission. Mark wants so badly to be an evangelist, to be connected to Jesus and his gospel, but that comfortable life with all those possessions is hard to give up. When Paul and Barnabas start planning for a second missionary trip, Barnabas wants to give Mark another chance, but Paul refuses. “Mark is too in love with the world to be an evangelist. He had his chance to take up his cross and follow Jesus, and he blew it.”

Paul and Barnabas have such a strong disagreement that they end up parting ways. Barnabas takes Mark and goes one way, and Paul takes another man, Silas. Paul might be done with Mark, but God isn’t. Mark will be the one to write down Peter’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ ministry. In fact, Peter writes of Mark calling him “my son.” And finally, we find that Paul’s attitude toward Mark has considerably changed toward the end of his life. In the last chapter of his final letter, written to Timothy, Paul says, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is indispensable to me for the ministry” (2 Tim 4:11).

Church tradition tells us that after many faithful years laboring in the fields of the Lord, Mark was presented with a final cross, a cross that he had once been unwilling to bear. This time, instead of running away sad or naked, Mark embraced his martyrdom, counting it a joy to suffer the loss of all things, including his life, for the sake of Christ and his gospel. And even after death, Mark’s witness continues. Countless numbers have heard and believed in Jesus through the words that the Holy Spirit caused Mark to write.

Only Jesus could have known the future that was in store for this young man, once torn between his attachment to the world and the call to follow Christ. Only Jesus could have looked at him and loved him. Not even the great apostle Paul could see how Christ would use Mark in his kingdom. But the love of God transformed a confused, frightened young man into one of the four great evangelists.

We don’t have patron saints in the Lutheran Church, insofar as we don’t pray to the dead or ask them to intercede for us with God. We don’t need to. God the Father has promised to hear our prayers himself. God the Son is our only mediator. And God the Holy Spirit intercedes for us even when we don’t know the words to pray. But if by a patron saint we mean one whose example we follow, then consider the example of St. Mark.

Here is a man to whom we can relate, a man who felt the strong pull of worldly pursuits, who on more than one occasion was afraid to suffer for Christ, who fled or abandoned the mission at the first sign of adversity. But for all his faults, here is what Mark gets right: he keeps coming back to encounter Jesus again and again. Wherever Jesus is, wherever the Gospel is preached and the Church gathers around the Word and Sacraments, Mark somehow keeps turning up. Follow his example.

This is nothing other than the life of a Christian, a life a daily repentance and faith. No matter how many times you may have failed to be a bold witness for Christ, if you have been ashamed to speak the truth among your friends or family, if you have been unwilling to lose certain comforts that the world offers, if your heart has been filled with fear or doubt, then follow the example of St. Mark, and return once again to the place where Jesus is. Hear the words of the Gospel, as Mark did from the lips of St. Peter, and let them take root deeply in your heart. Remember, faith comes from hearing the Word of God. You cannot know when or how you will be a witness for Christ. If God uses you to plant the seed of faith in the life of someone you encounter, you may never know. Certainly, Mark could never have know how many people would be touched by his life. What he did know was that Jesus loved him. And this kept him coming back to Jesus over and over, while the words of the Gospel transformed him from a conflicted young man into a faithful Christian and Evangelist. May God grant us to follow St. Mark’s example of repentance and faith. Amen.