Author’s Note
This isn’t a normal post for me. It’s not part of my Mark for the Margins project either. But it is about Mark.
On Sunday afternoons the last few weeks, people have been gathering in my front yard. I’m no longer a pastor, but some asked if we could still sit together and read Scripture—because, they said, I help them experience God. So I said yes. We chose Mark. It’s my favorite gospel, and this gathering gives me the nudge I need to start the commentary I’ve always wanted to write.
Mark is the earliest gospel, the shortest, and maybe the most neglected. Yet his brilliance shouldn’t be missed. He is a master of concise storytelling—Hemingway would be proud. And like Hemingway, Mark’s words need to be chewed slowly, even when the meal looks small.
As I’ve stepped away from the church, I’ve grown fond of telling people: Forget everything you think you know. Forget the theology and the preaching and the creeds and confessions. Read the text as it was meant to be heard—stripped …
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