St. Mark's Gospel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

St. Mark's Gospel - Essay Example The Messianic secrets and the obtuseness of his disciples are the two main themes of the gospel. The use of parables by Jesus to hide his true identity and fulfill the distained prophesies are perhaps a bit intriguing and even his disciples fail to understand the true implications of his miracles. Traditionally, the Christian churches are of the belief that the gospel of St. Mark is an epitome of Gospel of Matthew and it is therefore placed after The Gospel of Matthews in most bibles. According to scholars, contrary to the beliefs of the Christian churches, Gospel of St. Mark, is indeed the first of the canonical gospels and is supposed to be the source of inspiration and material for the gospels of Matthew and Luke. One of the foremost contributions of St. Mark's Gospel towards the Church of England is 'providing a sense of direction'. Before the gospel, numerous people were running here are there without a leader in place. They worshipped numerous Gods and had differing faiths. This resulted in vast differences in culture and people were always at loggerheads with each other. What was lacking in England was a common religion which could work to uplift the society as a whole. Hence, the Gospel was indeed a binder in terms of following a common God-Lord Jesus Christ. Another serious contribution of this story is about food. In the story, Jesus often invites his disciples to nourish themselves and although we ignore it a common occurrence, the irony remains that nourishment was the only means of providing peace and solace to his disciples. When the topic revolves around food, the disciples panic stating that it would take eight months of wages to have a peaceful meal. Jesus resolves their problem at the end of the gospel, thereby telling them and the Church of England that a simple and secure life, which has adequate nourishment and rest, is perhaps the best and by far the most ignored of all. (Hooker, 2001) The moral of the story revolves around four main aspects. The first is the problems concerning the discipleship, problems concerning the Church of England, problems concerning personal hopes and problems concerning our personal fears. Another important message which the Gospel grants to the Church of England is the importance of being one with each other. In the gospel, the disciples are shown as an arrogant lot who refuse to share food with the other fellow beings that are being drawn to Jesus. Well, Jesus refuses to provide food only to the disciples and insists that the disciples will get nourishment only if they willfully share the food with their fellowmen. The Church of England, which was divided and patronized the rich while ridiculing the poor, learnt its lesson of equality through the Gospel Of St. Marks. The message is clear-God is equal to all and he has no favorites. It is interesting to note that when the disciples ask Jesus to send the villagers away to fetch their own food as it is getting dark, Jesus refuses and states that the food would be provided by the disciples themselves. He supports his theory by stating that it was he who provided them (disciples) food on a regular basis, hence, it was now their (disciples) turn to do the same. The message instills a feeling of equality and the fact that nourishment is equal and required by both the rich as well as the underprivileged. The lesson of