Gospel of the Kingdom

Exploring the Gospel of Mark

Patrick Whitworth

• Publisher: Sacristy Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781789591798
• eBook ISBN: 9781789591811
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Mark's Gospel was written in Rome, the political centre of the ancient world. Its author was a follower of 'the Way' and likely an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus. The Good News according to Mark relies on the recollections of the apostle Peter and was the pioneering prototype of the New Testament Gospels.

In this accessible guide to the shortest and oldest of the Gospels in the New Testament, Patrick Whitworth explores some of the key texts and themes of the Gospel of Mark. From the outset, Marks Gospel proclaims Jesus as the Messiah (Christ) and Son of God and centres on Jesus's announcement of the God's kingdom. It is this kingdom that is at the heart of Jesus's ministry and passion and entrances Mark. Breath-taking in style, vivid in content, powerful in concept, the Gospel of Mark makes known Jesus of Galilee in a way which is ever fresh and ever challenging to the ways of the world and self-centred human life; and calls for a response of repentance, conversion and faith.

Group Discussion Questions

Chapter 1: Start as You Mean to Go On

Mark 1

1. If you were writing a Gospel, what would your opening line be? (Perhaps each member could write an opening line and read it out, and say why they have chosen those words.)
2. What do you think of Mark’s opening sentence? What do the terms Messiah and Son of God mean to you? What did they mean then?
3. Why did Jesus need an announcer?
4. What is the significance of the baptism of Jesus? What are its three parts? Why was Jesus baptized if he had no sins to repent (1:4)?
5. Did there have to be temptations?
6. What did Jesus mean by saying the kingdom of God has come near?
7. Why was the calling of the disciples so critical to Jesus’s mission?
8. How does Jesus demonstrate the proximity of the kingdom in the rest of the chapter?
9. What was so remarkable about Jesus’s ministry (see 1:22)?
10. How did Jesus balance activity and reflection or prayer? How do we?

Chapter 2: A New Authority

Mark 2 and 3

1. How did Jesus demonstrate the presence of the kingdom in these two chapters?
2. What might the connection be between the forgiveness of sins and healing? What examples are there of this?
3. Why did the Pharisees object to Jesus saying, “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (2:10)?
4. How are vocations formed today? What made Matthew get up and follow?
5. In relation to fasting and observing the Sabbath, Jesus had remarkable freedom. At what point does a spiritual discipline become a restrictive practice?
6. The formation of a new community lay at the heart of Jesus’s strategy. What were to be the principal marks of this new community (see 3:13–34)?

Chapter 3: Growth and Secrecy

Mark 4:1–34

1. In telling these stories about the kingdom of God and its pattern of growth, what was Jesus hoping to achieve?
2. Why did Jesus always speak in parables to the crowds (4:11–12)?
3. Were there any advantages to Jesus in secrecy?
4. What are the main lessons from these growth parables: the Sower, the Growing Seed and the Mustard Seed? How would these lessons help the disciples?
5. The seeds that flourish in the Parable of the Sower are those that develop their root structure and have space to grow. What might that mean for us? What does that look like in practice?
6. How should we communicate the good news of the kingdom today? Is there any place for secrecy, or nuance, or allegory, or is plain speaking best?

Chapter 4: Signs of the Kingdom and the King

Mark 4:35–6:56

The Creation Miracles: Mark 4:35–41; 6:30–56

The Calming of the Storm

1. What are the faith lessons in the miracle of the calming of the storm?
2. What is the relationship between fear and faith? How might that work out in daily living?
3. What effect did this event have on the disciples’ understanding of Jesus?

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

1. What was the context of this miracle? How did Jesus resolve the conflict between “rest” for his disciples and “compassion” for the crowd?
2. What did the disciples learn from this event?
3. What other secondary lessons (beside the miraculous feeding of the crowd) may be learnt from this event?

The Walking on the Water

1. If there had been no Lake Galilee, what insights into the attitude and power of Jesus would we have missed?
2. What were the disciples slow to grasp?
3. What aspect of this account particularly strikes you?

The Healing Miracles: Mark 5:1–41; 6:53–56

The Gadarene Demoniac

1. What was the demoniac like before and after this deliverance or healing?
2. What does the obedience of the evil spirits teach us about spiritual conflict?
3. What aspects of the healing of the Gadarene Demoniac do you find difficult?
4. Why do you think the local people wanted Jesus to leave?

The Woman with the Issue of Blood and Jairus’s Daughter

1. Why did Jesus make the woman who touched him come into the open?
2. What was Jesus’s attitude to death?
3. How was the kingdom of God demonstrated in these healing miracles?

Opportunities and Constraints in Ministry: Mark 6:1–6,7–13,14–29

1. What were the constraints on Jesus in Nazareth, and why should familiarity be restrictive?
2. By contrast, the apostles had a great opportunity; what accounts for the difference in results?
3. What kind of providence is at work in the martyrdom of John the Baptist?
4. As you look back over this section, what is the most striking lesson for you?

Chapter 5: Responses to Jesus

Mark 7:1–8:26

1. In these verses we see the reaction of different people to Jesus: the Pharisees, a Syrophoenician woman, and the disciples. What accounts for such diverse responses?
2. What had the Pharisees at heart got wrong? How was that?
3. How did this fundamental misunderstanding of God’s requirement come about (see also Matthew 23:23)?
4. What was Jesus able to make clear to the disciples eventually (see 7:14–23)?
5. What was it, by contrast, that the Syrophoenician woman understood? Is there any accounting for the rightness of her response and the wrongness of the Pharisees’ response to Jesus?
6. What did Jesus admire in her?
7. In what ways did the disciples show that they were slow to understand (see 8:4)? And what was Jesus getting at in 8:17–21?
8. There are two healing stories in this section (7:31–35 and 8:22–26). What can we learn from them?
9. What overall lessons might you draw out from this section? What do you think Mark was trying to teach us from these accounts?

Chapter 6: The Turning at the Crossroads

Mark 8:27–9:32

1. Why did Jesus choose to go to Caesarea Philippi?
2. What is the significance of Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?”
3. What is our understanding of “Messiah”, which is translated by the word Christ in the Greek, meaning Anointed One? What significance did it have in Israel at the time?
4. What is the significance of Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Messiah?
5. Why was Jesus’s announcement that he would suffer and die so difficult for Peter to receive? Why was Jesus so severe on him and his response?
6. What do we understand the “way of the cross” to mean? Why is it so often part of Christian discipleship?
7. Can you see why these exchanges should be so quickly followed in the Gospel by the account of the Transfiguration?
8. What is the importance of the Transfiguration to Jesus and to the disciples?
9. What can be learnt from the failure of the disciples to help the boy with the evil spirit?
10. How would you sum up this section of the Gospel?

Chapter 7: The Values of the Kingdom

Mark 9:33–10:45

1. What was going on among the disciples as they walked towards Jerusalem?
2. What can a child teach us?
3. What do we learn from Jesus’s saying, “Whoever is not against us is for us”? How do we balance generosity and orthodoxy in our attitudes?
4. Self-discipline, vision, humility, faith and love are key ingredients to discipleship. Why is Jesus so insistent on self-discipline here (9:42ff.)?
5. How can we help marriages to thrive today?
6. What can we learn from the meeting of the Rich Young Ruler and Jesus?
7. Is it necessary to give away everything to be a disciple?
8. Why were the disciples “astonished” (10:32) as they went up to Jerusalem?
9. The disciples were at it again, this time James and John: what did they still have to learn about the kingdom?
10. Is Mark 10:45 the kernel of this Gospel?

Chapter 8: The Wisdom of the King

Mark 10:46–12:44

1. What were the characteristics of Jesus’s triumph? How did it differ from a Roman Triumph?
2. What did Jesus have to say about Israel, and how did he say it?
3. How do you understand the judgement of the fig tree?
4. In what ways was the Temple a snare?
5. What are our civic responsibilities and what are our responsibilities towards God?
6. What had t...

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Start as You Mean to Go On
• A New Authority
• Growth and Secrecy
• Signs of the Kingdom and the King
• Responses to Jesus
• The Turning at the Crossroads
• The Values of the Kingdom
• The Wisdom of the King
• The Labour Pains of the Kingdom
• The Costly Opening of the Kingdom
• The Crucified and Risen King
• Group Discussion Questions
• Notes