No Ordinary Servant, Part 1: The Surprise

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Everybody knows about the four Gospels.

And many commentators have, well, commentated on the fact that there are four of them.

Why four biographies of Jesus—especially when there’s so much overlap? Why the inefficiency? Why not just one Life of Christ, effectively a harmony of the Gospels?

You’ve probably heard at least one answer to that question.

Why would you read more than one biography of George Washington, or Steve Jobs, or Michael Jordan?

Because you get different perspectives from the various biographers.

Well, how many legitimate perspectives do you suppose there could be on the only person who has been—and is—both God and man?

I suppose we could ask, why only four Gospels?

Perhaps you’ve seen the Gospels distinguished by their perspective on Jesus:

• Matthew presents him as Messiah, King of the Jews.
• Mark presents him as the servant of God, diligently fulfilling his divine mission.
• Luke presents him as the Son of Man.
• John presents him as the Son of God.

While such classifications aren’t perfect—each of the Gospels is more complex than this—they do give us some help in noticing themes of the books; for example, Matthew is filled with citations of Messianic prophecy that is fulfilled in Christ.

One feature of Mark that speaks to Jesus’ role as servant is the frequent use of a little Greek word usually translated “immediately”; it occurs

• 19 times in Matthew;
• 11 times in Luke;
• 7 times in John;
• and a whopping 43 times in Mark, which is by far the shortest of the Gospels.

In fact, it occurs more times in Mark’s first chapter than in all of Luke or in all of John.

• Jesus comes immediately out of the water after his baptism (Mk 1.10);
• then the Spirit immediately drives him into the wilderness (Mk 1.12);
• then he immediately calls his disciples (Mk 1.20),
• and immediately they follow him (Mk 1.18);
• then he immediately begins teaching in the synagogue (Mk 1.21);
• and immediately his fame begins to spread (Mk 1.28);
• and he immediately goes to Simon’s house (Mk 1.29);
• and they immediately tell him that Simon’s mother-in-law is sick (Mk 1.30);
• and when he takes her hand, immediately the fever leaves (Mk 1.31);
• and when he speaks to a leper, immediately the leprosy goes away (Mk 1.42),
• and Jesus immediately sends him away (Mk 1.43).

And that’s just chapter 1. Whew.

Jesus is busy.

Later in the Gospel Jesus tells a story of a landowner who sends a series of servants to the tenant farmers to collect his rent. The tenant farmers kill each servant he sends. So he sends his son—and they kill him too (Mk 12.1-8).

This biographer of Jesus presents him as God’s Servant-Son, sent to accomplish a critical mission under the direction of his Master-Father. He hastens to do his Father’s will.

But in carrying out his Father’s mission, this servant surprises us.

He doesn’t really act like a servant. He acts like someone who’s not only in charge, but very comfortable with being in charge.

You would expect this perspective from John, who begins his Gospel by saying, “And the Word was God” (Jn 1.1). You would expect it from Matthew, who begins by quoting Isaiah, “They shall call his name Emmanuel” (Mt 1.23)—and then immediately and helpfully informs us, “which being interpreted is, God with us.” You would expect it from Luke, who begins by reporting Gabriel’s words to Mary—”He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Lk 1.32-33).

But Mark? Mark, who’s telling us about Jesus the servant, constantly hurrying to his Master’s next assignment?

Mark?

Yes, Mark.

You see, this is no ordinary servant.

We’ll look into the details in the next post.

Photo by Praveen Thirumurugan on Unsplash