All of the four gospels are portraits of Jesus. They are not exactly biographies, and they leave out many things that a modern biography would include. Rather they help us to see things that we need to know about Jesus.

The Christian life is a matter of living on Jesus. "Out of his fullness have we all received". We need to see a lot of Jesus. He stays the same "yesterday, today and for ever". When we see the way He was when He walked around on planet earth, we can know He is like that today. We need to see His power, His authority, and supremely we need to see His dying for us on the cross. We need to know that He is alive for us today.

In different ways the four gospels make Jesus real to us. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus is still real to us today. Through the four gospels we have records concerning what Jesus was like and what He actually did. We do not know everything we would like to about the life of Jesus, but we have enough. We are given sufficient for us to know Jesus for ourselves - by the Holy Spirit.

Mark's Gospel is the simplest and most straight-forward write-up of the material concerning Jesus' ministry in Galilee. It  contains no hidden meanings. We do not have to look for hidden theological controversies that caused it to be written. It does not have any symbolism except the symbolism that Jesus Himself used. Mark's meaning lies on the surface. He writes a straightforward account of basic facts about Jesus: how He was rejected, how He was a man of supernatural power and compelling authority, how He died on the cross as a ransom for many.

Click the Title for the Slice and the Reference to open up the text in Bible Gateway (an external website).