Book Report on the Book of Mark (Chapter 11 to 16). The Book of Mark mainly talks about the ministry and the death of Jesus

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

R.S HW: Book Report on the Book of Mark (Chapter 11 to 16)

Anthony Hui 4F (10)

13th April’2009

Summary:

The Book of Marks mainly talks about the ministry and the death of Jesus; it covers numerous of teachings and parables of Jesus. It begins with the baptism of Jesus in desert by John the Baptist and it continues with Jesus preaching. The life of Jesus was unfair, cruel, full of temptation and challenges. Jesus used different parables and miracles to spread the good news of God, moreover he put his world into action in order to increase the persuasiveness. In Mark, Jesus used the parable of growing seed, mustard seed to reveal the nature of the kingdom of God, which shows that the kingdom is not significant in the beginning; however it will become the shelter for everyone when the time is right. Through this parable Jesus wanted to remind everyone to prepare their heart and mind to receive it whole-heartedly, totally depend and trust God unconditionally. Besides from the parables, Jesus also healed many sickness, such as a paralytic man on the day of Sabbath (Mark 2:1-12), a dead girl and sick women (Mark 5:21-42), a demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1-20), etc. His entire healing ministry has identified that Jesus is the son of God, with both human and divine nature, also with the power over death and devil. This is the reason why Jesus had great popularity and authority which attracted thousands of people to believe in him.

Unfortunately, some others people were jealous with his power, such as Pharisees. Pharisees served as the High Priests in the Temple of Sanhedrin, they are self-righteousness, intolerant to sinners, ritualism and hypocrisy, they never believed that Jesus was the son of God and they often put him into trials. Through the Book of Mark they had asked Jesus many tricky questions, which may caused him into trouble, like questioning about divorce (Mark 10:1-12), questioning about paying tax (Mark:12:13-17),etc. But Jesus answered the entire question in a very smart way and proved to Pharisees his intelligence and great wisdom. In the ...

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In the last few chapters of Mark, it’s about the struggle of Jesus praying in Gethsemane the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was guiltless and his disciples knew about that, but all of them left him simply because their fears of being arrested, even Peter denied Jesus for three times (Mark 14:66-72). When Jesus was arrested he was questioned by Pharisees and Pilate in two different ways, they asked Jesus in a religious and political way respectively. Finally Jesus was nailed and he resurrected three days later he died, which fulfilled his prediction.

Applications:

Jesus helped everyone no matter they are nobles or social outcast, in fact most of the people who received the help from Jesus are social outcast or discriminate by others. In Mark, Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, which need to be shown by action. This reminds me to help the needy and helpless in the society by donating money to charity, let them to feel the love and joy.

From the incident of the rich man (Mark 10:17-31), I’ve learnt that we should not love our earthly wealth and power as it would only give us instant joy and happiness. This let me realize that, I may need to give some private time to read Bible, go to church and help others. In so doing, I my know more about God.

New learnings/discoveries:

From the parable of the Mustard seeds I learn that, I should not feel upset when my influence to the society is not great at this moment, as I isn’t my responsibility. My affects to others would become significant when the time is come. The things that is should do is to pray more and to avoid in committing any crime.

From reading Mark, I found that God is definitely reliable. I should believe in God; trust him he will help me to go through difficulties and help me to make wise decision.

Questions:

Q: Why God would like to send his son to our world and save us from sin instead of his daughter?

A: It is because at that time being a male would naturally have a higher status and importance than female. It shows that God has great love and mercy upon all mankind, as he sent his only son to earthy kingdom to die for us and let human again to enjoy their privilege of having eternal life after they die.

I have read Mark three times.

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