Only about 20 years after Jesus’ ministry on earth, a man named Mark became convinced that it was time to write out the story of Jesus so that everyone would know it as well as he did.
He likely was present for many of the events he records even though he wasn’t an eyewitness to all of them. He wrote from the perspective of an eyewitness, however, because Mark maintained a good relationship with Simon Peter. Yes, even the same Peter who jumped out of a boat, who walked on water, who disowned Jesus and who was the first to identify Jesus as the savior of the world.
Much of the story Mark tells us displays the same passion and impatience displayed by Peter himself. In fact, Mark is so eager to get to the story, that his first sentence isn’t even a complete sentence. It’s more of a title, really.
And do you know what his title was? He called what he wrote, “The Beginning of the Gospel.”
Mark thought the story of Jesus was really, really good news. Don’t you want to know why?