Mark's good news

"Whether or not you are a 'believer,' it is impossible to study St. Mark carefully and not knowm -- without a shadow of doubt -- that something amazing happened in Galilee two thousand years ago." n1 These are the words of Alec McCowen who, at a time of high success and low satisfaction, came to make the recent stage presentation, The Gospel According to St. Mark.m

n1 Sunday Times Weekly Reviewm (London), February 17, 1980.

"But hasn't progress in the natural sciences diminished the importance of Christ Jesus' life and work?" some wonder. Since the beginning of the Christian era we have broken the genetic code and many other barriers.

Yes, but there are additional barriers -- barriers to hope -- we haven't broken. No knowledge of the workings of matter can substitute for the spiritual truths Jesus taught, without which the human heart has virtually nothing beyond its own short span of life in what appears to be a material body.

A man of humble beginnings and immortal background, Jesus touched desperate lives with love and healing and spiritual instruction. As the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m "Jesus patiently persisted in teaching and demonstrating the truth of being." n2 Elsewhere she states, "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress." n3 Considering spiritual causation helps turn one away from sole dependence on matter to God, the one and only cause.

n2 Science and Health,m pp. 136-137.

n3 ibid.,m p. 170.

The stone that lies heavy on the heart of humanity is its mortality. Jesus is the one man, in all history, who fully knew man's real life to be immortal and proved this, even to the point of letting his body be crucified. With amazing results he used God-bestowed spiritual power, and spoke of it as available to all. For centuries this power largely remained hidden beneath the words of the Gospel story. The results have been tragic. But spiritual power is more and more clearly becoming the only hope humanity has of controlling the destructive forces it has loosed upon itself.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." n4 Isn't this light the spiritual brightness that reveals immortality and at the same time destroys mortality? In the Saviour's own words, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." n5

n4 John 8:12.

n5 6:63.

Humanity needs not only to hear but also to understand the good news. This is where Christian Science has so much to offer. As its name implies it is Science, based on the never-changing, ever-operative laws of God, with whom, James said, "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." n6 These are the laws we reject, or ignore, at our peril. The lawlessness expressed in so many forms -- from genocide to petty crime throughout the world -- bears testimony to humanity's desperate need.

n6 James 1:17.

Christian Science is in direct conformity with the teachings of Christ Jesus. Turning people to the truth of being, which Jesus exemplified so powerfully and so radiantly, Science legitimately, tenderly follows him in saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." n7

n7 Matthew 11:28.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way. Mark 10:51, 52