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INTRODUCTION

How Would You

Tell the Story of Jesus?

What do you think is most important for people to know about Jesus? What part of the story would you emphasize? Evidently, telling the story of Jesus is something we’re all supposed to do. In the service of Holy Baptism, the following question is asked of the whole congregation:

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

It is a promise that we will share the Good News of Jesus as we know it, a promise that we will tell the story. There are lots of ways to do that. This book is just one of them, as it moves us through the church year, beginning with the First Sunday in Advent. For each Sunday, we include the citation for the gospel to be read in church on the appointed Sunday, a few comments about the reading, some questions to think about, and a cartoon to illustrate something about the passage.

It’s exciting that there’s more than one way to tell Jesus’s story. We give thanks in particular for the four gospels in the New Testament, and the varied ways that they share the story of Jesus.

What About the Cover of This Book?

For a long time, the church has recognized the distinctive voices of the gospels and represented them with ancient symbols: Matthew is represented as a human being, Mark as a lion, Luke as an ox, and John as an eagle. Each character is depicted with wings, indicating the presence and participation of God in the writing of the gospels. The symbols, depicted on the cover, have biblical roots. We read about four such figures in the Book of Ezekiel (chapter 1), and also in the Revelation to John (4:6–9ff).

As you might imagine, commentators over the centuries have offered various interpretations of these symbols, some more far-fetched than others. For example, the symbol of Matthew—a winged person, or perhaps an angel—represents the humanity of Jesus, noting the way the gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. The symbol of Mark—a lion—suggests a figure of courage and monarchy, as Jesus announces the nearness of the Realm of God. The symbol of Luke—an ox—reflects a figure of sacrifice, service, and strength. The symbol of John—an eagle—may represent the soaring, poetic language of the gospel, or the persistent and paradoxical theme in John’s gospel that Jesus comes from above and returns to his heavenly realm when he is “lifted up”—lifted up on the cross, lifted up to heaven.

At various times in the history of the church, efforts have been made to harmonize, even homogenize the gospels. The Diatessaron, a document created by an ascetic named Tatian in the second century, is one of the earliest examples of this kind of attempt. The church, over the centuries, decided to let four distinct voices stand, even if and when they disagree (and they sometimes do).

The church has also decided that it is important for us to hear each of these voices. So we worship on Sunday guided by a three-year cycle called the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a schedule of readings used by many denominations. On any given Sunday, you could drop in on a church down the street or on the other side of the globe and hear the same readings that are being read at your home church.

The lectionary is designed for a year-long focus on each of three gospels, Matthew, Mark, or Luke. They have been called the synoptic gospels, which literally means that they can be seen together, or alongside each other, in parallel tracks. (Syn is a prefix meaning with; optic has to do with being seen.) These three gospels follow a similar outline and share a great deal of material, though each one contains some unique material. In the course of the three lectionary years, we read a good chunk of the Gospel of John, which follows a different outline and represents a different style of writing, a different historical context, and a distinctive theological perspective on the story of Jesus.

Which Brings Us to the Gospel of Mark . . .

This year in church, Year B, we will focus on the gospel attributed to Mark. It’s not the first of the four gospels, in terms of its order in the canon, but most scholars agree that it is the earliest. It seems that the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke used Mark as a basis for their writing, building on a basic outline and then adding other material.

What do we know about Mark? We don’t know a whole lot, and it doesn’t help that there are a few characters in the New Testament named Mark. He is not listed as one of the twelve disciples, though some have wondered if he is the mysterious young man who runs away naked in the Garden of Gethsemane. (See Mark 14, now that we have your interest. Please note that we provide no illustrations of this event.) The gospel is the shortest, which also serves as an argument for its chronological priority. There’s an urgency about telling the story. Mark gets right into it in the first verse, saying that this is the gospel. We first meet Jesus as adult. Mark seems uninterested in the stories of Jesus’s birth. And the word “immediately” appears repeatedly throughout the gospel. It’s not hard to understand why other gospel writers felt like they wanted to build on Mark’s account.

Regardless of authorship (other authors can argue about that), the message is distinctive. Our faith would be deeply diminished without this gospel.

Whoever wrote this gospel, it presents a vision of Jesus as the servant, the Son of Man, down to earth and humble. Scholars have identified a theme of the messianic secret, that is that no human being recognizes Jesus until the centurion sees him die on the cross and says that this is the Son of God (Mark 15). The mysterious teaching of parables features large in Mark’s account. Jesus’s hours on the cross are marked by silent suffering, with no verbal exchange except a loud cry of anguish.

Which Brings Us to This Book . . .

It is clear that, in the Christian tradition, spiritually vital congregations and spiritually vital individuals engage with the Bible on some level. The Prayer Book recommends that we read, hear, learn, mark, and inwardly digest scripture. You can find a prayer, a collect that instructs us to do that on page 236 of the Book of Common Prayer. We’ll read that collect in November, on the second to the last Sunday of the church year. There are many ways to bring that prayer to life. This book and its companions for the other two years of the lectionary cycle offer just one somewhat whimsical way to go deeper with the gospel reading you hear on Sunday.

For each Sunday in the year, we include the citation for the gospel reading. You may want to have a copy of the Bible nearby. Episcopalians most often use the New Revised Standard Version in Sunday worship. We include a brief paragraph of commentary, followed by a few questions. On the opposite page, we add a cartoon drawing—one person’s perspective on the story. Some of the cartoons are silly. Some are slightly irreverent. Some enter into an imaginative frame of mind, wondering what might have been going on at the time. The illustrations are offered to bring the gospel passage to life, and they are offered with a light touch, in the spirit of G.K. Chesterton, who said that angels could fly because they take themselves lightly.

How to Use This Book

You might use this book for your own personal devotion, as a way to get ready for Sunday, or as a way to reflect on the gospel passage after you have been to church and heard a compelling, or maybe not so compelling, sermon. You might want to use the book in your home with those in your household. Perhaps after dinner, you might read the passage and answer a couple of the questions and then talk about the drawing, or even add to it.

You might want to copy the drawings and put them in the church bulletin, or have them on individual sheets or even posters, for children (of all ages) to color. You might use the book as a resource in Sunday school classes, Bible studies, or Confirmation classes. Some adults even seem to enjoy the drawings. Some may enjoy coloring them, since adult coloring books seem to be all the rage.

You may find the questions helpful, and you may need to translate them for use with different groups. If the questions provided are not working for you, here is another way to think about each gospel passage. Ask these two simple questions, which can be applied to almost any gospel passage:

1 Who is Jesus in this passage?

2 What does this passage tell us about what it means to be one of his followers?

You may want to simply read the gospel and ask about the so-what factor: What difference does this gospel passage make in my week?

Mother Teresa is revered and remembered for many reasons. Among her many vocations was a deep love of scripture. She taught that we are called to know the word, love the word, live the word, and give the word.

This book of often silly drawings is offered with the serious intent that the story of Jesus might become a part of who we are in a world that desperately needs to know more about God’s grace. Our hope is that you will find this both enjoyable and edifying.