Latter-day Saint Perspectives

The Gospel of Mark isn’t necessarily a natural choice as a favorite gospel narrative, but for Julie Smith “as a believing LDS scholar, it is Mark whose shine most attracts [her] gaze, partially because its light is often ignored.” In this interview with Laura Harris Hales for LDS Perspectives Podcast, Smith points out some of Mark’s hidden gems that may be overlooked by the casual reader. Smith maintains that the main message of Mark is the importance of discipleship. An analogy she likes to use is that to her, Mark is the stake president in California who lets a homeless family sleep in the cultural hall because he’s not much of a rule-follower kind of a guy; whereas Matthew and Luke work for CES in Salt Lake and wear a suit and would never dream of breaking a rule. That might be a little bit of a generalization, but in Mark, Jesus is very, very earthy. It’s a very human portrait of Jesus. It’s also a very divine portrait, but the human elements in some ways really stand out — particularly in contrast with