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Chapter 2 of John Mark’s Remarkable Career—Relation and Position in the Church at Jerusalem (Acts 12:12)

by | Apr 30, 2020 | New Testament, Practical Theology

Chapter 2 of John Mark’s Remarkable Career—Relation and Position in the Church at Jerusalem (Acts 12:12)

We left John Mark huddled in his home in Jerusalem. We discover him again in the same exact location about twelve years later.  Not only is the place the same, the occasion is similar.  It is another occasion of threatening persecution.  Acts 12:12 reads: “And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.”

Remember that James, the brother of John and one of the Sons of Thunder, had just before this prayer meeting been put to death by Herod.  Peter himself had then been arrested and imprisoned just before Passover. This was the very same time of year that Jesus had been arrested.  It was probably about twelve years later.  Herod was probably waiting till after Passover to bring him to trial and then execution. Many Christians were gathered at the house of Mary the mother of John Mark to pray.  This Mary must have been the aunt of Barnabas if John Mark was Barnabas’s cousin. I am persuaded that this was very likely the very house in the upper room of which the Last Supper had been held.  Luke makes a point of introducing John Mark in his account of the early church on this occasion. 

You see how deeply John Mark was associated with the church in Jerusalem.  He occupied a deep relationship to and central place in the original church at Jerusalem and among the original disciples of Christ.  If we understand that, then what happens next will not surprise us!

The Remarkable Career of John Mark and What It Says Especially To Pastors and Pastoral Students: Pt. 2 – His Probable and Improbable Escapade as a Young Man (Mark 14:51-52)

by | Apr 24, 2020 | New Testament, Practical Theology

His Probable and Improbable Escapade as a Young Man (Mark 14:51-52)

Look first at Mark 14:51-52: “A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.” The Mark referenced in the title of this gospel is, of course, John Mark.  We will look later at the reasons why we say this and the significance of this, but right now it is important because it impacts the interpretation of these somewhat obscure verses.

I have called this escapade or peculiar incident both probable and improbable.  Let me explain why.

It is probable in the sense that this is probably Mark’s own cryptic reference to himself in his gospel. Why do I say this?  Why do I believe that this a reference to John Mark himself? My foundation for believing this is that this story is found in the Gospel of Mark himself.

  • There are similar cryptic references in the Gospel of John to John the author of that gospel.  Cf. John 19:26-27. Just as John did not name himself in his gospel, so also modesty forbid Mark to say with reference to the young man in this story, “This young man was I.”
  • This account of the young man fleeing naked from the Garden of Gethsemane is only given in Mark.  The implication is that this incident had some particular importance for Mark. That particular importance is easily explained if the young man was Mark himself.  Hendriksen says: “Neither Matthew nor Luke has retained this item. It does not appear to have been of special interest to them. But to Mark, to him alone, it was of sufficient importance to be included in the Gospel. This is understandable if he himself was that young man.”
  • The story told here of the young man really does seem a somewhat strange thing to include in the gospel story. What might be important about this crazy and madcap story of a young man streaking naked late at night through the streets of Jerusalem? This strangeness disappears, however, if the young man was Mark himself.  Once more Hendriksen remarks: “By itself the item is rather insignificant, except if it refers to what the author, Mark, himself experienced that solemn night.”

Bottom-line?  This young man was probably John Mark himself. That is the most probable interpretation of the passage. On the other hand …

It is improbable, because this story contains details which are strange and peculiar.  Let me just recount it, and you will see what I mean.  The setting of this story in the Gospel of Mark follows the account of the Garden of Gethsemane. That ended, you remember, with the flight of the disciples after Jesus’s arrest. We are then told that another follower of Jesus was there in the Garden. He had sneaked off from his home after the Last Supper following Jesus and the eleven.  Most likely he had been in bed asleep or trying to sleep when he heard them all leaving.  This means that the very old tradition that the Last Supper was held in the home of Mary the mother of John Mark is probably true.  If he had been in bed in the very house where the Last Supper was held by Jesus and his disciples, this would explain both the fact that he follows Jesus and the eleven and that he was wearing nothing but a linen.  That is the broad meaning of the Greek word used here. This linen was either a linen bed sheet; or it could also possibly be a linen undergarment or even pajamas. Cf. the use of this word in Proverbs 31:24 (where it means garment) and Luke 23:53 (where it is used of the sheet in which Jesus body was wrapped.) This very young man followed Jesus and the eleven. He saw the arrest of Jesus and the flight of the disciples from the darkness of his hiding place.  Then he was spotted by someone in the crowd sent to arrest Jesus.  They actually seized him and got their hands on him.  But slipping off his linen (whether it was a sheet, undergarment, or pajamas), he was able to escape.  His escape was both dramatic and accomplished with not a little agility and dexterity. It was also entirely lacking in dignity. We are forced to imagine him late at night streaking stark naked through the streets of Jerusalem and finally rushing into his home and perhaps huddling and shuddering in bed from the near and close escape.  Now certainly this is a weird, wacky, and bizarre story that makes us shake our heads and, in spite of the seriousness of the event of Jesus’ death, smile at the naked streaker as he flees from the Garden through the streets of Jerualem to his home.

What are we supposed to make of all this practically?  Why does Mark include this account? Of course, it had personal importance for him, but he must have felt it was significant for his readers as well. Why did he think it was important to include in his account of the gospel?

  • John Mark is confessing humbly his own fear and flight. Perhaps he is deprecating himself by making a little joke at his own expense. At any rate, he is saying that like the other disciples he too had been a spiritual coward. He also had fled the scene of Jesus’s capture and abandoned the Savior.
  • At the same time, perhaps he felt that his escape, cowardly though it was, was also due to the providential protection of God who allowed the other disciples to escape as well. Jesus had told the crowd which had come to arrest him to let his disciples go (John 18:8). Mark no doubt saw his escape as arranged also by the providence of the Son of God. He wants to glorify God for his escape.
  • Another spiritual lesson of this account would surely be to underscore the majestic bravery of Jesus as compared to the fearfulness of His disciples.  Hendriksen speaks in this connection of the “unshakable and majestic composure of Jesus.”
  • But more directly to our purposes, we begin to learn something about John Mark.  He is a young disciple growing up in the very middle of the historical revelation of the gospel. He is there at the Last Supper—at least in the house.  He is there in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He is a witness, though not in the same sense as the apostles of Christ, of the original facts of the gospel.  He is also revealed to be what we might call a curious coward.  He is inquisitive and adventurous enough to follow Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane late at night. Yet he is a fickle and fearful young man. At the cost of the loss of his dignity and self-respect, he runs away from the arrest of Jesus and abandons him.

The Remarkable Career of John Mark And What it Says Especially to Pastors & Pastoral Students: Pt. 1 – The Bible Tells Stories About People

by | Apr 21, 2020 | New Testament, Practical Theology

The Bible Tells Stories About People

One of the special things about the Bible is that it tells stories—stories not just about God, but about human beings. This makes it much more interesting actually than the Koran which simply provides saying after saying and is in my opinion not only terribly wrong but deadly boring.  Usually stories in the Bible about particular persons are told in one book.  Sometimes you will get the same story in two books of the Bible.  Occasionally, as in the supremely important story of the Christ, these stories are told in four gospels.

But the story of the person I want to talk about in this blog series is actually told in bits and pieces across the New Testament. It is not told in any one, continued account. These bits and pieces of the story I have in mind are told in six books of the New Testament.  This is the unusual way in which the Holy Spirit decided to tell the story of the man called, John Mark.

I have been preaching on the Book of Acts on and off for a couple of years now to GRBC Owensboro.  Recently, I took the time to enlarge on the little statement in Acts 13:5 about John Mark. It reads as follows: “When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper.” 

As I have studied the references to this man in the New Testament, I have divided the story told of his life into seven chapters.  I have entitled them, The Remarkable Career of John Mark.  But before I come to that, there are a couple of things to be said by way of introduction:

The first thing is that there are actually four different Johns in the New Testament. 

  • The first and least known John is the father of Simon Peter. He is only mentioned in the Gospel of John. Cf. John 1:42; 21:15-17.
  • The second is well-known. It is John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus.  He is the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
  • There is John the Apostle, the brother of James.  James and John were “the Sons of Thunder” and the sons of Zebedee.
  • There is also John Mark. As we will discover, he was the cousin of Barnabas.

We will discover a great deal about John Mark from the several mentions of him in the New Testament.  But there is something else you need to know.

John Mark is not always identified in the same way.  There are passages that refer to him as John Mark (Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37). There are passages that refer to him as John (Acts 13:5; 13). And there are passages that refer to him simply as Mark (Acts 15:39; Col. 4:10; Phm. 1:24; 2 Tim. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:13). There is even a passage which I think speaks of him without giving us his name (Mark 14:51-52).

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