Chris Cookston

In the pages of Mark’s Gospel, he narrates the life of the Lord Jesus Christ with intense detail. Mark’s writing style is concise and clear. He gets straight to his point, which is Jesus. Using historical narrative, with plot arcs and fascinating imagery, Mark is constantly answering this question: Who is Jesus? 

So as you read Mark, keep asking, “Who is Jesus?” and search for the answer. When you spot one, write it down. You’ll find a variety of answers, which all come together to describe the one Lord Jesus Christ. Here are a few examples: 

(1) Jesus traveled from His home in Galilee to be baptized by John the Baptist in the river. This is no ordinary baptism; there is nothing ordinary about Jesus. As He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove. A thundering voice comes from the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (verses 9-11). Let’s ask, who is Jesus according to these verses? 

God the Spirit has direct fellowship with Him. What is more, God the Father proclaims that He loves Jesus and that He is pleased with Jesus. This we know, God is not pleased with sinners and that’s everyone, right? Well, everyone except Jesus Christ. We cannot come into the presence of God without being first made clean by Jesus’ cross. But Jesus is holy, holy, holy. He has no sin, no need for atonement. He and the Spirit and the Father are One. The Father is most pleased with His only begotten Son. Truly, there is no one like Jesus. 

(2) To recruit new leaders for His kingdom, we expect that Jesus would select from the smartest, cleanest and most beautiful of God’s people. We think, “He should go directly to Jerusalem, to the Scribes and Pharisees and choose His 12 from among their leaders (the Sanhedrin),” but Jesus isn’t at all like us. Instead, Jesus goes to the sea of Galilee and begins preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (verse 15) King Jesus has brought His kingdom into the world, and He tells everyone how to respond. They are to repent, that is to recognize they are sinners and begin to obey God. And they are to believe in the gospel. 

If we stop and think, we ask, “Will this work? He’s just going along the beach and preaching, that’s it.” Also, “Will He find anybody out there who is worthy of serving Him?” Truth be told, no one is worthy; we’re not even worthy to worship Jesus Christ. John says something similar to this; he wasn’t even worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes (verse 7). 

Here, we learn more about who Jesus is. Jesus Christ loves to take unworthy, sinful people from the lowest parts of society and transform them to be His followers. And so He calls Simon and Andrew, while they were working. They were fishermen, which was not a prestigious job in the First Century. But I want you to notice what these boys do. “Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.” (verse 18) So, who is Jesus? He is One who is building His church. He brings His kingdom into the world and commands people to surrender to His kingdom by repenting and believing, and they do it. 

That is precisely what Simon and Andrew and the others do. They didn’t first ask their dad if it was OK. They didn’t consider the cost. Most people would not want to get a small paycheck at the end of the week by going with King Jesus. However, they immediately obeyed Him. No fuss! Jesus Christ’s cross and resurrection, beauty and goodness, His holiness and grace, all this attracts us sinners to Him. This only happens when we see Him through the eyes of our heart. When we see Him, He radically changes us. We stop caring about money and our reputation. He gives us a fresh affection for Him, and so we begin repenting of our sins, and we want to be with Jesus and to serve Him wholeheartedly. 

(3) As you read Mark’s narrative, you cannot help but notice how profoundly different Jesus is from us. He teaches the Word with power and authority, not like the ordinary teachers. (verse 22) He is recognized as “the Holy One of God” by demons. He has authority and power over them. He rebukes them and brings them out of people (verse 26). No one could do this, but Jesus can. Hence, all those at the synagogue wondered, “What is this?” Further, Jesus not only has power over Satan, but He has power over disease. He demonstrates this by healing Peter’s mother-in-law. (verse 31) His compassion for people moved Him to heal many, cast out many demons, and He even touched and healed a leper (verses 34, 40-44). Much to our amazement, Jesus even has control of the weather. He calmed the raging sea, and all His men could say is, “Who is then is this?” 

(4) One day, Jesus is at home and preaching the word of God. (2:1) The house was jam-packed with people. Some men decided that they needed to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus quickly. It was impossible to carry him into the house, because it was packed. So, they lower him down to Jesus through the roof. Imagine this. Here is the Lord, preaching to a packed house. Suddenly, this man is coming down through the ceiling on a pallet, being lowered by his friends on the roof. Jesus does not become irritated that they tore up the roof nor that they interrupted His sermon, but He saw their faith (2:5). That is, since they knew He was the Almighty, God the Son and was compassionate toward helpless people; they did everything in their power to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus. They knew that Jesus had the power to heal him! So, Jesus says to the “paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.” Later, He tells him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” (2:11) 

Jesus knew the Scribes and Pharisees would become irritated and hate Him for this, but He didn’t come to please them. In this story, Jesus demonstrates that He has the authority to forgive sins. Only God can forgive people of their sins. Because He saved the paralytic man from his sins, the elitists alleged Jesus as a blasphemer (2:7). It is quite obvious what they think of Jesus. A little later we read, “The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him as to how they might destroy Him.” (3:6) 

Rather than repenting and believing, the Jewish leaders wanted to murder him. They understood exactly who Jesus is. He posed a threat to their system. They worked so hard to maintain their wicked power over the people, and they did their best to rob them of their money. The Jews were severely oppressed by their own leaders. 

So, who is Jesus? Jesus is the GodMan who came to liberate His people. He did not come to please man but God. His was not a political liberation, like everyone wants. His was a soul liberation. He came to set His people free from terrible religion. He came to set them free from their sins, so that they might finally come to God through Him. He came for those who know they are sinners, as He said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (2:17) 

Do you know Jesus? I pray that what I’ve written will encourage you to discover how wonderful the Lord Jesus Christ is by reading Mark or any of the four gospels. May the eyes of your heart be enlightened, so that you will know the hope of His calling, Amen!

Chris Cookston is the pastor of Prineville Community Church. He can be reached at 541-447-3715.