In narrating the divine identity and authoritative
teachings of Jesus, it seems that Mark’s ultimate goal is for his audience to
respond to Jesus’s call to discipleship by surrendering all and submitting to
Him as Lord and Savior. The various scenes Mark records expound on this call to
discipleship by painting a picture of what true discipleship entails
(8:34;10:35-45). What we find is that
rather than being rooted in legalism or moralism, true discipleship stems from
a right and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This personal relationship
with Jesus is a major theme of Mark’s, whereby all his efforts seem focused on
convincing his audience that a disciple of Christ is not first and foremost
characterized by outward conformity to the law, but inward faith and submission
to Christ. This faith then works from
the inside out as disciples trust in Christ, confess Him as Lord and allow His
teaching to shape their lives. Finally,
Mark reminds his audience of the hard truth that seeking and following Christ
not only requires service and self-denial, but may also require suffering.
The Christological focus of Mark’s
message is quite clear as he opens with the words, “The beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (1:1). As Mark continues to recount stories as
evidence for Jesus’ authority, he writes in such a manner as to convince his
audience that Jesus Christ is the One sent by God to restore mankind to
God. As such, Jesus has ushered in a new
age, a covenant of grace, whereby He and the Holy Spirit bring innumerable
blessings to God’s people. While Jesus
healed the lame and the sick, meeting the physical needs of those around Him,
the greatest thing He did was meet mankind’s spiritual need—as Mark makes
clear, the greatest problem of the human condition is sin, and the prescription
is not a set of legalistic rules, but a person, Jesus Christ. It was thus necessary for Jesus to suffer in
order that all the sins of mankind—past, present and future—could be atoned
for. In reconciling believers to God in
His once-for-all sacrifice, Jesus thus changed a situation of alienation and
hostility to one of intimate communion and peace. Mark’s message is thus that
in His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus faithfully lived out His identity
as the long-awaited Messiah, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel and the
nations.
As mentioned above, it seems one of
Mark’s key themes is Jesus’ teaching on discipleship, whereby He commands His
followers to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him (8:33-38). As Mark recounts the ministry of Jesus, we
see that much of his service was aimed at those who were marginalized in
society—the afflicted, sick, lame and outcast. This teaching has such profound
implications for counseling ministry today because for so many, cross bearing may
entail physical suffering. After reading Mark, however, I see the importance of
helping give our counselees a Christ-centered gaze on pain. While we will be
called to suffer, we can still live grace-filled and trusting lives while
trying to relieve pain. Nowhere in Mark
do we find that relieving pain is wrong—Jesus Himself healed many! In cases
where physical pain cannot be relieved, however, we as counselors must work to
emphasize fellowship in sharing with Christ in His suffering—while it can be
tempting to allow our suffering or pain to define us, the reality is that while
it may describe us, only our identity in Christ can ultimately define us.
Furthermore, we can help our counselees to see that suffering is purposeful in
that God transforms and redeems us through our pain. We
thus want to help our suffering counselees stir up the hope of the
resurrection. One of the ways in which
we can work towards this is helping our counselees see that in the Lord, their
labor—their pain—is not in vain. We can
also seek to bring them the truth that while outwardly they may be wasting
away, inwardly they are being renewed day by day. With the help of the Holy Spirit, they can
come to taste and see that the Lord is good, even in their trials. Finally, I think it is important for
counselors to recognize that suffering tends to turn people inward. We thus want to beware of our counselees
withdrawing and guard against this by connecting them in community and encouraging
them to look for ways to love others, even if this be as simple as writings
letters, keeping a prayer journal for the needs of others or being attentive to
one’s own children. We thus see that the
message of Mark is one that is timely and relevant even today, thousands of
years later.
