Jesus: Man of Action-Servant of Man

...εὐθύς...

I don't know...I guess this post was inevitable. Maybe its because I use to collect G.I. Joes and still have about three dozen of them in the attic in plastic bins ready to give to my sons. Perhaps I just needed an excuse to use the picture attached to the post. Either way here it is.

Mark is the Gospel of action. We need look no further than the word εὐθύς in Greek. εὐθύς or euthys meaning "immediately" or "now" is used in the Gospel of Mark (41x times). It is used in the historical present tense (also called dramatic present or narrative present) and refers to the employment of the present tense when narrating past events. It is used in the first chapter of Mark 11 times alone. Stuff is getting done in Mark...and a lot of it in a short amount of time. The Gospel begins at the beginning of Jesus ministry. The entire first three decades of His life are excluded but when we first see Jesus he comes center stage and fires into the ministry like a rocket. He is a man on a mission...literally. I have listed the εὐθύς in chapter one below...

Mark 1:10 - [Jesus has just been baptized.] And immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending to him.

Mark 1:12 - And immediately the Spirit drives him to go out into the wilderness.

Mark 1:18 - And immediately leaving their nets, they followed him.

Mark 1:20 - And immediately he called them and leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, they departed following him.

Mark 1:21- And they go to Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath entering the synagogue he began to teach.

Mark 1:23 - And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out.

Mark 1:28 - And immediately the report about him went out everywhere into the whole region of Galilee.

Mark 1:29 - And immediately after coming out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.

Mark 1:30 - Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they are speaking to him about her.

Mark 1:42 - And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

Mark 1:43 - And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away.

Jesus makes Superman look average, nah, subpar.