Scholars tell us that even though St. Mark is listed second of the four gospels it was in all likelihood written first. Mark conceived of the idea of telling the story of Jesus as gospel, as good news. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. In order to tell the story of Jesus, however, St. Mark needs to begin even farther back — with the story of God’s dealings with his chosen people, Israel. The first words to help us come to know Jesus were those written in Isaiah the prophet. Mark suggests that we can only meet Jesus as part of a larger story of God’s presence and action in the world. After that introduction Jesus still does not enter the stage. Instead we hear of John the Baptist. Again, Mark wants us to meet Jesus as part of and as distinct from the movements of his time. These insights of St. Mark are important in our life of faith. If we are to meet Jesus today we must see him as a Jewish man who was part of a faith tradition that formed and shaped him. That prevents us from seeing Jesus as we would like him to be and instead to meet him as the particular person he was. In addition, we have to understand the movements of our time (Black Lives Matter, Me-Too, etc.) in the light of who Jesus is and what he asks of us. Jesus inaugurates his movement, in St. Luke’s telling, with another quote from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.
