Detail from a window in the parish church of SS Mary and Lambert, Stonham Aspal, Suffolk, with stained glass representing St Mark the Evangelist
Today is the feast day of Saint Mark the Evangelist. The reason for the date, according to Wikipedia, is that, ‘He is the founder of the church in Alexandria, Egypt. It is believed that he was killed on April 25, 68 A.D., by Alexandrians because they resented his efforts to replace their old pagan gods with Christianity and the belief in the one true God’. The mode of Mark’s death was, like that of others associated with the early church, brutal. He was dragged through the streets by a rope around his neck until he was dead.
Mark stands out for us in other ways.
Of the four Gospel writers, Saint Mark is the only one who was not an immediate disciple of Jesus, not part of the group of twelve, but that did not prevent there being attributed to him, traditionally, a highly accessible account of the life of Jesus. He must have been close to Jesus and all he was doing, and in another place it is suggested that he was one of the seventy whom Jesus sent out, as recorded in Luke 10.
Other records have Mark joining Peter on his journey to Rome, and travelling with Barnabas to Cyprus.
Modern scholars consider that Mark’s Gospel was written by an anonymous author but I rather like the traditional thought that Mark wrote down Peter’s sermons in Rome and from them, derived the Gospel that we know and love. Either way, the Gospel is highly accessible, can be read in about an hour at a sitting. Indeed, if you have never read it like that, why not try now, or soon, and be surprised by the accessibility of his style.
In my day, Mark’s Gospel formed a core part of the O level scripture syllabus (Oxford and Cambridge Board) and was responsible for my passing that exam, and it may well have contributed significantly to my subsequent 40+ years of lay preaching.
I wonder who has brought you close to Jesus and made you want to talk about him?
A Prayer
We thank you for the gospel writers whose diligence in accounting for things that happened in days past still influence our lives and change them forever. Help me to read scripture as something alive and there for me whatever is happening in my life now. As I read, show me things that I may not have noticed before, for Jesus’s own sake, Amen.