A Sermon for St. Mark’s Day

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 

You might say you see Mark in his own Gospel as well. It is also assumed from the context of the story of the rich young man is Mark’s account, from Mark 10:17–31 that we see the author Mark there coming to Jesus asking what He must do to inherit eternal life. There Jesus, after giving him the 2^nd table of the Law and hearing the man’s response that he had kept these commandments all of his life, looked at him, loved him and said You lack one thing; go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” That day the rich young man walked away sad.            

But You first hear of Mark by name in the book of Acts. He is a secondary companion of Paul through Barnabas. Its also interesting to note that Mark’s mother’s home was a location of a church in Jerusalem, likely the location where the Last Supper took place as well. Barnabas was a Levite but was from the island of Crete, who had returned to Jerusalem. Mark was the nephew of Barnabas. And Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. But in the first tour, after reaching Pamphylia the group decided to leave and head towards Antioch of Pisidia. It involved climbing some rugged mountains, something that Mark had not apparently signed up for. As some others have said concerning Mark, that following Jesus was fine for Mark, as long as he could still enjoy the finer things. Paul had little use for someone who would abandon the mission of the gospel being proclaimed.

No one who still breathing is unable to be redeemed, to be brought back into the fold of Christ’s church, to repent and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God through the continual proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark become the Evangelist who worked with Paul, listened to Peter and eventually wrote the Gospel that bears his name. Who better to get the goods of the Gospel of Jesus from than Peter, the spokesman of the Apostles, who himself had once been on the wrong side of denying the Lord Jesus Christ? 

And that is why Mark’s gospel and the fact that we celebrate Mark this day is important. For it is in Mark that we get the baptismal promise: “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.” You can debate whether or not this is actually belongs Mark, but that’s beside the point. Nevertheless the Church has consistently said it belongs to the proclamation. And if you remember that Mark likely got all his stories directly from St. Peter, then it makes all the more sense, for it is Peter in his first epistle that says, “Baptism now saves you.”

And indeed, it most assuredly does. Only in Mark does baptism find itself in the act of Christ’s cross. When the brothers James and John come to Jesus and make the request to sit at his right and left, Jesus responds: You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” Christ drinks the cup and is baptized in his own blood as ransom for many at the cross, and now the baptism with which Christ tells the apostles to proclaim is the baptism which connects us to His cross and passion. And by believing and baptism you shall be saved.

Mark is the only book of the four gospels which expressly calls itself the gospel. Mark begins his book this way: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And a quick search for the word gospel in the four Gospels, reveals that Mark uses the word eight times, which is one more time than the other Synoptic Gospels combined. John does not even use the word. Gospel means good news. And Mark’s Gospel is indeed good news to those who like himself who fell away and needed to be brought back into the fold of the Church, the household of believers. Like us who constantly are in the cycle of belief and unbelief, falling away for the things of this world. Mark is the only Gospel to record for us the words of the Father whose son is demon possessed. He records this interaction beginning at Mark 9:23: And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe, help my unbelief.” Yes, Lord. We believe, help our unbelief.” And the Lord does help our unbelief.

He gives to you the proclamation of the Gospel as well as Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are the vehicles through which the grace and mercy of God are given to you. It is like the story of the rich young man only now we don’t leave sad, but we kneeling before our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at the rail, He looks at us and loves us and we follow him where he leads. For Mark that meant repenting of breaking the first commandment for he loved the goods of the world more than the Lord, repenting of his abandonment of Paul and Barnabas. It being called again by the Gospel of Christ to a living faith, one which followed Christ and proclaiming the Gospel with Barnabas to various places, but it also meant being reconciled. Paul and Mark both had some repenting and forgiving to do towards each other. And by the grace of Christ, it came to be. We hear St. Paul say in the second Epistle written to Timothy: “Get Mark and bring with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.” Indeed, Mark would prove fruitful for he would go on from Paul and meet up with Peter and work alongside Peter likely in Rome and write the Gospel which sits in second position in the New Testament.   

For us the proclamation is exactly the same. We too have sinned and we too have abandoned the mission of the Lord in many and various ways. We too need to repent and believe the Gospel. This is the life of the baptized. And remember the promise: All who believe and are baptized shall be saved. What a blessed promise given to us. Lord Jesus, we believe, help our unbelief.

 As one professor of mine said in a sermon many years ago, “Mark is a favorite of many pastors” because in Mark pastors see themselves. Pastors fail their people. They fail the charge laid before them, but by the same grace which brought Mark back and redeemed him, we too are called back into the life of faith. Faith given to us by the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of whom Mark, the Lion of the Four Gospels, now roars.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp 
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church 
La Grange, MO

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