How to Understand and Teach the Gospel of Mark

Eyewitness testimony is foundational to the accurate retelling of history. When investigators want to know what really occurred, they will get an account from as many eyewitnesses as possible and find the overlaps (and differences) in their stories. Testimony from those closest to the events is the most helpful because they usually have a clearer recollection of what took place. 

Sometimes, a helpful witness is one who sticks to the big picture and gives a clear retelling of the crucial parts of the story without getting bogged down by details. This is the case in the gospel of Mark, widely regarded as the earliest gospel account. Mark’s emphasis isn’t to provide every detail of the life and teachings of Jesus, but to proclaim his power and authority to save sinners. This is a message our students desperately need today. 

Focus of Mark: An Action-Packed Cosmic Battle

Mark’s structure is unique because it moves very quickly (he uses the word “immediately/at once” over 40 times), skipping many events the other gospels record. One notable omission from Mark is that he doesn’t include an account of Jesus’s birth or childhood at all (as opposed to Matthew and Luke). It begins at John the Baptist’s ministry, when Jesus is already an adult. Within the first chapter, you have summarized versions of Jesus’s baptism, the call of the disciples, and numerous healings. Mark intends to move the reader speedily through the events of Christ’s ministry on earth, all the way to the resurrection, while giving subtle nods toward the significance of what is taking place: the Son of God is exercising dominion over sickness, demons, Satan, and death itself. 

The Major Structure/Flow of Mark: 

1. Introduction/Jesus Begins Ministry (1:1-45)

2. Jesus Exercises Divine Power in Israel, but is Rejected (2:1-6:6)

3. Jesus Exercises Divine Power outside Israel and is Accepted (6:7-8:21)

4. Jesus’s Journey back toward Jerusalem (8:22-10:52)

5. Jesus Confronting Jerusalem (11:1-13:37)

6. Mark’s Passion Account (14:1-16:8)

Key “Look Fors” in Mark

When reading Mark, there are specific recurring themes that help shape how we understand its message. As we seek to teach it well, we should pay special attention to each of these:

1. Demonic Encounters

Mark reads like a battle between Jesus and unclean forces; demonic encounters pervade the whole book! It is the first miracle that Mark records (1:21-28), Jesus’s own power is accused of being demonic (3:22-28), and a famous encounter involves a demon being cast into pigs (5:1-13). A Syrophoenician woman desiring for Him to cast a demon out of her daughter is held up as a model of true faith (7:24-30), while the disciples being unable to cast out a demon later is held up as a problem of faith (9:14-28). Casting out demons is a topic of discussion amongst Jesus’s disciples that highlights their misplaced desires (9:38-41). In each of these encounters, Jesus is being established as the divine Son of God through exercising power over spiritual forces. 

2. Mark’s “Sandwiches” and “3s”

Although Mark moves quickly, he has recurring patterns that emphasize important points. The first of these are “sandwiches”, where he connects two events together by placing them around a separate event so the reader interprets all of them together. For instance, in Mark 11, the cleansing of the Temple (11:15-19) is placed within the lesson of the “fig tree without fruit (15:12-14, 20-25),” to highlight the spiritual barrenness of Israel. 

Another pattern is Mark’s inclusion of three similar moments. For instance,  Jesus’s foretelling of His death (8:31-33, 9:30-32, 10:32-34) boat scenes, or finding the disciples sleeping in Gethsemane. It’s Mark’s subtle way of reinforcing the importance of what these moments mean for the story. 

3. Eyes on the Apocalypse

In addition to demonic encounters, Mark’s gospel also emphasizes the apocalyptic nature of Jesus’s rule. He is not merely a good teacher who will be killed for His teachings; He is a cosmic ruler who will return in judgment. In several occasions, Jesus announces Himself as the “Son of Man”, the God-like judge from Dan. 7. Often when this title is mentioned, He is described as either riding on the clouds of heaven, returning with His angels, or sitting at the right hand of the power; all of which are apocalyptic images you see elsewhere (8:38, 13:26-27, 14:62). 

4. Jesus and Suffering

Mark also highlights another theme: Jesus as the Suffering Servant. These moments dovetail often with Jesus’s future triumphs, even using the same “Son of Man” title mentioned above. In Mark 8:38, Jesus’s return with angels if preceded by an announcement of His suffering and rejection (8:31). Jesus is Transfigured before some of his disciples, then immediately speaks of His suffering and death (9:9-13), with another mention of suffering forming a “sandwich” around His victory over an unclean spirit. He begins his journey toward Jerusalem by mentioning it will lead to His death (10:33) and reminds them that to join Him will include their deaths (10:45). Finally, at Passover, Jesus says it is His blood that brings in the new covenant (14:24-25). Mark connects Jesus’s suffering and victory together to highlight how it is THROUGH Jesus’s suffering that God’s plan is accomplished. 

5. The Unexpected Passion Players

Mark introduces unexpected individuals who play central roles surrounding Jesus’s death. First, the Roman centurion confirming Jesus’s death confesses Him as the Son of God (15:39). Second, the Jewish Pharisee, Joseph of Arimathea, is described as “looking for the kingdom of God” and asks for Jesus’s body to give him a proper burial (15:43-46). Thirdly, Pontius Pilate both hears the testimony of the centurion and grants the body to Joseph. Mark includes these, I believe, to show the global ramifications of Jesus’s death: all people have been affected by what took place at the cross. 

Mark’s Passion Week: The Abandoned Son of God

Mark’s Passion story is similar to Matthew or Luke, but where it goes further is in the disciples’ failure. Mark records that in Jesus’s most desperate time, they fall asleep three separate times, then says that one of them (most likely Mark), at Jesus’s arrest, flees so quickly he leaves his clothes behind. Peter denies Jesus, again, three times. And this isn’t all resolved (at least in the earliest manuscripts, which end at Mark 16:8)…it just cuts off. Only the women go to the tomb, and after the announcement of the angels, they “said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

Why Mark Matters for Youth Ministry

Mark’s Gospel, I believe, carries tremendous value for students today, because it brings to the forefront truths that can be easy to forget: 

Jesus isn’t a distant historical figure; He’s an eternal cosmic ruler

In our time of need, we don’t serve someone who may or may not have been able to perform certain kinds of miracles in the past. We serve the ruler of the universe, who conquered death itself and can save to the uttermost those who call on Him, and who will return in cosmic judgment for those who don’t. Our students need to remember that.

Jesus’s suffering was essential to His victory, and He calls us to follow Him in it

It’s easy to think of Jesus’s suffering as merely the end of His ministry, when in fact, it is talked about throughout the whole gospel! Not only is His death necessary to secure the new covenant; it is also the call of discipleship. Students need to be reminded that those who follow Christ will suffer for His name’s sake, and yet, they will find life eternal through it because their Savior has walked that road before them. 

Even Jesus felt abandoned, but He never was

It seems ridiculous to say that the Son of God felt alone, but Mark says so. He is misunderstood, rejected, and opposed during His whole ministry, and when the time comes for the most difficult part of His mission, His friends can’t be bothered to stay with Him in spirit (through prayer) or in body (through presence). On the cross, He carries the weight of what a forsaken human might feel under judgment. And yet, God was there, working His plan out to perfection, to redeem those who would place their faith in the Suffering Son of God. For our students, who may feel the burden of loneliness in normal life, or who feel it because they are walking the narrow road of faith and being abandoned because of it; they, too, are never alone.