The Messianic Secret

I have decided to compare and contrast the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. In the book of Matthew, we begin with the angel coming to Joseph and telling him of the son that Mary will bare him. The angel says to name him Jesus and tells him that he will save the people from their sins. This clearly marks Christ as the savior from the start. It can be seen that Jesus is the healer of many when he is presented with sick people, because he heals them. He heals those who are sick, mental, and possessed. He is seen as a teacher when he goes to the top of the mountain and speaks to everyone that is listening, he teaches them what is right from then on. He is seen giving healing powers to his disciples and sending them forth to heal and teach the people of his ways. He is seen as a miracle worker, when he walks on the waters of the sea and calms them and then allows Peter to walk on the water toward him. He is seen as a leader as well, in the many times that he leads his people to where they need to be. He is seen as forgiving, in the many times he forgives and tells others to forgive. He is seen as the Messiah, which was clear from the

Mark gets right to the point when telling the story of the life of Jesus; he does not talk about the birth, Jesus ancestry, nor his mother, or father. Mark recognizes Jesus as a person, as a messiah, a son of God, he shows that he is the son of God. Mark 1:11 says, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God”(NIV, p 1653). He shows who Jesus is through the things he does, not so much what Jesus said, Mark focuses more on the life Jesus lived. Showing the miracles Jesus performed, and talks about the people Jesus healed, Mark speaks of over 15 accounts where Jesus preformed these miracles walking on water, healing people/strangers of diseases, sickness, pain and weakness. Jesus says in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (NIV, p 1679). Mark does paint a beautiful picture of Jesus but he shows a different side, a side of Jesus who did not flaunt himself as the Messiah. Although Mark refers to Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of God he often shows that Jesus does

This paper is a review of the book Messiah of the Masses: Huey P. Long and the Great Depression. The book was about the life history of Huey P. Long during the great depression era. The author of this book was Glen Jeansonne and it was edited by Oscar Handlin. In 1993 this book was published by Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. There are many pros and some cons in this book but overall it was a very interesting book.

The message of Jesus is allegorical and counter cultural. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. A counterculture is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.

Divinity is the very character of God. Therefore, Jesus’ divinity is made known repeatedly throughout the New Testament. In the very first words of the Gospel of Mark 1:1, Mark writes “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It establishes him as the manifestation of God in human form. Then later in Mark 1:14, scripture says that the time had come for worldwide repentance because the “Kingdom of God” was coming soon. Jesus is not who they imagined; the people of Israel were expecting a king who would establish an earthly kingdom and rescue them from the oppression of the Roman Empire. The Jewish community did not understand nor did it resonate that God’s deliverance would be for all people (108-109).

After a week of barnstorming Richard and Don decided to go into a small town and look around for a while. About halfway through the day they went back to their airplanes, which were still in the field that they had left them in. Next Richard determined that he wanted to perform more miracles.

According to Powell the secrecy motif is “the secret of Jesus deeds and person as well (pg.44).” Jesus wish to keep his status secret was perhaps taken to be an implied permission for Mark's readers to keep their faith hidden from public scrutiny. This is best shown when “The secrecy theme is a device to explain why some earlier Christians had not know what otherwise would seem obvious. (Powell, 53).” Powell gives two reasons why Jesus may have wanted to keep his identity and his healing powers a secret. One reason was that he wanted to avoid getting arrested before his time had come (pg.52). Another reason was he didn’t want to address unmanageable crowds (pg. 52). Powell writes that the motif of secrecy in Mark’s Gospel is greatly depicted

The Suffering Messiah- In the Gospel Of Mark Jesus is referred to as “The Suffering Messiah” although not directly we see in Mark chapters to 14-16 his proven sacrifice and suffering on his journey to the cross. “If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross! Then we will see and believe.”

The concept of ‘seeing’ the ways of Jesus and that He is the Messiah, is to truly understand the message being portrayed throughout the Gospel, and not the surface meaning that is being represented literally. This concept was very significant to Jesus and his followers as to interpret the meaning without being said, most parables being related to the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ miracle stories. Times were harsh and difficult to spread and teach the words of Jesus, as Mark’s community would face persecution. The disciples of Jesus could ‘see’ more than other believers could perceive, from being apart of Jesus’ life with close relationships, as they were taught the fundamentals from Jesus himself to understand his teachings in much more depth and fluency than others. There were many similarities among Jesus’ twelve disciples and Mark’s community, as both groups share the strong faith in Jesus and God’s power by spreading the good news to others as well as experiencing hardships caused by arrogant hierarchy and society. According to Mark, Jesus was known for his parables and

Mark: The Gospel of Mark tells the story of Jesus Christ’s life from when he was baptized by John the Baptist until the days of his death, and his resurrection. Mark was the second of four Gospels although some Scholars argue and insist Mark was the first Gospel written 1. Mark was written by John Mark in AD 65, with a target audience of Roman Christian beleivers 2. Mark was written in a unique manner in regards to literary genre, as it contains figures of speech, and portray life situations in a passionate story like setting that can make the reader feel as if he is there 3. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, however it is written in a manner that emphasizes more so on Jesus’s works than Jesus’s words 4. The key theme in Mark is to portray the life of Jesus Christ as the son of God 5, and the purpose was to show the human qualities and emotions that Jesus displayed from anger (Mark 3:5), and compassion (Mark 1:41). Some of the key events of Jesus Christ’s life in the Gospel Mark include his miracles, his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension 6. The Gospel of Mark ends with his instruction to the eleven Apostles “And he said unto them “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:16), and his ascension into Heaven (Mark 16:19).

Throughout the book of John, Jesus did many signs and miracles. Through these signs, Jesus attempted to show both the multitudes as well as his disciples one small truth about Him—His is God. In this gospel, Jesus goes toe-to-toe with many of the Jewish spiritual leaders (i.e., Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, etc.) in order to show the people who He truly is. Scholars disagree with how many Messianic signs Jesus performed, but one thing remains—every single sign pointed back to the fact that Jesus was who He claimed to be. The signs performed by Jesus show both the Israelites of old, as well as the people of today, that He is, indeed, God.

Mark presents Jesus as a compassionate savior who through his acts of service and acts of suffering summons unbelievers to become disciples and so that believers would understand what it means to be committed followers of Jesus. In Mark's account of the Passion of Jesus Christ, Jesus dies alone.Jesus only speaks once from the cross stating "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" and dies. Mark acknowledges that after Jesus' crucifixtion that people believed in Jesus being the true Messiah, "Truly this man was the Son of God!" (15:39).

In previous chapters, the real identity of Jesus is unknown- the crowds wonder if he is the Son of David (Matt 12:23), the disciples previously said that he was “the Son of God (Matt 8:29, 14:33) and Jesus himself identifies himself as “the Son of Man” (Matt 10: 23; 2:8; 12:40) and even likening himself to a Prophet (Matt 13:57).

Antichrist is a commander who has battalions of soldiers called the antichrists. The Antichrist is planning a coup to overthrow the salvation of Jesus Christ in the life of the Christians.

Another important thing about Jesus is that he healed many people. He gave a blind man his eye sight back, and cured multiple people with an unclean spirit. There is a pattern in which Jesus does not want his people to suffer, so he cares for them and is thankful that they believe in him. Lastly, I think the most important thing in the Gospel of Mark about Jesus is that he died for our sins. He knew that someone would betray him and he would be resurrected, but he accepted his death in the end and says he died for our sins. Jesus suffered in order to protect his followers, and we should be thankful