Mark Answers the Call
Today, we will look at John Mark and how he answered the call to put down Jesus’ story on paper. He learned the stories at Peter’s feet.
Any number of Jesus’ disciples could have put down their recollections on paper of their time with Him, but only two do. Peter shares his recollections through John Mark, the same young man who went with Saul/Paul on his first missionary journey. The same young man who abandoned that journey midway through. Did Peter see something of himself in this young man? Is that why they became so close?
There is no consensus as to if Mark wrote his account before or after Peter’s death. For my storytelling, he did both. Writing the stories as Peter shares them and putting it all together afterwards. This is what my heart tells me to do. Let’s join Mark as he sits at Peter’s feet and hears the stories. And as he later compiles them under the hand of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, show me Your story. Show me how You worked in the life of this young man to bring Jesus’ stories to the world. Lead me Father in Your story.
♥ ♦ ♥
John Mark loves every moment of Peter’s stories about his time with Jesus. He sits and soaks them up, asking to hear the same ones over and over again.
Peter grins as Mark speaks the words of the familiar stories with him.
“You know these stories as well as I do. Why do you ask me to tell them to you when you already have them committed to memory?”
“Because you tell them with such affection. I wish I could capture your voice in these stories and share them with the world.”
“There is a way to do part of that” Peter says with a raised eyebrow.
“How?” asks Mark.
“You have served me as scribe for a long time. I know your writing abilities, as my letters wouldn’t get past the first reader, if not for your talents.”
“Not so Peter” protests Mark.
Peter shakes his head. “I speak the truth. You have a talent. I would like you to write down the stories we share, from time to time. Not every story, but the ones that strike you the most. I have a feeling that, someday you will have need of them.”
Mark doesn’t protest any longer. He begins writing the stories Peter shares with him. Some from memory and some as Peter is telling them. After they are ‘polished’ to perfection, Mark shares them with Peter.
“You captured the scene perfectly! I almost feel as though I’m living those moments again through your words.”
As Peter is reading one of Mark’s retellings, he notices that Mark’s ‘polishing’ has taken off some of Peter’s rough edges, mistakes. Peter notices immediately.
“You cannot hold back ANY of my mistakes, even to spare my feelings. Those mistakes, even the most difficult ones, are what has made me who I am today. Even when Jesus rebuked me to my face, it was for my good. Share that. Share ALL of it. The ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’. That is the only way we grow, and how we show others that Jesus can forgive ANY sin we commit. That we can come to Him with EVERYTHING. If we aren’t ‘human’ in these stories, then they are of no use to anyone.”
“I understand. It’s just hard to imagine you doing some of the things you speak about. You are PETER. The Rock.”
“I’m a cracked and flawed rock at best. But I am a forgiven, redeemed and refined rock too. Those moments are as important as the moments I ‘shine’ in the eyes of others.”
From that day forward, Mark does exactly as Peter said. He leaves nothing out. Sometimes, rereading the stories, with the flaws included, causes Peter to blush. In the most difficult stories, Peter occasionally fights back tears. Those times also always end with Peter thanking God for not leaving him in that condition.
“Lord, I don’t know WHY You kept investing in me. I have failed You so many times. Yet You always restored me; even from my greatest failures. And You are STILL using me today to share Your word with the world. Thank You. I will give You my best, even when that ‘best’ isn’t really that amazing. Keep me strong. Don’t let me EVER go back and repeat the days like this” Peter says while holding up the stories.
When he hands them back to Mark, he looks him straight in the eye. “Don’t you dare change a word. This is exactly how it happened, and how it needs to be remembered.”
Mark nods. There is nothing else he can say.
It has been three months since Peter and Paul were taken from this world. Mark still feels their absence deeply. Days go by and Mark doesn’t know what to do, besides put one foot in front of the other, praise God that his two greatest mentors are now with the Lord, and do whatever job is assigned to him. He serves others with sincerity and a heart of service, but something is still missing.
Mark crawls under his blanket tonight, weary from a busy day. His heart is heavy. When Paul and Peter were around, they sent him on missions for them. They needed his strong hands and fast feet. Here in Rome, he feels like one of so many. Nothing more than another face in the crowd.
As Mark is turning these thoughts over in his heart, he remembers Paul’s words during one of his visits while in prison awaiting his execution.
“I KNOW that the Lord has a work for you to complete that is much bigger than anything you have ever done before. Trust Him to guide you in that work.”
“What work is that?”
“I’m not certain, but I believe it has something to do with telling His story.”
“I do that already.”
“I know. But the Spirit tells me there is more coming for you. Be sensitive to the Spirit and obey where He leads.”
“I will. Whatever it is” John Mark promises.
After remembering this visit, Mark is more certain than ever that he wants God to use him. He climbs from his bed and kneels by his window to pray.
“Lord, I want to be used by You, like I was when Paul and Peter were still with us. I want to make a difference in Your Kingdom. I’m not complaining about the tasks I do now, but my heart longs for more. To be Your hands and feet. To be Your voice calling out to the lost. To share Your message of salvation. Anything Lord. Just tell me what You would have me do.”
No booming voice or blinding light of an angel appears before Mark, but he feels peace in his heart as he returns to bed.
In the night, Mark is awakened by a burning desire. He knows it is the answer he has been seeking from the Lord. He throws his covers back and races to his stash of stories. He begins carefully unpacking them from the case he personally carved to protect them. As he lays them out on the table, the Spirit draws his heart to specific ones. Mark sets these to one side and continues going through them all.
By morning, Mark has assembled a pile of stories on his table. The others, he carefully repacks in his case. When the remaining ones, not identified by the Spirit, are safely stored again, Mark sits down and looks at the pile.
“You gave me a start Lord, but where do I go from here?” Mark asks the heavens.
Again, no booming voice, but a burning desire. Mark begins rereading the stories and organizing them in a fashion his heart says is best. He chuckles as he reads the stories and remembers Peter’s words about leaving ALL of it in them.
Mark remembers Luke speaking of a letter to an old friend where he tells the stories of Jesus’ ministry. “I wish I had it here to guide me” he thinks wistfully. No matter, he has the Spirit. That is enough.
Mark begins his recollection of Jesus’ life by introducing John the Baptizer first. He was, after all, the one who introduced the many of his own disciples to Jesus. AND the one who was prophesied of in the days of Isaiah.
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” (Mark 1:2-3)
Mark remembers that prophecy well. “This needs to be first” he says to himself. Then he introduces John and sets the stage for Jesus.
The storytelling style of Mark moves from ‘mountain peak’ to ‘mountain peak’. He doesn’t dive deep but hits the most pertinent details. He shares Jesus’ story as an outside observer. There will be many quotations, taken directly from Peter’s stories, but this narrative is more Peter’s telling, not Mark’s. He hears Peter’s voice in every line he writes.
“I have to include God’s voice from Heaven during Jesus’ baptism” he says as his pen flies across the page.
Not trying to say that ANY of Jesus’ experiences are unimportant, but Mark feels pressed on, touching briefly on the early moments before Jesus calls Simon, who He will later name Peter.
“I have to remember to call him ‘Simon’ until that time” Mark reminds himself.
Mark sits back and remembers Peter’s telling of Jesus walking by the sea and calling him and his brother Andrew to ‘become fishers of men’. “And that is exactly what you became” Mark says to the memory of Peter that he holds in his heart.
From this point onward, Mark doesn’t use a timeline but groups the miracles of Jesus as his spirit feels led to do. “So many miracles! So many lives touched and changed forever, including Gentiles. Jesus came for BOTH Jews and Gentiles.” he says as he assembles the highlights of these stories.
After telling of many of Jesus’ miracles, Mark feels drawn to share some of Jesus’ parables. This requires him to slow down a bit in his progression and share each parable as Peter shared them; the words of Jesus. Whenever Mark begins to doubt his memory, the Spirit brings the exact words to his mind, drawing them from his pen as if the Spirit Himself were holding it.
In the stories, Mark makes certain to tell of the times Jesus specifically told His disciples what was to come. “Three times, and they still didn’t ‘hear’ Jesus telling of His future on the cross.” Mark chuckles to himself as he remembers Peter’s recrimination when he tried to ‘soften’ Peter’s mistakes after Jesus was transfigured in front of them. “Write it all” he says to himself in Peter’s voice. So he includes this story; ALL of it.
Mark returns again to the miracles of Jesus for a while longer, including again some involving Gentiles. When he comes to the stories of Jesus’ final days on earth, he slows down again. “There is SO MUCH here that people NEED to know. Of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, His teachings in the Temple, and His servanthood throughout.
The order of events in Jesus’ final week are not as important to Mark as the heart of it. However, he pays close attention to the progression once Jesus joins His disciples for His final Passover supper.
Mark continues to ‘hit the high points’ or maybe ‘the low points’ as Peter would say. His heart hurts as he tells the story of Peter swearing he would NEVER deny Jesus, then within hours of that promise, denying Him three times. “This story always made Peter cry. He didn’t know I saw his tears. I never told him. After reading it, he always handed it back and said ‘Don’t change a word of it’.”
In a quick discrete line, that most readers will probably gloss right over, Mark tells of the time He was physically close to Jesus. The night Jesus was betrayed, Mark had hurried from his bed to follow Him and His disciples. He didn’t have time to dress as they were already on their way before Mark realized it. Mark quickly grabbed a linen cloth and threw it around his waist. He wasn’t planning on anyone seeing him, so it shouldn’t matter. But when the mob came for Jesus, he was spotted. One of the soldiers made a grab for him but only got hold of his covering.
“Instead of staying and standing up for Jesus, I ran home naked” Mark tells himself as he writes his own private failing.
Mark continues the painful journey through Jesus’ trials and crucifixion. He quickly wipes his tears before they can ruin his parchment as he recalls Jesus’ words on the cross and the reaction of His tormentors.
“Couldn’t they have shown the least bit of compassion? Instead of standing back and mocking him?”
Mark remembers the names Peter shared with him of the women who stood watch at the cross and how they followed to where Joseph of Arimathea laid Jesus to rest.
Not being able to bear the pain any longer, Mark hurries to the part of the story he likes best; Jesus raised from the dead. Still in his ‘mountain peak’ style, Mark shares this amazing good news, including Jesus appearing to His disciples.
Mark takes a deep breath and focuses on Jesus final act before leaving this world. Telling His disciples and ALL His followers what their new purpose in life is to be:
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:15-18).
After the last jot and tittle are inscribed on the parchment, Mark’s heart is at peace. He looks over all the pages as they cover his table. He arranges them neatly and carefully blots them dry.
Once everything is stacked and rolled back into order, Mark begins to wonder what he is supposed to do with this work. Unbidden, Luke’s name comes to his mind.
“I will take this to Luke. After he reads it, I will ask him what to do with it.”
Mark has heard that Luke settled in Boeotia and started a church there. This is now Mark’s new destination. Before setting off though, Mark make another cleaner copy of his work. “I don’t want Luke to think I am sloppy.” Not a word is changed, but there are no stray ink drops anywhere in the paper.
It takes Mark two months to reach Luke. It is as though no time has passed at all when the two of them reunite. They embrace fiercely before Luke introduces him to those standing nearby.
“I want you to meet a young man who is as close to me as a son. This is John Mark, whom I have told you so much about. He was a great help to Paul, Peter, Timothy, and myself on so many occasions.”
Mark blushes as Luke sings his praises. He greets all the brothers and joins Luke is the daily tasks. When he finds a moment where the two of them are alone, Mark asks Luke to step aside with him. Once away from the hustle of the day, Mark shares his reason for visiting.
“Brother Luke, it isn’t by accident that I came here. I have something I would like you to read.”
“What is it?”
“Do you remember that, before Paul was executed, he told me that the Lord had a work for me to do?”
“I do remember something about it. But I never found out what is was.”
Mark pulls his satchel in front of his body and holds it protectively. “It’s this.”
Luke looks at him with a frown, not understanding what Mark is trying to show him.
Mark smiles and shakes his head. “I’m being too cryptic.” He opens the satchel and pulls from it a tightly bound scroll. “It’s this.”
Luke’s eyes go wide. “What is it?”
“I wrote the stories of Jesus, as told by Peter.”
“O Mark! That’s amazing. May I read it?”
“I was hoping that you would. And that you will give me an honest opinion on it.”
“I will, on both counts.” Luke looks back over his shoulder to the activity going on around them. “Let me just finish up here and I will meet you at the house. This will give you time to rest up from your journey as well.”
Luke points out the house where he is living and gently pushes Mark’s shoulders to get him moving in that direction.
Mark turns back after a few paces. Luke grins and waves his hands is a shooing motion.
Mark shakes his head and finally makes his way to Luke’s home. It isn’t long before Luke joins him.
“I couldn’t wait any longer so I gave Tital charge of the group. Now met me see that manuscript.”
Mark laughs. “I wouldn’t call it a manuscript. It’s just recollections.”
“Never mind what you call it, let me see it” Luke says as he takes the scroll from Mark’s hands.
Luke brings the scroll to his desk, carefully opens it and begins reading. Mark stands just behind his shoulder, shuffling from one foot to the other. Luke shakes his head and speaks without even taking his eyes from the page.
“Go find something to occupy yourself so I can focus without you hovering like a mother hen.”
“Sorry” Mark says quickly and retreats.
After several minutes, he can’t think of anything to do except rejoin the group at the church. He quietly leaves the house and returns to the chaos that is the daily ministry to those in need.
Three hours later, Luke appears at Mark’s elbow. “We need to talk.”
Mark’s face drops. Fear grips him, thinking that Luke found his work offensive. He lays aside the task he was working on and follows Luke back to the house without a word.
When the door is closed, Luke turns and faces Mark. Luke sees evidence of tears on Luke’s face.
Putting his hands on Mark’s shoulders, and in a voice thick with emotion, Luke shares his thoughts.
“Mark, you did a magnificent job. I’m so proud of you. I can hear Peter’s voice rising out of the stories and his love for Jesus. Jesus’ love for both Jew and Gentile shines forth like a beacon on a hill. This HAS to be shared. Everyone needs to hear this message.”
“You think so?” Mark asks sheepishly.
“I do. And I want you to make several copies of it for me so I can get it out to the churches. The Gentile churches would really benefit from hearing Jesus’ daily stories. The Jews got to see Him every day, even if they didn’t believe in Him.”
“Should I change it, or add anything more to it?”
“NO. It is perfect just as it is. I can see the Spirit’s hand on it as well. HE knew what was necessary. Anything more would be like saying, He didn’t know what He was doing.”
Mark nods. “Ok. I’ll get to work on the copies right away.”
Luke embraces Mark. “Thank you for trusting me with this work of God.”
Mark smiles shyly and nods. “Your name came to my heart when I asked what to do with it when I was finished.”
Luke laughs. “I’m glad it did. Now get busy young man. You have a lot of writing to do” Luke says as he gives Mark’s shoulder a gentle push towards his own writing desk.
Mark works for two weeks on copying the manuscript five times. He makes certain that each word, stroke, and accent is in the exact same place across all copies. It is painstaking work, but he feels rewarded when he examines them all side by side.
Luke has been keeping everyone away while Mark works. He too knows the task of copying and how demanding it is. He did this with Peter’s last letter. When Mark emerges from the house with a smile on his face, after so many long hours, Luke knows the work is done.
“How many copies did you make” Luke asks.
“I made five. I hope that is enough.”
“That is plenty. Those who receive the letter will copy it for others. That way, the whole burden isn’t on you.”
“I’m glad of that. I’m tired of writing” Mark says with a grin.
“And I want my house back” Luke adds with a laugh.
Within a week, all five copies of Mark’s work make their way across to the Gentile churches. The original copy is kept in Luke’s home for safety.
Mark’s work reaches the attention of Theophilus. He had been holding onto Luke’s letters, savoring them daily. “I have been selfish. I should have shared Luke’s work with the churches” he tells himself.
Theophilus has Luke’s letters copied ten times before distributing them to the churches. He sends along instructions for the churches to make more as well, along with a stipend to pay for scribes to do the work.
It isn’t long before Mark and Luke’s works are being shared with all the believers, just as the Lord intended for them to be. Both men give ALL the credit and glory to the Lord. “He inspired and authored the works” they both say anytime they are approached with questions or praise.
(to be continued)
I have no idea if Luke’s works were available to Mark during his writing. I allowed Mark no access to Luke’s work purely out of a story teller’s decision. There are definitely differences in their style, audience, and focus. I think it would have been harder to write his own account if Mark had read Luke’s. Just my two cents.
Father God, thank You for allowing me to share Mark’s story. I know it isn’t written down in scripture this way, but that is what You put in my heart. I know You authored their writings, so I trust You had Your fingers, at least, in mine. I want to glorify You in all I do.
Keep sharing Your stories with me please. I will do my best to tell them how I receive them as well.
