Very Good News (Mark 1:1-15)

In the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, Mark declares, that Jesus is the gospel, or in every day English, the good news.

The word “gospel” is that the Romans, the ones who ruled Judea in the time of Jesus, had already been using that same word for years. 

In the Roman world, when they pronounced a gospel, messengers were sent throughout the empire to share the “good news” that a new Roman Emperor had come to power. Mark puts his own slant on the term “gospel”. To Mark, the good news is a person. Jesus is the gospel.

This is how Mark starts the story of Jesus. With good news about a man from Nazareth, the Son of God. A man who identifies himself with the poor and common folk, who meets us in our suffering, and who goes into the wilderness on our behalf to win our freedom. And that is good news.