Mark gospel. New Testament: The Gospel of Mark

blzh. THEOPHYLACT

GOSPEL FROM MARK

Foreword

The Holy Gospel of Mark was written in Rome ten years after the Ascension of Christ. This Mark was a disciple and follower of Petrov, whom Peter even calls his son, of course, spiritual. He was also called John; was a nephew of Barnabas; accompanied the apostle Paul. But for the most part he was under Peter, with whom he was also in Rome. Therefore the faithful in Rome asked him not only to preach to them without the Scriptures, but to expound to them the works and life of Christ in the Scriptures; he barely agreed to this, however, he wrote. Meanwhile it was revealed to Peter by God; that Mark wrote the gospel. Peter testified that it was true. Then he sent Mark as a bishop to Egypt, where by his preaching he founded a church in Alexandria and enlightened all those who lived in the midday country.

The hallmarks of this gospel are clarity and the absence of anything unintelligible. Moreover, the real evangelist is almost similar to Matthew, except that it is shorter, and Matthew is longer, and that Matthew at the beginning mentions the Nativity of the Lord according to the flesh, and Mark began with the prophet John. Hence, some, not without reason, see the following sign in the evangelists: God, sitting on cherubim, whom the Scripture depicts as fourfold (Ezek. 1, 6), gave us a fourfold Gospel, enlivened by one spirit. So, in each of the cherubim, one face is called like a lion, another like a man, a third like an eagle, and a fourth like a calf; so it is in the work of the gospel preaching. The Gospel of John has the face of a lion, for the lion is the image of royal power; so John began with the royal and sovereign dignity, with the divinity of the Word, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." The Gospel of Matthew has the face of a man, because it begins with the birth of the flesh and the incarnation of the Word. The Gospel of Mark is compared to an eagle because it begins with the prophecy about John, and the gift of prophetic grace, as a gift of sharp vision and insight into the distant future, can be likened to an eagle, which is said to be endowed with the sharpest sight, so that he alone of all animals, without closing his eyes, looks at the sun. The gospel of Luke is like a calf because it begins with the priestly ministry of Zechariah offering incense for the sins of the people; then the calves were also sacrificed.

So Mark begins the gospel with prophecy and prophetic living. Hear what he says!

Chapter first

The Beginning of the Gospel Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets: Behold, I am sending My angel before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.

John, the last of the prophets, is presented by the evangelist as the beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God, because the end of the Old is the beginning of the New Testament. As for the testimony of the Forerunner, it is taken from two prophets - from Malachi: “Behold, I send My Angel, and he will prepare the way before Me” (3, 1) and from Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” (40, 3) And so on. These are the words of God the Father to the Son. He calls the Forerunner Angel for his angelic and almost incorporeal life and for the announcement and indication of the coming Christ. John prepared the way of the Lord, preparing, through baptism, the souls of the Jews for the acceptance of Christ: "before thy face" means that thy angel is close to thee. This signifies the kindred closeness of the Forerunner to Christ, since it is mainly kindred persons who honor before kings. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” that is, in the desert of Jordan, and even more so in the Jewish synagogue, which was empty in relation to goodness. The path means the New Testament, "paths" - the Old, as repeatedly violated by the Jews. To the way, that is, to the New Testament, they had to prepare, and to correct the paths of the Old, for although they accepted them of old, but later turned away from their paths and went astray.

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and Jerusalem went out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

John's baptism did not have remission of sins, but introduced only repentance for people. But how does Mark say here "for the forgiveness of sins"? To this we answer that John preached the baptism of repentance. What was the point of this sermon? To the remission of sins, that is, to the baptism of Christ, which already included the remission of sins. When we say, for example, that so-and-so came before the king, commanding to prepare food for the king, we understand that those who fulfill this command are favored by the king. So here. The Forerunner preached the baptism of repentance so that people, having repented and accepted Christ, would receive the remission of sins.

John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey.

We have already talked about this in the Gospel of Matthew; now we will only say about what is omitted there, namely: that John's clothes were a sign of mourning, and the prophet showed in this way that the penitent should weep, since sackcloth usually serves as a sign of weeping; the leather belt meant the deadness of the Jewish people. And that this clothing meant weeping, the Lord himself speaks of this: “We sang sad songs to you (Slavic “plakah”), and you did not weep,” calling here the life of the Forerunner weeping, because further he says: “John came, neither eats, does not drink; and they say, He has a demon” (Matthew 11:17-18). Equally, the food of John, pointing here, of course, to abstinence, was at the same time an image of the spiritual food of the Jews of that time, who did not eat the pure birds of the sky, that is, they did not think about anything high, but ate only the word exalted and directed to the mountain, but again falling down to the bottom. . For the locust (“locust”) is such an insect that jumps up and then falls back to the ground. Similarly, the people also ate honey produced by bees, that is, the prophets; but he remained with him without care and was not multiplied by deepening and correct understanding, although the Jews thought that they understood and comprehended the Scriptures. They had the Scriptures, like some kind of honey, but they did not work on them and did not study them.

And he preached, saying: The strongest of me is coming after me, in whose presence I am not worthy, bending down to untie the strap of His shoes; I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of Mark is the second book of the New Testament after the Gospel of Matthew and the second (and shortest) of the four canonical Gospels.

The gospel tells about the life and deeds of Jesus Christ and largely coincides with the presentation of the Gospel of Matthew. hallmark The gospel of Mark is that it is addressed to Christians who come from a pagan environment. Many Jewish rituals and customs are explained here.

Read the Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark consists of 16 chapters:

The poetic style of Mark is expressive and direct. The gospel is written in Greek. The language of the Gospel is not literary, but closer to colloquial.

Authorship. In the text of this Gospel, as in the texts of other Gospels, there is no indication of authorship. According to church tradition, authorship is attributed to the disciple of the Apostle Peter - Mark. It is believed that the Gospel was written by Mark based on the memoirs of Peter.

The Gospel describes an episode about an unknown young man who ran out into the street on the night of the capture of Christ in one blanket. It is believed that this young man was the evangelist John Mark.

Many modern biblical scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was the first of the canonical gospels and, together with the unknown source Q, provided the basis for writing the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Time of creation. The most likely time for the creation of the Gospel of Mark is the 60s-70s. There are two versions of the place of writing - Rome and Alexandria.

Interpretation of the Gospel of Mark.

Most of the testimonies of the Church Fathers that have come down to our times assert that the Gospel of Mark was created in Rome and was intended, first of all, for Gentile Christians. This is evidenced by a number of facts:

• Explanations of Jewish customs,
• Translation of Aramaic expressions into understandable Greek.
• Use of a large number of Latinisms.
• Use of the time reckoning accepted in Rome.
• A small number of quotations from the Old Testament.
• Emphasizes the Lord's concern for "all nations"

The Evangelist Mark is more attracted to the actions than the speeches of Christ (18 miracles are described and only 4 parables).

It was important for Mark to emphasize that Jesus was not willing to reveal himself as the Messiah until the essence of His Messiahship and the true nature of His ministry were understood by His followers.

In the Gospel, Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man 12 times and Christ (Messiah) only once. This is explained by the fact that the messianic task itself – to be a servant of Jehovah and to give life for people according to His will – was better suited to the incarnation of the Son of Man

It was difficult for the disciples of Christ to understand His plan - they expected a triumphant Messiah, and not the One who would suffer and die for the sins of mankind. The apostles are afraid and do not understand what awaits them. That is why they fled when the soldiers seized Jesus.

With special feeling, Mark writes about the angelic message that Christ has risen and will meet with the disciples in Galilee. The meaning of the ending is that Jesus is alive and will lead and take care of his followers.

Goals of the Gospel of Mark:

• describe the life of Christ as a servant of God;
• attract new followers to the Christian faith;
• to instruct and strengthen new Christians in the faith in the face of persecution awaiting them

The main task of the gospel is a deep understanding of the meaning of discipleship and following Christ in the context of His death and resurrection.

The gospel of Mark: a summary.

Chapter 1. The sermon of the closest predecessor of Jesus Christ - John the Baptist. Baptism of Jesus. Temptation of Christ by Satan. Ministry of Christ in Galilee. The power of the Son of God over diseases and demonic forces. Sermons and the First Disciples.

Chapter 2 Disagreements between Jesus Christ and the religious elite in Galilee.

Chapter 3. The Pharisees reject Jesus. Sermons of the Savior in the region of the Sea of ​​Galilee. The call of the 12 apostles. Miracles and parables of Christ. The accusation of Christ in collaboration with Beelzebub. Jesus' answer about who truly is His family.

Chapter 4 Description and characterization of the Kingdom of God in the parables of Jesus.

Chapter 5. Miracles of Jesus testifying to His divine power.

Chapter 6. Ministry of Christ. Death of John the Baptist. Rejection of Jesus.

Chapters 7 - 8. In word and deed, Christ reveals Himself to His 12 disciples.

Chapter 9 Jesus goes to Judea. Further miracles and parables. Jesus' prediction of his martyrdom.

Chapter 10. Healing of the Jericho Blind Man. The faith of the blind Bartimaeus.

Chapter 11. Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and preaching there. The Savior's Signs Concerning God's Judgment.

Chapter 12 Clashes between the Savior and religious leaders in the courtyards of the temple.

Chapter 13 Predictions about the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of the end of the world

Chapter 14. Anointing with peace. The Last Supper. Gethsemane struggle, arrest and trial

Chapter 15 Jesus before Pilate. Crucifixion of Christ and burial.

Chapter 16. Apparitions of the Risen Christ. The mission of Jesus to His followers.

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, also called John Mark (Acts 12:12), an apostle from the 70s, a nephew of the Apostle Barnabas (Comm. 11 June), was born in Jerusalem. The house of his mother Mary adjoined the Garden of Gethsemane. According to church tradition, on the night of Christ's suffering on the Cross, he followed Him, wrapped in a cloak, and fled from the soldiers who seized him (Mark 14:51-52). After the Ascension of the Lord, the house of the mother of St. Mark became a place of prayer meetings for Christians and a haven for some of the apostles (Acts 12:12).

Saint Mark was the closest associate of the apostles Peter, Paul (Comm. June 29) and Barnabas. Together with the apostles Paul and Barnabas, Saint Mark was in Seleucia, from there he went to the island of Cyprus and traveled all over it from east to west. In the city of Paphos, Saint Mark was a witness to how the Apostle Paul struck the sorcerer Elim with blindness (Acts 13:6-12).

After laboring with the Apostle Paul, Saint Mark returned to Jerusalem, and then, together with the Apostle Peter, visited Rome, from where, at his command, he went to Egypt, where he founded the Church.

During the second evangelistic journey of the Apostle Paul, Saint Mark met him in Antioch. From there, he went to preach with the Apostle Barnabas in Cyprus, and then again went to Egypt, where, together with the Apostle Peter, he founded many Churches, including in Babylon. From this city, the Apostle Peter sent a message to the Christians of Asia Minor, in which he spoke with love of Saint Mark, his spiritual son (1 Pet. 5:13).

When the Apostle Paul was in chains in Rome, the Apostle Mark was in Ephesus, where St. Timothy occupied the pulpit (Comm. 4 January). Together with him, the apostle Mark arrived in Rome. There he wrote the Holy Gospel (c. 62 - 63).

From Rome, Saint Mark again withdrew to Egypt and in Alexandria laid the foundation for a Christian school, from which such famous fathers and teachers of the Church, such as Clement of Alexandria, St. Dionysius (October 5), St. Gregory the Wonderworker (Comm. 5 November) and others. Zealous for the organization of Church Divine Liturgy, the holy Apostle Mark composed the order of the Liturgy for the Alexandrian Christians.

Then Saint Mark visited the inner regions of Africa with the preaching of the Gospel, was in Libya, Nektopolis.

During these travels, Saint Mark received a command from the Holy Spirit to go again to Alexandria to preach and oppose the pagans. There he settled in the house of the shoemaker Ananias, whose injured hand was healed. The shoemaker gladly received the holy apostle, listened to his stories about Christ with faith, and accepted Baptism. Following Ananias, many residents of the part of the city where he lived were baptized. This aroused the hatred of the pagans, and they were going to kill Saint Mark. Upon learning of this, the holy apostle made Ananias a bishop, and three Christians: Malkos, Savinus and Kerdins - presbyters.

The pagans attacked Saint Mark when the apostle was officiating. He was beaten, dragged through the streets of the city and thrown into a dungeon. There Saint Mark was rewarded with a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who strengthened him before suffering. The next day, the angry crowd again dragged the holy apostle through the streets of the city to the court, but on the way, Saint Mark died with the words: “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

The pagans wanted to burn the body of the holy apostle. But when the fire was lit, everything went dark, there was thunder and an earthquake. The pagans fled in fear, while the Christians took the body of the holy apostle and buried it in a stone tomb. It was April 4, 63. The Church celebrates his memory on April 25.

In 310, a church was built over the relics of the holy Apostle Mark. In 820, when the power of Mohammedan Arabs was established in Egypt and the Christian Church was oppressed by non-believers, the relics of the saint were transferred to Venice and placed in the temple of his name.

In the ancient iconographic tradition, which assimilated to the holy Evangelists symbols borrowed from the vision of St. John the Theologian (Rev. 4:7), St. Mark the Evangelist is depicted with a lion - in commemoration of the power and royal dignity of Christ (Rev. 5:5). Saint Mark wrote his gospel for pagan Christians, so he dwells mainly on the speeches and deeds of the Savior, in which His Divine omnipotence is especially manifested. Many features of his narrative can be explained by his closeness to the Apostle Peter. All ancient writers testify that the Gospel of Mark is a summary of the sermon and stories of the chief apostle. One of the central theological themes in the Gospel of St. Mark is the theme of the power of God, perfected in human weakness, for the Lord makes possible what is impossible with people. Under the action of Christ (Mk. 16:20) and the Holy Spirit (13:11), his disciples go all over the world and preach the Gospel to all creation (13:10; 16:15).

We continue to talk about the books of the New Testament. Today we will talk about the Gospel of Mark, which always comes after the Gospel of Matthew. And if we start reading it, we will soon see that everything that is in this Gospel is also in the Gospel of Matthew, as well as in the following Gospel of Luke. At first glance it may seem that this gospel is no different from the other apostolic gospels, but this is not so. The Gospel of Mark is very special, striking in its depth.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh has wonderful words about the Gospel of Mark: “I became a believer when I came across this Gospel. If I were to read the Gospel of Matthew, which was addressed to the Jews, the believing Jews of that time, or the Gospel of John, which is very deeply immersed in both philosophical and theological thought, I probably would not have understood them when I was fourteen years old. The Gospel of Mark was written by a disciple of the Apostle Peter precisely for such young people, young savages as I was at that time, written in order to give an idea of ​​the teachings of Christ and His personality to those young people who needed it most of all .. It is written short, strong and, I hope, will reach the souls of other people, just as it turned my soul upside down and transformed my life. It is difficult to add anything to these words. But if we express the thought of Metropolitan Anthony in one word, we can say that the Gospel of Mark is impetuous. The shortest of the four Gospels, it is best suited for those who have decided to listen to the Word of God for the first time.

Church tradition says that the apostle Mark wrote down the Gospel from the words of the holy apostle Peter, the most zealous of the twelve apostles. At the same time, he was also the disciple who renounced Christ at the most difficult moment: And Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: Before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times. and started crying(Mk. 14 , 72). Saint Peter is an example of love for the Savior and at the same time an example of weakness, which is so familiar to all of us. The Gospel of Mark testifies how the Lord Jesus Christ helps a person overcome his weakness, even its most extreme manifestation - unbelief.

The Gospel of Mark begins with the words: The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God(Mk. 1 , one). They sound like the sound of a tuning fork throughout the whole story of the holy apostle. The Son of God became the Son of Man to give people deliverance...

Evangelist Mark has a very interesting feature. This word is "immediately": immediately [John] saw the heavens open, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him(Mk. 1, 10); Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him.(Mk. 1 , 17-18); Immediately many gathered, so that even at the door there was no room; and he spoke a word to them(Mk. 2 , 2). These examples can be continued. Everything happens “immediately”, instantly, as if we ourselves find ourselves in front of the Savior and see what is happening. This word reveals the swiftness of the Evangelist Mark. Having opened the second Gospel, a person “immediately” becomes a witness to the living word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But perhaps the main feature of the Gospel of Mark is its clear division into two parts. And it is located exactly in the middle - in the eighth chapter. The first part of the Gospel begins with a brief description of the sermon of the Forerunner of the Lord - John the Baptist, the Baptism of Jesus Christ, then tells about the sermon of the Lord Himself and focuses on the miracles of the Savior. The first miracle in the Gospel of Mark is the casting out of an evil spirit. Possession by an evil spirit is the most terrible manifestation of the power of evil, when a person loses control over himself and is enslaved by the spirit of evil. Only God can free from obsession. And the Lord Jesus Christ does this: And everyone was horrified, so that they asked each other: what is this? What is this new teaching that He commands the unclean spirits with authority, and they obey Him?(Mk. 1 , 27). People do not understand, they doubt - at first they see the clear power of evil, and then they understand that it is defeated, defeated and cannot oppose anything to the power of Christ ... Then other miracles follow: calming the storm, resurrecting a dead girl who immediately got up and started walking(Mk. 5 , 42) - death itself recedes ...

Further following the story of the holy Apostle Mark, we read about feeding people with bread, about opening the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind. These two miracles tell us not only about the healing of specific people, but also about the need for insight for each person. In the very first words of the Gospel, the Apostle Mark calls Christ the Son of God. But these words need to be heard and seen not only with the physical senses. We need to see and hear them with our heart and soul, so that they sound inside us, so that we live by them. Throughout the gospel text, the Lord leads to this spiritual vision and hearing of His disciples, and together with them - and us.

Another feature of the second Gospel is revealed after we understand: Christ does not just cast out demons, raise the dead and heal diseases, He forbids talking about it. For example, he addresses a blind man: do not enter the village and do not tell anyone in the village about healing (Mk. 8 26), and before that, almost the same words were heard by those who were healed of leprosy (see: Mk. 1 , 44) and the parents of the resurrected girl (see: Mk. 5 , 43)... Why does the Lord do this, although the healed leper (and not only him), despite the ban, proclaimed and recounted what had happened(cf.: Mk. 1 , 45)? Because the time has not yet come and the main manifestation of the power of the Son of God has not yet taken place. And the main thing was that The Son of Man must suffer much, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and rise again on the third day.(Mk. 8 , 31).

Suffering and the Cross - that's why the Son of God comes to people. Apostle Peter, as it is said in the Gospel, calling Him back, began to rebuke Him(Mk. 8 , 32). Peter does not believe, he tries to convince the Teacher that this cannot be, that He cannot suffer and die, Who so clearly banishes evil, illness and suffering from human life. Peter does not even believe the words about the resurrection from the dead. But Christ turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get away from me, Satan, because you think not about what is God, but what is human.(Mk. 8, 33). And then, calling the people together with his disciples, he said to them: whoever wants to follow me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel will save it(Mk. 8 , 34-35). The Son of God frees a person from evil and suffering in order to take them upon Himself, to accept death itself, in order to reveal the glory of God in death. The Lord calls us to this too: deny yourself and take up the cross... Christ refuses, is rejected from Himself before the Cross and death. He came not only to deliver from suffering and death, but also to share them with man. Because Jesus Christ is not only the Son of God, but also the Son of Man - Man.

After that, the Lord constantly speaks to the disciples about the sufferings ahead of Him, strengthens their faith. The Apostles Peter, James and John see the glory of the Savior in the Transfiguration: Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and brought them alone to a high mountain, and was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, very white, like snow, as on earth a whitener cannot bleach(Mk. 9 , 2-3). And again, Christ does not command to tell anyone what they saw until the Son of Man is raised from the dead(Mk. 9, 9). At the foot of the mountain, Christ is waiting for the father of a child possessed by an evil spirit. To the request of the father for healing, the Lord answers: If you can believe a little, everything is possible to him who believes(Mk. 9 , 23). And now we hear how the father of the lad exclaimed with tears: I believe, Lord! help my unbelief(Mk. 9 , 24). This man has almost lost his last hope, has reached the limit of his grief. In tears, he prays to Christ for his son and immediately prays for help in unbelief... We see the desire to believe when faith has been replaced by unbelief, when there is no longer any strength. The great holy father of the Church, Blessed Augustine, very accurately explained these words: “When faith is lacking, prayer perishes... Faith is the source of prayer (and the stream will not flow if its source dries up). Therefore, let us believe in order to pray, and let us begin to pray so that the faith with which we pray does not dry up!

And so the Lord goes to Jerusalem. Closer and closer is that for which the Son of God became a man. He He taught His disciples and told them that the Son of Man would be betrayed into the hands of men and they would kill Him, and after he was killed, on the third day he would rise again. But they did not understand these words, and were afraid to ask Him(Mk. 9 , 31-32). twelve students were terrified and, following him, were in fear(Mk. 10 , 32). The Lord still instructed them: whoever wants to be great among you, let us be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you, let him be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many(Mk. 10 , 43-45).

And now, Jerusalem. We hear the last parables and instructions ... Christ's words about suffering and death are being fulfilled, we hear the last dying cry of the Son of God: My God! My God! why did you leave me?(Mk. 15 , 34). The answer to this terrible question is the words of the Roman centurion Longinus, a warrior who participated in the crucifixion: Truly this man was the Son of God(Mk. 15 , 39). The pagan believed, seeing the terrible death on the cross. So the evangelist Mark brought us back to the words with which the Gospel began - the Son of God. The Son of God, rejected, ridiculed, slandered, crucified and dead - and one must believe in Him ...

He is risen, He is not here(Mk. 16 , 6), - hear the women who came early in the morning to the tomb to anoint the body of Christ with funeral incense. And there is no more room for unbelief, because the Son of God descended to the depths of human suffering, sharing with us even death itself, in order to give salvation to believers by resurrection from the dead.

Comments on Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF MARK

SYNOPTIC GOSPEL

The first three gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke - are known as the synoptic gospels. Word synoptic comes from two Greek words meaning see the common that is, to consider in parallel and see common places.

Undoubtedly the most important of the Gospels mentioned is the Gospel of Mark. It can even be said that this is the most important book in the world, because almost everyone agrees that this gospel was written before everyone else and, therefore, it is the first of the lives of Jesus that have come down to us. Probably, even before that they tried to write down the history of the life of Jesus, but, without a doubt, the Gospel of Mark is the earliest of the surviving and extant biographies of Jesus.

THE Rise of the Gospels

When thinking about the question of the origin of the Gospels, one must keep in mind that in that era there were no printed books in the world. The gospels were written long before the invention of printing, in an era when every book, every copy had to be carefully and painstakingly written by hand. Obviously, as a result, only a very small number of copies of each book existed.

How can you know, or from what can you conclude that the Gospel of Mark was written before the others? Even when reading the synoptic gospels in translation, one can see a remarkable similarity between them. They contain the same events, often conveyed in the same words, and the information they contain about the teachings of Jesus Christ often almost completely coincides. If we compare the event of the saturation of five thousand (Mar. 6, 30 - 44; Mat. 14, 13-21; Onion. 9, 10 - 17) is striking that it is written in almost the same words and in the same manner. Another clear example is the story of the healing and forgiveness of the paralyzed (Mar. 2, 1-12; Mat. 9, 1-8; Onion. 5, 17 - 26). The stories are so similar that even the words "said to the paralytic" are given in all three Gospels in the same place. Correspondences and coincidences are so obvious that one of two conclusions suggests itself: either all three authors took information from one source, or two of the three relied on a third.

On closer examination, the Gospel of Mark can be divided into 105 episodes, of which 93 occur in the Gospel of Matthew and 81 in the Gospel of Luke, and only four episodes do not occur in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But even more convincing is the following fact. The Gospel of Mark has 661 verses, the Gospel of Matthew has 1068, and the Gospel of Luke has 1149 verses. Of the 661 verses in the Gospel of Mark, 606 verses are given in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew's expressions sometimes differ from those of Mark, but nevertheless Matthew uses 51% words used by Mark. Of the same 661 verses in the Gospel of Mark, 320 verses are used in the Gospel of Luke. In addition, Luke uses 53% of the words that Mark actually used. Only 55 verses of the Gospel of Mark are not found in the Gospel of Matthew, but 31 of these 55 verses are found in Luke. Thus, only 24 verses from the Gospel of Mark are not found in either Matthew or Luke. All of this indicates that both Matthew and Luke seem to have used the Gospel of Mark as the basis for writing their gospels.

But the following fact convinces us even more. Both Matthew and Luke largely follow Mark's order of events.

Sometimes this order is broken by Matthew or Luke. But these changes in Matthew and Luke never do not match.

One of them always keeps the order of events accepted by Mark.

A close examination of these three gospels shows that the Gospel of Mark was written before the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and they used the Gospel of Mark as a basis and added whatever additional information they wanted to include in it.

It takes your breath away when you think that when you read the Gospel of Mark, you read the first biography of Jesus, on which the authors of all his subsequent biographies relied.

MARK, AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL

What do we know about Mark, who wrote the Gospel? Much is said about him in the New Testament. He was the son of a wealthy Jerusalem woman named Mary, whose house served as a meeting place and prayer place for the early Christian church. (Acts. 12, 12). Mark from childhood was brought up in the midst of the Christian brotherhood.

In addition, Mark was Barnabas' nephew, and when Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey, they took Mark with them as a secretary and assistant. (Acts 12:25). This trip turned out to be extremely unsuccessful for Mark. Arriving with Barnabas and Mark in Perga, Paul offered to go deep into Asia Minor to the central plateau and here, for some reason, Mark left Barnabas and Paul and returned home to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13). Maybe he turned back because he wanted to avoid the dangers of the road, which was one of the most difficult and dangerous in the world, difficult to travel on and full of robbers. Maybe he returned, because the leadership of the expedition was increasingly transferred to Paul, and Mark did not like that his uncle, Barnabas, was pushed into the background. Maybe he returned because he didn't approve of what Paul was doing. John Chrysostom - maybe in a flash of insight - said that Mark went home because he wanted to live with his mother.

Having completed their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas were about to embark on a second. Barnabas again wanted to take Mark with him. But Paul refused to have anything with the man "who had fallen behind them in Pamphylia" (Acts. 15, 37-40). The differences between Paul and Barnabas were so great that they separated and, as far as we know, never worked together again.

For several years, Mark disappeared from our field of vision. According to legend, he went to Egypt and founded a church in Alexandria. We, however, do not know the truth, but we know that he has reappeared in the strangest way. To our surprise, we learn that Mark was with Paul in prison in Rome when Paul wrote his Epistle to the Colossians. (Col. 4, 10). In another letter to Philemon written in prison (v. 23), Paul names Mark as one of his co-workers. And in anticipation of his death and already very close to his end, Paul writes to Timothy, who was his right hand: “Take Mark and bring with you, for I need him for the ministry” (2 Tim. 4, 11). What has changed since Paul branded Mark a man without restraint. Whatever happened, Mark corrected his mistake. Paul needed him when his end was near.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

The value of what is written depends on the sources from which the information is taken. Where did Mark get information about the life and deeds of Jesus? We have already seen that his house was from the beginning the center of the Christians in Jerusalem. He must have often listened to people who knew Jesus personally. It is also possible that he had other sources of information.

Around the end of the second century, there was a man named Papias, bishop of the church in the city of Hierapolis, who loved to gather information about the early days of the Church. He said that the Gospel of Mark is nothing more than a record of the sermons of the Apostle Peter. Without a doubt, Mark stood so close to Peter and was so close to his heart that he could call him "Mark, my son" (1 Pet. 5, 13). Here is what Papia says:

"Mark, who was the interpreter of Peter, wrote down with accuracy, but not in order, everything that he remembered from the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, because he did not hear the Lord himself and was not His disciple; he became later, as I said, Peter's disciple ; Peter connected his instruction with practical needs, not even trying to convey the word of the Lord in a sequential order. So Mark did the right thing, writing down from memory, because he cared only about how not to miss or distort anything from what he heard " .

Therefore, for two reasons, we consider the Gospel of Mark to be an extremely important book. First, it is the very first gospel, and if it was written shortly after the death of the Apostle Peter, it refers to the year 65. Secondly, it contains the sermons of the apostle Peter: what he taught and what he preached about Jesus Christ. In other words, the Gospel of Mark is the closest eyewitness account we have of the life of Jesus to the truth.

LOST ENDING

Note important point concerning the Gospel of Mark. In its original form, it ends in Mar. 16, 8. We know this for two reasons. First, the following verses (Mar. 16:9-20) are missing from all important early manuscripts; they are found only in later and less important manuscripts. Secondly, the style of the Greek language is so different from the rest of the manuscript that the last verses could not have been written by the same person.

But intentions stop at Mar. 16, 8 the author could not have. What then happened? Perhaps Mark died, and perhaps even the death of a martyr, before he could complete the Gospel. But it is quite probable that only one copy of the Gospel once remained, moreover, its ending could also be lost. Once upon a time, the Church made little use of the Gospel of Mark, preferring to it the Gospel of Matthew and Luke. Perhaps the Gospel of Mark was forgotten precisely because all copies were lost except for the one with the lost ending. If so, we were within a hair's breadth of losing the gospel, which in many ways is the most important of all.

FEATURES OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK

Let's pay attention to the features of the Gospel of Mark and analyze them.

1) It comes closest to the eyewitness account of the life of Jesus Christ. Mark's task was to depict Jesus as He was. Wescott called the Gospel of Mark "a copy from life." A. B. Bruce said that it was written "like a living love memory", that its most important feature in its realism.

2) Mark never forgot the divine attributes in Jesus. Mark begins his gospel with a statement of his creed of faith. "The Beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God". He leaves us in no doubt as to who he believed Jesus to be. Mark speaks again and again of the impression Jesus made on the minds and hearts of those who heard him. Mark always remembers the awe and wonder He inspired. "And they marveled at his teaching" (1, 22); "And everyone was horrified" (1, 27) - such phrases are found in Mark again and again. This wonder struck not only the minds of the people in the crowd listening to Him; still greater astonishment reigned in the minds of His closest disciples. "And they feared with great fear, and said to one another, Who is this, that both the wind and the sea obey Him?" (4, 41). "And they were exceedingly amazed at themselves and marveled" (6:51). "The disciples were horrified at His words" (10:24). "They were extremely amazed" (10, 26).

For Mark, Jesus was not just a man among men; He was a God among men, continually astonishing and terrifying men by His words and deeds.

3) And, at the same time, no other Gospel shows the humanity of Jesus so vividly. Sometimes His image is so close to the image of a man that other authors change it a little, because they are almost afraid to repeat what Mark says. In Mark Jesus is "just a carpenter" (6, 3). Matthew would later change this and say "son of the carpenter" (Mat 13:55), as if to call Jesus a village craftsman is a big audacity. Speaking of the temptations of Jesus, Mark writes: "Immediately thereafter the Spirit leads Him (original: drives) into the wilderness" (1, 12). Matthew and Luke do not want to use this word drive towards Jesus, so they soften him up and say, "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Mat. 4, 1). "Jesus... was led by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Onion. 4, 1). No one told us as much about Jesus' feelings as Mark did. Jesus took a deep breath (7, 34; 8, 12). Jesus had compassion (6, 34). He marveled at their unbelief (6, 6). He looked at them with anger (3, 5; 10, 14). Only Mark told us that Jesus, looking at a young man with a large estate, fell in love with him (10:21). Jesus could feel hungry (11,12). He could feel tired and need to rest (6, 31).

It was in the Gospel of Mark that the image of Jesus came down to us with the same feelings as we have. The pure humanity of Jesus in Mark's portrayal makes him closer to us.

4) One of the important features of Mark's writing style is that he again and again weaves into the text vivid pictures and details characteristic of an eyewitness account. Both Matthew and Mark tell how Jesus called a child and placed him in the center. Matthew relates this event thus: "Jesus, having called a child, placed him in the midst of them." Mark adds something that throws a bright light on the whole picture (9:36): "And he took the child, put him in the midst of them, and embracing him, he said to them. . . ". And to the beautiful picture of Jesus and the children, when Jesus reproaches the disciples for not letting children come to Him, only Mark adds such a touch: "and having embraced them, laid his hands on them and blessed them" (Mar. 10, 13 - 16; cf. Mat. 19, 13 - 15; Onion. 18, 15 - 17). These small living touches convey all the tenderness of Jesus. In the story of the feeding of the five thousand, only Mark indicates that they sat down in rows. one hundred and fifty like the beds in the garden (6, 40) and the whole picture vividly rises before our eyes. Describing the last journey of Jesus and His disciples to Jerusalem, only Mark tells us that "Jesus went ahead of them" (10, 32; cf. Mat. 20, 17 and Luke. 18:32), and with this short phrase emphasizes the loneliness of Jesus. And in the story of how Jesus calmed the storm, Mark has a short phrase that other gospel writers do not have. "He slept aft at the head"(4, 38). And this little touch enlivens the picture before our eyes. There is no doubt that these small details are due to the fact that Peter was a living witness to these events and now saw them again in his mind's eye.

5) The realism and simplicity of Mark's presentation are also manifested in the style of his Greek writing.

a) His style is not marked by careful workmanship and brilliance. Mark talks like a child. To one fact, he adds another fact, connecting them only with the union "and". In the Greek original of the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, he lists, one after the other, 34 main and subordinate clauses, starting with their union "and", with one semantic verb. That's what a diligent child says.

b) Mark is very fond of the words "immediately" and "immediately". They are found in the Gospel about 30 times. Sometimes the story is said to flow. The story of Mark does not rather flow, but rushes swiftly, without taking a breath; and the reader sees the events described so vividly, as if he were present at them.

c) Mark is very fond of using the historical present tense of the verb, talking about a past event, he talks about it in the present tense. "Hearing this, Jesus He speaks them: it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick "(2, 17). "When they approached Jerusalem, to Bethphage and to Bethany, to the Mount of Olives, Jesus sends two of his students and He speaks them: enter the village which is right in front of you..." (11, 1.2). "And immediately, while He was still speaking, comes Judas, one of the twelve "(14, 49). This real historical, characteristic of both Greek and Russian, but inappropriate, for example, in English, shows us how events are alive in Mark's mind, as if everything happened before his eyes .

d) Very often he quotes the same Aramaic words that Jesus spoke. To the daughters of Jairus, Jesus says: "talifa-ku Oii!" (5, 41). To the deaf tongue-tied He says: "effafa"(7, 34). God's gift is "korvan"(7, 11); In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says: "Abba, Father" (14, 36); on the cross he cries: "Eloy, Aloy, lamma sava-hfani!"(15, 34). Sometimes the voice of Jesus sounded in Peter's ears again, and he could not help relaying to Mark in the same words that Jesus spoke.

THE MOST IMPORTANT GOSPEL

It won't be unfair if we call the Gospel of Mark the most important gospel. We will do well if we lovingly and diligently study the earliest Gospels at our disposal, in which we will again hear the apostle Peter.

THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY (Mark 1:1-4)

Mark begins his story of Jesus from afar - not from the birth of Jesus, not even from John the Baptist in the wilderness. He begins the narrative with the visions of the ancient prophets, in other words, he begins from deep antiquity, from the predestinations of God.

The Stoics also believed in God's plan. "Everything divine," said Marcus Aurelius, "is permeated with providence. Everything comes from heaven." We can learn something from this too.

1) They say that youth "looks far ahead", God's plans also go far ahead. God develops His plans and implements them. History is not a random kaleidoscope of unrelated events, but an evolving process, where God sees the ultimate goal from the very beginning.

2) We are inside this developing process and therefore we can contribute to it or hinder it. In a certain sense, it is a great honor to help in a big cause, but seeing the end goal is also a great advantage. Life would be much different if we, instead of yearning for some distant and real, unattainable goal, did everything in our power to bring this Goal closer.

In my youth, because I myself did not sing,

I didn't even try to write songs

I did not plant young trees along the roads,

Because I knew - they grow very slowly.

But now, wise over the years

I know that a noble, holy cause -

Plant a tree for others to water

Or put together a song for someone else to sing.

The goal will never be reached if no one works to achieve it.

Mark's quote from the prophets is significant. "I am sending my angel before you, who will prepare your way before you." This is a quote from Mal. 3, 1. In the book of the prophet Malachi, this is a threat. In Malachi's time, the priests performed their duties poorly, sacrificing handicapped animals and unfit second-rates, and viewing temple service as a boring duty. The messenger of God had to cleanse the worship in the temple before the Anointed One of God came to earth. Thus, the coming of Christ was a cleansing of life. And the world needed such a cleansing. Seneca called Rome "the cesspool of all vices." Juvenal spoke of Rome as "a filthy drainpipe into which the disgusting scum of all Syrian and Achaian vices flows." Wherever Christianity comes, it brings cleansing with it.

This can be shown with facts. Bruce Barton tells how he had to write a series of articles about evangelist Billy Sunday in the course of his first important assignment in the field of journalism. Three cities have been selected. "I spoke to merchants," writes Bruce Barton, "and I was told that during the meetings and after them, people came up and paid bills so old that they had long since been written off." Then Bruce Barton visited the chairman of the chamber of commerce in the city that Billy Sunday had visited three years earlier. “I don’t belong to any church,” said the chairman of the chamber of commerce, and I never went to church, but I’ll tell you what. what I know now, and if the church couldn't get the money to do it, I could get that money in half a day from people who don't go to church at all Billy Sunday took eleven thousand dollars from here, but the circus comes here and takes the same amount in one day and leaves nothing. He left behind a different moral atmosphere." Bruce Barton was about to expose, but he had to pay tribute to the cleansing power of the Christian gospel in his articles.

When Billy Graham preached in Shreveport, Louisiana, liquor sales dropped forty percent and Bible sales increased three hundred percent. One of the results of his preaching in Seattle was very simply stated: "Several divorce proceedings suspended." In Greensboro, North Carolina, they stated this result: "It had an impact on the entire social fabric of the city."

One of the great examples of the effectiveness of Christianity is the case of the mutiny on the Bounty. The rebels landed on Pitcairn Island. There were nine of them, but the natives lived on the island - six men, ten women and a fifteen-year-old girl. After one of the rebels succeeded in making raw alcohol, they suffered a tragedy - the rebels died all but one, Alexander Smith. Smith accidentally came across the Bible, read it and decided to create a society with the natives of the island, based directly on biblical teaching. An American warship approaching the island twenty years later discovered a Christian community on the island in the full sense of the word. There was no prison on the island because there were no offenses; there was no hospital because there were no patients; there was no madhouse, because there were no madmen; there were no illiterates there either, and nowhere in the world was the life and property of man so secure as there. Christianity has cleansed society.

Where Christ is allowed to come, the antiseptic action of the Christian faith purifies society of moral poison and makes it pure.

John the Baptist came preaching baptism of repentance. The Jews were familiar with ritual ablutions. They are detailed in A lion. 11-15. "A Jew," said Tertullian, "is washed every day, because he is defiled every day." Symbolic flushing and cleansing were an inseparable part of the Jewish ritual. The Gentile was considered unclean because he never kept a single rule of the Jewish law. Therefore, when a pagan became a proselyte that is, converted to the Jewish religion, he had to go through three rituals. First, undergo circumcision for that was the mark of the chosen people; secondly, for him had to be brought victim, for it was believed that he needed to be cleansed and only blood could cleanse sin; and thirdly, he had to take baptism, which symbolized the cleansing of him from all the filth of a past life. It is quite natural, therefore, that baptism was not simply the sprinkling of water, but the immersion of the whole body in water.

Baptism was known to the Jews, but the amazing thing about the baptism of John the Baptist was that John, being a Jew, offered the Jews to undergo a rite that, it would seem, only Gentiles should have been subjected to. John the Baptist made a grandiose discovery: to be a Jew by origin does not mean to be a member of God's chosen people; a Jew may be in exactly the same position as a Gentile; God does not need a Jewish way of life, but a purified life. Baptism has always been associated with confession. Each time a person turns to God, he must confess his faith to three different persons.

1) The person must confess to yourself. Such is the nature of man that we close our eyes to what we do not want to see, and, above all, to our sins. Someone was talking about one man's first step towards grace. Looking at his face in the mirror one morning while shaving, he suddenly said, "You dirty little rat!" And from that day he began to become a different person. Leaving his home, the prodigal son, of course, believed that he had a wonderful and enterprising character. But before taking the first step on the way back, he had to take a good look at himself and say: “I will get up, go to my father and say to him:“ Father! I am no longer worthy to be called your son." (Onion. 15, 18.19).

The hardest thing in the world is to face yourself; and to take the first step towards repentance and a right relationship with God is to admit one's own sin.

2) The person must confess to those whom he has harmed. It is not enough to tell God that we repent if we do not admit our guilt to those whom we have offended and grieved. Before the heavenly barriers can be removed, the human barriers must be removed. Once, a parishioner came to the priest of one community of the East African Church and confessed that she had quarreled with her husband, also a member of this community. “It was not necessary to immediately come and confess in this quarrel; it was necessary first to make peace and already after come and confess," the priest answered her. Very often it even happens that it is easier to confess before God than before people. But whoever does not humiliate himself cannot be forgiven.

3) A person must confess God. The end of pride is the beginning of forgiveness. Only when a person says, "I have sinned," can God say, "I forgive." Forgiveness is received not by the one who wants to speak with God on equal terms, but by the one who kneels in timid repentance and says, overcoming his shame: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."

THE KING'S MESSENGER (Mark 1:5-8)

It is clear that the preaching of John the Baptist had a great impact on the Jews, because they came in crowds to hear him and be baptized by him. Why did John have such an impact on his people?

1) This was a man who lived the way he taught. Not only his words, but his whole life was a protest. This protest against his contemporary way of life is expressed in three points.

a) He did not live like others - he lived in the desert. Between the center of Judea and the Dead Sea lies one of the most terrible deserts in the world. This is a limestone desert; twisted and twisted; hot rocks hum under their feet, as if under them a huge red-hot furnace. This desert extends to Dead Sea and then descends in terrible sheer ledges to the sea. In the Old Testament it is sometimes called Yeshimmon, What means devastation. John was not a city dweller. He was a man accustomed to the desert, to its loneliness and desolation. He was the one who had the opportunity to hear the voice of God.

b) He didn't dress like the others - he wore a special camel's hair garment and a leather belt. Elijah wore the same clothes (4 Tsar. 1.8). [In English, the translation of the verse sounds like this: "That man wears a sackcloth and a leather belt around his loins" - approx. translator]. When looking at John, people should have been thinking not about modern fashionable orators, but reminiscent of the prophets of the distant past, who lived very simply and avoided the soft and pampering luxury that kills the soul.

c) He didn't eat like the others - he ate locusts and wild honey. Interestingly, both words can be interpreted in two ways: locusts - these can be insects (locusts), which the law allowed to eat (A lion. 11:22-23), but it could also be the type of beans or nuts that the poorest ate. Honey - this may be honey collected by wild bees, but it may also be some kind of sweet tree resin, tree sap, which was obtained from the bark of some trees. It does not matter what these words mean, but John ate very simply.

Such was John the Baptist, and people listened to the words of such a man. Someone said of Carlyle that he preached the gospel of silence in twenty volumes. Many people proclaim what they deny in their lives; those who have decent bank accounts preach that there is no need to accumulate earthly treasures. Others living in luxury homes preach the bliss of poverty. But John preached in his life what he said, and therefore people listened to him.

2) His preaching was also effective because he told people what they knew in the depths of their hearts and what they expected in their souls.

a) There was a saying among the Jews: if Israel keeps the law of God exactly for one day, the Kingdom of God will come. Calling people to repentance, John the Baptist was simply leading them to a conclusion that they should have made long ago, what they were thinking about in the depths of their souls. Plato once said that education is not about telling people new things, it is about removing from their memory what they already know. The strongest effect on a person is such a message and such a sermon that is addressed to his consciousness. Such a sermon becomes irresistible if it is delivered by a person who has a moral right to do so.

b) The people of Israel knew well that for three hundred years the voice of prophecy had been silent. The Jews were waiting for the true word of God and they heard it in the sermon of John the Baptist. Professionalism is important in every profession. The famous violinist says that as soon as Toscanini approached the conductor's place, the orchestra felt that the authority of the conductor poured over him. We ourselves immediately recognize a truly experienced doctor. We immediately feel a speaker who knows his subject well. John came from God and those who heard him immediately understood this.

3) John's preaching was effective also because he himself was extremely modest and humble. He judged himself that he was unworthy to be a slave, unworthy to untie the strap of the sandals of the Messiah. Sandals were ordinary leather soles, fixed on the leg with ribbons that passed between the fingers. The roads at that time were not covered with asphalt and in dry weather they were heaps of dust, and in rainy weather they were rivers of mud. Taking off sandals was the work of a slave. John demanded nothing for himself, but everything for Christ, whose coming he proclaimed. His self-forgetfulness, his humble obedience, his complete self-abasement, his complete immersion in the sermon made people listen to him.

4) His sermons and his message had an effect also because he pointed to Something and Someone that were higher than him. He told people that he would baptize them with water, but that there would come one who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Moreover, water, he said, can only cleanse the body of a person, and the Holy Spirit - his life, himself and his heart. Dr. H. J. Geoffrey gives a very interesting example. When you want to call someone through the switchboard, the telephone operator will often tell you: "Wait a minute, now I'll try to connect you," and when connected, it disappears completely and leaves you to talk directly to the person you need. John the Baptist does not seek to become the center of attention - he seeks to connect people with the One who is higher and stronger than him, and people listened to him, because he pointed not to himself, but to the One who was needed by everyone.

DAY OF DECISION (Mark 1:9-11)

For every thinking person, the story of Jesus' baptism causes problems. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance meant for those who repented of their sins and were willing to express their determination to end them. What did this baptism have to do with Jesus? Was He not sinless, and was not such a baptism unnecessary and inappropriate to Him? For Jesus, this baptism had the following four meanings:

1) It was a moment decision making. He spent thirty years in Nazareth, faithfully performing his daily work and his duty towards home and family. He must have realized long ago that the time for His speech had come: He was probably just waiting for some kind of sign. The appearance of John the Baptist became this sign. Now, He saw, the moment had come when He had to attend to the fulfillment of the task entrusted to Him.

There come moments in every person's life when a decision has to be made and when a decision is accepted or rejected. To make a decision means to succeed, to refuse to make a decision or to evade it means to fail. As Lowell said:

“For every person and nation, there comes a moment when a decision must be made and a choice must be made.

In the fight between truth and falsehood, choose the side of good or the side of evil.

This is a great choice; God's new Messiah

invites everyone to bloom or wither,

And the choice is made once and for all between darkness and light."

There comes a time in everyone's life when a decision needs to be made. Shakespeare says this about it:

"There is a tide in a person's life

And if you go on big water, you will find good luck.

You miss - and all life path will go aground and in adversity."

A life in which no decision is made is a wasted, futile, unsatisfied and often tragic life. John Oxenham saw her like this:

"Open to every person

Ways and roads;

A high soul chooses a high path

And the low soul gropes for the low,

And in the midst, on the misty plains,

The rest is carried to and fro."

A life without certainty cannot be happy. When John appeared, Jesus knew that the time had come and that a decision had to be made. Nazareth was a peaceful village, and the house was dear to him, but He answered the call and the call of God.

2) By baptism, Jesus expressed His oneness with the people. He did not need to repent of his sins; but the people went to God and He felt the need to take part in this movement. A person who has peace, comfort and wealth can identify with a movement that aims to bring benefits to the oppressed, the poor, the homeless, the exhausted from work. A person shows a really great feeling of joy when he participates in some kind of movement, not for himself or his personal interests, but for the interests of other people. In John Bunyan's allegory, a Christian, on his journey with the Interpreter, arrived at the heavily guarded Palace. It took fighting to get into it. At the door of the Palace sat a man with a horn inkwell, writing down the names of all who dared to attack. Everyone began to back away, and then the Christian saw how "some brave man walked up to the recorder and said, "Write down my name, sir." When great things are done, the Christian should come up and say, "Please write down my name," for that is what Jesus did when He came to be baptized.

3) It was for Him the moment of affirmation in the chosen decision. No one leaves his home with a calm heart to go on an unknown journey. A person must be absolutely sure that he is doing the right thing. Jesus had already decided what He would do next, and now He was waiting for the seal of God's approval. In the time of Jesus, the Jews spoke of the so-called Bat Kol, What means daughter of the voice. They believed that there were several heavens, in the upper of which God sits in unapproachable light. In rare moments, the heavens open and God speaks, but in their opinion, God was so far away that people hear only a distant echo of His voice. The voice of God called directly to Jesus. It is clear from Mark's account that this was a personal experience of Jesus, not in the least intended for the crowd. The voice did not say, "This is my beloved Son," as Matthew says. (Mat. 3, 17). The voice said, "You are My Beloved Son," speaking directly to Jesus. In the act of being baptized, Jesus presented His decision to God, and that decision was clearly approved.

4) Baptism was for Jesus the moment of endowment with power. At that time, the Holy Spirit descended on Him. Here we are dealing with a certain symbolism. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove can descend. This is not a random comparison. The dove is a symbol kindness. Both Matthew and Luke tell us about the nature of John's sermon (Mat. 3, 7-12; Onion 3, 7-13). The mission of John was the mission of the ax at the root of the trees; a mission of terrible selection, all-devouring fire. He proclaimed judgment and destruction, not the good news. The appearance of the Holy Spirit, compared to a dove, immediately creates a feeling of kindness and gentleness. He will win, but it will be a victory of love.

THE TIME OF TESTING (Mark 1:12-13)

As soon as the glorious hour of baptism passed, the struggle with temptations began. Here we see one point very clearly and we cannot pass it by. It was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. The same Spirit that descended on Him at the time of baptism now led (driven) him to the test.

It is impossible to avoid temptation in our life. But one thing is clear - temptations are not sent to us to lead us to a fall; they are sent to us to strengthen our nerves, our minds, our hearts and our souls. They should not destroy us, but benefit us. They must be trials from which we must emerge as soldiers of God. Let us suppose that this young man is a good football player; he performs well in the second squad and good inclinations are visible in him; What will the team leader do then? Without a doubt, he would not send him to the third squad, where this young man could play cool and not even break a sweat; and he will send him to play in the first team, where the young man will undergo a completely new test for him and will have the opportunity to prove himself. So are temptations - they should give us an opportunity to test our maturity and strengthen us for the struggle.

Phrase forty days does not need to be taken literally. The Jews usually used this turnover to express the meaning quite a lot of time. For example, it is said that Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Ex. 24, 18); Elijah walked for forty days and forty nights, having refreshed himself with food given to him by an angel (3 Tsar. 19, 8). How do we speak ten days or so so the Jews used the expression forty days not literally, but in the sense quite a long time.

Tempted Jesus Satan. in Hebrew Satan means enemy, rival. Satan acted as an accuser of people before God. The word is used in the same sense in Job. 2, 2 and Zech. 3, 2.

Satan was to come forward with accusations against people. Satan had another title: devil This word comes from the Greek diabolos, which literally means in Greek slanderer. This is still a small step from the one who diligently seeks out everything that can be said against a person, to the one who deliberately and maliciously slanders a person before God. This is his greatest, malicious enemy; and the greatest enemy of man.

In other words, this world has God and His enemy, enemy of God. It almost inevitably had to happen that Satan was looked upon primarily as a enemy of God. This is the meaning of this name now, this is what he has always been for people; Satan is, in essence, everything that is directed against God. If we turn to the New Testament, we will see what exactly Satan or devil behind all human disease and suffering (Onion. 13, 16); Satan entered Judas, seduced him (Onion. 22, 3); we must fight the devil (1 Pet. 5, 8; Jacob. 4, 7); the power of Satan was broken by the deeds of Christ (Onion. 10:1-19). Satan is a force that opposes God.

This is the whole point of the story of temptation. Jesus had to decide how He would carry out the task assigned to Him. He understood the enormity of the task before Him, but He also realized that great power had been given to Him. God was telling Him, "Bring people My love, love them to death, subdue them with this indestructible love, even if You have to die on the cross." Satan suggested to Jesus: "Use your power to harm people; destroy your enemies; conquer the world with power, might and blood." God said to Jesus, "Set up a kingdom of love." Satan suggested: "Establish a dictatorship of power." And in that day Jesus had to choose between the way of God and the way of God's enemy.

Mark finishes his short story about temptation with two bright strokes.

1) And (He) was with the beasts. The desert was inhabited by a leopard, a bear, a wild boar and a jackal. Often, researchers say that this bright touch somewhat complements the overall gloomy picture. But maybe that's not the case at all. Perhaps this detail suggests that the animals were Jesus' friends. In the dreams of the Jews about the golden age that was to come after the coming of the Messiah, there was also a dream that the enmity between man and beast would end. "And at that time I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth" (Hosp. 2, eighteen). "Then the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie with the goat ... And the baby will play over the asp's hole, and the child will stretch out his hand to the snake's nest. They will not do evil and harm in all My holy mountain" (Is. 11, 6 - 9). Perhaps here we see the first foretaste of the charm of the peaceful coexistence of man and beast. Perhaps here we have a picture of how animals recognized their Friend and their King before people.

2) Angels served Him. In moments of trial, a person always receives divine support. When Elisha and his servant were surrounded by enemies in Dophaim and it seemed that they had no way out, Elisha opened the eyes of the young servant, and he saw around the horses and chariots of fire that belonged to God (4 Tsar. 6, 17). Jesus was not left alone in His battle - and neither are we.

GOOD NEWS (Mark 1:14-15)

This summary of the gospel of Jesus contains three great words that are central to Christianity.

1) Gospel (good news). Jesus came primarily to bring people the good news. If we trace the word in the New Testament evangemon, good news, the gospel, we can understand something from its content.

a) This is the gospel truth (Gal. 2, 5; Qty. fifteen). Before Jesus came, people could only grope for God. "Oh, if I knew where to find Him!" - called Job (Job. 23:3). Marcus Aurelius says that the soul can only see dimly, while for "see" he uses a Greek word meaning to see things through water. With the coming of Christ, people can clearly see what God is like: no more guessing and searching in the dark.

b) This is the gospel hope (Col. 1, 23). Pessimistic moods dominated the ancient world. Seneca spoke of "our helplessness in the most necessary things." People have been defeated in the struggle for virtue. The coming of Jesus brought hope to desperate hearts.

c) This is the gospel peace (Eph. 6, 15). A person carries a punishment - a split personality. In man, beast and angel are strangely mixed and united. It is said that the following question was once asked to the lonely wandering philosopher-pessimist Schopenhauer: "Who are you?" To which he replied: "I would like you to tell me this." And Robert Burns said about himself: "My life reminds me of a ruined temple. What strength, what proportions in some parts! What boundless gaps, what heaps of ruins in others!" All the misfortunes of a person come from the fact that he simultaneously strives for sin and for virtue. The coming of Jesus unites this divided personality into one. Man wins over his opposing "I" the same victory that Jesus Christ won.

d) This is the gospel promises (Eph. 3, 6). It is fair to say that people have always expected threats from God, not promises. All non-Christian religions know a God who demands and asks, only Christianity has told people about a God who is ready to give more than we ask.

e) This is the gospel immortality (2 Tim. 1, 10). For the pagans, life was the road to death, man was essentially a dying man, and the coming Jesus brought us the good news that we are on the way to life, not to death.

f) This is the gospel salvation (Eph. 1, 13). This salvation is not just something negative; it includes the positive. It does not just give release from punishment and deliverance from past sin; it enables us to live victoriously and overcome sin. Jesus brought truly good news to the people.

2) Confess. Repentance is not as simple a thing as it sometimes seems. Greek word metanoia in literally means change the way you think. Man tends to confuse two things - regret about the consequences of sin and regret about sin. Many express utter regret because of the mass of trouble that their sin has brought upon them. But if they were confident that they could avoid these consequences, they would do it again. They hate not sin, but its consequences. True repentance means that a person not only regrets the consequences caused by his sin to himself and others, but also hates the sin itself. Once upon a time, the wise Montaigne wrote in his biography: “Children should be taught to hate vice because of its essence, so that they not only avoid committing it, but also hate it with all their hearts; so that the mere thought of it can cause them disgust, in which no matter how it appears in form. Repentance means that a person who is in love with his sin begins to hate it for its absolute sinfulness.

3) And finally - believe."Believe," says Jesus, "the good news." To believe in the good news is simply to take Jesus at his word, to believe that God is exactly as He told us about Him; to believe that God loves the world so much that he will make any sacrifice to bring us back to Himself; it means to believe that everything that sounds in our opinion is not entirely plausible - the truth.

JESUS ​​CHOOSE FRIENDS (Mark 1:16-20)

As soon as Jesus made a decision and determined His course of action, He began to look for people to fulfill. A leader must always start somewhere. He gathers around him a group of like-minded people in whose hearts he would find a response for his ideas. Mark shows us Christ in the literal sense of the word laying the foundation of His Kingdom and calling His first followers to Himself. There were many fishermen in Galilee. The great Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus, who at one time was the governor of Galilee, tells that at that time three hundred and fifty fishing boats sailed in the waters of the lake. The common people in Palestine seldom ate meat, perhaps no more than once a week. Fish was their main food (Onion. 11, 11; Mat. 7, 10; Mar. b, 30-44; Onion. 24, 42). Usually the fish was salted because there was no means to transport fresh fish. Fresh fish was one of the main delicacies in such large cities as Rome. The very name of the cities located on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret shows what an important place fishery occupied there. Bethsaida means fishermen's house; Tarichea(in Russian Bible - Magdala) - a place of salted fish, and just there the fish was stored for export to Jerusalem and even to Rome. The salting of fish and the trade in salted fish occupied an important place in the Galilee.

Two types of nets were used by fishermen, and they are mentioned or implied in the Gospels. One type was called sagene, a kind of trawl, which was lowered from the stern of the boat and which was so balanced that it stood right in the water. The ship moved forward and dragged the net by the four ends and pulled them together, making it look like a big bag from the net, which, moving in the water, captured the fish. Another type of net used by Simon Peter and Andrew was called amphiblestron he was much smaller in the form of an umbrella, and he was thrown into the water with his hands, like a net.

It is only natural that the people chosen by Jesus as His followers are of great interest for study.

1. It should be noted who they were. These were ordinary people. They did not study in schools and universities, they did not come from priests or from aristocrats; they were neither scholars nor rich. They were fishermen, in other words, they were ordinary people. No one has ever believed in ordinary people like Jesus did. George Bernard Shaw once said: "I have no feelings for the working class, except for one thing: to abolish it and replace it with prudent people." In the novel The Patrician by John Galsworthy, one of the characters, Miltown, says: "Mob! What disgust I have for her! I hate her voice, and one look at her face - it is so ugly, so insignificant!" Once, in annoyance, Carlisle declared that twenty-seven million people lived in England - and most of them were fools! Jesus didn't think so. Abraham Lincoln said:

"God must love the common people - He made so many of them." Jesus seemed to be saying, "Give me twelve simple people, and with them, if they are devoted to Me, I will change the world." A person should think more about what Jesus can make of him, and not about what he is.

2. It should be noted what they were doing the moment Jesus called them. They did the usual work: they caught fish and repaired the nets. “I am not a prophet,” said Amos, “and not the son of a prophet; I was a shepherd and gathered sycamores. But the Lord took me from the sheep and the Lord said to me, "Go and prophesy to my people Israel" (Am. 7, 14.15). The call of God can come to a person not only when he is in the house of God or in solitude, but also directly in the course of everyday work. As the Scottish engineer McAndrew put it in Kipling:

"From connecting flange to guide spindle

Everywhere I see Your hand, O God!

Predestination - in the works

Your rod!".

A person living in a world in which God is everywhere cannot fail to meet Him.

3. It should be noted as Jesus called them. The call of Jesus was: "Follow me!" This does not mean that He saw them for the first time that day. They, no doubt, stood in the crowd and listened to Him, they remained standing and talking when the crowd had long since dispersed; they felt the charm of His presence and the attractive power of His eyes. Jesus did not tell them, "I have a theological system and I would like you to study it; - or, - I have some theories and I would like you to think about them; - or, - I have ethical system and I would like to discuss it with you." He said to them: "Follow me!" It all began with the personal impression He made on them; it all started with a heart-rending feeling that breeds unwavering loyalty. This, however, does not mean at all that there are no such people who understand Christianity intellectually. For most of us, following Christ is like falling in love. They say that "we admire people with the mind, but love them without the mind." Everything happens the way it did, because everything happened the way it did, and we are what we are. “And when I am lifted up from the earth,” Jesus said, “I will draw everyone to me.” (Ivan. 12, 32). In the vast majority of cases, a person follows Christ not because of what Jesus said, but because of who Jesus is.

4. And finally, it should be noted what Jesus offered them. He offered them a job. He called them not to rest, but to service. Someone said that it is important for every person to have "a business in which he could put his life." And so Jesus called His people not to comfortable rest and not to lethargic idleness: He called them to a task on which they were to spend their whole lives, and on which they were to burn, and in the end die for Him and for their own. brothers. He has called them to a task, and they can achieve something only by giving themselves wholly to Him and to their fellowmen.

JESUS ​​BEGINS HIS JOURNEY (Mark 1:21-22)

Mark's story unfolds in a logical and natural sequence. In the appearance of John the Baptist, Jesus saw the call of God. He was baptized, received the seal of God's approval, and was endowed with power from God to accomplish His assigned task. He was tempted by the devil and chose His way. He chose His people to have a small circle of kindred spirits and to record His teaching in their hearts. And now He had to purposefully begin His campaign. A person who has a message from God, quite naturally, should have gone with him to the church where God's people gather. And that's exactly what Jesus did. He began his ministry in the synagogue.

There are certain differences between the synagogue and the church as we know it today.

a) The synagogue served mainly learning goals. The divine service in the synagogue consisted of only three parts: prayer, reading the word of God, and explaining what was read. There was no music, no singing, no sacrifices. You can say the place divine services and sacrifices was temple; synagogue was a place teachings and instructions. The synagogue had a very great influence on the life of the Jews, because there was only one temple, and the law said that wherever at least ten Jews live, there should be a synagogue. A person who wanted to preach a new doctrine, quite naturally, had to preach it in the synagogue.

b) The synagogue provided an opportunity to bring this teaching to the people. There were certain officials in the synagogue. First, the chapter head of the synagogue. He was responsible for managing the affairs of the synagogue and conducting services. There were people collecting and distributing donations. Every day, donations of money and food were collected from those who could afford it. Then it was distributed among the poor: the poorest were given food for fourteen meals a week. There was a so-called hazzan, person named in the bible a priest responsible for the storage and distribution of sacred scrolls with Scripture, for cleanliness in the synagogue, for the timely sounding of silver trumpets, announcing to people the onset of the Sabbath, for the initial education of the children of the community. But the synagogue did not have a permanent priest or teacher. When people gathered for services in the synagogue, the synagogue leader could call on anyone versed in the Scriptures to read the text from the Bible and comment on it. There was nothing like a professional priest in the synagogue. That is why Jesus was able to begin His ministry in the synagogues. Opposition to Him has not yet acquired a hostile character. He was known to all as a man who had something to say to people; and that is why the synagogue of every congregation provided Him with a pulpit from which He could instruct the people and address them. But when Jesus taught in the synagogue, the method and spirit of His teaching felt like a new revelation. He did not teach as the scribes, the experts in the law, taught. Who are these scribes? The most sacred thing in the world for the Jews was Torah, law. The essence of the law was the ten commandments, but by law they understood the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, as they are called. In the view of the Jews, these five books were absolutely divine in nature. The Jews believed that these five books were given to Moses by God Himself. The law was absolutely sacred and absolutely obligatory. The Jews said: "He who declares that Torah not from God, there is no place in the world to come." "Whoever claims that Moses wrote at least one verse himself, according to his own understanding, he rejects and despises the word of God." If Torah really so sacred, two things follow from this. First, it must be the highest standard of faith and life; and secondly, it must contain all that is necessary to regulate and direct life. And in this case, the Torah, firstly, needs to be carefully and thoroughly studied; and secondly, in tore set out the great all-encompassing principles of life, and if it lays down norms and guidelines for all life, it is necessary to reveal and make available to all everything that is contained in it implicitly - implied, although not directly formulated. The great general laws must become norms and rules, the Jews argued. And so, in order to carry out this study and draw all the necessary conclusions and conclusions, a whole class of scientists arose. They were the scribes, the experts in the law. The greatest of them bore the title rabbi The scribes were given the following three tasks.

1. The scribes were supposed to deduce from the great moral principles set forth in the Torah norms and rules for every possible occasion in life. It is quite obvious that such a task could never be accomplished: new and new life situations arose all the time. The Jewish religion began with the establishment of great moral laws, and ended with an endless array of norms and rules. It began as a religion and ended as a legal system.

2. The scribes were to impart to others this law and the rules derived from it, and teach them. These norms and rules, deduced and extracted from the law, were never written down; they are known as Oral law. Although it was never written down, it was considered even more binding than a written law. From generation to generation it was taught from memory and learned by heart. A good student should have had a memory like "a well lined with lime so that not a single drop is wasted."

3. The scribes were to make judgments and judgments in specific cases; and, quite naturally, practically every particular case required the creation of a new law.

Well, in what way was the teaching of Jesus essentially different from the teaching of the scribes? He taught on the basis of His personal power and authority. No scribe has ever made a decision based on his own opinion. They always started like this: "There is a theory that ..." and then they cited all the authoritative sources. When making any statement, they always supported it with quotations from one, another, third famous lawyer of the past. And finally, they made their judgment. How different was Jesus from them! When He spoke, He spoke as if He needed no authority other than Himself. He spoke completely independently. He did not cite any authoritative sources and did not quote scribes. The tone of power and authority in His voice made an impression on every person.

VICTORY OVER THE FORCES OF EVIL (Mark 1:23-28)

The words of Jesus stunned the people in the synagogue, His deeds and deeds struck them like thunder. There was a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an unclean spirit and caused a mess, and Jesus healed him.

In all the Gospels we meet people possessed by an unclean spirit and who were in the power of Demons or demons. What is behind this? The Jews and, of course, the entire ancient world firmly believed in demons and demons. As Harnack put it: "The whole world and the surrounding atmosphere were full of demons; they dominated not only in idolatry, but in all forms and stages of life. They sat on thrones, they swarm around cradles. The earth was literally hell." Dr. A. Randle Short cites a fact showing how much the ancient world believed in demons. In many ancient cemeteries, skulls were found with traces of trepanation, in other words, a hole was drilled into them. In one cemetery, out of one hundred and twenty skulls, six turned out to have traces of trepanation. Considering that there were few surgical instruments, it is clear that this was a complex operation. In addition, the condition of the bones of the skull shows that the operations were carried out during the life of a person. The size of the hole shows that it was too small to be of any physical or surgical significance; it is also known that the disk of bone removed during the operation was worn around the neck as an amulet. Such an operation was done in order to give the demon the opportunity to leave the human body. If the surgeons of the time agreed to perform such operations, and people were willing to undergo such operations, then the belief in demonic possession must have been very strong.

Common name for demons mazzikin means one who harms. Thus, demons are evil beings who sought to harm people. A person who believed that he was possessed by a demon or a demon "was aware of his own existence and at the same time the existence of another being, stimulating and directing him from within." Having met Jesus, those possessed by demons often cried out: they knew that Jesus was the Messiah, that the reign of the Messiah was the end of all demons and demons. At that time, there were many demon exorcists who claimed to be able to exorcise demons. This belief was so strong and real that around 340 there was even a special Order of exorcists in the Christian church. But the difference between Jesus and various demon exorcists was that ordinary Jewish and pagan demon exorcists used complex magical spells and rites, while Jesus cast out demons from people with one clear, simple and powerful word. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. Power and authority were not in the spell, nor in the formula, nor in the incantation, nor in the complex ritual; the power and authority was in Jesus himself, and it amazed the people.

And what can we say about this? Paul Tournier writes in Cases from the Practice of a Physician: "Undoubtedly, many doctors in the fight against disease feel that they are opposed not by something passive, but by an intelligent and inventive enemy." Dr. Rendle Short came to the empirical conclusion that "the happenings of the earth, in essence, moral catastrophes, wars and evil deeds, physical catastrophes and diseases, may be part of a great battle waged among themselves by forces of the kind that we see in book of Job: devilish malice on the one hand and divine restraint on the other. This problem cannot be solved simply and unambiguously.

THE MIRACLE OF ACQUAINTANCE (Mark 1:29-31)

Everything Jesus said and did in the synagogue was very remarkable. When the synagogue service ended, Jesus went with his friends to Simon Peter's house. According to Jewish custom, the main Sabbath meal was served immediately after the service in the synagogue, at six o'clock, that is, at 12 o'clock in the afternoon (the Jewish day began at 6 o'clock in the morning and the hours were counted from that moment). Jesus might well have exercised his right to rest after the exciting and tedious event of the synagogue service; but again His strength and authority were challenged, and He again began to spend His time and energy on behalf of others. This miracle tells us something about three people.

1. We learn something about Jesus. He did not need an audience in which He could demonstrate His power and strength; He was as ready to heal people in the narrow circle of his home as he was among the large crowds in the synagogue. He never refused to help people; He put the needs of others before his own need to rest. But above all, we see here, as we saw in the episode in the synagogue, the uniqueness of Jesus' methods of healing. There were many demon exorcists in the time of Jesus, but they needed complex magic spells, charms and formulas, and even magical devices. In the synagogue, Jesus spoke only one commanding sentence, and healing came. And here again the same thing. Simon Peter's mother-in-law "was in a fever" as the Talmud says. Fever was, and still is, a widespread disease in that part of Galilee. The Talmud even gives a way to treat it. An iron knife was tied with a pigtail of hair to a thorn bush. In the following days they repeated passages of Scripture. First day Ref. 3, 2.3, during the second - Ex. 3, 4 and finally Ref. 3.5. After that, a certain magic formula was uttered and it was believed that the healing had taken place. Jesus completely ignored this set of popular magical accessories. With a single gesture and word, filled with unique power and strength, He healed the woman. The previous passage used the Greek word exu sleep, translated as power, a word exusia the Greeks defined unique power combined with unique strength, and that's what Jesus had, and that's what he applied in Simon Peter's house. Paul Tournier writes in his book: "My patients often say to me: 'I admire the patience with which you listen to everything I tell you.' But this is not only patience, it is also an interest." Jesus did not see the miracle He performed as a means to increase His prestige. To help people - in this He saw not tedious work. He helped unconsciously because he felt a special interest in those who needed His help.

2. From the episode we learn something about students. They had only recently met Him, but they had already begun to turn to Jesus with all their problems. Simon's mother-in-law was ill, the whole house was in disarray, and nothing was more natural for the disciples than to tell Jesus about it. Paul Tournier talks about how he made the greatest discovery of his life. He often visited a certain Christian priest who never let him go without first praying with him. Paul Tournier was struck by the extreme simplicity of the elder's prayers. They seemed to be an extension of the intimate conversation he had incessantly with Jesus. “When I returned home,” continues Paul Tournier, “I talked about it with my wife and together we asked God to give us the same close friendship with Jesus that the old priest had. And since then Jesus has become the center of my affection and my constant companion He enjoys what I do (cf. Eccl. 9:7) and it worries Him. He is a friend with whom I can discuss everything that happens in my life. He shares with me my joy and my pain, my hopes and my fears. It is also present when the patient speaks to me, opening the depths of his heart, listening to him with me, doing it better than I could do it myself. And when the sick person is gone, I can talk to him about it." This is the whole essence of the Christian life. As the hymn says: "Turn it in prayer to God." Already so early His disciples knew what was turned into their life habit of turning to Jesus with all their problems and asking Him for help.

3. Episode tells us something about mother-in-law of Simon Peter. As soon as she recovered, she immediately began to take care of the needs of others. She used her recovery for a new ministry. A famous Scottish family had a motto: Saved to serve. Jesus helps us so that we can help others.

THE FIRST CROWS (Mark 1:32-34)

What Jesus did in Copernaum could not be hidden. The emergence of such a great new power and power could not be kept secret. And so, by evening, the house of Simon Peter was surrounded on all sides by crowds of people who were looking for the touch of Jesus. People waited until the evening, because the law forbade carrying any cargo around the city on Saturday (cf. Jer. 17, 24). In those days, of course, there were no clocks - neither pocket, nor manual, nor desktop. Saturday lasted from 6 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the afternoon; according to the law, it was considered that the Sabbath ended and the day passed if three stars appeared in the sky. And so the inhabitants of Capernaum waited until the sun went down and the stars flashed in the sky, and they came, carrying their sick to Jesus, and He healed them.

We have already seen Jesus heal people three times. first He healed in the synagogue, then He healed the sick woman in the house of His friends, and now He heals in the street. Jesus understood everyone's request. It was said of Dr. Johnson that if anyone was in trouble, he could be sure of his support. And wherever problems arose, Jesus was ready to use His power and authority. He did not approach with partiality, either to a person or to a place; He clearly understood the universal nature of the demand of people in need.

People flocked to Jesus in droves because They recognized in Him a man capable of doing great things. Many could speak, expound, lecture, and preach; and He alone not only spoke, but also did. Someone said that if a person can make a mousetrap better than another, people will make a path to his house, even if he lives in the middle of the forest. People need someone who can get things done. Jesus could and can do great things today.

But this is where the tragedy begins. Crowds came, but they came because they needed something from Jesus. They did not come because they saw a new vision; in the end they only wanted to use Him to their advantage. This is what almost everyone wants from God and His Son. For one prayer ascending to God in an era of prosperity, there are a thousand prayers in an era of distress. Many people who never prayed when the sun shone for them begin to pray when the cold wind blows.

Someone said that people look at religion "as an ambulance service, not as a front line in the living space." People remember religion only in times of crisis. They begin to remember God only when they get into a difficult situation, or when life knocks them out. Everyone should turn to Jesus, because only He can give us what we need for life, but if such an appeal and the gifts received do not evoke love and gratitude in us in return, then something is tragically wrong with us. It is not necessary to look at God only as a useful support in difficult days, He must be loved and remembered every day of our lives.

THE HOUR OF REST AND A CALL TO ACTION (Mark 1:35-39)

Already reading the record of what happened in Capernaum, we see that Jesus did not have time for solitude. But He knew well that He could not live without communion with God; that if He wants to continue to give to others, He must receive Himself; that if He intends to devote Himself to the service of others, He must seek spiritual support Himself from time to time. He knew that he could not live without prayer. In a short book called An Exercise in Prayer, Dr. A. D. Belden gives the following definition: "Prayer is the call of the soul to God." Those who do not pray are guilty of incredible recklessness, refusing "the opportunity to associate God with their abilities." "In prayer we enable the absolute mind of God to nourish our spiritual powers." Jesus knew this; He also knew that if He wanted to meet people, He must first meet God. If Jesus needed prayer, how much more do we need it?!

But He was also found where He prayed. Jesus could not close the door on them. The writer Rose Macaulay once said that in life she needs only one thing - her own room. And that's exactly what Jesus never had. One great physician said that the task of medicine is "sometimes to heal, often to alleviate suffering, and always to comfort." And that responsibility always rested with Jesus. Someone said that a doctor should "help people live and die" and people live and die all the time. It is already in the nature of man to try to build fences and walls in order to find peace and free time for himself; Jesus never did this. No matter how well He was aware of His weariness and exhaustion, He was even more aware of the urgency of human need. And so, when the disciples came for Him, He got up from His knees to accept the burden of the task entrusted to Him. Through prayer we will never accomplish our tasks; they can only strengthen us to do our work.

Jesus went on a journey to preach in the synagogues of Galilee. There is one verse in the Gospel of Mark about this missionary journey, but it must have taken many weeks and even months. He walked and preach and heal. Jesus never shared the following things and actions.

1. He never shared word and deed. He never believed that the deed is done if it is formulated. He never considered that His task was only to call people to God and to virtue. The formulated task, appeal and exhortation have always been embodied in deeds. Fosdick somewhere talks about a student who bought the best books, textbooks and equipment, a special work chair with a book stand to make it easier to study, and then sat down in this chair and fell asleep. A person who talks a lot but does nothing is very similar to such a student.

2. He never shared soul and body. There were also such currents in Christianity, which were not interested in the needs of the body at all. But man is soul and body. And the task of Christianity is to correct the whole person, and not just one part of him. It is a holy truth that a man can die of hunger, live in a hut, live in poverty and suffer pain, and yet be happy in God; but this does not mean that you need to leave it in the same state. Christian missionaries take with them to backward countries not only the Bible; they bring with them education and medicine, schools and hospitals. It's completely wrong to talk about social evangelism, as if it were some kind of special, some optional, or even some kind of isolated part of the Christian gospel. The Christian gospel is one, and it preaches and works for the good of the human body as much as it does for the good of the soul.

3. Jesus never divided earthly and heavenly. There are people who care so much about heavenly things that they completely forget about earthly things and become impractical dreamers. But there are those who care so much about earthly things that they forget about heavenly things and consider only material values ​​as good. Jesus dreamed of a time when the will of God would be as embodied on earth as it is embodied in heaven (Mat. 6:10), when the earthly and the heavenly are one.

THE PURIFICATION OF THE LEPER (Mark 1:40-45)

There is no disease in the New Testament that would cause more horror and compassion than leprosy. Sending His twelve disciples, Jesus commanded them to heal the sick and cleanse the lepers (Mat. 10, 8). The fate of the leper was truly difficult. E. W. G. Masterman writes in his entry on leprosy in the Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, from which we have taken most of the information given here: "No disease reduces a human being for such long years into such a terrible wreck." Let's look at the facts first. There are three types of leprosy.

1. Black or tuberculous leprosy, beginning with strange lethargy and pains in the joints. Then on the body, especially on the back, symmetrical colored spots of irregular shape appear. Tubercles form on them, at first pink, which then turn brown; skin thickens. The number of these tubercles especially increases in the folds of the cheeks, nose, lips, and forehead. The face of a person changes so much that he loses his human appearance and becomes like, as the ancients expressed it, a lion or a satyr. These bumps increase in size, ulcers appear on them and pus is disgusting in smell; the eyebrows fall out, the eyes become wide open, the voice becomes rough, and the breath becomes hoarse from ulcers on the vocal cords. Ulcers also form on the arms and legs, and the patient gradually turns into a continuous growing ulcer. On average, the illness lasts nine years and ends in mental breakdown, coma, and finally death; the patient inspires extreme disgust for people and himself.

2. Anesthetic leprosy in the initial stage is the same as black, but the central one is also affected. nervous system. The affected area loses all sensitivity, and the patient may not even notice it. Even during a burn, he does not feel pain. As the disease progresses, the first-degree lesion causes irregular colored patches and blisters. Muscles disappear, tendons are reduced so that the hands turn into bird paws, nails are also deformed. After that, chronic ulcers form on the hands, then the patient loses his fingers and toes and, ultimately, the entire hand and foot. This form of the disease lasts from twenty to thirty years. It is a kind of terribly slow death of the body.

3. The third type of leprosy is the most typical combination of signs of black and anesthetic. No doubt there were many lepers in Palestine in the time of Jesus. From the descriptions in Lev. 13 it is obvious that in the era of the New Testament under the term leprosy fell as well as other skin diseases, such as, for example, psoriasis, in which the body is covered with a white rash. This case is described in the Bible with the words: "... a leper, white as snow." Apparently, this term also covered "ringworm", which is still widespread in the East. In the book Leviticus Jewish word used tsaraat, translated as leprosy. And in A lion. 13, 47 in question about leprosy ulcer (tsaraat), on clothes and A lion. 14:33 speaks of leprosy tsaraat on houses. Such stains on clothes may be mildew; leprosy on houses may be something like dry rot on wood, or destructive lichen on stones. Jewish word tsaraat, leprosy, seems to have been associated in Jewish thought with every creeping skin disease. It is quite natural that in that state of medicine, when diagnosing, they did not distinguish between various skin diseases and classified them as incurable and severe, even not very dangerous diseases.

Each such skin disease made the patient an outcast. He was expelled from human society. He had to live alone outside the camp or settlement, walking in torn clothes, with an uncovered HEAD and with his face covered up to his upper lip. While walking, he had to warn others of his dangerous presence by shouting: "Unclean! Unclean!". We see the same picture in the Middle Ages, when the law of Moses was in effect. A priest in a stole and with a crucifix in his hands led the leper to the church and read the funeral service over him. A leper was considered dead, although he was still alive. He had to wear a black dress so that everyone could recognize him. He had to live in a leper's house. He could not come to church services, but during the service he could look into the leper's "peephole" cut in the wall; the leper had to endure not only the physical pain caused by the disease, but also the mental anguish caused by exclusion from human society and complete isolation. If ever a leper was cured - which happened very rarely - then he had to undergo the rehabilitation procedure, which is described in A lion. 14. The priest first examined the patient, then took a cedar tree, scarlet thread, fine linen and two birds (one of which he sacrificed over running water) and dipped all this, as well as a live bird, into the blood of the sacrificed bird. After that, the live bird was released into the wild. The man had to wash himself and wash his clothes, shave. Seven days later the priest examined him again. He had to shave off the hair of the head, eyebrows. They brought certain sacrifices - two rams and one one-year-old sheep without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of wheat flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil. For the poor, the size of the sacrifice was reduced. With a hand dipped in the blood of a sacrificial animal, the priest touched the lobe of the right ear of the patient undergoing purification, his thumb right hand and the big toe of the right foot, and then all over again with a hand dipped in oil. After that, the last examination was made, and if the person turned out to be clean, he was released with a certificate that he was clean.

Here is one of the most expressive portraits of Christ.

1. He did not drive away the man who broke the law. The leper did not have the right to address Him and speak with Him at all, but Jesus answered the man's desperate cry with understanding and sympathy.

2. Jesus reached out and touched him. He touched an unclean person. But for Jesus he was not unclean, for him it was an ordinary human soul in desperate need.

3. Having cleansed and healed the man, Jesus sent him to perform the usual ritual ceremony. Jesus fulfilled human law and the demands of human justice. He did not recklessly ignore accepted norms, but when necessary, he obeyed them.

In this we see a combination of sympathy, power and wisdom.

Commentaries (introduction) to the entire book "From Mark"

Comments on Chapter 1

"There is a freshness and power in Mark's gospel that captures the Christian reader and makes him want to do something to serve in the manner of his blessed Lord."(August Van Ryn)

Introduction

I. SPECIAL STATEMENT IN THE CANON

Since the gospel of Mark is the shortest, and about ninety percent of its material is also found in Matthew and Luke or both, what is his contribution that we cannot do without?

Above all, Mark's concise style and journalistic simplicity make his gospel an ideal introduction to the Christian faith. In new missionary fields, the Gospel of Mark is often the first to be translated into national languages.

However, not only the clear lively style, especially acceptable to the Romans and their modern allies, but also the content of the Gospel of Mark makes it unique.

Mark basically deals with the same events as Matthew and Luke, adding a few unique ones to them, but he still has colorful details that others lack. For example, he draws attention to how Jesus looked at the disciples, how angry He was, and how He walked ahead of them on the road to Jerusalem. He undoubtedly has these details from Peter, with whom he was together at the end of the latter's life. Tradition says, and probably is, that the Gospel of Mark is, in fact, a memoir of Peter. This was reflected in the personal details, the development of the plot, and the apparent authenticity of the book. It is generally accepted that Mark was the young man who ran away naked (14:51), and that this is his modest signature under the book. (The titles of the Gospels were not originally part of the books themselves.) The tradition is obviously correct, since John Mark lived in Jerusalem; and if he had not been connected in any way with the gospel, there would be no reason to quote this little episode.

External evidence of his authorship is early, fairly strong, and from different parts of the empire. Papias (c. 110 AD) cites John the Elder (probably the apostle John, although another disciple is not excluded) who indicated that this gospel was written by Mark, Peter's collaborator. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Antimark's Prologue agree on this.

The author obviously knew Palestine well, and especially Jerusalem. (The story of the upper room is noted in greater detail than in the other gospels. No wonder if the events took place in his childhood home!) The gospel indicates an Aramaic setting (the language of Palestine), an understanding of customs, and the presentation suggests a close connection with an eyewitness of events. The content of the book corresponds to the plan of Peter's sermon in the 10th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

The tradition that Mark wrote the gospel in Rome is confirmed by the use of more Latin words than others (words such as centurion, census, legion, denarius, praetorium).

Ten times the NT mentions the pagan (Latin) name of our author - Mark, and three times - the combined Hebrew-pagan name John-Mark.

Mark - the servant or helper: first of Paul, then of his cousin Barnabas and, according to reliable tradition, Peter until his death - was the ideal person to write the Gospel of the Perfect Servant.

III. WRITING TIME

The timing of the writing of the Gospel of Mark is debated even by conservative, Bible-believing scholars. It is impossible to determine the exact date, but the time is still indicated - before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Tradition is also divided as to whether Mark recorded Peter's sermon on the life of our Lord before the death of the apostle (before 64-68) or after his departure.

In particular, if the Gospel of Mark is the first recorded gospel, as most scholars today claim, then an earlier date of writing is needed in order for Luke to use Mark's material.

Some scholars date the Gospel of Mark to the early 50s, but dating from 57 to 60 seems more likely.

IV. PURPOSE OF WRITING AND THEME

This gospel presents an amazing account of God's Perfect Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ; the story of the One who renounced the outward splendor of his glory in heaven and assumed the form of a servant on earth (Philippians 2:7). This is an unprecedented story about the One Who "... came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

If we remember that this Perfect Servant was none other than God the Son, Who voluntarily girded himself with the garment of a servant and became a Servant to men, then the Gospel will shine for us with eternal radiance. Here we see the incarnate Son of God Who lived on earth as a dependent Man.

Everything He did was in perfect accord with the will of His Father, and all His mighty deeds were done in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mark's style is fast, energetic and concise. He pays more attention to the works of the Lord than to His words; this is confirmed by the fact that he gives nineteen miracles and only four parables.

As we study this gospel, we will seek answers to three questions:

1. What does it say?

2. What does it mean?

3. What is the lesson for me in it?

For all who desire to be true and faithful servants of the Lord, this gospel should become a valuable ministry textbook.

Plan

I. PREPARATION OF THE SERVANT (1:1-13)

II. EARLY SERVANT MINISTRY IN GALILEE (1:14 - 3:12)

III. CALLING AND EDUCATION OF THE SERVANT'S DISCIPLES (3.13 - 8.38)

IV. JOURNEY OF THE SERVANT TO JERUSALEM (Ch. 9 - 10)

V. THE SERVICE OF THE SERVANT IN JERUSALEM (Ch. 11-12)

VI. THE SPEECH OF THE SERVANT ON THE MOUNT OF OLEON (Ch. 13)

VII. THE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF THE SERVANT (Ch. 14-15)

VIII. VICTORY OF THE SERVANT (Ch. 16)

I. PREPARATION OF THE SERVANT (1:1-13)

A. The Forerunner of the Servant Prepares the Way (1:1-8)

1,1 The theme of the Gospel of Mark is the Good News about Jesus Christ, God's Son. Since the author's goal is to highlight the role of the Lord Jesus Christ as a Servant, he begins not with genealogy, but with the public ministry of the Savior.

It was announced by John the Baptist, the herald of the Good News.

1,2-3 The prophets Malachi and Isaiah spoke of a harbinger that would come before the Messiah and would call on the people to prepare morally and spiritually for His coming (Mal. 3:1; Isaiah 40:3).

John the Baptist fulfilled these prophecies. He was sent as "voice in the wilderness".

(The NIV says "Isaiah the prophet" but quotes Malachi first. The US translation uses "prophets" based on most manuscripts and is more accurate.)

1,4 His message was for the people to repent (change their thoughts and turn from their sins) and gain forgiveness of sins. Otherwise, they will be unable to receive the Lord. Only holy people can adequately receive the Holy Son of God.

1,5 Those who listened to John the Baptist repented, and he baptized them. This was the outward expression of their conversion. Baptism publicly separated them from the bulk of the people of Israel, who had turned their backs on the Lord. It united them with the remnant of the people who were ready to receive Christ. From verse 5 it would appear that the response to John's preaching was universal. But it's not. There might have been a burst of rapture at first, as multitudes rushed into the wilderness to hear the fiery preacher, but most of the people did not truly repent and turn away from their sins. This will become clear as the story progresses.

1,6 What kind of person was John? Today he would be called a fanatic and an ascetic. The desert was his home. He, like Elijah, wore the roughest and simplest clothes. His food was sufficient to sustain life and strength, but it was not exquisite.

He was a man who subordinated everything to one glorious task - to acquaint people with Christ. Perhaps he could have been rich, but preferred poverty. Thus, he became just such a herald, which corresponded to the One Who had no place to lay his head. From this we can learn the lesson that all who serve the Lord should be characterized by simplicity.

1,7 John proclaimed the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that Jesus was greater in power, personal superiority, and ministry.

John did not consider himself worthy untie shoe strap Savior (duty imputed to a slave). Holy Spirit-filled preaching always exalts the Lord Jesus Christ and debunks the self.

1,8 John baptized water. It was an outward sign that did not produce a change in a person's life. Jesus will be baptize them Holy Spirit; this baptism will entail a great influx of spiritual power (Acts 1:8). It will also unite believers to the Church, the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).

B. The Forerunner baptizes the Servant (1:9-11)

1,9 At this time, the so-called thirty years of silence in Nazareth came to an end. The Lord Jesus Christ was ready to begin His public ministry. First of all, He walked 96 km from Nazareth to Jordan near Jericho. There He was baptized by John. In His case, of course, no repentance was required, because He had no sins to confess. For the Lord, baptism was a symbolic act illustrating His baptism into death at Calvary and His resurrection from the dead. Thus, in the very entrance of His public service was laid a living omen of the cross and an empty grave.

1,10-11 As soon as Jesus came out out of the water, John saw the heavens open, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him. sounded from the sky voice God the Father who identified Jesus as His own beloved Son.

There was not a moment in the life of our Lord when He was not filled with Holy Spirit. But now the Holy Spirit has come down on him, anointing Him for service and endowing Him with power. It was a special ministry of the Spirit, preparation for the coming three years of work.

The power of the Holy Spirit is needed. A person may be educated, talented, and fluent in speech, but without this mysterious quality, which we call "anointing", his work will be lifeless and ineffective. The vital question before us is: Has the Holy Spirit empowered me to serve the Lord?

C. The servant is tempted by Satan (1:12-13)

Servant of Jehovah for forty days was tempted by satan in desert. Spirit God brought Him to this meeting, not to see if He would sin, but to prove that He could not sin. If Jesus could sin like a man on earth, how can we be sure that He cannot now sin like a man in heaven?

Why does Mark indicate that He was there with animals? Were these animals that Satan urged to destroy the Lord? Or did they become meek in the presence of their Creator?

We can only ask questions. At the end of forty days He was served by angels(cf. Matt. 4:11); during the temptation He did not eat anything (Luke 4:2).

Trials are inevitable in the life of a believer. How closer man follows the Lord, the stronger they will be. Satan does not waste gunpowder on nominal Christians, but against those who win territory in a spiritual battle, he unsheaths his large-caliber guns. Being tempted is not a sin. Sin lies in yielding to temptation. We cannot resist him relying on our own forces. But the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer is his power to suppress dark passions.

II. EARLY SERVANT MINISTRY IN GALILEE (1:14 - 3:12)

A. The Servant Enters His Service (1:14-15)

Mark skips the Lord's ministry in Judea (cf. John 1:1-4:54) and begins with the great ministry in Galilee, which covers a period of 1 year and 9 months (1:14-9:50). Then, before moving on to the last week in Jerusalem, he touches briefly on the last stage of the ministry in Perea (10:1-10:45).

Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Specifically, his sermon was as follows:

1. The time has come. In accordance with the dates predicted by the prophets, the date of the appearance of the King among the people was set. Now that time has come.

2. The Kingdom of God is at hand; the King appeared and, with the most honest intentions, offered the Kingdom to the people of Israel. The kingdom has come in the sense that the King appeared.

3. He called the people repent and believe in the gospel. In order to be chosen for the Kingdom, people must turn from sin and believe in the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ.

B. Calling four fishermen (1:16-20)

1,16-18 Passing by the Sea of ​​Galilee, Jesus I saw Simon and Andrey, who were fishing. He had met them before; in fact they became His disciples at the dawn of His ministry (John 1:40-41). Now He called them to be with Him, promising to fishermen of men. They immediately left their profitable fishing business and followed Him. Their obedience was instantaneous, sacrificial and complete.

Catching fish is an art, catching people is also an art:

1. Patience is needed. Often you have to wait long hours alone.

2. You must be able to use a hook, baits or nets.

3. It takes discernment and common sense to go where the fish go.

4. Perseverance is needed. A good fisherman does not soon despair.

5. Calmness is needed. The best strategy is to avoid interference and keep yourself as if in the distance.

We become fishermen of men when we follow Christ. The more we become like Him, the more successful we will be in winning others for Him. Our duty is to follow after Him; He will take care of everything else.

1,19-20 From there a little The Lord Jesus met James and John sons Zebedee, which repaired their networks. As soon as he called them they said goodbye to father and followed Lord.

Christ still calls people to leave everything and follow Him (Luke 14:33). Neither property nor parents should be allowed to interfere with obedience.

C. Casting out an unclean spirit (1:21-28)

Verses 21-34 describe a typical day in the life of the Lord. Miracle followed miracle when the great Physician healed the demon-possessed and the sick.

The Savior's miracles of healing show how He delivers people from the terrible consequences of sin. This is clearly shown in the table below.

Although the preacher today is not called to perform such physical healings, he is called to constantly deal with similar spiritual problems. Are not the miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ mentions in John (14:12): "... he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also, and greater than these he will do"?

1,21-22 But let's get back to Mark's story. AT Capernaum Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and started teaching. People realized that this was no ordinary teacher. His words were filled with undeniable power. He taught the Soviets not in the same way as scribes- in a monotonous voice and mechanically. His phrases were arrows from the Almighty. His lessons captured, convinced, called. The scribes, on the other hand, imposed a petty, second-rate religion. There was nothing unrealistic in the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had every right to proclaim His doctrine because He lived according to what He taught.

Everyone who teaches the Word of God must speak with authority or not speak at all. The psalmist said: "I believed, and therefore I spoke" (Ps. 115:1). Paul echoes these words in 2 Cor. 4.13. Their word was based on deep conviction.

1,23 In their synagogue There was a man who was possessed and possessed by a demon. This demon is described as unclean spirit. This probably means that the spirit manifested its presence, making the person physically and morally unclean. Do not confuse obsession with various forms mental illnesses. These are different things. A demon-possessed person is actually possessed by an evil spirit that controls him. Man can often perform supernatural acts and often rage and blaspheme when confronted with the person and works of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1,24 Note that the evil spirit recognizes Jesus and calls Him the Nazarene and Holy of God. Note also the replacement of plural pronouns by the singular: "What do you care about us? ... You came to destroy us! I know you..." At first, the demon speaks, as if uniting itself with the person; then he speaks only on his own behalf.

1,25-26 Jesus did not accept the testimony of demons, even if it was true. So He told the evil spirit shut up and exit from person. It must have been strange to see shaking person and hear the loud cry of the spirit leaving its victim.

1,27-28 This miracle caused deep astonishment. People saw something new and terrifying in the fact that a Man could cast out a demon simply by commanding him. Was this the creation of a new school of religious teaching, they wondered. News of a miracle immediately spread throughout Galilee.

Before moving on to the next verses, let's note three things:

1. It is obvious that the first coming of Christ caused a great surge of demonic activity on earth.

2. The power of Christ over all evil spirits foreshadows His victory over Satan and all his servants at God's appointed time.

3. Satan resists wherever God works. Anyone who embarks on the path of serving the Lord can expect opposition to every step he takes. "...Because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against authorities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spirits of wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12).

D. Healing of Peter's mother-in-law (1:29-31)

"Soon" is one of the characteristic words of this Gospel; it is especially consonant with the gospel, which emphasizes in the Lord Jesus Christ the character of the Servant.

1,29-30 From the synagogue our Lord went to the house of Simon. When he got there Simon's mother-in-law lay in a fever. Verse 30 notes that He was immediately told about her. They wasted no time and brought the need to the attention of the Healer.

1,31 Jesus without words took her by the hand and helped me to my feet. She recovered immediately. Usually a fever weakens a person. In this case, the Lord not only cured the fever, but immediately gave strength for service, and she began to serve them.

J. R. Miller says:

“Each sick person, after being cured, whether in an ordinary or unusual way, should hasten to devote the life returned to him to the service of God. than Christ desires them to serve Him. True service to Christ consists in conscientious fulfillment, above all, of one's daily duties."(J. R. Miller, Come Ye Apart, Reading for March 28.)

It is noteworthy that in each of the miracles of healing the Savior acts differently. This reminds us that no two calls are exactly the same. Each person must be approached individually.

The fact that Peter had a mother-in-law shows that the idea of ​​priestly celibacy was foreign in those days. This is a human tradition that is not confirmed by the Word of God and which gives rise to a lot of evil.

E. Healing at Sunset (1:32-34)

During the course of the day, the word about the presence of the Savior spread throughout the city. Since it was the Sabbath, the people did not dare to bring the needy to Him.

When evening comes, when the sun went down and the Sabbath ended, a stream of people rushed to the door of Peter's house. The sick and demon-possessed experienced there the power that delivers from any disease and any kind of sin.

E. Sermon in Galilee (1:35-39)

1,35 Jesus got up very early before dawn and retired to a place where nothing distracts Him from being in prayer. The servant of Jehovah opened his ear every morning to receive instructions from God the Father for the day ahead (Isaiah 50:4-5). If the Lord Jesus Christ felt the need to pray every morning, how much more do we need it! Notice that prayer cost Him something; He got up and left very early in the morning. Prayer should not be a matter of personal convenience, but of self-discipline and sacrifice. Doesn't that explain why our ministry is so ineffective in so many ways?

1,36-37 By the time when Simon and those who were with him arose, and the multitude of the people again gathered near the house. The disciples went to tell the Lord about His growing popularity.

1,38 To their surprise, He did not go back to the city, but led the disciples into the surrounding villages and cities, explaining that he must and preach there. Why didn't He return to Capernaum?

1. First of all, He had just been in prayer and found out what God wanted from Him this day.

2. Secondly, He understood that the veneration of the people in Capernaum before Him was shallow. The Savior was never attracted by large crowds. He looked beyond the outside and saw what was in their hearts.

3. He knew the dangers of popularity, and by His example he taught his disciples to be careful when everyone speaks well of them.

4. He persistently avoided any superficial emotional manifestations that sought to lay the crown before the cross.

5. He gave great attention preaching the Word. Miraculous healings, designed to alleviate the miserable condition of the people, were also intended to draw attention to the sermon.

1,39 So Jesus walked and preached in synagogues throughout Galilee and cast out demons. He combined preaching with practice, word with deed. It is interesting to note how often He cast out demons in synagogues. Are today's liberal churches analogous to synagogues?

G. Cleansing a leper (1:40-45)

Story about leper gives us an edifying example of a prayer to which God gives an answer:

1. It was sincere and desperate - beg him.

2. The leper showed reverence - fell on his knees before Him.

3. He asked humbly and humbly - "if you want".

4. He had faith - "can".

5. He acknowledged his need - "you can cleanse me."

6. His request was specific - not "bless me" but "cleanse me."

7. His request was personal - "you can cleanse me."

8. It was short - five words in the original language.

Look what happened!

Jesus relented. Let us always read these words with delight and a sense of gratitude.

He stretched out his hand. Think about it! The hand of God is extended in answer to the humble prayer of faith.

He touched him. According to the law, a person became ritually unclean if he touched a leper. There was also the danger of infection. However, the holy Son of Man was imbued with the suffering of mankind and dispelled the destructive effect of sin, without being struck by it Himself.

He forbade the disclosure of a miracle until the person showed himself. priest and will not offer the proper sacrifices (Lev. 14:2). Here, first of all, was the test of the man's obedience. Did he do as he was told? Did not enter; he divulged what had happened to him, as a result of which he interfered with the Lord's ministry (verse 45). It was also a test of the priest's insight. Did he see in this event the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, performing amazing miracles of healing? If he was a typical representative of the Israeli people, he did not see.

And again we find that Jesus left the crowd and ministered in desert places. He did not measure success by quantity.