12.04 | Seven Words
Mark 1:1-20
‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’
Mark 1:1
Archē tou euangeliou Iesou Christou Huiou Theou.
Around halfway through the First Century, in a cool room somewhere amidst the hot and noisy streets of the ancient metropolis of Rome, John Mark sat down to write the story of Jesus of Nazareth. It was likely a combination of things he saw, and the events as he had heard them from the apostle Peter. As he chewed his quill and mused over the right place to begin, he landed on the above seven words. Translated, it reads:
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Characteristically, John Mark wastes no words. It’s a remarkably intentional beginning. Every single word is saturated in meaning.
Archē. Beginning.
John Mark, or Mark as he was often called, knew his Old Testament Scriptures. There’s a book in the Old Testament that also opens with this word. We know it as the book of Genesis. En archē. In the beginning, God created. Archē is an announcement of new creation.
Euangeliou. Gospel.
Gospel is, to us, a word we know from church or street preachers or musical genre. But the First Century world knew it first from somewhere else. Gospel literally means good news, and it was used to describe a proclamation shared across the Empire or region. It was used for events such as the military defeat of Rome’s enemies, or the birth of a new Emperor. Gospel was an interruptive event, an announcement of change that led to a new scenario of great joy.
Iesou. Jesus.
A name we’re pretty familiar with. Mark would previously have known that this also as the Greek version of the name Joshua—the great military leader who led God’s people from the wilderness into the Land of Promise. Joshua was the man who led God’s people into their place of rest.
Christou. Christ.
Christ means one who is anointed—pointing back to the ancient Hebraic practice of pouring oil on the head of a king or a priest to symbolise God’s selection of them, and His empowering presence upon their lives. For generations the Jews had waited for this promised King, who would defeat their enemies and lead them into a life of fullness and purpose and beauty. In Israel, they more commonly used the Hebrew word, Messiah.
Huiou Theou. Son of God.
The ‘son of God’ in the Old Testament was a description either for the king of Israel,1 or for the whole nation of Israel.2 To be God’s son was to have a relationship of special favour and closeness and love, with a responsibility to steward His inheritance and to join in in His purposes.
Bring this all together, and this beginning isn’t tokenistic or an essay title. It’s an explosion of ideas and themes that are all coming together in the story that is about to unfold.
Gospel is not a theological line. It is a reality statement. It is the declaration that something drastic has happened that will now change everything; that a new King has arrived, beloved and chosen, stewarding the very resource of heaven itself. It is a celebration that the forces of evil are defeated, and that the waves of that defeat will now flow into all parts of the world in the ensuing peace and beauty and rest. It is a statement of cataclysmic proportions, that claims a renewal of the things of the whole earth—all things that were old and jaded and dying and corrupt are being reinvigorated and made new in the inbreaking new creation.
Gospel.
I like to think that, after all this, Mark paused, put his quill down, and sighed with satisfaction. Seven words. But he’d nailed it. The Gospel story has begun.
Reflect:
Which word of this opening sentence most resonates with me today?
Bring a a place of challenge in your life to this word today, reflecting on how this word impacts your reality.
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
My danger has never been to make you too big,
Or to make your Gospel too magnificent,
Or to make your work too broad in its scope.
My danger is reduction—
Where I reduce your person and your message to something small and tidy;
A statement of dry academia or cold logic,
Reduced to only touching some areas of pain and hurt,
While ignoring all others.
As I journey these pages,
Spirit of God,
You who filled Jesus at His baptism,
Fill me;
Lead me;
And remain upon me,
Teaching me not just to hear the stories that Mark will tell,
But to see all reality differently because of it.
Open my eyes,
That I may join more fully in the inbreaking reality and bold proclamation
Of my victorious King.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Joshua 23-24 | Proverbs 12:13-23
e.g. Psalm 2:7
e.g. Exodus 4:22-23
YES TO IT ALL!