He came to proclaim the good news

“Let us go to the nearby villages so that I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Mark 1:38

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In Mark’s gospel, at the very start of Jesus’s ministry, he declares that he came in order to preach. That may not strike us as a particularly significant saying. But the word preach is better translated proclaim, as in Mark 1:14, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”

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What he proclaimed is then stated: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (1:15) These are the first recorded words of Jesus in Mark’s gospel. He came to bring the good news that – in him – the kingdom of God had come into our world, and to call people to respond to that with repentance and faith i.e. to turn from self-rule in our lives and instead submit to the kingship of God.

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Luke’s gospel shows that Jesus felt a sense of compulsion about this: “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God... because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43). He was in this world with a mission, as are his followers: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Compelled by his love, we also must share the good news of God (2 Cor.5:14,20).