BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Have you noticed the 12 disciples’ pattern of confusion throughout Mark 1-8? Of the four gospel accounts, Mark specifically emphasizes the difficulty Jesus’ closest followers have with trying to understand him and his mission. Mark describes the disciples as the dullest of all.

After a hand-washing controversy that baffled his disciples, Jesus encounters a Syrophoenician woman. She has no cultural or religious right to address or even approach Jesus, but she does anyway. She’s a desperate mother pleading for her daughter’s healing, but at first, Jesus seems to disregard her. She’s an outsider—a Gentile, a woman with a demon-possessed child. She is also the only person in Mark’s gospel to call Jesus “Lord.” Jesus’ full acceptance of her violates every social norm.

Shortly after, Jesus gives bread to 4,000 people in a Gentile region—just as he’d done for 5,000 Jews. Mark’s gospel connects these stories to emphasize a point: The children’s bread is for the Gentiles too. Immediately following this experience, the disciples come to believe that Jesus, who just supplied bread for 4,000, is scolding them for forgetting bread. They just don’t get it.

The narrative tension builds up to the hinge-pin moment in Mark 8:22-38. Jesus heals a blind man partially and then fully. This two-stage healing of a blind man may suggest that the dull disciples have been seeing Jesus only partially, but will now see him more clearly.

Jesus then challenges Peter: “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29). Peter believes Jesus is truly “the Christ [Messiah],” but demonstrates he has no idea what that means. Peter, and perhaps everyone, now needs more clarity on what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah.

In today’s video, see how each of the four gospels tells and arranges the stories of Jesus differently. Each book has a different focus, including the way Mark emphasizes the difficulty involved with trying to truly see and understand Jesus with dull eyes in need of healing.

Reflection Questions

• Today’s video talks about what the four gospels are and why we have four of them. Compare the stories of the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. What differences do you notice between each author’s telling? What key points or emphases do you see each writer making?
• What does Jesus’ discussion of his death and resurrection in Mark 8:31-38 suggest about the Kingdom of God and what it means to follow Jesus?