Mark: An 8-Day Devotional Reading PlanSample

Authority

Mark is a man on a mission to establish the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, and thereby to defend Jesus’s call to discipleship. His strategy is a fast-paced “docudrama” that presents the life and teaching of Jesus. At times his footage leaves us breathless, but it never leaves us in doubt that Jesus is no mere man. Mark begins by showing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises and prophesies (Mark 1:2–12). Jesus is the Messiah. He is God. He is the King that the Father enthroned on his holy hill (Ps. 2:6).

The next clip gives a succinct summary of Jesus’s teaching (Mark 1:15) followed by the calling of his first disciples (vv. 16–20). Then Mark presents convincing evidences of the power and authority of King Jesus. Jesus went to the synagogue, and two kingdoms collided. The power of Jesus’s presence and the authority of his teaching demand a response. We bow in submission to his authority, or we rebel and shriek, “What have you to do with us?” (v. 24). There is no middle ground.

Jesus left the synagogue and went home with Simon and Andrew. In this quiet place he took the hand of a sick woman and lifted her up. The fever obeyed his touch by leaving her; she responded by serving them—not just him, but them. No convalescence was needed. Here is a strong and sweet picture of the power and the fruit of the gospel.

At sundown, when the Sabbath was over and people could travel without breaking the Sabbath traditions of the religious leaders, the people of the town thronged around Jesus. While man-made regulations keep us from Jesus, God’s Word and Spirit woo us to a relationship with him. Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons, validating his authority and displaying the merciful character of his kingdom.

The contrast between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness inevitably brings conflict. They cannot be synthesized. No one can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). If Jesus is God—and he is—it changes everything. Jesus’s compelling call to discipleship leaves no place for indifference and inertia. There are only two options: trust and obey myself or trust and obey him. Transferring authority from self to Jesus is not just radical—it is impossible apart from God’s sovereign initiative in our lives.

A relationship with Jesus is the essence of discipleship. Obedience to him is the evidence of discipleship. The disciple of Jesus continually asks, What will it mean to submit this situation or relationship to the authority of God’s Word and to live for his glory?—Susan Hunt