Every once in a while, a personality will bubble to the surface of history and break upon the world - a powerful, charismatic, dynamic personality that captivates other people and changes the course of history. They say that John Kennedy was such a man, that when he walked into a room a magnetism radiated from him so that every head in the room would turn and take note of his presence even though he had not uttered a word. You get the sense in listening to the speeches of Martin Luther King that he also was such a man.
History is punctuated with personalities like this. Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Confucius, Shakespeare, Churchill. There was something compelling about these men, some force of will or power of mind that washed over other people and caused them to know that they we standing in the presence of greatness.
Even Biblical history is not so much the story of places and events as of powerful personalities who influenced the people of God. Abraham, Moses, David, Nehemiah in the Old Testament. Peter, Paul, James and John in the New Testament. God seems to be always in search of that special person who will yield his talents and gifts to the cause of the kingdom. When God can find such a person, he can use him or her to accomplish great things.
The first chapter of Mark introduces us to the greatest personality of all time. Living 2000 years after Christ, it is hard for us to grasp just what kind of man he was. Mark wants to impress us with Jesus. He wants to give us some flavor of what this man was like and how he affected others. Mark wants to let us sense something of the aura that surrounded Jesus, something of the charisma he exuded, something of the awe he inspired in those who came to him.
From Look at the Man, Copyright 1989, Tim Woodroof and Glen Gray, Lincoln Church of Christ, 820 N. 56th Street, Lincoln, NE 68504 - Used by permission