Jesus is the son of God who was sent by God on earth to redeem mankind from his sinful nature (John 3:16). He was on the earth about 2000yrs ago. He was given power and authority by God and performed many miracles and wonders. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he cast out demons from the people who were possessed, he cleansed the lepers, he forgave sins, and showed mercy and kindness to all, among many other good things that he did. Many people believed what he taught and followed him whereas others hated him for all that he did.
Jesus’ ministry work has been recorded in the Bible in the 4 books of Apostles -Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus is revealed differently in the book of Mark and Luke though they ultimately reveal Jesus as the messiah who was sent to redeem the people back to God.
The book of Luke portrays Jesus in genuine humanity – how he lived and reveals the work of the Holy Spirit whereas the book of Mark portrays Jesus as a teacher. The book of Luke commences by explaining who Jesus was and how he came to the world. This description is quite interesting and captivating as his conception is divine in nature. Luke, a physician writes that the virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus is told by God that she would conceive and bear a son by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke1:35) This is divine as we know that in the physical, life is conceived after fertilization of a female egg by a male egg following copulation. The divine Son ship of Jesus interests a person to try to read more about Jesus. The circumcision of Jesus on the 8th day further reveals the genuine humanity of Jesus. This is also interesting as earlier Luke say that he’s God’s Son, the messiah who will reign (Luke 1:21-22). We know that God himself is a supernatural being who is not like a man and so God’s son having a man’s features shows the power and divinity of God.
The book of Mark begins by stating that when he arrived in Galilee….clearly states that Jesus was a man (he walked) and was heading somewhere to accomplish a certain mission. The way the book begins is not as appealing as the book of Luke because a reader would expect this ‘normal” man not to do anything supernatural.
The humanity and the compassion of Jesus reveal him as the ideal Savior. In the book of Luke, there are many situations where Jesus identifies with people in real-life situations and works miracles in those situations, for example, He turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana, he heals the lepers, he raises Jairu’s daughter, he weeps, he feeds his followers and disciples, he heals a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, he healed the lame, the blind and the deaf, and he casts out the demons. His work is quite appealing as Jesus is seen identifying with the pain and the sorrow of the people and did this to accomplish his mission on earth which was to establish God’s kingdom on earth. God’s kingdom is a rounded kingdom that focuses on the wellbeing of a persons’ holistic life.
In the book of Mark, Jesus’ teaching is in parables and this makes a learner not fully comprehend them. They are not very appealing. He teaches his disciples and his followers using exciting stories and compares such stories with the kingdom of God. In the parable of the sower, he likens himself to the sower of the seeds (God’s word), he tells the Pharisees to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and allows the Children to go to him. His followers wouldn’t understand him as he did what people were not expecting.
Therefore, Jesus is revealed more appealing in the book of Luke than in the book of Mark.