After James, the son of Zebedee, was martyred, “Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him” (Acts 12:5). Hours, or maybe just minutes before Herod was going to execute Peter, God miraculously answered the church’s prayers. An angel appeared to Peter and led him out of the prison, and to the doorstep of a home owned by Mary, the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:11-12).
We know little about Mary, but we can make an inspired guess. First, she was apparently a widow. Her husband isn’t mentioned. Second, she must have owned a home large enough for a fair-sized crowd. Maybe she was wealthy. Her brother or brother-in-law, Barnabas (Colossians 4:10), was a landowner (Acts 4:36), so maybe theirs was a substantial family. Third, she was a faithful follower of Christ. By inviting the church to gather in her home she put herself and her belongings at risk. She loved the Lord and wanting nothing less than to have Jesus worshipped and honored under her roof. And fourth, we also know that Mary was a mother … mom to at least one son, John Mark.
It may have been at this time, after Peter was miraculously freed from prison, that Peter led Mary’s son to a saving knowledge of Jesus as Savior and Lord. Peter later referred to Mark as his son (1 Peter 5:13) … his spiritual son.
Mark was selected by Barnabas and Paul to travel with them on the first missionary journey (Acts 12:25), but halfway through the mission, Mark returned home (Acts 13:13). Why? Maybe he was physically sick. Maybe he was just homesick. The Bible doesn’t say.
Even though this caused a rift between Paul and Barnabas, Paul didn’t hold a grudge. When Paul was in prison in Rome, Mark was by his side (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24). And later, in Paul’s last correspondence, the old apostle invited Timothy to come and “bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).
Timothy and Peter were close. When Peter wrote his inspired epistles, Mark was with him.
Most scholars believe that the Gospel that bears Mark’s signature, was Mark’s Holy Spirit-inspired record of Peter’s recollections.
Let me close with a humorous scene. Mark must have been an eyewitness to Judas’s betrayal of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mark wrote, “a certain young man, wearing nothing but a linen cloth, was following him. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked” (Mark 14:51–52). Who was the young man in the Garden? It must have been John Mark, the son of Mary, the spiritual son of Peter, the co-laborer with Paul, the faithful servant of Jesus Christ … the friend of God.
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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