The Four Gospels: Matthew, Luke, And John Mark

The Bible contains four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with Mark considered to be the first written. Throughout this gospel, Jesus Christ is depicted as the ‘suffering servant’ while encapsulating the core morals of integrity, compassion and justice. This culmination of qualities accentuates Jesus’ humanity and benevolence towards everyone who he encountered. Mark, or John Mark as some individuals identify the author as, hoped to influence others with a specific target of Non-Jewish Christians, by showing Jesus and people’s reaction to him. While the other gospels present Jesus as the archetype of a Saviour and God on Earth, Mark diverges from this path in order to create written text exemplifying the humanist who Jesus Christ was.
Through the use of both parables and miracles in this account of Jesus’ life, the gospel according to Mark effectively portrays this side of Him. Jesus was a messiah, yet he was not the fighting saviour that the people at the time wanted, he was a person who suffered for the sins of others.

The gospel of Mark was written at the closest time to the death of Jesus Christ.
This means that there was a shorter time frame within the creation of this text and the years where Jesus was alive, creating a more accurate representation of the events occurring around Jesus. This gospel was dated at approximately 65 A.D and focuses on the persecution of people due to their beliefs. While it also sets the story straight with how things happened, we also get an understanding of the characteristics of Jesus as well as the Kingdom of God. This concept is referenced constantly in the gospels, with the broad version of it being the eternal rule of God throughout all of the universe. The more precise version of the Kingdom of God is the spiritual rule over the hearts of those who submit willingly to the authority of God. Everyone who acknowledges the glorious order of God and surrenders over the ruling of their hearts is a part of the Kingdom of God. The belief in this Kingdom is a key tenet of the Christian faith, and it is intertwined throughout this gospel. This is done through the use of parables, which illustrate a moral lesson as told by Jesus. These stories were a popular way for ancient rabbis to communicate a message as they used familiar settings and activities for the intended audience of Non-Jewish Christians during the first century to understand. It also held the audience’s attention as they were able to relate to the topics that the parables had
within.

There are multiple parables all through the gospels, yet one of them stand out to many, making it one of the most known.
The Parable of the Sower, seen in Mark 4: 1-20, represents the Word of God with the seed of a sower, and four different scenarios are shown which symbolise the different responses that people have upon hearing the Word. Showing how people responded to Jesus and the Word of God was an integral part of the gospel Mark in influencing others to see the way that those who had faith did. In this parable, a sower sowed some seeds in four different locations, a path where birds took them and ate them, rocky ground that did not have any depth of soil and the seeds were scorched, a thorny area where the seeds were choked and nutritious soil where the seeds were able to flourish. The seeds that landed on the path portray those who hear the word but are hardened by sin and cannot understand the word. These people simply do not take any other the Word of God in at all. The rocky ground, on the other hand, pictures a person who takes in the word and receives it with joy, but whenever any type of persecution due to the belief occur, they immediately distance themselves from the faith. The seeds that fell onto the thorns illustrate those who hear the word yet their mind is filled with other distractions and desires, causing the power of the word to decimate. The final scenario is the seeds landing on the good soil and growing into incredible size. Jesus’ teachings in
this comparison, were able to enter the hearts of those who let themselves be taught by the Word of God. They are then able to spread the word and touch the lives of those around them through the love and compassion that the faith is able to bring to so many. This parable shows the authentic truth that humans did and still do disagree in the way that they take in the Christian faith.

The humanist side of Jesus, who focused on the value and worth of others while also affirming our responsibility to lead an ethical life, was conveyed through the miracles that Jesus performed. These marvels of the world showed the compassion and empathy that Jesus gave to all who were in need, and this is evidently seen in Mark 1:40-45, where ‘Jesus Cleanses a Leper’. In this scripture passage, Jesus is portrayed as a person who felt pity for an individual with Leprosy. A leper goes to Jesus and begs him to be cleansed from his disease, and Jesus sees this man and is filled with sympathy.