'This time, he did not run away'

 I was listening to a great sermon by my pastor, Tim Kallem, from Acts chapter 11, where the church in Jerusalem hears of what is taking place in the city of Antioch and decides to send Barnabas, "a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith ..." Barnabas goes and sees that a great number of people are being brought to the Lord, so Barnabas goes to Tarsus "to look for Saul (Paul), and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch."

Barnabas and Saul (not yet Paul) preach and teach for a year, with a great number of people coming to faith in Christ.

Barnabas is also the man who stood up for Saul when Saul was first converted and went to Jerusalem to try to join the disciples. The disciples, aware of Saul's reputation and possibly even knowing of the events of the stoning of Stephen in which Saul participated, were afraid of Saul and did not believe he was really a disciple. In Acts 9:27 it says "But Barnabas took him (Saul) and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord ..." It was Barnabas who apparently convinced the disciples that Saul's conversion was real, and that Saul should be allowed to join.

Here is what struck me: Barnabas was very encouraging and supportive of Saul. He stood up for him when the others were afraid. Barnabas repeatedly stuck his neck out for Saul, even to the point of recognizing that he, Barnabas, was probably not the man to lead the revival in Antioch and being humble enough to go get Saul, knowing this was Saul's gift.

A tremendous example of humility.

That leads me to John Mark.

John Mark is believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Mark is believed to have assisted Peter, and his Gospel is based on the preaching of Peter as well as possibly Mark's own memory (more on that in a minute). I won't go into all the reasons for Mark's authorships - you can look it up - but Mark's story, while scattered through the New Testament, is remarkable in its own right and involves Barnabas.

Mark first appears, probably, at the end of the Gospel of Mark. There is a strange verse stuck in Mark 14, the recollection of Jesus' arrest in the garden. The soldiers come, Judas betrays him, and v. 51 says "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving the garment behind."

This young man is believed to be Mark, because this is one of those details that is so odd and firsthand sounding and has no other significance. Certainly, I've never heard a sermon preached based on v. 51. 

We know Mark was from a family that was probably well off. In Acts 12:12 it talks of Mark's mother having a house in Jerusalem that served as a meeting place for believers. Some believe that the 'last supper' was in the upper room of Mark's family home, and that Mark was a young witness to much of Jesus' life and ministry, at least the last days.

In Acts 12:25 we see "When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark."

What we know next is in Acts 13:13, where Mark leaves Paul and Barnabas, a desertion that Paul takes very hard. Paul and Barnabas go on to finish their missionary journey, but then in Acts 15 Paul wants to go back to the towns they had preached in. Barnabas wants to take Mark, but Paul refused. 

We can take this as simply a "Paul says no" but the language suggests it's a very strong disagreement. Acts says "They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left ..." to go to Syria and Cilicia.

Now get this: Here is Barnabas, whose name means "encouragement,'' who stood up for Paul and it could be argued made it possible for Paul to become the great missionary that he became, and yet whatever Mark did on that first trip is so angered Paul that he wanted nothing to do with Mark, to the point of splitting up the greatest missionary team of the early church.

This would likely have sent shock waves through the early church and made Mark something akin to Yoko Ono (the woman generally credited with breaking up the Beatles). Paul and Barnabas splitting up? It was like Tom Brady leaving the Patriots! 

And when Paul leaves with Silas, it is his journey that is "commended by the brothers'' (the other disciples), not Barnabas and Mark (who, by the way, were cousins).

Interesting that Paul would not listen to Barnabas in this matter, that whatever Mark did on that one journey so offended Paul that he would not give Mark a second chance, to the point of splitting up with a guy who had been so important to him and his ministry.

What happens to Mark? Somewhere along the way, obviously Mark and Paul make amends. Nearly 15 years later, in the letter to the Colossians, Paul writes, "My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas."

How did Mark get back in Paul's good graces? We don't know. We know Paul is writing from prison in Rome and Mark is with him. Paul even writes to the Colossians, "You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.'' (4:10).

Why would the church not welcome Mark? Maybe because he was branded as having been the disrupter of the early church, the kid who broke up the team of Paul and Barnabas. 

What we do know is that at some point Mark serves Peter, who writes in I Peter 5:13 of Mark as his "son." Scholars think Mark must have served with Peter for years, enough to absorb Peter's story enough to write one of the four Gospels. 

Yet toward the end of Paul's life, he writes in his second letter to Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry" (2 Timothy 4:11).

So Mark goes from fleeing the scene of Jesus' arrest (he wasn't the only one, of course) and being rejected so strongly by Paul that it causes a division between Paul and Barnabas, to Paul requesting Mark because Mark is "helpful." 

The early church historians say Mark eventually became bishop of Alexandria. He is credited with introducing Christianity to Africa. According to Coptic (Egyptian Christian) tradition, Mark in Alexandria annoyed the non-believers to the point they called him "the exterminator of the idols." We know that there was a wave of persecution that hit Alexandria, and Mark was killed. There is a tradition that people said of Mark upon his death, "This time he did not run away."

If that last statement is true, it likely means that Mark lived with the reputation of having run away - maybe from Jesus' arrest, but more likely from Paul and not being able to put up with the hardships of that first missionary journey, causing the split of Paul and Barnabas.

Mark went from being a spoiled baby who couldn't finish the trip with Paul and Barnabas to being a hero of the faith. Perhaps he was always remembered for his failure, but clearly, he overcame that and made something that lasted. After all, there are only four Gospels; Mark wrote one of them.

It may also speak volumes of Barnabas. We never hear about Barnabas again after that split in Acts, but if indeed Barnabas and Mark took a missionary journey, it's likely that Barnabas poured his life and wisdom into his young relative; mentored him. What an example for older men, to take younger men - particularly younger men who may have failed in some measure in their life - and encourage them, build them up, restore them.

Whatever we have done, whatever we have failed at, whatever we have run away from, we can look to Mark as an example that, as the saying goes, "if you're not dead, you're not done." God is not a God of second chances; he is a God of another chance. Not just second chances, but another and another and another ...

(Much of this comes from a man named Stephen Mansfield, who I had the chance to hear at a Man in the Mirror conference at Amelia Island and who talked passionately about Mark and 'second chances').