What’s up with that Mark graphic?

Up on the screen behind me every week throughout this series in Mark, you’ve seen that graphic above. I’m not sure anyone has actually asked, but I thought I would explain why I designed that graphic the way I did.

Content

Traditionally, each of the four Gospel books has had a creature associated with it. The Church has gotten this idea and tradition from:

Ezekiel 1:10-11 - “10 As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies.”

Revelation 4:6-8 - “6 And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

The Christian church assigned one of these creatures to each Gospel account because of the primacy of the Gospels in building the church and shining light on the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Mark is the lion because of his opening reference to the book of Isaiah, speaking of a voice crying out in the wilderness, which calls to mind a lion’s roar. Similarly, lions are associated with royalty, so Mark’s emphasis on Christ as the Son of God, even from the first verse makes this designation make sense. So the graphic features a winged lion with a crown in connection to the four winged creatures in Revelation and Ezekiel to signify the Gospel of Mark which portrays Christ as the royal Son of God.

Design

The graphic is made of primary colors to show that what we are learning from the Gospel of Mark is of first importance to us and this church. The black and white complements show the stark nature of Mark’s writing style and the clear contrast between Christ the perfect Son of God and us, His sinful people. The graphic is mostly made out of triangles, the simplest shape, to show the simplicity of the Gospel message which we’ll see throughout Mark.

I hope the design is pleasing and looks cool, but more than that, I hope it helps remind you of what we’re learning in the Gospel of Mark so that when you see it, you think of Christ.