Bible Study

Themes That Count in Mark’s Gospel

This summary identifies ten themes that appear consecutively in Mark’s Gospel.

1. Jesus the Messiah is the Royal Son of God and the Suffering Servant of God (1:1-13).

Coming up out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan River, Jesus sees the heavens ripped open and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. Then Jesus hears the voice of his heavenly Father quoting a combination of Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. Psalm 2 is an enthronement Psalm for the Davidic Messiah, heralding the Royal Son’s rule over the rebellious nations. Isaiah 42:1-4 is the First Servant Song, leading to the potent Fourth Servant Song in Isaiah 52:13—53:12 which describes the Suffering Servant’s sacrificial, atoning death on behalf of sinners. The point is that Jesus is to be both Royal Son and Suffering Servant.  

2. Jesus authoritatively proclaims and demonstrates that the reigning power of God is available to those who repent and believe (1:14—3:35).

Jesus, the Royal Son, announces the theme of his ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the good news.” The kingdom of God means the reigning power of God. Jesus will demonstrate and proclaim in a wide variety of ways that God’s reigning power can overcome evil’s power. At hand means available. The condition for receiving and entering the kingdom is to repent (change one’s whole way of thinking and living) and to believe the good news that the kingdom of God is present. Each passage in Mark 1:14—3:35 demonstrates Jesus’ extraordinary authority as Royal Son and agent of the reign of God.

Twice in this section, Jesus uses the title Son of Man to describe his authority. His use of the title is based on Daniel 7:13-14, 27. The Son of Man in Daniel is entrusted as agent of God’s kingdom, and he exercises his authority on behalf of the “people of the saints of the Most High.”

Jesus puts his divine authority as Son of Man in opposition to the cultural authority of the Pharisaic rabbis. The Pharisees seek to reform the culture by making obedience measurable, thereby creating a moral elite and a contrasting set of outcasts. The success of their approach relies on the sanctioning power of their cultural positions. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus does not rely on cultural forces to sanction his work. The Jesus mission brings the transforming power of the living God into contact with people who know their need, who are ready to repent and believe, who are ready to accept a living God. The Jesus mission helps people change their values and their life patterns, and, to the degree that the culture is changed, it is from the bottom up rather than from the top down.

Jesus wants the Pharisees to know that, as Son of Man, he has authority to heal and to forgive (2:1-12, especially 2:10), and to interpret the Law (2:23—3:6, especially 2:28). For instance, rather than developing ever finer distinctions about what one may and may not do on the Sabbath as the Pharisees did, Jesus as Son of Man authoritatively demonstrates that the purpose of the Sabbath is to free people for knowing, enjoying, and serving God.

Jesus asserts that his kingdom mission cannot be contained by or patched together with the Pharisaic traditions. Jesus comes to call not those who measure up to human religious standards, but those who are lost and broken, those who know their need for divine help (2:13-22).

Exorcisms play an important part in demonstrating the reigning power of God as it defeats Satan’s hold on oppressed people (1:21-28, 34; 3:11-12, 22-30). When the Pharisaic scribes accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, they are blaspheming against the Holy Spirit who is empowering Jesus’ redemptive ministry. Those who oppose the redemptive work of the Spirit are, so long as they maintain that stand, beyond the reach of redemption.

Jesus’ natural family sought to domesticate his mission, but Jesus will not be domesticated. His spiritual family consists of those who hear his word of God’s reigning power and who then live out the radical implications in mission (3:20-21, 31-35).

3. Jesus seeks followers who will heed his kingdom message and bear fruit (4:1-34).

The Greek word for “hear’ is used ten times in 4:1-34. Although many reject Jesus’ kingdom message or fail to persist in their kingdom faith, the purpose of the harvest is realized through those who heed and bear fruit.

Jesus’ parables use familiar details from ordinary daily life. Contrary to what we often hear, they do not use the familiar details to make the parables easy to understand. Jesus’ parables do not have nice little moral points on how to live a better life or comforting thoughts to help us make it through the week. Jesus shocks us by telling us that he uses parables so that outsiders to his kingdom approach “may see but not perceive, may hear but not understand, lest they should repent and be forgiven.” Jesus’ parables are designed to cause proud people to stumble. The suggestion that Jesus deliberately causes people to stumble may upset us. But it is also clear that the stumblers are completely responsible for their own decisions. It is their own predisposition to reject a living God that manifests itself in their failure to understand Jesus’ parables.

The parables bring us face to face with God’s reigning power and redeeming love. They stun us with our need to decide how we will respond to the reality of the living God:

Those who reject the word of the kingdom will lose what understanding they have. Those who receive the word of the kingdom will get more understanding. The parabolic hiddenness of the gospel is not forever. The kingdom may be growing unseen even now in the hearts of believers, but it will come to light and fruit in time.

4. Jesus is totally sufficient to do all that is necessary to provide for his followers as they carry out his mission (4:35—8:21). 

Mark 4:35—8:21 is defined by three events as the disciples cross the Sea of Galilee in their boats (4:35-41; 6:33-52; 8:1-21). In these events, Jesus calls the disciples to greater faith in his sufficiency:

In 5:1-20, Jesus demonstrates his sufficiency to bring fullness of life to a Gentile demoniac, to an ostracized woman with a 12-year-old flow of blood, and to a 12-year-old deceased daughter of a synagogue ruler. We revisit these themes in 7:24-37 where a Syrophoenician woman pleading for her demonized daughter demonstrates audacious faith akin to that of the woman with the flow of blood, and where Jesus heals Gentile man who is deaf and mute in front of crowds that may have been gathered by Chapter 5’s delivered demoniac.  Jesus’ sufficiency extends to Gentiles and works equally well for an unclean Jewish woman and a synagogue official. 

In the remainder of this section, we see three kinds of opposition from people who do not recognize Jesus’ sufficiency: the citizens of Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth (6:1-6), the government of Herod Antipas (6:14-29), and the Pharisees with their self-serving oral traditions (7:1-23).

In the midst of such opposition, Jesus commissions his twelve closest disciples to go out as representatives of the reign of God, healing and delivering needy people and proclaiming the good news (6:7-13, 30-33). Jesus is sufficient to empower their ministry in such circumstances.

5. Jesus teaches his followers that he will be crucified and resurrected and that they will be empowered servant disciples who must be prepared to surrender all in order to minister in his name (8:22—10:52).

There are three kingdom miracles in 8:22—10:52. In the opening miracle (8:22-26), Jesus uses a second touch to complete the healing of a blind man, a metaphor for the ongoing process by which the disciples will at last “see” the significance of his ministry.  In the middle miracle (9:14-29), the father of a demonized boy pleads with Jesus, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” The point is not for the father to summon a larger quantity of faith, but for him to exercise the faith he has. This is an important model for the faith of the disciples. In the closing miracle (10:46-52), blind Bartimaeus leaves all to follow Jesus on the way to the cross. This also is a model for disciples.

Two passages (8:27-30 and 9:2-8) clarify the conclusion to which the miracles point, that Jesus is the Royal Son. In 8:27-30, Jesus draws out Peter’s profession of faith: “You are the Messiah.” In 9:2-8, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountain and there is transfigured with divine glory as he speaks with Moses and Elijah, the representatives of the Law and the Prophets; the voice of God assures Peter, James, and John, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him.”

Even as the conclusion that Jesus is the Royal Son is being emphatically punctuated, Jesus is introducing the Suffering Servant concept. Three times in this section (8:31—9:1, 9-13; 9:30-41; 10:32-45), Jesus predicts his coming crucifixion and deals with the failure of the disciples to get the point.  After the first prediction, Peter rebukes Jesus for considering going toward the cross. Jesus says that not only he, but also the disciples, must move toward the cross. After the second prediction, the disciples divert themselves by arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus tells them that the one who would be great must be servant of all. He explains that a mark of their discipleship will be offering hospitality to children. Servanthood, humility, and hospitality are closely tied with following the Royal Son and Suffering Servant. After the third prediction, James and John ask for the seats of highest honor in his coming kingdom. Jesus tells them that they do not know what they ask. He asks if they are ready to drink the cup he drinks and to be baptized with his baptism, in other words, to die for him. Even the Son of Man came to serve and to offer his life as a ransom for many.

9:1 claims that some disciples in their lifetimes will see the reign of God come with power; this must refer to Pentecost. The sending of the Holy Spirit publicly testifies that the Son of Man has come into the presence of his heavenly Father to receive his eternal kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14; Acts 2:32-36). To see the Holy Spirit working supernaturally among disciples of Jesus is to know that Jesus is exercising his kingly power at the “right hand of God.”

The remaining portion of this section (9:42—10:31) concerns things that can cause disciples to stumble. In 9:42-49, the disciples are to avoid causing others to stumble, and they are to get rid of anything that would cause them to stumble themselves. What the disciples are to expunge from their lives are the kinds of things that would cause them to divorce and remarry (10:1-12) or to fail to follow Jesus (10:17-22). Jesus does not answer what can justify divorce, but focuses on the servant discipleship and kingdom transformation that can fulfill God’s perfect will for marriage in a way that legal justification can never do.   

In 10:13-16 Jesus welcomes the children, seeing them as powerless beings who are willing to accept unearned gifts. That attitude is the first necessity for entering the kingdom. In 10:17-22, a wealthy religious lawyer asks what he must do to enter the kingdom. Jesus challenges him to give away his wealth and “then come follow me.” The rich expert, thinking that he has too much to lose to enter the kingdom as a little child, goes away grieving. Servant discipleship involves abandoning all and in the process gaining all.  Those who follow this path will find substantial rewards in this life and the next life. But they will not escape suffering in this life.

6. Jesus condemns the fruitless religion of the Jerusalem temple and commissions his servant disciples to restore lost people to their relationship with the reigning God (11:1—12:26). 

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem where he will be crucified.  As Mark presents the matter, the precipitating conflict leading to the cross is Jesus’ claim to replace the fruitless temple with his own fruitful ministry, a ministry that will continue through his disciples.

On the Sunday before Passover, Jesus heads into the city of Jerusalem (11:1-11). He is riding an unbroken donkey’s colt, a symbol of the arrival of the Messiah-King. People wave palm branches and call out, “Hosanna!” meaning, “Save us!” or, when applied in this way, “Savior!” Jesus examines the temple, sees what is going on, and goes back out of the city. 

As Solomon, in the mid-tenth century BC, dedicated the temple that he had built for the Lord (1 Kings 8), he prayed that the temple could be a point of contact with: the character and glory of God’s presence, answers for the prayers of desperate people, forgiveness for penitent people, and spiritual awakening for all the peoples of the earth. Nearly a thousand years later, Jesus comes as the Messiah to inspect the temple. Jesus sees that the temple has been hijacked for sterile, elitist, nationalistic purposes. It is not representing God’s steadfast love and compassion, not providing God-connections for people who need help, not offering restoration to penitent people, and not helping outsiders experience the power and love of God. Rather than helping broken people find God, the temple system is driving people to despair.

On Monday, with two symbolic actions, Jesus condemns the temple. First, he curses a fruitless fig tree (11:12-14). Then, in 11:15-19, Jesus drives the animal sellers and money-changers out of the temple’s Court of the Gentiles, quoting Isaiah 56 that the temple is to be a house of prayer for all peoples. The animal-selling, the money-changing, and the related exclusive practices created a barrier to full participation in the worship life of the covenant people for the poor, the disabled, and the foreign. Isaiah 56 foretold that the temple would one day include faithful and obedient foreigners and eunuchs in the covenant people. The exclusive temple of Jesus’ day is not fulfilling that purpose.

On Tuesday (11:20-26), as Jesus once more enters the city and heads toward the temple, the disciples see that the fig tree Jesus had cursed on Monday is now dead. Remember that it symbolizes the fruitless temple. Jesus tells his disciples that, if they have faith, they can tell the mountain (the temple mount?) to be taken up and thrown into the sea, and it will have to obey. Further, they are to be people of forgiveness, so that they themselves may enjoy the benefits of God’s mercy and grace.  In the present context, the point is that the mission fellowship of the disciples is to replace the purposes of the fruitless temple. The disciples’ lives are to be marked by prayers of faith and offers of forgiveness. Their mission fellowship is to fulfill the temple purposes for which Solomon had prayed. The mission fellowship of servant disciples is to be the world’s point of contact with divine atonement and empowerment.

7. Jesus challenges the religious leaders to come to terms with his authority as agent of the reign of God and as Lord over Jerusalem and its temple (11:27—12:44).

Jesus enters a series of controversies with the religious leaders. As they try to trap him, he creatively turns their questions back to them, showing that they do not accept the kingdom of God and challenging them to put love of God and neighbor at the center of their lives. He asserts his authority as David’s Lord, the priest-king of the order of Melchizedek.

Mark 11:27-33. The chief priests, scribes, and elders (Sadducees and Pharisees teamed up together) confront Jesus, asking what authority he had for his action of the previous day. Jesus asks them whether John the Baptist’s authority to baptize was from God. They refuse to answer because they see that they will lose with either answer. Jesus says that, since they will not take a stand, he will not answer their question (but see 12:35-37).

Mark 12:1-12.  Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard owner who prepares his vineyard, rents it out and goes on a long journey. The owner sends a long series of servants to collect the rent, but the tenants either beat the servants and send them away or kill them. At last the owner sends his beloved son, but the tenants kill him, thinking that, without the heir, the vineyard will be theirs. Jesus asks what the vineyard owner will do next. Jesus provides the answer himself: the owner will destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Jesus then quotes Psalm 118:22-23. Jesus himself will be the chief cornerstone (or capstone) of a new temple. The point is that the missionary fellowship of Jesus’ disciples will replace the temple.

Mark 12:13-17. A team of Pharisees and Herodians (a hypocritical alliance!) with much flattery asks Jesus about payment of taxes to Caesar. They plan to accuse him as a traitor against Judaism if he advises paying the tax and as a rebel against Rome if he advises against paying the tax. Jesus asks them for a coin; they produce a Roman one. By carrying Roman coins, the Pharisees acknowledge that they are accepting the benefits of the Roman economic system and that they have an obligation to their benefactor Caesar. But God created us in his own image, and the more important question is whether we acknowledge our responsibility to God whose image is stamped on our lives.

Mark 12:18-27. Some Sadducees, who do not believe in resurrection, tell of a woman who, under the law of levirate marriage, is married successively to seven brothers who die successively leaving her childless. The Sadducees want Jesus to answer whose wife the woman will be in eternity. Jesus responds that there is no marriage in the resurrected life. But he goes on to assert that the God who could identify himself to Moses (many centuries after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived on earth) with the present tense as the God of the patriarchs (I am the God of Abraham, etc.), is God of the living, not of the dead.  

Mark 12:28-34. A scribe who admires Jesus’ answers asks him about the greatest commandment. Jesus responds by quoting the Shema, the most sacred verse in Judaism commanding total love for God (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus then adds the corollary regarding love for neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). This combination is not original to Jesus, but was frequently taught in Pharisaism. The scribe immediately agrees with Jesus. Jesus affirms that this sincere questioner is not far from the reign of God.

Mark 12: 35-37. At last, Jesus asks a question, quoting Psalm 110. Psalm 110 refers back to Melchizedek. In Genesis 14:18-20, Melchizedek was a mysterious king-priest of Salem, later known as Jeru-Salem. Melchizedek was a contemporary of Abraham, about 400 years before Moses and Aaron and nearly 1,000 years before David. Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek. Jesus’ point is that, in Psalm 110, David refers to the Lord God’s saying to David’s Ruler-Lord (“The Lord says to my Lord,” “Yahweh says to my Adonai”), “Sit at my right hand (the place of authority) until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” And again, he says, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus is arguing that there is a kingship higher than David’s and a priesthood higher than Aaron’s.  This higher order is called the order of Melchizedek, but Jesus himself uniquely fulfills this role. In fact, this question implies his answer to the religious leader’s question of 11:27-33. What is his authority? As Lord of David and Aaron, he has authority as Lord of Jerusalem and its temple.

Mark 12:38-44. Jesus condemns the scribes who make great show of piety, but who devour widow’s houses. Then he makes a positive example of a widow whose gift of two small coins (her whole savings) constitutes a greater gift than the great sums that the wealthy are throwing in for show. The widow shows a faith in the kingdom of God greater than that of the religious leaders of the temple. The mission fellowship of Jesus’ disciples must offer a better way for her. 

8. Jesus calls his followers to be alert watchers, discerning how to represent the kingdom mission under changing circumstances, standing firm in faith under persecution, but avoiding false loyalties to fruitless systems (13:1-35).

Here is a summary of Mark 13, inelegantly worded to show continuous action verbs:

13:1-4 Disciple: Teacher, look! What stones! What buildings! Jesus: Do you see these great buildings? Not a stone upon a stone will be left here but will be torn down! Four disciples: When will these things be? What is the sign when these are about to be fulfilled?

13:5-6 Jesus: Be watching out (continuously) that no one may deceive you. Many false Messiahs will try to deceive you.

13:7-8 Whenever you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. They are not yet the end. Earthquakes and famine: these are but a beginning of birth-pangs.

13:9-13 Be watching yourselves (continuously)! You will be handed over to be judged by councils, synagogues, governors, and kings for testimony to them. The good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. When you are brought to trial, do not worry what you are to say, but whatever is given to you, speak this, for you             are not the ones speaking, but the Holy Spirit. You will experience family betrayals, some of you may suffer death, and you will be hated because of my name, but the one         having endured to the end--this one will be saved.

13:14-20 But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not (temple), let those in Judea be fleeing to the mountains. Don’t hesitate; just flee. The affliction will be unlike any before or after. The Lord has cut short those days for the sake of the chosen ones, or else no one would survive.

13:21-27 Do not be believing deceivers, even with their signs and wonders, to be the Christ. But be watching out (continuously)! I have told you everything beforehand. “In those days” after sufferings and cosmic signs, the Son of Man will come in the clouds with great power and glory. He will send out his angels and gather his elect.

13:28-37 Fig tree leaves foretell summer. So these things foretell that he is near. It will happen in this generation (See 13:4 where the words these things refer to the destruction of the temple which indeed happened within the generation of Jesus’ disciples). About “that day and hour,” no one knows except the Father. Be watching out; be keeping alert (continuously). You do not know when the Master is coming. Keep watching.

In Mark 13, the emphasis falls on the coming destruction of the Jerusalem temple (70 A.D.). While every portion of Mark 13 can be explained in relation to the destruction of the temple, some verses overflow that application, pointing ahead to the endtime. 

Old Testament prophecy often had two or more applications, an immediate, but incomplete one, and a later, greater fulfillment. Some prophecies define a type of divine event that may have multiple partial fulfillments leading up to the ultimate fulfillment. The destruction of the Jerusalem temple may be a type of the endtime.

In Daniel 7, the coming of “one like a Son of Man” is not a return from heaven  to earth, but a coming into the presence of the Ancient of Days to receive the power and glory that he will share with “the saints of the Most High.” If we grant the pre-existence of Jesus, then we can see a long continuum of events in which the Son of Man comes to exercise his judgment against evil. The fall of corrupt cities and governments such as Sodom, Egypt, Babylon, the Seleucids, Jerusalem, Rome, etc., may all be viewed in this light, as preliminary acts of judgment by the Son of Man (Revelation 11:8; 17:5, 9).  So we can set up a continuum of multiple fulfillments leading at last to the endtime, the final judgment, and the emergence of a new heaven and new earth. I resist the term “Second Coming of Christ.” I prefer to speak of the “Final Coming of Christ.”

Mark would tell us that Jesus has replaced the Jerusalem temple in the divine plan. Old Testament prophecies regarding the temple will now be reapplied to a transnational community of faith that no longer relies on geo-political Israel. From Mark’s standpoint, the new temple exists wherever followers of Jesus carry on his fruitful mission. Wherever that happens, all the promises and prophecies regarding Israel and the temple must be reapplied to the new community of faith.

Mark does not deny the Final Coming of Jesus. He is simply interested in emphasizing a different point than he could make by discussing the Final Coming. He is interested the calling of Jesus’ followers to become part of a fruitful mission replacing the temple and about the faithfulness of Christian witnesses under the threat of persecution.

Mark’s assertion that Jesus and the church replace the temple is not anti-Semitic. Jesus and his disciples were all Jewish, and so was Mark. There is no indication in the New Testament that Jewish believers need to leave their Jewishness behind except insofar as necessary for reaching out to Gentiles in the name of Jesus the Messiah. 

Mark emphasizes preparing the disciples to stand firm in their witness for Jesus even as the cataclysmic events surrounding the fall of the Jerusalem temple unfold. The disciples are not to be shaken by such events, but they are to stay focused on their mission, trusting even as they are hauled into court--and perhaps even as they are executed--that the Holy Spirit will provide for their defense and that their standing trial will expand opportunities for the gospel to be spread among the nations. Every generation has some testing events that in some ways are parallel to the endtime. That is the reason that in every generation there are predictions that the end is about to arrive. The predictions are often right about parallels to the endtime, wrong in thinking that the final event--rather than merely a type of the final event--is now arriving. 

Mark also wants Judean readers of his Gospel to know that they need not try to find refuge in the Jerusalem temple or to defend it, but at the time of an undefined coming desecration of the temple (I believe that it had to do with Zealot revolutionaries occupying the temple), the believers should be prepared to flee from Jerusalem. If they hesitate, they will be trapped in Jerusalem by Roman armies, and it will be too late for them to survive to take part in world evangelization. Their priority must be on mission!

9. Jesus dies to establish a new covenant with the holy and loving God, opening the way for a fruitful mission of outreach to lost people. The beginning point for our entering the new covenant and its mission is our believing that the Suffering Servant of God who died on the cross is also the Royal Son of God who reigns over history (14:1—15:39). 

The key events of this section are set against the background of plotting by religious leaders, betrayal by Judas, denial by Peter, abandonment by the other disciples, and a wide variety of deceitful and cruel practices by religious, political, and military figures.

The key events set against this background are

Through the whole series of events it is evident that Jesus’ prophetic gifts are exactly on target and that his submission to death, in all its agony of seeming abandonment, is intentional. The evidence of his divine Sonhood is apparent even to a pagan soldier and even at the point of Jesus’ death.

10. The risen Jesus will meet his servant disciples in the mission field. They must find the courage to declare the good news of his risen power (15:40—16:8; 16:9-20).

The final section of Mark’s Gospel is structured by the actions of a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, who has suddenly found the courage to stand with Jesus and of the loyal women who have followed Jesus from Galilee.  

Mark shows Joseph seeking permission from Pilate to claim the body, purchasing a linen cloth, entombing Jesus, and seeing that the huge stone is rolled in place. The women watch, wait through the Sabbath, and then in the first post-Sabbath light return with the spices they have purchased for anointing Jesus’ body; they come to the tomb wondering who will roll away the stone.

For the most part, the male disciples have fled. All four Gospels give priority to women at this key point of the story. Women were not considered reliable witnesses in Jewish courts, and yet it is women who are credited as the first witnesses of the resurrection. The only explanation for the presence of this tradition in all four Gospels is that it was undeniably true.

The women find the stone already rolled away. Inside they see an angel appearing as a young man in dazzling white apparel. The angel tells the women that Jesus is risen. He invites them to inspect the place where he had been placed. He instructs them to go and tell the disciples. They are to tell the disciples that Jesus will go before them to Galilee as he had promised. The women flee and do not, at first, tell anyone.

In what most scholars believe to be the earliest manuscripts, Mark’s account breaks off here. The scholars believe that the various endings in other manuscripts come from authors other than Mark. It is possible that Mark intended to end his Gospel with 16:8. If so, then everything necessary for our faith has already been told or implied. The focus of the hearer or reader then falls on the question of how the women gathered the courage to go and tell. The church would not exist if the women had not done so! This question of gathering courage for testimony about Jesus was the very question that either already was or soon would be before Mark’s audience. It is also possible that Mark’s original manuscript was worn or torn so that the ending was lost. If Mark had a longer ending, it is most likely similar to Matthew 28:8-10, 16-20.

We ought not to be distressed about the uncertainty regarding the manuscripts. No matter which ending is chosen, Mark calls us to place our faith in the crucified and risen Christ, speaking boldly, serving daringly, and ministering fruitfully for him.

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