The Gospel of Mark

 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the work of the devil (1 John 3).

In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16).

...the prince of this world now stands condemned (John 16).

The Gospel of Mark begins subversively:  The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  In the Roman Empire of Mark's day, the word we translate "gospel" (good news) (euangelion in Greek) had a specific application.  It referred to the "good news" that the barbarians, the uncivilized peoples on the fringes of the empire, had been conquered, and that Roman "civilization" had been brought to yet another corner of the earth.  As the Roman emperor or another general was returning to Rome with his captives chained, emissaries were sent ahead of the procession to herald the "good news" of yet another conquest for Rome.  

Moreover, the Roman emperor was considered divine, the "son of God."  To be a citizen of Rome meant to acknowledge with incense the divinity of the emperor -- the "Augustus," or "August One."  For us to read "the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God," it only means that we are about to read a book about Jesus, whom we know to be the Anointed One.  In the Roman Empire, those few words were a direct challenge to the rule and the divinity of Augustus Caesar.  It meant that there was another "son of God" who had conquered the outer edges of darkness and who now reigned in triumph.  There is now another "kingdom" alongside the Roman conquest of the known world.

The entire Gospel of Mark unfolds in explanation of that first sentence.  About one-fourth of his gospel is about the "mighty deeds" of Jesus -- healing of the blind and deaf, casting out demons, healing of a woman with a hemorrhage and a paralytic man.  These are not just "stories," but demonstrations of the kingdom of God breaking into, and overcoming, a dark and fallen world.  Jesus is conquering and destroying the work of the devil, as the first letter and gospel of John tell us -- the prince of this world now stands condemned.  

Immediately after his baptism by John, Jesus goes into the wilderness to confront Satan.  The battle is on!  He suffers the temptations that Satan offers to all mankind -- to use our "power" to satisfy our own hunger, to attain recognition and pride, and the lust to dominate in the words of St. Augustine (City of God).  Having come to the end of His own resources and human power in the desert, He is now ready to overcome the kingdom of darkness in the power of God.

The very first of the miracles reported by Mark comes as Jesus begins teaching at Capernaum.  A man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cries out: "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?"  Like King Herod threatened at the birth of a new ruler of the Jews, the rulers of this world ("the Prince of this world") are threatened by His appearance.  His kingdom will conquer theirs, and they know it.

At the very beginning of the Gospel, we see the significance of Jesus' miracles:  the overcoming by God of the evil forces at work in the world.  The spirit knows that Jesus has come to destroy "us" -- all of Satan's forces that wreak havoc in the world -- sickness, evil possession, sin, hatred, death ---the things that have destroyed what God has created and intended for mankind.

In Jesus Christ, God is actively fighting the evil that threatens to destroy mankind, and in Jesus' death, the ultimate confrontation with evil forces, their destruction is ensured forever.  There is nothing more fundamental to the Christian faith than the belief that in Jesus, God has overcome evil:  The kingdom of God is at hand!  "In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37) and we know that God makes all things work for the good of those who love him (8:38).

I write this today at the time of terrible destruction through tornadoes in eight states, along with the horrible fires and floods that increasingly threaten the world we live in.  I pray that in all things we may discover the peace that overcomes the world of hatred, division, natural disasters, sickness, and death.  Jesus has come to destroy the work of the devil.  May we believe and accept that He has already done so, and may we, like Mark, announce the "good news" of the kingdom of God breaking into a dark world!