This post is a chapter-by-chapter overview of the Gospel of Mark. I’m trying to highlight in my own words the distinctive way each chapter moves the story forward.

Chapter 1: Behold, Isaiah’s king who brings the Spirit.

Recall how Isaiah promised that a messenger would come and prepare the way for Yahweh. John appeared, wearing clothes just like Elijah, calling people to repentance and announcing the coming of a person who would pour out God’s Spirit. When Jesus came to John and was baptized by him, we see Jesus clothed in God’s Spirit. The Father himself announces that Jesus is the beloved Son in whom he delights.

The wilderness and wild beasts cannot pull Jesus away from the Spirit and the Father, as they did Adam and Israel. Jesus preaches the arrival of the kingdom and calls disciples to himself. We see the Spirit flowing through Jesus with signs of new creation healing. Jesus announces the kingdom in word and in deed, but he moves throughout the world cautiously, on the outskirts. Reminiscent of David in the cave of Adullam, people come and meet with Jesus in desolate places.

Chapter 2: He looks remarkably like Yahweh, but he’s not supposed to be like this.

In Jesus, the images of Israel’s Scripture overlap and intertwine. He refers to himself as the Son of Man, and he forgives sin like Yahweh. The Spirit flows through him to heal, but he eats and feasts with sinners like there is no need for fasting.

With authority he interprets and applies the Law and Prophets in ways that infuriate the religious leaders. The long-awaited one has come, but if you want to see him for who he is and receive his help, you will have to reshape your expectations. He has come to help people who need him, not people who have it all together. He does not look like what they expected.

Chapter 3: They say, “We must kill him,” but Jesus gathers Israel’s faithful remnant to himself.

When Jesus heals a man in a synagogue on the Sabbath, the religious leaders begin plotting to kill Jesus. Demons declare Jesus to be the Son of God, but the religious leaders plot to kill him.

Jesus appoints twelve disciples, the first fruit of the Messiah’s ministry to regather God’s people around himself. He gives them the authority to drive away demons, like he has been doing. Those who knew Jesus growing up think he is out of his mind, and the religious leaders think he’s demon possessed. Even his family is confused, but he is doing God’s will. God’s people must gather around God’s Son and do the same. Jesus is the one through whom the Spirit flows. New creation is in him. He is not what you expected, but he is kingdom come.

Chapter 4: Jesus explains how the mystery of the kingdom.

How can these things be? Listen to him explain. He anticipated the objection of many. “There is no way this guy is bringing God’s kingdom to earth. New creation? Nothing has changed!” He knew that many would think that for kingdom come to be real it must happen all at once, in an instant. He speaks to exactly these issues.

With the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explains that the Messiah and his kingdom can be present in the world even while most people don’t recognize it. The king and his kingdom will not, however, stay hidden forever. Listen carefully to the Son and stay close to him. He will reveal more to you.

The kingdom comes slowly, over time, like a farmer’s field grows night and day until the harvest time. The coming of the kingdom begins in a way that seems small and insignificant, but it grows overtime until all creation finds rest in its branches.

Look at the one saying these things to you! He speaks and the wind and waves listen to him!

Chapter 5: Those desperately dependent on him receive life.

The demons continue to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. They flee from his presence, just like sickness and death do. Those who are desperately dependent on Jesus and come to him believing he can help — whether the outcast, “unclean” person, or a prominent person — these are the people who experience new creation through him.

His way in the world seems ridiculous to most, but to those who stay close to Jesus, they hear him say to the dead, “Rise, little one,” and they watch as the dead rise. This is a preview of where our story is headed. Stay close and watch.

Chapter 6: Behold, the Shepherd King has come leading a new Exodus for God’s people.

In his hometown, they are skeptical of his teaching. These people know Jesus’s family. “How can this guy be the one we’ve been waiting on?” Jesus is amazed at their unbelief but recognizes that this is how it worked with all the prophets — They come to their own and their own do not receive them. He sends his disciples to the outskirts of Israel.

King Herod hears about all that is happening with Jesus, and he wonders what to make of Jesus. The reports conflict. The ghost of John the Baptist haunts Herod’s mind because he had killed John. For you, the reader of Mark, John continues to prepare the way for Jesus. Jesus will walk straight through John’s end, but he’ll rise like Talitha.

Jesus and his disciples retreat to the outskirts, a desolate place, and so many people are coming to him that they don’t have time to eat. This should sound familiar: Jesus ministering in desolate places — very similar to chapter 1. If the first part of the gospel is any indication, we should expect Jesus to do things that make clear that he is the true king clothed in the Spirit, the one bringing new creation to a broken world, and we should expect conflict from those who don’t think don’t like his way in the world. This is in fact what we see in the rest of the chapter, but the miracles and the revelation escalate.

A huge crowd comes to Jesus in the wilderness, and he provides for them like a good shepherd. He isn’t just a king. He cares for Israel like the shepherd-king Micah talked about. Miraculously, he multiplies food and sets a table in the wilderness, and the whole huge crowd eats until they are satisfied. Jesus looks like Yahweh, providing food for Israel in the wilderness.

In the next story, too, he does things only Yahweh can do: He makes a path through deadly waters. Later that evening, as the disciples sail across dangerous water, Jesus retreats to pray. When he sees the disciples struggling through a storm, he comes to them walking on the stormy waters. He gets in the boat with them and the storm immediately stops.

Once they are on the other side of the lake, from all the surrounding region, they brink to him sick people, and he heals them.

Chapter 7: Tension rises with religious leaders, but desperate people continue to receive Jesus’s help.

Just as the desert miracles escalated, so also the conflict. The religious leaders bicker with Jesus about why his disciples don’t follow their traditions. Jesus quotes Moses and Isaiah and says they don’t understand Scripture or him because they neglect inner wholeness. They love neither God nor people, and that’s the whole point of the Law and Prophets.

The disciples don’t yet understand what is happening, but because they stay close to Jesus, he explains. More revelation comes to those who stick close to Jesus. Little by little they are able to see clearly and articulate what’s happening. Those who receive Jesus’s help are those who are desperately dependent upon him and stay close to him no matter what.

Chapter 8: Jesus reveals that he is the Messiah and also the Suffering Servant, but his disciples cannot tolerate such an idea.

Again, Jesus miraculously makes a feast in the wilderness for a huge crowd. The religious leaders, who didn’t see the wilderness feeding, come and ask Jesus for a sign. He isn’t concerned with playing their games. He is more concerned about his disciples understanding the true nature of the conflict. He uses bread as a metaphor. He says the Pharisees are puffed up with things that don’t matter — they have leaven that the disciples should avoid. The disciples completely miss the point, thinking he means they should have brought along bread for the journey. Jesus explains: The Pharisees’ leaven is their lack of attention to inner wholeness. They miss the heart of Scripture — loving God and neighbor — and create their own way in the world.

Jesus has twice now miraculously feed thousands in the desert. Food isn’t the issue at all. Seeing Jesus clearly takes time, even for his first disciples, but those who stay close to him and are desperately dependent upon him receive more and more revelation (This is one point of the two-part healing of the blind man).

Jesus turns the attention of his disciples to himself: “Who do people say that I am?” Peter says, “The Messiah,” but they do not yet understand what that means. We are coming to the heart of the whole Gospel at this point. Here comes the deeper insight: Jesus explains that he is the Messiah, and this means he will suffer, die, and rise again — he’s Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, too. The depth of the disciples’ misunderstanding is revealed, and the depth of Jesus’s patience is on display, too.

Peter rebukes Jesus for saying he must die. Jesus makes clear that Peter’s misunderstanding is a life or death issue. The only way to life is to follow Jesus as a true disciple. Every disciples must embrace Jesus’s way in the world — suffering, death, resurrection.

This is the beating heart of Mark’s gospel. Who is Jesus? The Messiah who suffers, dies, and rises to bring new creation. He calls disciples to do follow him on the same path.

Chapter 9: The Son’s divine identity is revealed as the Father confirms Jesus’s path of suffering is the wise path for all.

Peter sticks close to Jesus and receives more revelation. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain and his divine identity is clearly revealed. Jesus shines with the light of God, appearing at the top of a high mountain talking with Moses and Elijah, just like Yahweh talked with Moses and Elijah on separate occasions at the top of Mount Sinai. Peter and the reader of Mark’s Gospel hears and beholds the Father confirm Jesus’s words: “This is my beloved Son. You all must listen to him.” The path is death and resurrection. We and Peter have much to ponder. What does it mean to rise from death?

Again the ghost of John haunts the story pointing the way forward. Jesus confirms that John was Malachi’s “Elijah who is to come.” Jesus must walk the same path. They killed Elijah, and they will kill Jesus, the suffering servant of Yahweh that Isaiah talked about.

Death and suffering will not be the end. For those who are desperately dependent on Jesus, they will be delivered from all suffering and torment. Death and evil forces have no power over them. You don’t have to believe perfectly. You just have to be desperately dependent. To follow the Son we must all become like children and accept this way in the world, desperate dependence. Any thing that pushes you way from desperate dependence on Jesus and following his way in the world, must be removed.

Matthew 10: The disciples struggle to see Jesus clearly, and Blind Bartimaeus models how follow when you can’t see clearly.

At this point, the disciples’ vision seems to be to settling a little. They are afraid at what they see. Jesus keeps talking about how they have to become like dependent children and let go of every other thing they treasure — independence, money, friends, and family. And there it is again: Jesus repeats how they are headed to Jerusalem, and there he will be betrayed and killed by the religious leaders. The Son of Man will be trampled by the beastly nations and rise to God after three days.

Just when you think they might be understanding, two of his closest disciples ask him for power and seats of honor. They don’t yet understand that before the Son of Man is exalted, he must give his life as a ransom for many. This is the path to all true exaltation: Following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem.

What is a disciple to do? How can we see clearly and accept such a call? The blind, “honorable son” points the way forward. He cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” They tell him to be quiet, but he just won’t stop asking for help. He receives his sight.

☩ Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy! ☩

Chapter 11: The King enters Jerusalem with Jeremiah’s fire.

As he draws near to Jerusalem, the Messiah is welcomed with praise by some, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh!” Jesus enters the temple, looks around, and leaves. This is your cue that things are about to get symbolic.

Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit, and then he trashes the temple, enacting Jeremiah’s critique of the temple and its leadership in his day. On the way back to the place where they are sleeping, the disciples are amazed that the fig tree Jesus cursed has withered. The point is clear. Jerusalem and their temple are corrupt and fruitless. Judgment is coming. Jesus urges them to be desperately dependent on God, “have faith,” and the Spirit will work through them similarly.

The religious leaders continue plotting to kill Jesus. The ghost of John appears again. They would not recognize John’s authority. They won’t recognize Jesus’s either.

Chapter 12: Jesus and his way in the world is the only way to resurrection and new creation.

What will happen now that the Messiah has come to town with such a dramatic, confrontational entrance? Jesus’s wisdom is on full display as the scene continues from the previous chapter. I wrote about the core of this chapter here: The Christmas Story in Mark 12. Jesus makes clear to Jerusalem’s leaders that he is God’s Son, he knows they are going to kill him, and they will face God’s wrath. As Jesus debates with the religious leaders, it becomes clear how it makes sense for Jesus to die. There is life beyond this life. God is the God of the living, not the dead. Resurrection is just around the corner. Jesus is not just a “son of David.” He’s God unique Son. He’s doing far more than they hoped for or expected.

What wisdom should disciples take away from this? The second half of the chapter is rich. Loving God and neighbor is the heart of the Old Testament and the heart of Jesus’s teaching. But this point cannot be missed: You can’t love God and neighbor and reject Jesus and his way in the world. The chapter closes with a picture of what it looks like to follow Jesus. The model is not the scribes. They love prestige and pretense. The model is a poor widow. She desperately gives all she has to God and depends on him. This is the way: Embrace Jesus with desperate dependence. Be a beggar.

Chapter 13: Judgment is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

Jesus prepares his disciples for what’s to come. Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed. They will stand trial in a variety of different settings, but the Spirit will speak through them and on their behalf. “Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness,” as Isaiah said. The flood of judgment is coming on Jesus’s generation, and he is about to walk through it himself, before anyone else. The good news is that the Son of Man will rise and come again on the clouds of heaven. At that time he’ll gather those who have taken refuge in the Father and Son through the Spirit. The overflow of this judgment is not death. For those in Christ, it’s “righteousness.” In Isaiah’s way of talking, righteousness has to do with salvation.

Chapter 14: Let the Scripture be fulfilled, and the stage set for the story’s climactic ending.

The narrative tension now begins a steady rise. Jesus has gone from announcing his coming suffering, death, and resurrection (chapters 8–10), to directly confronting Jerusalem’s leadership and preparing his disciples for his departure (chapters 11–13), to this moment, when the plots against him are successful. Chapter 14 is punctuated by repeated statements of mounting conspiracy:

• The chief priests and scribes were seeking how to arrest him and kill him (14:1).
• Judas goes to betray Jesus to the chief priests, and together they seek a good time to arrest Jesus (14:10–11).
• Jesus himself announces to the disciples that one of them will betray him (14:18).
  

Throughout this long chapter, Jesus moves steadily towards the climactic moment of the story. With each step, he makes clear that Jerusalem’s leadership are not ultimately in control. He is not caught off guard. His coming death is happening to fulfill Scripture and the Father’s good purposes.

• Jesus says that he goes “as it is written of him” (14:21). “Let the Scripture be fulfilled” (14:49).
• Jesus announces that his imminent substitutionary death fulfills what the Passover sacrifice had always signified (14:12–25).
• Jesus points his disciples to Zechariah’s words. He’s the stricken shepherd, and his disciples are the sheep that are scattered (14:26–52).
• He tells the high priest that he is Daniel’s Son of Man, the Christ, the Son of the Blessed (14:61–62).
  

We watch as the Son takes refuge in the Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus submits to the Father’s will (14:32–42). He clings to God in prayer. He lets go of his own comfort in order to benefit “many” (14:24).

The stage is now set for Mark’s climactic moment.

Chapter 15: Behold, the tragic beauty of God’s obedient Son, Israel’s king.

Jesus spoke the unthinkable in chapter 8. He said he was indeed the Christ, and he said he would suffer, die, and rise again in only three days. The disciples thought such an idea was insane, but the Father himself grabbed the microphone to say, “Listen to him.” Now, the hour has come.

As a reader of Mark, you know what the truth is. Mark writes with full conviction that Jesus is the messianic king. Mark’s story of Jesus’s death is ladened with tragic irony.

In chapter 15, we watch as Jesus is enthroned on a cross, mocked, and abused explicitly “as Israel’s king.”

• Pilate questions Jesus about his kingship (15:2).
• Pilate asks Jerusalem if they want their king to be released or a criminal (15:9).
• Pilate asks what he should do with Jerusalem’s king, and they tell him to crucify Jesus (15:13).
• The soldiers dress up Jesus like a king and abuse him while praising him as king of the Jews (15:18).
• Pilate puts an inscription over Jesus as he hangs on the cross that says “King of the Jews” (15:26).
• The chief priests tell Jesus to prove his kingship by getting off the cross, “Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe” (15:32).
  

As he suffers on the cross, Jesus points his disciples to David’s words in Psalm 22. He gives them this psalm as a way to understand what is happening to him. He is the righteous sufferer surrounded by the inhumane, mocking beasts in the psalm. Jesus will not be forsaken by the Father, despite all appearances.

He has not despised or abhorred the suffering of the one who suffers, and he has not hidden his face from him. When he cried to him, he heard. (Psalm 22:24)

He will rise in three days.

When Jesus dies on the cross, creation itself bears witness that the world has changed. Darkness comes over the land at noon, the land shakes, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, and though Jerusalem didn’t recognize their king, a Roman centurion makes the announcement for us readers of Mark: “Truly this man was the Son of God” (15:39).

Chapter 16: He is risen indeed.

Don’t be alarmed. You seek Jesus the Nazarene who was crucified. He was raised. He’s not here. (Mark 16:6)

He goes before us, and we will see him.