When I make decisions or formulate opinions about people and things I always try to look at the intent of the action or the person involved. Have you ever had good intentions but for some reason or other, you were unable to act on them. That’s what our time in The Pew today is about. John Mark was an early Christian figure  mentioned in the New Testament and traditionally he’s identified as Mark the evangelist, the author of the gospel of Mark. Who was John Mark? Well, he was an assistant and a companion to Paul and Barnabas on their early missionary journeys, kind of a traveling helper who had left an earlier trip which later caused a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas… he was also a very close associate of the Apostle Peter, who often and affectionately referred to him as “my son”. I’ll just kind of throw this in here… It’s also widely believed by church tradition that he was to have written the gospel of Mark based on Peters firsthand accounts. His mother was a prominent Christian woman named Mary, whose home was in Jerusalem and served as a gathering place and refuge for early believers. Now the question is, was he a cousin or a nephew of Barnabas, who was a major leader in the early church. He took John Mark under his wing after the dispute with Paul.

“During Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, John Mark accompanied them as their assistant . However, when the group sailed from Paphos and arrived at Perga in the region of Pamphylia , Mark abruptly left the team and returned home to Jerusalem (Acts 13:13) .”

John Mark’s departure caused a major disagreement later on between Paul and Barnabas as they worked to plan their second missionary journey. Barnabas wanted to give Mark a second chance, this was strongly refused by Paul because Mark had deserted them. In the book of Acts chapter 15:36–41. The split between Paul and Barnabas is recorded. Interesting to know that despite this early setback Mark eventually matured and somehow mended his relationship with Paul. It’s interesting to know that years later while imprisoned in Rome, Paul wrote to Timothy and specifically requested Mark’s presence. And as we have noted earlier Mark is also widely recognized as the author of the Gospel of Mark.

There is always the core question. Why did Mark leave? What was the reason for his departure? There’s a list of reasons that are given. I’ll just touch on a few. It had been suggested maybe there was a home sickness of youth, which isn’t all that unusual, he was a young helper and he was far from his mother’s home in Jerusalem, he may have missed the comfort of family. This was a hard journey, and there was lots of danger, hard terrain, physical exhaustion, and intense opposition to what they were doing. Paul emerged as the main leader of the mission instead of Barnabas, which may have caused some friction. There was another factor that occasionally is mentioned and that is perhaps Mark was uncomfortable with the shifting missionaries strategies towards the Gentiles. No need for us at this time to worry about the details. I like the old Jewish gentlemen’s explanation…it is what it is.

I guess we need to find some kind of a proper ending to all this, but the lessons to be learned here aren’t always right on the surface. When we make a commitment to serve God, we should not do it lightly. We should understand the responsibility that we have accepted and do our best to carry that through. I think another thing we can learn here is that we should not be so quick to judge another person’s actions. John Mark was raised in a Christian home and had spent, I would suppose a great deal of his time in fellowship with those his mother welcomed into her home. So the main point I take away from all this is that God’s call can be and sometimes is interrupted by circumstances that we don’t truly understand, but we can never truly lay aside God’s call on our life.

Life is Good

jk