“This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
(Mark Chapter 1 Verse 1)
Mark clearly wants to emphasise and concentrate on the special relationship between Jesus and God. We usually see God to be the epitome of “good”, by saying this I mean that we as human beings look at God as a role model. We try to be like him and live up to his morals and values every day. By stressing this special bond it also shows that Jesus had a certain amount of authority. Jesus shows kindness and compassion in many of his actions. To a certain extent it is kindness and compassion that provides Jesus a motive to perform miracles. For example when “Jesus Feeds a Great Crowd”:
“When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw this large crowd, and his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”
(Mark Chapter 6 Verse 34)
This is a rare occasion when his act was driven by pure pity, which constitutes goodness. This is rare because most of his miracles are not performed out of goodness alone, most of them require acceptance and belief on the person’s part: so much so that they have complete and utter faith in Jesus himself for example in the healing of Jarius’ daughter and the woman with a haemorrhage(Mark chapter 5). His actions are not just acts of sympathy and consideration but they are a direct reference to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus has a human side. This human side shows through particularly during the last few days of his life. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus experiences many human emotions like anguish, distress and a certain amount of anger. Also physically Jesus would have looked like any other man, not extraordinarily different. Yet Mark clearly emphasises the fact that Jesus’ abilities go beyond those of a mere human being. Examples of this can be seen in “Jesus’ baptism”, and during “The Transfiguration” when God speaks to him directly. Also in the Gospel Jesus has the ability to make a blind man see again (“Jesus Heals Blind Bartimaeus” Mark chapter 10), which can not be done by any other human. This obviously shows Jesus’ divine and supernatural capacity.
A recent example of a person who is thought to be very “good” is Martin Luther King. He was a Christian who accomplished so much during his lifetime (like Jesus). King probably would have looked at Jesus as a role model, and so therefore their beliefs are quite similar; for example he was very much a pacifist and his beliefs of equality are very similar to Jesus’ teachings. Everything that Martin Luther King accomplished is within human and not divine capacity. I feel that Martin Luther King is a perfect example of a good man.
In conclusion I agree with the quotation in the sense that I believe that Jesus was a good man. But I have to disagree to the extent that I do not believe that he was only a good man because quite clearly he was so much more than that. He was a divine being with a definite special connection with god. I think that Jesus was a good man but that is definitely not all that he was.
