'... So doth Marcus, my son.'--1 Peter v. 13.
The outlines of Mark's life, so far as recorded in Scripture, are
familiar. He was the son of Mary, a woman of some wealth and position,
as is implied by the fact that her house was large enough to accommodate
the 'many' who were gathered together to pray for Peter's release. He
was a relative, probably a cousin (Col. iv. 10, Revised Version), of
Barnabas, and possibly, like him, a native of Cyprus. The designation of
him by Peter as 'my son' naturally implies that the Apostle had been the
instrument of his conversion. An old tradition tells us that he was the
'young man' mentioned in his Gospel who saw Christ arrested, and fled,
leaving his only covering in the captor's hands. However that may be, he
and his relatives were early and prominent disciples, and closely
connected with Peter, as is evident from the fact that it was to Mary's
house that he went after his deliverance. Mark's relationship to
Barnabas made it natural that he should be chosen to accompany him and
Paul on their first missionary journey, and his connection with Cyprus
helps to account for his willingness to go thither, and his
unwillingness to go further into less known ground. We know how he left
the Apostles, when they crossed from Cyprus to the mainland, and
retreated to his mother's house at Jerusalem. We have no details of the
inglorious inactivity in which he spent the time until the proposal of a
second journey by Paul and Barnabas. In the preparations for it, the
foolish indulgence of his cousin, far less kind than Paul's wholesome
severity, led to a rupture between the Apostles, and to Barnabas
setting off on an evangelistic tour on his own account, which received
no sympathy from the church at Antioch, and has been deemed unworthy of
record in the Acts.
Then followed some twelve years or more, during which Mark seems to have
remained quiescent; or, at all events, he does not appear to have had
any work in connection with the great Apostle. Then we find him
reappearing amongst Paul's company when he was in prison for the first
time in Rome; and in the letters to Colossæ he is mentioned as being a
comfort to the Apostle then. He sends salutations to the Colossians, and
is named also in the nearly contemporaneous letter to Philemon.
According to the reference in Colossians, he was contemplating a journey
amongst the Asiatic churches, for that in Colossæ is bidden to welcome
him. Then comes this mention of him in the text. The fact that Mark was
beside Peter when he wrote seems to confirm the view that Babylon here
is a mystical name for Rome; and that this letter falls somewhere about
the same date as the letters to Colossæ and Philemon. Here again he is
sending salutations to Asiatic churches. We know nothing more about him,
except that some considerable time after, in Paul's last letter, he asks
Timothy, who was then at Ephesus, the headquarters of the Asiatic
churches, to 'take Mark,' who, therefore, was apparently also in Asia,
'and bring him' with him to Rome; 'for,' says the Apostle, beautifully
referring to the man's former failure, 'he is profitable to me for'--the
very office that he had formerly flung up--'the ministry.'
So, possibly, he was with Paul in his last days. And then, after that,
tradition tells us that he attached himself more closely to the Apostle
Peter; and, finally, at his direction and dictation, became the
evangelist who wrote the 'Gospel according to Mark.'
Now that is his story; and from the figure of this 'Marcus, my son,' and
from his appearance here in this letter, I wish to gather two or three
very plain and familiar lessons.