Growing up, I wasn’t much into video games. But I can remember one early game that could keep me fascinated for hours. It was an early version of “Sim City,” a game where you got to build a new community from the ground up: putting in roads, housing, industrial space, government offices, and parkland. It was up to you—the creator of this new world—to determine how money would be raised, how the quality of life for the citizens could be improved, and how land was to be used. As Jesus begins to build his kingdom in Mark 3, he chooses its first citizens: twelve disciples who will eventually become his ambassadors to Israel and his witnesses around the world. What does it mean to be a citizen of this new kingdom, a citizen of the new creation that is already dawning in our midst?
The Gospel of Mark is known for its quick pace. Jesus, as Mark tells it, does everything “immediately.” The picture of Jesus we get from Mark isn’t of a languid guru, but of a man on a mission. As we return to our spring sermon series in the Gospel of Mark, we’ll give special attention to the picture of Jesus Mark is conveying to his readers. For in Jesus, God’s king and God’s kingdom has come…and nothing can ever be the same again.
