2.19.22 - An Introduction to Mark: A Gospel of Trials (Kenny Camacho)
SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:1-28
“The Gospel of Mark is meant to invite Christians to keep their questions in front of them, because it will ultimately be those questions that see us through our own trials. If we think our faith is just about what we have declared we believe about Jesus–“Jesus is my Savior!”–we are still keeping ourselves at the center of things and putting our hope in our own strength. But the Christians in Rome are at this very moment learning the limits of their own courage in the pits of the Colosseum! Ultimately, what they need–what we all need–is a hope that comes not from what we can do but from what Christ is still doing in us, despite our weaknesses. Like the disciples, we have been invited to put down our nets and to follow Jesus in wonder.”
REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What are some of the ways people might answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” How would you answer that question?
Why do you believe what you believe about Jesus? When and how has that belief shifted over time? What could cause it to shift in the future?
If the structure of Mark’s gospel mirrors that of a courtroom trial (where Jesus is being “accused” of being the Messiah), what evidence “against” Him do we see in the first chapter? Walk through it together: what is Mark’s “case”?
Kenny spent some time talking through the calling of the first disciples. What can we learn from this part of the story? Why does Jesus call them? What do they have to do in order to follow Him? What do you think they knew about Jesus, at the moment they decided to go with him? What keeps them in His entourage, over time? What can we learn from this?
At the end, Kenny said that the demon asks the right question: “what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Why don’t other characters in the first chapter ask this question? What does Jesus’s answer seem to be? How does this question affect your own view of who Jesus is…and why you might (or might not) believe in Him?