All Are Called
I am struck by how different an approach Mark takes to “presenting” Jesus compared to Matthew and Luke. It’s only been a couple months since we revisited Christ’s birth at Advent and Christmas. In Matthew and Luke we have a cinematic origin story. Jesus was divine from birth (immaculate conception, a star, herald angels), but the reader must wait for Jesus’ adulthood for the teachings and the miracles that fulfill the prophesy. In contrast, the first chapter of Mark reads like a job application proving Jesus’ credentials: letters of recommendation from Isaiah, from John the Baptist, and even from God; successful completion of 40 days in the wilderness, including resisting all its satanic temptations. These fourteen concise verses in Mark confirm that Jesus is qualified, indeed God-sent, and from there Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee.
But maybe these two different approaches reflect the fact there are many different ways people come to know Jesus. Jesus’ calls on us to “believe in the good news”, but does not say there is only one way to come to believe. The quick, the slow, the open or the skeptical, are all called.
Help us rejoice in the Word that is heard and heard again by many different ears. Amen.
Michael Moll