Saint Mark’s Interesting Life Choice

Have you ever let someone down?

They may have had unrealistic expectations for you or placed the high bar just too high, so you fell short. Then the disappointment came. And again, maybe you just didn’t want to do what was asked of you. I imagine we’ve all done it. I know we have all seen that refusal. The child who won’t get in the car to go to school. The dog who plants itself in a seated position on the sidewalk. The toddler who will not budge. The spouse who won’t go to church, even though they said they would the night before. Expectations are not met and things don’t go as planned.   

In the book of Acts, Paul, Barnabas, and Mark set out on their first missionary journey. But before Paul’s goals and aspirations are reached, Mark abandons the trio. The first missionary journey at the finish line is missing a significant wheel on the wagon—the Saint we celebrate today, Mark the Evangelist!

When the second missionary journey came along, Paul said, “He isn’t going!” 

“Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.”  
—Acts 15:37

Mark’s life choices, I find interesting.

As a church ministry worker, I have worked with volunteers a lot and received my fair share of last-minute texts and phone calls. People get sick, emergencies happen, and I must give people the benefit of the doubt when they cannot fulfill whatever role they committed to. Learning to go with the flow is not only how I managed my blood pressure, but also how I learned to put the life of ministry in God’s hands. Because casting a glance of disappointment or expressing it verbally to the volunteer just never seemed to fit. I chalked it up to “life happens.” I tried to infuse grace into the situation because who really knows what is going on that caused the last-minute cancellation. I do know that we all need space sometimes.

I do wonder what Mark was thinking when he turned around and went home to Jerusalem. Was he homesick and missing his family? Perhaps Paul’s leadership style was too strident and overpowering. Did he, in modern terms, have a panic attack? As a young person and at this stage in his life, Mark may have wanted to live and not die on such a risky journey. 

Scripture doesn’t tell us what Mark was thinking, but we do read more about him later. Mark’s refusal to complete a missionary journey is only a small portion of his larger life story. His name still sits in a place of honor and respect. It is recited over and over, year in and year out, as a Gospel writer. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Appearing second, no less! 

And on this day, we think about Mark, and perhaps ponder his life as a Jewish young man, caught up in this new movement of testimony and miracles called Christianity, and a new community fraught with persecutions and arrests. So, when the opportunity for a second journey is suggested, family member Barnabas may have offered a gentler path. Barnabus was called “Son of Encouragement.” He was someone who saw the best in people and spoke encouraging and positive things into others’ lives. Mark may have felt Barnabas was more suited for the role of his mentor. Far more than the definitive apologist, Paul, who was sure to move a crowd into conversion or a fury. I wonder if these two heroes of the faith could have worked things out if they had had the modern skills of restorative practices. If the relationship could display active listening, acknowledgment, and a behavior change to avoid future conflict. 

Fortunately for us, even though scripture shares with us the not-so-pretty edges of ministry and two prominent leaders in conflict, time and letting go are the best healers. Paul shares in his first letter to the Corinthians his outside-the-box and flexible thinking.

^“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” 
—1 Corinthians 4:5-6

Paul’s heart softens even more in his letter to the Colossians, “Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also, Barnabas’s cousin Mark, about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him” (4.10).

Welcome him.