Mark 1:14-15 - Jesus Preaches the Gospel

The Verses

Mark 1:14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”


My Paraphrase

After John's capture, Jesus proclaimed the gospel in Galilee. "You're wait is over. God's Kingdom is right here. Turn from sin and believe the Gospel!"


My Thoughts

Since John was a harbinger of the Gospel, his job was done. He says in other gospels that he must decrease while Jesus increases. Jesus now takes over the role as repentance-commanding prophet, but becomes so much more than that. I find it interesting that Jesus didn't just start His ministry healing people, preaching love, and doing miracles. Like. . .Listen guys, He's gonna start doing miracles in a just a few days, but He doesn't start there. He started with repentance. Repentance is super important to God, so much so that He had a guy come and lay the ground work before He even got there. 

Likewise, we cannot jump into the story of Jesus without repentance. Otherwise, He makes no sense as our Savior and just becomes another figure in history for us to study. I mean, think about it. Why did Jesus change history more than any other figure? Lots of guys have healed. Lots of guy have run their mouths for the cause of an agenda. Lots of guys have rallied for revolution. None of them are as big a deal as Jesus, because Jesus is our Savior and fulfillment of repentance. For salvation, repentance is key.

I wonder what people thought when they heard Jesus tell them that time was fulfilled. What a truly bold statement! "Your wait is over! Here I am! God's gift to all of you!" (I mean, we see people who act like this all the time. . .And. . .you know what I'm sayin'?) This was a ballsy move, not only because the message He proclaimed had a certain potential arrogance about it (arrogance only if it hadn't been true, of course), but also think about this: John had just been thrown in jail because of preaching the Gospel--which I'm sure was no secret to anyone, since "the whole Judean countryside and all. . .of Jerusalem" (vs. 5) heard him and knew about him. I wonder how many people John had openly baptized who went into hiding at this point--fearful of Herod's muscle-flexing. Fearful of what fates they might suffer if Herod caught wind of their being "John Followers." But then, just at the moment when everyone is on edge and full of anxiety, here comes his Cousin--right out in the open--yelling the same message (with a decidedly MORE poignant twist) throughout Galilee! Like, at least John did all his stuff out in the wilderness and didn't claim to be God Himself! 

I think there is a silent message within these verses that if we are to follow Christ's example truly, we definitely shouldn't fear men. If it's our time to go, then we go down proclaiming Christ. Otherwise, if it's not our time to go, there's really NOTHING anyone can do to us!

(Note: Of course in later verses we are going to see Jesus constantly telling people not to talk about Him and not to tell people about Him, but that's only after He starts doing miracles and He gets so popular it hinders His actual ministry. . .Like, hinders as in. . .not being able to walk through town because of all the people in the way wanting "a piece.")