Mark's Story (21 page)

“Let me also teach them,” Peter said.

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Peter quoted more of the ancient Scriptures, then exhorted his readers: “…[Y]ou are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

Peter stood and stretched. “Mark and Silas, this next is going to clang in their ears at first, but I believe it from the core of my being.”

“Then speak it, sir.”

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.”

“Oh, my, Peter, you’re right,” Mark said. “You realize this will be read and heard first by the body here in Rome.”

“Babylon, you mean. Has any city on earth better fit the description of Babylon from the ancient word?”

“I agree, but you’re suggesting that we submit ourselves to evil rulers?”

“Let’s say it this way: Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if you take it patiently when you are beaten for your faults? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’;
who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

After exhorting believing husbands and wives how to conduct themselves within the bonds of marriage, Peter discussed suffering for Christ and serving others. He closed by addressing church leaders directly.

“The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”

He urged younger people to submit themselves to their elders and for all to be submissive to one another, clothed with humility, “for
‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

“By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. She [the church] who is in Babylon [Rome], elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

P
erhaps we should have left separately, Mark,” Silas said as the men crept through the deserted streets of Rome.

“I do not mind the threat,” Mark said. “When will you leave with the letter?”

“At dawn. I wish I could stay and help copy your gospel. I pray God will use it widely.”

“Do you need a place to stay tonight?” Mark said.

“No, but my dwelling is past your district. I’ll accompany you as far as that.”

But when they came within several streets of Mark’s place, they hesitated at the sound of excited voices and agreed to split up. As they embraced, Mark said, “I bid you Godspeed. Greet all the brothers for me.”

“Be careful, Mark. And be safe.”

As Silas disappeared into the shadows, Mark took the long way around his block and entered from the west side, only to find bands of his friends and brothers and sisters in Christ being bound and led away by soldiers on horseback. “Spare yourselves!” a centurion shouted. “Give us Peter and you may return to your beds!”

“They don’t even live near here!” a woman wailed, and Mark grimaced.

Offer nothing!
he wished.
They leap on every clue.

“They?”
the centurion said. “Who is with him?”

“No one!”

“Then what did you mean by
they?
Give me one name and I will reunite you with your children.”

“Esther, his wife!”

“And where do they lodge?”

Please, woman, say no more.

“I do not know. But not near here.”

Thank God!

“Now, sir, you promised. My children.”

The centurion laughed.

If these poor people were so quick to give up their spiritual father, how long would it be before Mark himself was revealed? Slinking back the way he had come, he moved slowly and quietly until he knew he was out of range of the soldiers. Then he sprinted back to Peter’s place.

“You must leave and soon!” he told the old couple. “Stay on the move. Don’t alight in any one place too long.”

“I am wearing of fleeing, Peter,” Esther said. “Sometimes I feel we should just resign ourselves to our fate.”

“Never!” Mark said. “We need you. We need you both.”

“I fear she is right, Mark,” the old man said. “As things stand now, we are a burden on the people. How can they be expected to continue to hide us, to lodge us, to feed us, to help us stay on the move? At some point we become much more trouble than we are worth.”

Fortunately no one else in the church agreed with Peter and Esther, and for the next several months they were shuttled from place to place every few days. Even Mark, on the move himself, found it difficult to keep track of all the places they were hidden. Somehow, however, enough members of the church body were able to find them and show up at all hours to sit under his teaching. Peter had lost much of his strength and energy, but none of his passion.

“Most troubling to me, Mark,” he said late one night, “is the word coming back from Silas that false teachers seem to have sneaked in to many of our fellowships abroad. They teach heresy. He is fighting it for all he is worth, but he fears the leadership needs to hear directly from me. Would you be willing to help me with a second letter to the churches?”

“Of course.”

Remaining covert while still able to trade on the streets was becoming much more difficult, but in his search for more papyrus, quills, and ink, Mark came upon a group of Christ followers from the northern district who brought him greetings from Paul. “He wants to see you,” they said.

“Are you sure? We had agreed to keep our distance so as not to give him away.”

“That was his specific request.”

When Mark found him near midnight one night, Paul pulled him into a tiny room that served as both sleeping chamber and workshop, where he appeared to be plying his old tentmaking trade. “What could people need more than these right now?” he said. “I have had even Romans bring me materials in exchange for crafting them a dwelling. I tell you, Mark, the city remains in an uproar over Nero. He had better watch himself or he will be assassinated. He is hated within and without the palace.”

Paul reminded Mark that he had always had the ability to make friends, even endearing himself to his enemies. “Not always, of course, as my scars prove. But being a Roman citizen has its advantages. Do you know that even if I am arrested and convicted for being an enemy of the state because of my work for the gospel, I cannot be tortured?”

“Is that so?”

“Absolutely. As fate would have it, I could be executed, but it must be humanely.”

“Forgive me for smiling, rabbi, but is there a humane way to kill a man?”

“Of course there is! I am willing to die for my Lord, Mark, but I am human. I wouldn’t choose it. And when that day comes, I would certainly rather my end come swiftly and without unbearable torture and pain.”

“I pray it never happens, but that if it does, you are granted your wish.”

“I pray I will in some way honor my Lord in it.”

Mark brought Paul up to date on all that was happening among the believers to whom he and Peter had been ministering. “When I met you I was searching for the materials necessary to aid Peter in his second letter to the churches.”

“He should have written as many as I have by now,” Paul said. “He is wise and deep with much to say, and his earnestness comes through. But listen, I told you of my ability to befriend my enemies because I have done just that with some old friends and acquaintances of Julius. They say that he told them of seeing me heal the sick and prophesy based on words from an angel, and he convinced them that I am a man of God. They are not so persuaded, but they trust me, and on occasion they tell me what is happening at the palace. They are apparently not brave enough to plot an assassination or even to support an insurrection, but they feel they are doing their part by aiding me with information.”

“What kind of information?”

“Who is targeted for arrest. What the centurions and soldiers know. That kind of thing.”

Mark told Paul how he and others had been keeping Peter and Esther on the run. “Any surprises? We know Peter is one of their prime targets.”

“The
prime target, as it turns out,” Paul said. “The empire seems to view me as damaged goods, a man with no influence or audience or impact. I am no threat.”

“If they only knew.”

“Were it not for my pen, I would feel the same as they do. I am but a feeble old tentmaker, of some value even to them. When they learn of my epistles being spread abroad, my days will be numbered. But there is good news.”

“Tell me. It’s been a long time.”

“You are entirely unknown to them, Mark. I have been given lists of names and meeting places. If you keep your distance from known believers, you can easily spare yourself arrest.”

“I don’t know if I could do that, master. It sounds cowardly.”

“On the contrary. Everyone knows you are no coward. I believe you could be much more effective for the church because of your ability to move about freely in society. Disguise yourself as someone from a specific trade. As no one in authority is looking for you, you will have access to places most believers cannot go.”

“Such as?”

“Anywhere, man! You can shop in the markets. You can visit the prisons. You could be a messenger. You can’t stand there and embrace friends or pray with them, but you can seem to be impartially bearing news back and forth. Of course, you would have to do the same for all, brothers and sisters and foes alike, but imagine the possibilities.”

T
aking Paul’s advice, Mark moved out of the Christian ghetto into a tiny apartment near the Forum, identifying himself as a scribe and seeking work. Soon he had enough to buy food and pay his rent. When he had extra, he bought meal and grain and bread in large quantities, and under the cover of darkness smuggled it into the city and delivered it to secret believers. They kept him up on the news, especially on who had been arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or put to death. Generally, those were the fates—and in that order—of anyone who had been caught and identified as part of the Nazarene sect.

While the populace had tired of Nero’s macabre shows of death, apparently the emperor himself remained bloodthirsty. Hardly a victim was executed without his watching from his private boxes at the arenas or from his balcony when these were carried out in his garden or at the Circus on his grounds.

Mark, dressed in the garb of a Roman citizen so as not to give himself away, forced himself to attend many of these spectacles, horrifying as they were. Sometimes it was all he could do to keep from hiding his eyes and bursting into tears, whether he knew the victim personally or not—and ofttimes he did. He believed it his duty to witness these atrocities and to pray for each saint as he or she was humiliated and interrogated.

All were asked why they believed in a dead Man, and nearly all testified that they believed Jesus was alive. All were given the chance to recant their allegiance to Him and bow to the gods of Rome and specifically to the emperor. But even those who did were then found guilty of arson and put to death in no less ignoble fashion.

Mark tried to spread the word among the faithful that they must not acknowledge him if they saw him at any of these venues, for he was occasionally finding his way even into the prisons to serve as amanuensis to prisoners who could afford it. Often he would pretend to be working for hire for a believer he knew had no money, but in this way he was able to trade news and encourage the condemned.

Mark had not realized how exhausting was his work and the alertness he had to maintain in order to succeed in his double life until he found himself so exhausted one afternoon that he had to retire to his quarters. There he collapsed on his cot and slept through his afternoon mealtime and into the evening.

He was roused near midnight by urgent knocking and worried that perhaps he had been found out and was being hauled in for sentencing himself. But the knock, fast as it was, did not carry the boom of the Roman soldiers, who wanted to bring attention to themselves and awaken everyone around.

Mark hurriedly padded to the door and opened it to two young men he had known from Silas’s congregation. “We risked our lives coming here,” they said, peeking out from hooded cloaks. “It’s Peter and Esther. They have been arrested and several with them.”

“Where have they been taken?”

“To Mamertime Prison.”

“And has Paul been informed?”

“No, and we dare not venture out any further.”

“I will tell him and try to get to them as soon as possible.”

M
ARK KNEW IT
would arouse suspicion if he showed up at the prison near the Capitoline Hill in the middle of the night, but there was no going back to bed. He grabbed some fruit and rushed north to see Paul. He hated to wake the apostle, but he would want to know.

It took so long for Paul to answer his knock that Mark feared he too had been taken, or was lying ill—or worse, had passed. But eventually the diminutive man, now in his sixties, appeared at the door. Mark quickly spilled the news, and Paul urged him to move on. “You must not risk being seen with me,” he said. “So far your disguise has proved a success. But here, let me give you a brief message for our friends. I hope it will encourage them.”

He quickly scribbled a greeting assuring them of his prayers, but of course he did not sign it.

M
ARK WAS GRATEFUL
that he had fallen asleep so early in the day, because he could not even attempt to doze the rest of the night. As soon as it made sense for him to be seen out and about, he made his way to Mamertime Prison and strolled through the cell blocks and dungeons as he frequently had.

He didn’t dare arouse suspicion by asking after Peter, and with hundreds of prisoners incarcerated, he feared finding him might take all day. Mark wondered how long they would allow Peter to linger before his execution.

As Mark descended a stone stairway he passed a jailer on his way up. “Guess who we’ve got down there,” the jailer said, nodding toward the dungeon. “Peter of the Nazarenes himself. They’ve got his wife in the women’s section too.”

Mark merely nodded. When he reached the underground compound he spotted Peter almost immediately, sitting, his head in his hands. The only light came from torches mounted on the walls outside the cells.

“Anyone need anything written?” Mark said, and he noticed Peter’s head jerk up. He knew the old man would know enough not to give him away.

“I do, young man,” Peter said, and he slowly stood and moved to the bars. Other prisoners were gnawing on stale bread for their breakfast and talking among themselves.

Mark pretended to be arranging his writing materials as they whispered, and he passed the note from Paul.

“I really do need something written, Mark,” Peter rasped. “It’s urgent that I get this second letter out to the churches. Can you do it?”

“Of course, sir,” Mark said, loudly enough for guards and other prisoners to hear. “But it will cost you.”

They pretended to haggle over the price until everyone else lost interest. “I don’t know whether they’ll let you into the women’s section, but—”

“I will bring any news I can find, Peter, you know that.”

During the next several days they toiled over the letter. Mark was not allowed into the women’s area, but from what he could gather, Esther was alive and unharmed, though she was growing thin. No wonder, because Peter was doing the same. The prisoners were given bread and water twice a day, and all soon began to look gaunt, their cheekbones protruding.

“I am the only believer in this area,” Peter said. “Except for those two guards.”

“Really?”

“They fear for their lives, but they are now believers. I would not tell them about yourself, however. Too much is at stake. They could be forced to tell anything they have heard. I finally got them to find out about my disposition. I feared Nero would let me rot to death in here, but they assure me that he knows exactly who I am and intends to make the most of my demise.”

“Unless we can devise some way out of here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Mark. Prisoners don’t escape from here. And anyway, if this is God’s will, this is where I want to be.”

“Have they told you what form your, uh, end is supposed to take?”

Peter nodded. “Apparently he wants Esther and me together at the end. I know she is as willing as I to die for the cause, but it pains me to think of her enduring any discomfort, let alone torture.”

Mark slipped Peter a chunk of bread, and he immediately shared it with his cellmate on the condition that he keep it hidden. If word got out that Mark was smuggling food in, all would be lost.

Mark was amazed that Peter’s mind could be clear enough to result in the letter to the churches that he felt privileged to write. The old man was so eager to see it through to completion and for Mark to get it on its way that he worked until he could barely keep his eyes open.

Much older than even Paul, Peter impressed Mark with his ability to use metaphor to make his points. At one point early in the missive he referred to his mortal body as his tent that he would soon have to put off. He dictated, “…an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

“Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’

“And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.”

After lengthy warnings and exhortations, Peter finished his letter with encouragement, as always.

“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

“You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”

P
ETER URGED
M
ARK
to get the letter past Paul first, and then to make sure it was copied and circulated in Rome, while the original was to go to the churches abroad. Mark was in the middle of all these chores when the dreadful announcement came from the palace. Word quickly spread throughout Rome of the day and time of the so-called trial of the ringleader of the Nazarenes.

At four o’clock in the afternoon, in two days, the apostle Peter and his wife would be processed, as the official notice put it. And the whole of Rome was welcome to witness with joy the justice meted out to this enemy of the state, the empire, and the gods.