St. Mark

ST MARK’S GOSPEL
By Dom Damasus Winzen 5
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In contrast to St Matthew, who starts his gospel with the human
genealogy of Christ, “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” and to Luke, who
explains in his short preface that he intends to “write in order” the facts which
he has most diligently obtained, St Mark’s gospel keeps most faithfully the
original character of the glad tidings of Christ as the Son of God and the
Messiah. He writes not as a historian but as a preacher, recording faithfully
what he had heard from St Peter. In fact, St Peter’s address to the Roman
colonel Cornelius contains the outlines of St Mark’s gospel. This begins with
“the baptism which John preached” and how “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit, and with power”; The first main section describes Christ’s
ministry in Galilee, the “word which began in Galilee, about Jesus of Nazareth,
who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him”. A brief survey deals with “the things that he did in the
land of the Jews (Judea) and in Jerusalem”, and leads up to the second main
section of the gospel which tells us how “they killed him, hanging him upon a
tree,” and how “God raised him up on the third day, and gave him to be made
manifest”.

The fact that St Mark’s narrative of the Lord’s passion and resurrection is
on a scale out of all proportion with the rest of the book indicates clearly that in
the intention of the evangelist the person of the suffering and glorified Lord is
the core and center of the glad tidings. Here is the key to the “mystery of the
Kingdom of God” which his gospel proclaims. One has only to read the first
chapter of St Mark’s gospel to realize that the mystery of the kingdom is the

cross of the king. This first chapter contains the “beginnings” of the entire
gospel. The activity of the precursor is the “beginning” of Christ’s work of
salvation. As Christ reveals the mystery of the kingdom in his word and in his
work, so does John preach repentance and administer baptism. Because the
kingdom of God will not come in power and glory but in the self-sacrificing
charity of the Son of God, only those can enter into it who “repent” or, better,
“change their hearts” from the selfishness of the flesh to the selflessness of the
Spirit.

The rite of baptism, through which the whole person is immersed in water
and then rises, as it were, to a new life, foreshadows the work of salvation of the
Messiah Jesus who will be swallowed up in the waters of death to rise in the
fullness of the Spirit. Rightly, therefore, does Christ begin his public life as
Messiah by having himself baptized by John. He who never knew sin and did
not need repentance has himself made into sin for us, so that in him we might
be turned into the holiness of God. His death is like another flood which drowns
all that is earthly in us.

When he “comes up out of the water” foreshadowing his resurrection, he
is like another Noah, the favorite son of God. Like Noah he receives the dove,
the likeness of the Holy Spirit who descends upon this new Son of David, to
drive him like a captive into the desert. There he is “with the wild beasts.”
Exposed to the attack of the enemy, he remains victorious so that after forty
days and forty nights, which are symbolic of the “old age,” the angels come and
minister to him as the Lord of the new age. Through humiliation to exaltation,
that is the way of the Messiah Jesus, who in his life repeats and fulfills the march
of the chosen people from Egypt, through the Red Sea into the desert, and
ultimately to the promised land.

5 Damasus Winzen, Pathways in Scripture, Ann Arbor, MI: Word of Life, 1976, pp. 243-245.