The Gospel is constructed around the unifying message announced at the beginning: the “good news” that God's kingdom has drawn near (1.14–15). Both Jesus's deeds of power and his destined suffering expose the contours of that divine reign taking root on earth through Jesus and, by extension, through those he gathers as its subjects. Indeed, the Gospel's original ending at Mark 16.8 leaves readers, implicitly rather than explicitly, to continue Jesus's messianic mission by trusting in God's sovereign power over evil in the postresurrection age.
