LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Man with the Mutilated Finger
Of all the New Testament writers, Mark is undoubtedly the one with the lowest profile. He was neither an apostle nor a minister of the Word. Moreover, in his brief resume there are even a couple of blunders, which prompted a third century scholar to give him the shameful nickname of "the man with the mutilated finger". How is it that God used him, then, to write one of the four gospels?
John Mark was the son of a prosperous family in Jerusalem; according to many, of that family that provided the upper room for the Lord's last supper, and for the waiting of Pentecost. According to others, he was a hidden witness of the last supper and of the Lord's agony in Gethsemane. He would have been that anonymous young man who, leaving his sheet, fled naked.
Surely Mark marveled, first hearing the Lord, and then seeing how the apostles did the work of God. Many dreams of youth must have been forged there, together with those men.
Very soon, Mark found the occasion to do so. When Paul and Silas go from Antioch to Jerusalem to bring a donation, Mark joins them. Then he goes out with Paul and Barnabas to the work as an assistant. His longings as a young man are fulfilled. No sooner had the tour begun, however, than Mark deserts and returns to Jerusalem, probably seeking the refuge of his mother.
The Bible is silent about him, until he is mentioned again in the discord between Paul and Barnabas. The latter wanted to take him back to the work, but Paul objected because "it did not seem right to him to take with him one who had gone astray... and had not gone with them to the work". Paul and Barnabas separated because of Mark. How many failures the young man accumulated!
Among the Romans, there was a custom that when someone did not want to join the army, in order to avoid going to war, he would cut off his finger. Having that defect, he was discarded. Now, was Mark that kind of person, a deserter, as that writer suggests? Someone could say that he was, and doubly so, since the flight from Gethsemane could also be imputed to him as such.
Now, is there a divine purpose behind the choice of Mark as evangelist? The Gospel of Mark shows the Lord Jesus as a servant. Everything in this book is consistent with that purpose. The language is simple, the narrative terse. There is no genealogy of Jesus as a servant. The profile of Jesus shows many human traits, some very delicate and tender, which the other evangelists omit.
To complete this picture, the writer had to be the most common man, one who had experienced in his own flesh the saddest human condition. He had to be, then, a man who had a "mutilated finger", so that all the other Marks who were to exist would know that, in God, there is always hope, and a new opportunity.