Joy of the Promised King (Pt. 1)

Consider how much more we anticipate the arrival of someone to a gathering when the expectations surrounding their presence are greater. For instance, we can become excited when we expect to see a beloved family member if we haven’t seen them for some time. Or maybe we expect to meet someone with impressive credibility to network with them professionally. In either case, it’s the familiarity or the expertise, as examples of some quality that creates expectation, that causes anticipation, and anticipation connotes the excitement of seeing a thing come to pass. 

The book of Mark begins with great expectations, but only for those who understand the story of the Bible before Jesus. Without much understanding of the Bible before reading Mark, Jesus is someone we don’t anticipate. If you’re not a Christian, there’s no doubt Mark is a good place to start to read the Bible for the first time, but without the backstory prequel of the Old Testament (all the books in the Bible before Matthew), it will be hard to be excited to hear these words in the first verse: 

'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ (Mark 1:1, ESV) 

This verse carries great weight in the theological meaning it’s trying to express. The word ‘gospel’ means good news, and this is good news about Jesus the Christ. ‘Christ’ was not Jesus’ last name. He wouldn’t be Mr. Christ in our vernacular. This is because Christ is a title that means Messiah. The word messiah means anointed king. In other words, Mark is the story of the good news of the arrival of the Anointed-King-Messiah, the one to have been predicted by prophecy for thousands of years prior would come to save Israel. Not only this, but he’s the ‘Son of God'—not a son of God, but the Son—sharing in the divinity of God and being himself God incarnate (fully God and fully man on earth). In opening the book with this verse, the author is saying he's written an account of the life of the most powerful man to have ever lived on earth, who has come to fulfil the most important mission to have ever been undertaken.

In doing this, Mark reveals the identity of Jesus from the very start. The book of Mark is like a movie where you see a snippet of the ending at the beginning. Although in the same way as you see this in a movie, we need to keep reading to fully understand the meaning. We may here have a mysterious, profound, and powerful statement of Jesus' identity, but what does that mean for us? Hearing the titles of Jesus doesn’t mean we really know him or trust him as our king. Just like you need to work with an impressive figure to understand the justification of their greatness—maybe you know your boss is a ‘CEO’ but it wasn’t until you worked with him that you understood why he deserves that title—so Mark, though depicting Jesus as being much greater than a secular CEO, invites us to know why Jesus deserves to be called the Anointed-King-Messiah and God himself. 

The expectation and anticipation of Jesus in Mark is joyful because he came to save not only Jews but us (the rest of the world). He came to be our personal Anointed-King-Messiah. If you’re a Christian, having been called by God to benefit from Jesus’ life and death by faith, then Mark here is introducing the one who came to earth to save you. He came to save you from a life without Himself and give you access to a new relationship with Him that only the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus could achieve. He also came to reveal himself, and as we read Mark, we will see why Jesus is a King worth trusting in. 

In the next article (Joy of the Promised King Pt. 2), I’ll discuss some of the prophecies anticipating Jesus in the Old Testament and what this means for how Jesus saves the world.