Our Sunday school reading for September 28, 2025, discussion of Mark the Evangelist and his Good News about Jesus, Session 3 of 4. Below is our handout for today, five chapters. To recap, we are trying to explore “kata Markon” (according to Mark) from a literary perspective. It is an anonymous writing about Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection, written about 70 AD, forty years after Good Friday and Easter. We do not know who “Mark” was or where he was when he wrote, or who his intended audience/readers were.  Mark’s literary agenda is to persuade his audience that, counter to the expectation of a conquering military Messiah (anointed king), Jesus was/is what God planned all along: Messiah, Son of God, a servant Messiah who would suffer, die and be resurrected, the Son of Man to rule the kingdom of God.  Mark uses both “sayings of Jesus” that he may embellish to create a scenario, and “pericopes” (complete short stories) about Jesus, to create his running narrative. Mar...