The Stories of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark

The oldest of the old, old stories are found here in the Gospel of Mark – in their purest,
most unadulterated, form.

The Gospel of Mark appears to be a bridge between an oral tradition and a literary tradition,
between spoken word and the written word,
between stories told by word of mouth and stories read aloud to a group.

Isaiah 29:13
Mark 6:1-6
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
The Stories of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark

Ever get a song stuck in your head?
A few weeks ago this song got stuck in my head – and its still there.
    Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear;
    things I would ask him to tell me if he were here:
    scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
    stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

So, I got to thinking, we have lots of stories of Jesus – some good stories – and  we should be telling some of them.
We should be telling them, because it is up to us.
We don’t hear these stories anywhere else these days.
They aren’t being told in schools,
they are not on television very often,
and, most families today don’t know the stories in order to tell them to their children.
So, we have an obligation, really, to tell the old, old stories . . . of Jesus and his love.

So, for the next few Sundays, I will be telling some of the stories of Jesus.

Last week we looked at the very oldest stories I could find about Jesus.
The very first stories of Jesus that we know of.

Just to remind us, the obvious needs to be stated: no one was following Jesus around with a tape recorder loading sound bytes for future generations.
No one was following him around with a pencil and papyrus.

And, again, as a reminder, none of the documents in our New Testament were written when Jesus was alive –
all of the stories of Jesus we have in our Bible,
the stories we have heard all our lives,
were written long after Jesus lived.

We know that almost all of our Jesus come from the four Gospels in our Holy Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
And, Biblical scholars from all persuasions agree on general dates each of the Gospels were written.

And, it has become clear from studies in last 60 years, or so, studies of the Dead emphasis Scrolls,
the Nag Hammadi library,
and other “recent’ discoveries of ancient documents,
each of the Gospels in our Bible comes out of a different community reflecting different traditions, (different denominations, if you will) –
communities of “Christians” that differed in some ways from other communities of Christians –
differed in their practices,
differed in their racial/ethnic make up,
differed in their emphasis,
differed in their theology behind their understanding of Jesus.

All Biblical scholars seem to agree that the very first Gospel (the earliest one that was written) is the one attributed to Mark.
(This document is called Mark because it stems from a community that was influenced by the Mark the Evangelist. 
No one thinks that the Gospel of Mark was written by the Apostle called Mark –
The Gospel of Mark was written around 80 AD – about 50 years after Jesus was executed.
That would make the Apostle Mark an unbelievably old man for his day.
But we have found out that there were a number of Christian communities that came to be because of Mark and his work as an apostle after the death of Jesus.
These people heard Mark’s preaching,
followed Mark’s teaching,
and heard Mark’s stories of Jesus.
(The old, old, stories . . .)

The Gospel of Mark appears to be a bridge between an oral tradition and a literary tradition,
between spoken word and the written word,
between stories told by word of mouth and stories read aloud to a group.

Mark is the first of the Gospels to be written,
and it is the shortest.
It is a page-turner. 
For centuries, readers have participated in fast-paced episodic stories about the life of Jesus –
whom was called Christ.
It has long been recognized to be a document to be read aloud in a group, rather than alone for instruction or meditation or inspiration.
It is composed for the ear rather than the eye.

It is unique from the other Gospels – Matthew, Luke and John – in that it is about events – what Jesus did –
really, with very little concern about what Jesus taught.

Mark’s Gospel was published and circulated first – before all the others.
Matthew and Luke knew of Mark’s work, and copied most of it.

So, by definition, Mark has some of the earliest stories of Jesus we know of.

Mark doesn’t mince words.
Words are used sparsely and carefully.
Again, to carry a punch when read aloud.

The very first verse begins with an affirmation – just to be clear –
This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

But then, unlike the other Gospels, Mark launches into a story about John the Baptist.

Again, like we saw in the Apostle Paul, the very earliest believers had no interest in Jesus’ birth,
no interest in Jesus’ genealogy,
no interest in Jesus’ ancestors,
no mention of Jesus’ parentage,
no Bethlehem stories,
no shepherds,
no star,
no wise men,
no angels of glory.

He starts out with a story about John the Baptist.
Why would he do that?
Why start here?

There is an undertold story about John the Baptist.
The Gospel writers knew it first hand.
We have “discovered” it in the revelations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Nag Hammadi documents, and some of the archeological discoveries of recent years.

They have found evidence of communities – congregations – of people who followed John the Baptist –
perhaps these were people who were baptized by him, or folks who were baptized by those who were baptized by John.
They organized their lives around the ministry and teaching of John the Baptist –
and many thought him to be the long-awaited-for Messiah.

But, there was this caveat: 
John claimed that he was not the messiah.
His mission was to get folks ready for the one who was to come.
“People get ready, there’s a new world coming . . .”

Sometime before Mark’s gospel there must have been efforts to bring together – to merge – the Christians – Jesus’ people;
and the Johannines – John the Baptist’s people.

So, Mark begins,
this is the story of the Good News of Jesus the Christ – the Son of God –
and it begins with John the Baptist.

Finally, for the early believers, here in one place we have a collection of all the stories that people have heard told about the life of Jesus.
These are primarily stories of events,
what Jesus did.
And, Mark emphasizes that they together they provide more than enough proof that Jesus was God’s son.
We have stories of miracles.
We have stories of healings.
Jesus even exhibited power over forces of nature:
he could walk on water without sinking,
he brought dead people back to life,
he stilled the howling winds,
he calmed the troubled waters.
(All in all, the picture is presented more akin to a Roman god than any of the prophets of Jewish literature.)

Again, Mark is like an archive,
a collection of the stories that were being told about Jesus.
Mark was a re-teller of the stories
(the old, old, stories),
not so much an editor as a collector.

For instance, there is the story of the feeding of the multitude.
Mark includes two versions of the same story.
Somewhere along the way of transmitting the story  by word of mouth over the years,
stories about details of the event changed.
There were two separate traditions with their own stories by the time Mark collected them.
Rather than editing them to fit together, they both were included (Mark 6:32-44 and Mark 8:1-10).
And, those that study these things, point out that before these two different stories came to be, there was another story – the one that got changed.

One version talks about five loaves and two fishes.
The other version mentions seven loaves and a few fish.

One version fed 5,000 people, the other 4,000.

One version had twelve baskets of left-over food, the other version had seven baskets of left-over food.

In one version, after the event, Jesus got in a boat to Bethsaida,
in the other version Jesus got in a boat to Dalmanutha.

There are a lot of other examples that are fascinating to those who study such things.


I find it fascinating that most of the stories of Jesus that we like to hear –
our favorite stories that we like to repeat –
the Christmas stories,
the parables,
the sermon of the mount,
the Lord’s prayer –
these were not the oldest, old stories,
these were not the earliest stories of Jesus,

It took another 30 years, or longer, before these stories came into being and were being told within and to the Christian communities.

The oldest of the old, old stories are found here in the Gospel of Mark – in their purest,
most unadulterated, form.
It’s short enough to read at one sitting.
I encourage you to read it again –
to find out what those earliest believers were being told.

Tell me the stories of Jesus that I long to hear . . .

Tell me the old, old, story of Jesus and his love.

I encourage you to continue singing the songs,
and continue telling the stories.
There is no one but you and I that are telling the stories.
Keeping the stories alive is a sacred task.

I will keep on searching for the old, old, stories of Jesus – and keep you posted on what I find out.
As we continue next week with another episode of The Stories of Jesus.

Amen.

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, heard this sermon during a worship service September 16, 2012.