The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of Mark (with Jeff Cavins) -2025

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Welcome to the second Messianic Checkpoint! Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike to introduce the Gospel of Mark and discuss how this short Gospel helps us understand both the identity and mission of Jesus. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is time for our second Messianic checkpoint and And it is with the gospel of Mark last Messianic checkpoint or the first one we had with the gospel of St. John, which was the longest gospel.

Now we are going down to Mark. I don't know down to Mark is the best way to say it. We're going to Mark, which is the shortest of all four gospels. And again, joining us so grateful as always is Jeff Kavans, who's going to give us an intro to this second Messianic checkpoint to this Gospel of St. Mark. So, Jeff, thank you so much for being here and welcome. Well, it's a privilege to join you on this journey, and it's beautiful how people can go through the Bible and then every once in a while jump forward a little bit to see the

fruit of what this whole story is about. And with four gospels, each one of them has a little bit different emphasis and together you get a full look at Jesus. But we don't just blend them together because each one of them is unique. They are and it's one of the reasons why I love the fact that how we're doing this in this Bible in a year is we had all of John at once, you know, maybe I think a little over a week, seven or eight days. And then we have all of Mark now, you know, a number of a month and a half later. And I think that there's something really powerful about that, that over the

course of these next, I think it's eight days, we're going to go through the gospel of Mark and be able to hear his voice in a unique way, which is different than, you know, John's voice and different than Matthew and Luke's. And so yeah, the gospel of Mark is remarkably unique. In fact, we have a missionary here who last year she said, Oh gosh, I just, I don't, I don't like the gospel of Mark. I mean, it's just, it's so, um, it's too brief. It's too like staccato.

It's too, and it kind of downplayed it. And, and then I handed her a commentary that is put out by, I think it's some kind of downplayed it and and then I handed her a commentary that is put out by I think it's some kind of publication it's a Catholic commentary in Second Scripture and and she said oh my gosh I love gospel mark is my favorite gospel from now on because it just the like you are about to say the uniqueness of Mark's gospel not only makes it different it makes it remarkable I mean there's there's some things that are just fascinating that Mark highlights that aren't necessarily in the other gospels in the same way. Right. It's true. And in fact, the early church didn't pay as much attention to Mark, I think

because of the brevity of the gospel. But I think the first actual commentaries that were written on it were not even until the 8 eighth century, but in recent times, lots of scholarship is being done on the Gospel of Mark. So this Gospel, while short, is really packed with some uniqueness that gives us a glimpse of Jesus and the work that He is doing. I guess I would start off by saying that a lot of scholars believe that Mark was a real source for Matthew and Luke. You see about 90% of the stories that are shared there. In fact, it's an important point to make again, and

that is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic gospels. And by that, synoptic means to see with the one eye, with one vision, and that some even believe that there was another source that they were using called Q, and that's how it gets into the weeds as far as theology goes. But it is shorter. St. Augustine said that the Gospel of Mark was an abbreviated version of Matthew. That's what he thought it was. It was kind of like an expanded Cliff Notes, if you will. Right, yeah. Just like, hey, if you want to get the bullet points, here's Mark's Gospel.

Right. And the author is John, most people believe, is John Mark. And he is not so well known in the New Testament. And some people believe that he was a relative of Barnabas. So, and there's another interesting thing about Mark and that scholars bring out, and then we'll get into some of the some of the unique things of the gospel, is that it was really written in a layman's Greek, and some would say even poor, and it was extremely plain Greek, whereas you get

into other parts of the New Testament, which are pretty complicated Greek. It's really more of an upper-scale Greek, if you will. So here's what's really interesting. The overall structure of the Gospel of Mark can really be divided into two. In the first half you have really Mark focusing on the identity of Jesus as Messiah, as the mighty Messiah, the Son of God. And then in the second half of Mark, it really concerns the mission of the Messiah. He begins to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and then be killed and then rise from the dead. And so that's the kind of the basic structure of the Gospel.

But there are a number of really unique things to mark that you don't see in the other Gospels. There's an awful lot in common, but there are some things that are unique. For example, a well-known phrase, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. That's unique to Mark in chapter 2. Another thing is that it's only in the Gospel of Mark that we read the parable about the growing seed in Mark chapter 4, where the kingdom of God is as a man who scattered seed on the ground and should sleep by night, rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how, for the earth yields crops by itself, and first the blade,

then the head, after the full grain, in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. So that's his unique take on that. Also another thing that is interesting is that Mark is the only one who talks about the pigs into which the demons went into in chapter five. That's really, really very interesting. And he also is the one who uses Aramaic at times when he talks about in Mark chapter seven, talitha cum,

talitha cumi, which is translated, little girl I say to you, arise. So that's something that is unique about him as well. But I think one thing that people would be interested in knowing that in Mark chapter 6, Mark's Gospel is the only one of the four Gospels which Jesus is called the Son of Mary. The Son of Mary. And so it's talking about again those first eight chapters, the identity of Jesus as the powerful Messiah, the Son of Mary. And it also says in chapter 6 that he is called a carpenter. And that's where we get that from, you know, while the Gospel of Matthew states that he

was the son of a carpenter. Son of the carpenter, yeah. Right, right. So that's an interesting part there. And there are a number of other things that make this gospel unique that people are going to run into. And that's kind of one of the challenges

that I would encourage people to do is that as they read through it with you to make note of the first half, the identity of Jesus. Just mark or underline, highlight if you will, the identity of Jesus and then after that to the end of the gospel, the mission of Jesus. So those are two things that people can really focus on. By the way, he's also the only one who identifies himself as the author. Right, and you know, it's interesting,

you mentioned when it comes to the identity of Jesus, how often, in other gospels as well, Jesus, the Messianic secret, so here's Jesus who gets revealed, you know, it's whether a demon is saying, "'We know who you are,' or whether that's Jesus does a miracle and then tells someone, or the demon says, "'We know who you are or whether that's a Jesus Doesn't does a miracle and then tells someone all right So the demon says we know you are and then he says be quiet

Or when he heals someone and then Jesus says don't tell anyone about this I know a lot of times especially when we were reading through the gospel of John people were writing in it saying Why doesn't Jesus want people to know who he is? Why does he want to hide from this identity? What's one of the answers that you oftentimes will give people when they run into that messianic secret? Yeah, that's so funny you mention that because when I read that years ago, I always thought it was reverse psychology.

You know, you say don't tell anybody about this knowing they're gonna open their mouth, you know. Not every day of wake is a whitewash offense, you know, that kind of thing. Little Tom Sawyer. Right. But I think that one of the reasons is that there is a timing to everything in Jesus' life, and that He is revealing Himself first to His disciples and to those around them, and laying the foundation down as to who He was.

And there is a time. There's a time for everything in His life, and the real proclamation of His Kingdom and who He was, was through the disciples, but that would come after the resurrection. That would be premature to suddenly, the Romans and everybody else to say, hey, this guy is really a great king like the Maccabean revolt or David, you know, and to establish him as a king renewing the kingdom that had kind of gone silent for years. And his kingdom was not like that. And his kingdom was different to the kingdom of heaven. And so it was all in the timing, I believe, of that.

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I mean, Cardinal Newman at one point, he asked the question, how come Jesus didn't just appear to everyone after he rose from the dead? And why did he only appear to his disciples? And his answer is kind of similar to that, where he said the idea wasn't just so that people could see him,

the idea was that the people who knew him could see him. The people who had a relationship with him could see him because then they could go and bear witness to him as opposed to the fickle crowds as opposed to those who had no investment whatsoever in him who would say yeah sure i saw this man raised from the dead but that doesn't change my life at all he said it is a lot i'm paraphrasing obviously but that sense of it's here's this relationship and out of this relationship comes a witness bearing witness to his identity, not just himself and not just his miracles and obviously not the demons, but these, these apostles were sent out who are no longer servants, but our friends who then get sent out into the world to not just bear witness to his miracles, not just bear witness to his resurrection, but witness witness to the one they know, the one they're in relationship with. And yeah, that makes sense.

You have to, as you said, we just finished the book of Ecclesiastes and there's a season for everything. And this was not the season to be revealed. Yet there's a yet time for growth. And it speaks to, I think the fact that he's in control of the narrative. He is not allowing the public narrative

to define his kingdom or when he should rise or what he should do. He is in control of that. And you and I are both Mac fans. I mean, we use Macintosh, we have for years. A lot of people have iPhones. And if you think back for a moment, when Steve Jobs was developing all of that,

you know, the Mac computer and the iPads, all of that. He was very, very careful to tell those around him, do not let this out yet. Do not let it out on pain of firing, right? And so Apple had this, they had this unique environment where nobody leaked things out ahead of time because there was a time to do it. Now, I'm not equating the kingdom of heaven with Steve Jobs and Apple, but it's the same

type of thing and that is that we, I am speaking to you as a small group here in the development of everything that I am giving you and there will be a time. And I know that your natural inclination is to start to record me and sell the tapes and everything else. I know that. But I don't want you doing that right now. And so I think it's an incredible, well, it's an incredible thing because, you know, Solomon was known as the builder in the Old Testament. Jesus is greater than Solomon.

He is the master builder. And I think part of the master builder aspect is prudence on when and how the kingdom grows. And I think that, just to make a note here, I do think the kingdom of heaven is better than Apple's. Just as a sidebar, asterisk. Just a sidebar. Quick, one thing about the authorship of Mark's gospel,

here's Mark, who I think I've come across many people who have said that it is highly likely that as Mark and Peter were close, Mark had traveled with Paul and Barnabas and that whole story, how that story went down, but then Mark and Peter were close, that this would be Peter's gospel via Mark.

Is that important? Is that unique to highlight? Or is that kind of like just a fact or a piece of trivia? Well, I've read that quite a few times where people talk about that idea. And it certainly could be. I mean, a lot of the themes that he brings about are relating to those which Peter is interested in,

for sure. But I think that the real emphasis is on the identity of Jesus and the mission of Jesus, but no doubt, no doubt Mark learned from Peter, you know? And it could be through his eyes as well. But no doubt, no doubt Mark learned from Peter, you know, and it could be through his eyes as well. A lot of the formation of Mark is different than the other gospels where there is an immediacy to what he is telling you.

In fact, what's interesting about this gospel is that he uses 41 times, 41 times the word immediately. And so he's always talking about immediately, and it's an average of two times per chapter. Yeah, it's only 16 chapters. Yeah, yeah, he's using it a lot for such a short book. And it really gives us, I think, a sense of a kind of a rapid-fire narrative. And so people who say, well, I don't like Mark because it's not as expansive as Luke and Matthew.

Well, this could be that rapid-fire look at the gospel. Another thing that's very interesting is the organization of the material in Mark. And what I mean by that is that Mark has a way, he has a tendency, I should say, to organize the gospel by a type of material. So we have miracles and you have parables, you have controversies, and it's not so much thematic like, you know, faith and that type of thing, like you would expect.

And it's important for the reader to realize that the material is organized. It's not just a random telling, but he really is organizing it. But the one thing, Father, that I like about Mark, and when I teach this, I'm always using Mark to do this, and you can use the other G gospels as well, and that is that Mark utilizes in a masterful way Jesus' ability to use questions when he teaches. And Jesus uses over ten different ways to implement questions, that a question could be rhetorical, a question could be a lesson in itself, like, you know, rhetorical. He can use questions to reveal a person's heart. He can use questions to cut off those who are coming against him and trap them in a way. And so, I think that Mark really, in a way. And so, I think that Mark really, really showcases the wisdom and the cleverness of Jesus in how He taught. And He does this, and He also explains it. So, you know, some

people think that the audience of Mark was Christians who were not as familiar with the Jewish backgrounds, and so, Mark has a tendency to explain these things to them so that they would understand in the same way that John will see does the same thing. He's gonna bring up Jewish concepts, and then he kind of pauses and says, well, this is what it means. You guys don't know.

Rabbi, which means teacher, yeah. Yeah, right, right, yeah, Rabbi, which means teacher. And then there's one more thing, this last thing that I would mention in that is that Mark's gospel is not just interested in concepts. His gospel that he's giving us is focused on deeds. And that is really important because we as Catholics know, we as Christians know that God revealed himself

in words and deeds, and Mark focuses on those deeds, but our response to this revelation is like that. We respond with words and deeds as well. Yeah, that's so good, especially how how action-packed Mark's gospel is, that it's Jesus is going from one thing to the next thing to the next thing, and there's revealing, here's the actions of the Savior, here's the actions of the Messiah.

As you noted, the first half, the identity of the Messiah, then here's the mission of the Messiah, and it seems like, gosh, I don't even know what the percentage is of Mark's gospel that is the percentage of time Mark spends on the crucifixion or like the at least the last 24 hours essentially of Jesus's life vastly outweighs proportionally the other three gospels as well as even just the almost like the resurrection is a footnote, but it's it's not obviously it's a very important last piece that that concludes his gospel but you have that recognition of here is Jesus whose heart is not only

revealed as you said in what he's teaching but isn't his heart is revealed his mission is revealed his identity is revealed in what he does which is just that's super powerful yeah and it's very very what he does, which is just, that's super powerful. Yeah, and it's very, very compact. And you have in chapter 14, starting with the Judas betraying Jesus, the Passover with the disciples, the Last Supper, Peter denies the Lord, Jesus in Gethsemane, his arrest, he's before the council,

Peter denies Jesus. That might be why some scholars think that this is really the gospel through the eyes of Peter because he really does get into that. And then Jesus before Pilate, Jesus being mocked, the crucifixion, the death, the burial, and the resurrection. And then when you look at your Bible, they're all compact paragraphs, you know? Several sentences that goes boom, boom, boom, boom, and lays it all out and then ends with him appearing to Mary Magdalene to the

two disciples and then the disciples as a whole. And then comes the final statement, which we also see in Matthew, and that is the call to go into all the world now and preach the Gospel to the whole of creation. And that Gospel is what we call the kerygma, which the basics are that God loves you and has an amazing plan for your life. Sin has interrupted this plan. Jesus has died for you, and now He's asking you to repent, to radically reorient your life to Him and to be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit and to join His magnificent family

and then go out into the world yourself and make disciples. And that's how it ends. And the final statement is that the Lord, I love this, it's the very last verse, verse 20 of Mark 16, and they went forth and preached everywhere, and I love this part, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by signs that attended it. And it ends with amen. And I like that so much, that last verse, because after revealing who He is in the first eight chapters and then the following chapters talking about His mission, then He invites His followers to go on that mission, and He says that if you will

proclaim the gospel, I'm going to be with you. And I have the heavy lifting job here. And that is I'm going to confirm the message in the hearts of the people that you speak to. You don't have to do heart surgery. You don't have to get in there and figure them out. You just have to tell them the good news. And I have just spent 16 chapters telling you the good news and who he is now go out and get them. That's so good.

And it's what it would a gift to be able to be again on this journey and have this messianic checkpoint where we get to be reminded of with all the mess, with all the United Kingdom, but ups and downs, with all the divided kingdom coming on its way and exile, that we have this story that the fulfillment or in many ways of the old covenant in Jesus Christ and bringing us into this part of this story,

making us a part of this story. And as you said, here is, as they went on preached, the Lord confirmed, the Lord did, he didn't leave them orphaned, he didn't leave them abandoned, he didn't leave them alone, didn't leave them powerless, but he is the one who continues to bring fruit to the works of Christians

around the world now. Jeff, one last thought as we launch into these next eight days of listening to and praying through Mark's Gospel. Any last pieces? Well, I think two. One is that as you read through the Gospel of Mark, I would encourage people to pay attention to who he said he was,

and then to pay attention to his mission, and really pay attention to that, highlight it, mark it, because his mission is your mission, and when he sends you out, He's not sending you out to just build church buildings. He is sending you out with a message, and that message is not dependent, and the proclamation of that message is not dependent upon your skill level. You know, a lot of people will say, well, I don't share Christ with other people because that's not my gift. And using that logic, I people will say, well, I don't share Christ with other people because that's not my gift.

And using that logic, I have often said, well, when it comes to the offering in Mass, that's not my gift. So I will give the basket to somebody else who has that gift. And the truth is that evangelization is a gift that has been given to all of us. It's the responsibility of all of us. And God is just simply looking for faithful disciples who will continue to spread this story. So while we come to the end of the Gospel of Matthew, it's really not the end because

it's still going on today and even past the Book of Acts into the entire world. But I do have one last thing, and I know you like this kind of stuff, Father. You know, in software, like your iPhone or your Android device, they have what they call Easter eggs, and an Easter egg is like a hidden little gem in there that some of you will find it, some of you won't. And I'll give you a hint about this little Easter egg here, and that is in chapter 14 of Mark's gospel at the betrayal and the arrest of Jesus it says in verse 51 and a young man followed him well it starts earlier day after day I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me

but the scripture but let the scripture be fulfilled and they all deserted him and fled and a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body and they seized him but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked." Odd text, different kind of text and I'll leave you with this for our listeners, who do you think that young man was? That's a good question. Who do you think that young man was? Should I tell you or not?

Leave us with the question, not with the answer. I think we probably should know. I mean, it'd be maybe helpful. Most think it was Mark. Mark himself. Mark the young man. Yeah. Just this opportunity for him to share.

I was part of the story that that was me. Yeah. Which is typical of, of the disciples that have like a John says in his gospel, he talks about the, the disciples that Jesus loved. Yeah. He doesn't mention himself, but he says the one he loved, not that he doesn't love the other ones, but that's, that's how is he identified with him. The one that he loved. Yeah. That's so good. Wow.

What a gift. Um, I'm so grateful, Jeff, thank you so much for this intro to Mark and our second messianic checkpoint. I hope that it's been a blessing to everyone who's been listening to us. I know that every time I get a chance to talk with Jeff about the upcoming time period, it is just, it's, it's a massive blessing for me. I hope it's a blessing for you. I just want to let you know that we continue to pray for you.

Please keep praying for us. My name is father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.