Minor Festival -- The Festival of St. Mark, Evangelist

The Festival of St. Mark, Evangelist is April 25.

            Lutheran worship is liturgical.  While that often refers to an order of worship, it can also refer to the calendar of the Church Year.  The Church Year includes major festivals, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, etc...  On Sunday, April 25, we recognize a minor festival, the Festival of St. Mark, Evangelist.

            St. Mark, also known as John Mark, is the writer of one of the gospels.  He was the cousin of Barnabas and was associated with him and St. Paul on Paul’s first missionary journey.  Mark, however, left the missionary team half way through the journey; and St. Paul lost confidence in him as a faithful missionary.  Later, we find that St. Mark is a close associate of St. Peter.  It has been suggested that Mark’s gospel is really St. Peter’s, and that Mark wrote what Peter passed along to him (1 Peter 1:12-15).  We also find that St. Mark and St. Paul were later reconciled, as Paul confesses that he finds Mark “helpful to me in my ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11) We rejoice in knowing that, even though we have failed our Lord, he forgives us and is still eager to use us for his glory.