Welcome to Making Your Mark. On this site you will find study notes (OIA) and small group discussion guidelines for each of the stories in Mark’s Gospel. You will also find some valuable tools in the Resources archive. And you will find links to sermons by Dr. Lou Diaz and others given as part of a yearlong preaching series to the Evangelical Free Church of Chico, California.
We hope these materials help you respond to the good news of Jesus. Your comments are welcome.
Blessings,
ka
Sunday, October 10, 2010
What is a Gospel?
What is a Gospel? And How Should We Read A Gospel?
A Gospel is a book that narrates the career of Jesus: his public life and teaching, his death, and his resurrection. In some ways the four Gospels represent the memoirs of the Apostles. But these memoirs are far more than a re-telling of the facts of Jesus’ career: they are the proclamation of Jesus in written form. The Gospel writers intend to tell the story of Jesus in such a way that invites a faith response to Jesus. The Gospels are far more than just factual accounts of Jesus life, death and resurrection: they invite a response to Jesus, both as a historical person and as a person who is still alive today.
Gospels are a bit like biographies, especially the biographies that were written in the centuries just before and after Jesus’ years in Palestine. Those ancient biographies tended to focus on the significance or meaning of a person’s life and career. As such they often consider small events or conversations, things that reveal character or express the inner person, and sometimes don’t look so much at major world news events. When we read a modern biography we expect to find emphasis on historic ‘facts’: date of birth, childhood influences, schooling, major accomplishments, physical appearance, and so on. The Gospels follow more closely the ancient biographical approach than they do a more modern understanding of biography. So it is not surprising that we have stories about what Jesus said and did told in ways that reveal who Jesus is and only a few references to the major political events of those days.
Gospels are crafted to invite a response to a living historical figure. They are far more than ‘just the facts’. Rather they are intentionally designed by each individual author to tell the stories of Jesus’ career from a specific viewpoint, and for a specific purpose, and sometimes for specific theological impact. That is why each of the Gospels narrates the events of Jesus life in a little bit different way.
So a Gospel should be read on its own terms and allowed to have the impact intended by the author. Each Gospel is a stand-alone book in and of itself: it tells the good news of Jesus in a comprehensive and holistic way that expresses the intent of the author. That is why it is extremely important to let the text speak for itself first and foremost, and only then consider other texts, other Gospels of Letters or Old Testament writings. First: let the text speak for itself in order to understand and respond to the intentional design of the author.
How do you allow the text to speak for itself? By careful study of the text! Things like repeated ideas, internal definition, developing themes, contrasts, and other literary study tools enable careful textual study. Careful study of the text also includes looking for how people in the story understood and responded to the narrative.
Careful study of a Gospel also includes something unique: response is invited, in fact response is essential to really understanding a Gospel, and the gospel. So in the final analysis, the way we should read a Gospel is with willingness to both understand the author’s meaning, and accept the gospel author’s invitation to interact with Jesus Christ, the living historical figure who today, like two thousand years ago, invites us to follow him and capture men and women.
A Gospel is a book that narrates the career of Jesus: his public life and teaching, his death, and his resurrection. In some ways the four Gospels represent the memoirs of the Apostles. But these memoirs are far more than a re-telling of the facts of Jesus’ career: they are the proclamation of Jesus in written form. The Gospel writers intend to tell the story of Jesus in such a way that invites a faith response to Jesus. The Gospels are far more than just factual accounts of Jesus life, death and resurrection: they invite a response to Jesus, both as a historical person and as a person who is still alive today.
Gospels are a bit like biographies, especially the biographies that were written in the centuries just before and after Jesus’ years in Palestine. Those ancient biographies tended to focus on the significance or meaning of a person’s life and career. As such they often consider small events or conversations, things that reveal character or express the inner person, and sometimes don’t look so much at major world news events. When we read a modern biography we expect to find emphasis on historic ‘facts’: date of birth, childhood influences, schooling, major accomplishments, physical appearance, and so on. The Gospels follow more closely the ancient biographical approach than they do a more modern understanding of biography. So it is not surprising that we have stories about what Jesus said and did told in ways that reveal who Jesus is and only a few references to the major political events of those days.
Gospels are crafted to invite a response to a living historical figure. They are far more than ‘just the facts’. Rather they are intentionally designed by each individual author to tell the stories of Jesus’ career from a specific viewpoint, and for a specific purpose, and sometimes for specific theological impact. That is why each of the Gospels narrates the events of Jesus life in a little bit different way.
So a Gospel should be read on its own terms and allowed to have the impact intended by the author. Each Gospel is a stand-alone book in and of itself: it tells the good news of Jesus in a comprehensive and holistic way that expresses the intent of the author. That is why it is extremely important to let the text speak for itself first and foremost, and only then consider other texts, other Gospels of Letters or Old Testament writings. First: let the text speak for itself in order to understand and respond to the intentional design of the author.
How do you allow the text to speak for itself? By careful study of the text! Things like repeated ideas, internal definition, developing themes, contrasts, and other literary study tools enable careful textual study. Careful study of the text also includes looking for how people in the story understood and responded to the narrative.
Careful study of a Gospel also includes something unique: response is invited, in fact response is essential to really understanding a Gospel, and the gospel. So in the final analysis, the way we should read a Gospel is with willingness to both understand the author’s meaning, and accept the gospel author’s invitation to interact with Jesus Christ, the living historical figure who today, like two thousand years ago, invites us to follow him and capture men and women.
Mark 1.1-13
Community Building
The Text: Mark 1.1-13
- Make sure everyone knows one another. Be as creative as you like: pictures, games….
- State your enthusiasm, hopes and dreams for the group, using the themes of Marking Your Mark (see website: http://make-your-mark-study.blogspot.com)
- Agree on any group guidelines: discussion, not lecture; when, where, and duration of weekly gatherings; childcare; external focus activity….
- Pray for your group in the coming weeks
- Ask some who enjoys reading aloud to read these verses to the group.
- Discuss all the things you can learn about Jesus from these verses:
- Mark says he is God’s son
- He is linked to the good news: it is about him
- He is prepared for: in Isaiah, by John
- He is baptized
- He hears God speak
- He is responsive to the Spirit’s direction
- He was tempted directly by Satan
- Other observations…..
- What is the most important thing you think Mark wants us to understand about Jesus?
- John preaches a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”.
- If you were using only this text, and forgetting all your theological/church knowledge: how would you define ‘repentance’ from this text alone?
- From what you know of Old Testament law and the temple sacrificial system, how is John’s message about ‘forgiveness of sin’ different from Jewish understanding of how sin was forgiven?
- How does John fulfill the Isaiah prophecy? How is repentance and baptism a preparation for ‘he who is mightier than I’?
- Why is Jesus baptized?
- Why does the Spirit drive Jesus into the wilderness?
- Do you think our group discussion of Mark these coming weeks can help you in your spiritual life? How?
- What is your own experience of baptism and repentance, of confessing your sins? Have you been baptized? What was that experience like?
- How might be practice public repentance in the coming weeks?
- How can we pray for each other this coming week?
- Pray together.
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