Mark 1.1-15
A sermon preached at St Margarets Nedlands 3rd November 2024
On Wednesday the ACT Electoral Commission declared the results of the recent election. I’m glad to say that our Deborah romped into a place, though in opposition, not in government. I don’t think this announcement would have been called a gospel in the ancient world, though for us it was welcome news. The announcement of the Queenland result, however, which did mean a change of government, would have been a gospel. Gospels then were important public announcements, usually political, about victories and new governments. A first-century inscription has turned up in more than one ancient market-place in Turkey announcing a public holiday: “The birthday of the god (Augustus Caesar) became the beginning of gospels (euaggelia) for the world because of him.”
The Americans are about to choose a President, and the announcement which will follow the election would certainly have rated as a gospel, at least for those who are pleased with the result. If there is to be an announcement to the effect that Hamas has surrendered, or has fled, or been annihilated, this too would be described as a gospel, at least for Israelis. Gospels are never all good news; they are bad new for the other side.
These examples tell us what kind of message a gospel was; it was more than just good news. They also give us a glimpse of the turmoil that so often engulfs our world over the question of leadership. Who will rule? Who has the right to rule? In many places it is a question of naked force, and the settling of it costs many lives. The good news—I hasten to add that this is not the gospel Mark speaks of—the good news is that God has promised through his prophets that one day he will raise up a good, caring king, who will rule by right of divine appointment; he will actually succeed in sorting out the world’s many problems, and will establish permanent peace and prosperity. This is all laid out in the Old Testament before ever we get to the New. But as I said, it is not the gospel. The gospel is the announcement which will be made when this actually happens; the gospel announcement will make it a reality. This becomes clear in the Book of Isaiah, which makes frequent use of gospel language, but it is something for the future, not the present.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings the gospel, who announces peace, who gospels happiness, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” … for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.[1]
Isaiah is looking into the future: one day a gospeller will come to announce the arrival of salvation.
It was nothing less than sensational, then, when in about AD 28 Jesus announced in the synagogue of his hometown Nazareth that the time was now: his voice was declaring the long-awaited gospel. The promised king had arrived and the kingdom of God was here at last.
Mark sums it up in this way: “Now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee, announcing the gospel of God, and saying ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.’”
Some will think me mad, but I suspect that when heaven writes its history of life on earth, this event will be marked as one of the most important since the creation of the world. Let me also say, that if what Jesus said was true, whether you believe the announcement or whether you don’t will determine your destiny: whether you live or die.
Many see the gospel as a moral message, telling us how we are to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Others see it as a message about how to be happy: God’s recipe for a full and successful life. Others see it as a demand for justice and equality? Some think it is an explanation of God’s plan of salvation. Each of these has something to do with the gospel, but if you chase it down any of these paths you will probably misunderstand it.
Five hundred years before the time of Jesus a Persian army crossed the Aegean Sea and invaded Greece. The Greeks put together an army of ten thousand men and drew up their battle lines at Marathon. The Persians outnumbered them at least three to one. So, they sent a day runner (that was what he was called) to run to Sparta—150 kms—to request help. He ran there and back with the news that the Spartans couldn’t help. The Greeks were on their own, but they won. The day-runner then ran the news of victory back to Athens: 46 kms–the length of a modern marathon. He was a gospeller. They would have given him a great gospel-reward had he not dropped dead shortly after delivering his gospel. I don’t know whether his wife got the reward.
The gospel Mark speaks of—the gospel of God—is primarily the announcement of a new ruler for the world. Someone who heard Mark speak these words for the first time would have had no doubt about this. Gospels were part of their culture.
“Jesus came into Galilee announcing the gospel of God”: This tells us that the courier who brought this gospel was Jesus himself, and the message was God’s—from heaven. God was announcing the appointment of his king to take over the government of the world.
Initially Jesus’ announcement was greeted with enthusiasm, but when people thought about it, it seemed unlikely. Nothing seemed to have changed, and they expected great changes with the coming of God’s kingdom. But something did change. The king had come. And wherever Jesus went evil rolled back. Sick people were healed. Hungry people were fed. Storms were stilled. Men and women were forgiven and found peace with God.
We still have this problem. How can I believe in a gospel about the end of suffering and evil when I still see it all around me. How could Jesus say the kingdom had come when power was still in Roman hands—American hands, Russian hands, the military junta’s hands? Certainly the world does not appear to be in God’s hands.
The answer lies in Mark’s story. He titles his book, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” If you read on, you see and hear Jesus in action and can judge for yourself whether he is God’s king, or not. You will also see how his gospel was refused by his countrymen, and so did not appear in its fulness; the promised kingdom will not come in its fulness until his own people, the Jews, acknowledge him as their king. Jesus also prepared his followers to understand his death not as the defeat of his kingdom, as it seemed, but as the victory over evil that established it. And we learn that his tomb is empty, and that he has been raised to rule with God until all his people who will enjoy his kingdom have been gathered, and the time comes for his return to earth in power. We also learn of his promise that those who believe in Jesus and his kingdom will be forgiven, saved, and live forever.
What do you do with a gospel? You either believe it, or you don’t. If you don’t, you will ignore it or fight against it. When the new South Africa came into being and Nelson Mandela was proclaimed president—that great change was inaugurated by a simple announcement. In Jesus’s time it would have been called a gospel. Anyway, when it happened not everyone accepted it. Some hotheads jumped in their cars and drove around spraying the crowds with bullets. The first their wives knew of it was when they saw on television their husbands hanging dead from their car doors. It was a futile attempt to stop the unstoppable.
If you believe a gospel, you will come into line with it. If Jesus is God’s promised king, the king of the future world, he must become my king and yours, or we won’t have a future; not a good one, anyway.
There is another curious thing about the gospel. You and I were not in the synagogue to hear Jesus on that historic occasion. But when we hear and understand the gospel, perhaps for the first time, the king and his kingdom are placed before us and we must make a decision. The kingdom becomes a reality for us, and we either embrace it or reject it. That is why Jesus says, “Repent and believe the gospel.” Repent means change your mind about things. You are not the centre of the universe; God is. Our ancestors rebelled against God’s right to rule them, we have all followed, and filled the world with untold suffering. God says, “Enough. I have sent my Son. Believe in him.” And the gospel is good because a total amnesty is declared to all who do. That is why Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation.[2]
It also means healing for the world. Philosophers talk about the problem of evil. Why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? How can it be if there is a good God. The answers are many, but none really satisfy. But more important than the questions how and why, is the question, “For how long?” Is the world to continue in suffering until everything dies? There are people who wish this. They would rather everyone died together than that some should live and some die. But it is not to be. God has made his plan known. The kingdom of God means the end of all suffering and evil. The king has come, and although the world voted him out, God raised him from death and placed him the position of ultimate authority and power in the universe. He has promised to return and make all things new. The question for us is whether we want to be part of that or not.
[1] Isaiah 52.7–10.
[2] Romans 1.18.