Mark wrote his gospel much earlier than the other evangelists did and shortly after both Peter and Paul were martyred. Mark wrote his gospel to remind Christians that Jesus walked the necessary and exemplary path of suffering.
We say that we are “saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus” but seem to understand this as some kind of heavenly transaction on his part, instead of an earthly transformation on his and our part. We need to deeply trust and allow both our own tribulations and our own resurrections, just as Jesus did! That is how Jesus “saves” us from meaninglessness, cynicism, hatred, and violence, all of which is death.
God is Light, yet this full light is hidden in darkness so only the sincere seeker finds it. We all must go into darkness to see the light, which is counter-intuitive for the ego. However, our age and culture resist this idea of “descent.” We made Christianity into a religion of “ascent,” where Jesus became a self-help guru instead of a profound wisdom guide who really transformed our mind and heart.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”
