Getting the Band Back Together
“Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me” (2Tim 4:11).
On a Mission from God
Joliet Jake has just gotten out of the joint. His brother Elwood picks meets him outside the state pen. Now the Blues Brothers are on a mission from God to save the orphanage where they grew up. There’s only one way to make that happen. Get the band back together.
Rewind to the First Century. The scene is another prison. The Apostle Paul is behind bars but he’s not getting out. As a matter of fact, he’s on Death Row. In one final letter to his buddy Timothy, he desperately wants to gather the old gang one more time.
“Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me” (v11). There is no question Paul is on a mission from God. He’s going to do everything possible to keep it going after he’s gone. What’s the best way to make that happen. Get the band back together.
One Last Letter from Death Row
The apostle writes from inside a prison in the capital city of Rome (2Tim 1:16; 2:9). The time is sometime around 66-67 AD. He knows his time is running out (2Tim 4:6-7). Paul writes to the young pastor in Ephesus with a pair of purposes. One, to pass the leadership of ministry (2Tim 2:1-4:4). The message of Jesus must not stop with his death. Two, to see Tim one last time before it’s too late. (2Tim 4:9, 21).
One guy in the old gang has already bailed on Paul. “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me an gone to Thessalonica” (2Tim 4:10). Other members of the crew can’t be there because they’re on assignment. “Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia…Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus” (2Tim 4:10, 12).
Paul’s Traveling Partner
Paul tells Tim that “Luke alone is with me” (v11). He’s probably there for a couple of reasons. First of all, he’s a longtime traveling partner of the apostle. As the author of the book we call Acts, he was right there as God used the former Pharisee to take the message of Jesus roaring around the Mediterranean Rim like a tsunami of grace.
While Luke never drops his own name, all the early church leaders gave him credit for writing both the biography of Jesus that bears his name and its sequel. Whoever the author of Acts is, he subtly tips us off that he had a front row seat for a lot of the action. In several big chunks of Acts, the pronouns change from “they/them/theirs” to “we/us/ours” (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5-21:18; 27:1-28:16).
Researching the Story of Jesus
Luke writes both of these important documents as research into who Jesus is and the spread of the Good News. He clearly spent a ton of time not just traveling with Paul, but interviewing key players and eyewitnesses of the all that Jesus and His reps had done. The recipient of both Luke and Acts is a man named Theophilis (Lk 1:3; Acts 1:1).
Here’s a little bit of Bible trivia you may not realize. Did you know that Luke actually wrote the largest portion of the New Testament? Yup, that’s right. The volume of Luke and Acts actually fills up slightly more of the NT than all twelve of Paul’s letters combined. Together these two close friends are responsible for almost 60% of our NT!
The Good Doctor
The other reason Luke may well be with Paul is that he’s the apostle’s primary care doctor. In a letter to the Colossian church, he refers to him as “Luke, the beloved physician” (Col 4:14). In doing so, he uses the Greek word ιατρος/iatros, which describes someone who heals or makes whole.
Why would Paul need a doctor with him on the road all these years? Apparently all the travel took its toll on the apostle. He reminds the Galatians how he only stopped to share the message of Jesus with them because he got sick (Gal 4:13-14). There’s a LOT of speculation what he came down with. The truth is we don’t know. What we DO know is that the good doctor is by his side during a good bit of the NT.
A Health Care Professional
Just who is Dr. Luke? Early church leaders Eusebius and Jerome said he was probably a native of Antioch in Syria. John MacArthur points out that this probably explains why so much of Acts focuses on what God was doing in and through the church in that city (Acts 11:19-27; 13:1-3; 14:26; 15:22-35; 18:22-23).
As a health care professional, Luke offers specific medical observations when he writes about Jesus’ various miracles and ministry (Lk 4:38-40; 5:15-25; 6:17-19; 7:11-15; 8:43-56; 9:2-11; 13:11-13; 14:2-4; 17:12-14; 22:50-51).
Some folks speculate that Luke was a slave. Slavery in the Roman Empire was very different from that in the American South. Apparently it was not unusual for people with what we would call white collar jobs to serve as slaves in order to work off a deep debt.
Luke the Gentile
Paul goes out of his way to point out that Luke is a Gentile (Col 4:11-14). That’s a big deal. I mean, a REALLY big deal. As a non-Jew, the good doctor is perfect example of how Jesus had thrown the doors of God’s Kingdom wide open to people everywhere.
During the early days of the church, there was a huge controversy. Should Gentiles convert to Judaism in order to follow Jesus? On the surface, it seems to make some sense. Remember, Christ is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.
A Meeting at the Home Office
But in a key meeting back at the home office in Jerusalem, early church leaders solved this problem once and for all. Luke writes in Acts 15 about the time key dudes like Paul, Barnabas, Peter, and Jesus’ little brother James put their heads together. The decision? If God is personally converting non-Jews, that’s good enough for us!
Gentiles for Jesus
Dr. Luke is a personification of Jesus’ mission to every people group on the planet. And hang onto your hat for this…that makes Luke the only non-Jew to write any book in the Bible!
Why does this matter to you and me? Well, there’s a good chance you’re a Gentile like Luke and me. I don’t know about you, but I plan on personally thanking the Lord for sending Paul on several world tours to invite non-Jews to step into the deep end of grace. Now THAT’S what I call a mission from God!
Get Mark!
While Luke stands by Paul in prison, there’s still one member of their merry band that’s missing. The apostle tells Tim, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me” (v11). Does the name Mark ring a bell? It should. This is the same Mark who wrote the second biography of Jesus. Yes, the gospel in between Matthew and Luke. THAT Mark.
Now we don’t know where Mark was when the apostle writes to Timothy. We’re pretty sure Tim is still in Ephesus as the handpicked lead pastor of the church Paul planted there (1Tim 1:3). Where’s Mark? We really don’t know. Wherever he might be, it must be on somewhere between Ephesus and Rome.
We get that from the original language Paul uses when he says “Get Mark” (v11). We see the Greek verb αναλαμβανω/analambano, which literally means to pick up. It’s almost like the apostle tells Tim to swing by Mark’s place and give him a lift to Rome. Just pull up and honk. He’s expecting you.
It’s Complicated
How do we describe Paul and Mark’s relationship? Well, it’s kinda like what they say on Facebook. It’s complicated. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
Let’s back up to a rather obscure (if not just a little embarrassing) verse in Mark’s bio of Jesus. The scene is Gethsemane. Judas Iscariot has just made the ultimate heel turn and leads a not-so-small army to arrest Jesus.
A Streaker in Gethsemane
Mark then includes something you won’t find in any other gospel. “And a young man followed Him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked” (Mk 14:51). Maybe, just maybe this First Century streaker is Mark himself.
Barnabas’ Cousin
Coincidentally, the first time a biblical author mentions Mark by name is, you guessed it, his old buddy Luke. When an angel busts Peter out of a Jerusalem jail, he hightails it to the home where local believers gather. It just happens to belong to “the mother of John whose other name was Mark” (Acts 12:12).
Paul fills us in on a little more of Mark’s family tree in a letter to the Colossian church. Mark and Paul’s old buddy Barnabas are cousins (Col 4:10). So when the apostle formerly known as Saul and Barney hit the road for their very first Gospel tour, they brought “John, whose other name was Mark” (Acts 12:25).
Punking out on Paul
But something went sour not long after they left Cyprus and landed in Pamphylia which is on the southern coast of what we know today as Turkey. That’s when John Mark bailed on Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13:13). Why? Was he homesick? We’re not sure. Whatever the case, his departure didn’t sabotage the success of that original expedition.
A little while later, Barnabas wanted to get the band back together and hit the road one more time (Acts 15:37). But Paul wasn’t about to deal with John Mark again (Acts 15:38).
It caused a rift in Paul and Barnabas’ relationship. “And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other” (Acts 15:39). So cousins Barney and Mark went one way and the apostle took Silas headed in the other direction (Acts 15:40-41).
Restoration Happens
Just when you think Mark’s name would disappear from the pages of Scripture, something funny happens. Restoration happens. It turns out that God actually uses the formerly naked fugitive teenager. He can do great things through the guy who went AWOL on the apostle.
Not buying it? Check out what Paul says about Mark. “He is very useful to me for ministry” (v11). In doing so, the apostle uses the Greek word ευχρηστος/euchristos, which describes something or someone that’s very profitable, beneficial, valuable, easy to use, or specifically positive.
From Useless to Useful
Earlier in this letter, Paul compares someone preparing themselves to be used by God with doing the dishes. When you do, you are “set apart as holy, useful (Gr. ευχρηστος/euchristos) to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2Tim 2:21).
The man from Tarsus writes to his buddy Philemon about how one of Phil’s former servants named Onesimus has run away and God has turned his life around. “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful (Gr. ευχρηστος/euchristos) to you and me” (Phm 11).
God loves taking the useless and making them useful. As a matter of fact, He loves choosing “what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1Cor 1:27). Onesimus. John Mark. You. Me. Who says Almighty God doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Just how useful is Mark to Paul’s ministry? When the former Pharisee finds himself behind bars a few years back, he hints that his young friend could be headed to Colossae soon (Col 4:10). Who saw this coming?!?
Connecting the Dots
And that’s not all! Did you realize that John Mark is one of the key people connecting the dots between the great apostles Peter and Paul? The apostle Jesus calls Rocky refers to “my son Mark” (1Pet 5:13). I don’t have to remind you that Pete’s no stranger to failure, repentance, and reinstatement. John MacArthur wonders if God may have used Peter to play a key role in Mark’s restoration?
The Lord may well have used Peter and Mark’s relationship in another very cool way. Most early church leaders believe the Gospel of Mark is actually Peter’s eyewitness account of the life of Jesus. Less than 100 years after Mark wrote his bio, Justin Martyr gave it his stamp of approval and called it “the memoirs of Peter.”
Too Far Gone?
Maybe you think you’ve driven your life so far into the ditch that God could never drag you out, much less use you. Do you believe you’ve burned every relational bridge and there’s no going back? Let’s just say those are lies from the pit of Hell and John Mark is living proof of that.
Now let’s turn that around. Has somebody bailed on you and led you to write them off? Has a trusted friend left you in the lurch at the worst possible time? Paul knows the feeling. But he’s also allowed the Lord to make he and Mark whole again. Reconciling relationships is kind of Jesus’ specialty.
A Ragtag Team
Paul, Timothy, Luke, and Mark have been through a lot together. God has brought together a rather ragtag team to spread the grace of the Gospel. Paul, the former killer of Christ followers. Tim, the young preacher from Lystra. Luke, the Gentile doctor. Mark, the restored deserter. They’ve been on a mission from God.
©2017
Jay Jennings
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