Jesus is King

Mark wants us to know who Jesus is, but he really wants us to know who Jesus is. He wants us to work it out for ourselves, he gives us the evidence and then asks us what we think.

Chapter 1:12-15 is a good example of this, and i was chewing on it today in prep for Teen Church this Wednesday. The message from these verses seems to be 'Jesus is King, are you in His Kingdom?' Why do i think that?

First of all because verse 12 comes right after verse 11. In Mark Jesus' baptism and temptation are the same event, there shouldn't be a paragraph in between them. Jesus is crowed, or maybe better, commissioned at His baptism, and what's the first thing He has to do as the crowed King? He's off to fight the Devil. Off to do a better job of resisting temptation than either Adam or Israel, off to show that He is the true King.

Mark doesn't give us details like Matthew or Luke do, that's not really his style. He just tells us that Jesus fought the Devil in the wilderness, and He won. He contrasts Jesus to John. John went into the wilderness to challenge the corrupt world system, Jesus went into the wilderness to break the power of the Devil. To prove Himself as King. And that's what He did. Jesus proved Himself as God's King.

Then what happens? Well if you're in John, Jesus heads south, cleanses the Temple, and meets Nicodemus and the woman at the well. But if you're Mark, you dip your quill in some ink and jump forward six months to the arrest of John the baptist. Well, hang on. If Jesus is here, and He's God's King, why are men like John still being beheaded on the whim of a lustful king and his wife?

Because Jesus has defeated the Devil, and Jesus will defeat the Devil.

The Kingdom is here because the King, anointed by God and fresh from a victory over temptation in the wilderness is here. He brings the Kingdom, and He is the good news of the Kingdom. But, even though the Kingdom is here, even though the Devil is defeated, the Kingdom is still coming, and the Devil still needs the final sword through the heart.

Mark is a great author, and wants us to keep reading. He wants us to ask 'why?' and 'what?' But He wants us to know that Jesus is King, and He has the authority to call us to His Kingdom. Mark has Jesus calling us to leave the defeated Kingdom of death, and come into the spreading Kingdom of light and life and love. The Kingdom of God. It is here, because Jesus is here, but it's not all here, because John is in prison.

Mark shows us that Jesus is King, then he looks at us and asks, 'is He your King?