Beginning of the Gospel of Mark, Armenian illuminated manuscript, 1256
Zeytun Gospel, Toros Roslin - Yerevan, Matenadaran
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets:
"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You."
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.'"
John
came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from
Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan
River, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair
and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild
honey. And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is
mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and
loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit."
It came to pass in
those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by
John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw
the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.
Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased." Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.
And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was
with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.
- Mark 1:1-13
Today
we begin the Gospel of Mark. Mark the Apostle was also known as John
Mark, and, according to my study bible, is widely attested by the
ancient Church as the author of this Gospel. It says, "Some early
writers suggest that the young man in the linen wrap (Mark 14:51-52) is Mark himself. His mother's house was a meeting place for Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). Paul and Barnabas took John Mark with them to Antioch when they returned from the Jerusalem famine relief effort (Acts 12:25)." The exact date of Mark's Gospel is uncertain, but it is dated shortly before the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. My study bible says, "Many believe this was the first of the four Gospels to be written."
The
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is
written in the Prophets: "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
who will prepare Your way before You." "The voice of one crying in the
wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.'" The beginning of Mark gives us the beginning of the "good message" (Gr. evangelion)
of Christ. Mark gives us the full message in the first sentence:
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is a message that will be played out
through the pages of this Gospel. And the "good message" is sent by the
messenger to whom we are introduced today, John the Baptist. Heralded
by yet an earlier messenger, the Prophet Isaiah, John's mission is
characterized by a quotation from Isaiah 40:3.
My study bible says, "John the Baptist, the last prophet of the Old
Testament period, fulfills prophecy and prepares the people of God for
the Messiah's coming. Hearts are softened to receive the Light." We
note the emphasis on messengers: the root of the word for Gospel is the
one for angel, "messenger" in the Greek. The beginning of the
good news of Christ is filled with messages and messengers, just as was
the story of His birth which we so recently celebrated. My study bible
says, "John the Baptist plays a crucial role in the history of
salvation. Chosen before his birth to be the herald and forerunner of
the Messiah (Luke 1:13-17), he knew his Lord from the beginning. Luke writes of the miraculous conception of John (Luke 1:24).
He then records that when the Virgin Mary visited Elizabeth, who was
then six months pregnant with John the Baptist, the baby in Elizabeth's
womb leaped at the sound of Mary's voice (Luke 1:41)."
John
came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from
Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan
River, confessing their sins. My study bible says that "remission
(lit. 'to let go' of sins) is a major part of John's preparation of the
people for Jesus' coming. Later, in Christian baptism, God not only
forgives our sins, letting them go, but He also brings us into union
with Christ." It notes also that the text here tells us of the sweeping
impact of the ministry of John the Baptist. "He is perhaps the leading
religious figure outside of official and rabbinic Judaism."
Now
John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his
waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying,
"There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I
am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with
water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." John's is a life of asceticism, with eyes firmly on the coming of the Christ. His clothing is similar to that of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8),
"indicating that he fulfills the prophecy of Elijah's return" (as Jesus
will say). My study bible says, "Baptism with the Holy Spirit means
that only Christ, the Son of God, fully possesses and gives the Spirit.
So to receive the Spirit we must be baptized in Christ and adopted as
children of God. In adoption, Christians become anointed ones; it was
of these God said, 'Do not touch My anointed ones' (Ps. 105:15)."
It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Mark's Gospel moves us very quickly to the object of this "good
message" and so much prophecy. My study bible says that Jesus and John
were related through their mothers (Luke 1:36); and notes, "perhaps Jesus and John were acquainted."
And
immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and
the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from
heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." For
the Eastern Church, Epiphany or Theophany characterizes this event: the
revelation of the Trinity. My study bible has a long and beautiful
note here: "By saying that He came up from the water, Mark
suggests Jesus was immersed in water. Christ's rising from the water is
symbolic of His Ascension, since the same Greek verb (anabaino) is used to refer to that event. The Church Fathers taught that in coming up, He lifts the whole world with Him. The Spirit descending upon Him foreshadows the Spirit's descent upon the first Christians at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Like a dove does
not mean the Holy Spirit is incarnated as a dove. Rather this is a
special sign indicating the presence of the Spirit. A dove symbolizes
purity, peace and wisdom." It also notes: "The voice of God the Father
from heaven makes Jesus' baptism a manifestation or epiphany of the
Holy Trinity. The Father is not adopting Jesus as His Son, but
proclaiming that He is and always has been His Son. This divine
proclamation, combining a messianic psalm (Ps. 2:7) with the first song of the Suffering Servant of the Lord (Is. 42:1),
reveals who Jesus is. Thus Jesus' baptism anticipates His
Transfiguration and Resurrection, the dawning of the new creation."
Immediately
the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the
wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts;
and the angels ministered to Him. Again, I will quote from my study
bible: "As Jesus' baptism is the first revelation of His divinity, so
His temptation inaugurates His role as the 'Lamb of God' (John 1:29, 36), the suffering and obedient Son of God whose destiny is the Cross by God's will. Forty days
echoes the forty years of Israel's temptations in the Old Testament and
becomes the basis for the forty-day period of Great Lent in later
Christian tradition. Being with the beasts and served by the angels
suggests a relationship between Christ and Adam, Christ being the New
Adam. Even if we are subjected to evil, (the demons, the beasts,) God
will never desert us as we struggle toward Him. The Church Fathers
believed meditative seclusion is (1) conducive to freer communion with
God and (2) effective preparation for great tasks ahead."
It's
interesting that the first thing that happens to the anointed Christ
is His being driven by the Spirit to the wilderness, where He is tempted
-- and, the Gospel tells us, He is both with the wild beasts, and the angels
minister to Him. It gives us a picture of the world, of our world.
There is nothing simple about this "job" of being the Messiah, the
Christ, just as there is nothing simple about the paradox of our world.
Jesus will characterize His mission as a "stronger" man invading the
territory of a "strong man" (Satan, as in the text above). So, as
Messiah, He is immediately confronted with the "work" of being in this
world, and the things which all of us face in our lives. He is to be a
Messiah who suffers with us, the same things we do, the bindings and
afflictions of this "strong man." But we have help, and so does He, He
is ministered to by the angels. And there we get back to messengers,
perhaps the great theme in our reading today at the beginning of Mark.
What are messengers and what do they do? The word angel (αγγελος or
angelos) in the Greek means "messenger" and the Gospel (ευαγγελιον or
evangelion) is "good message." John the Baptist is also a messenger, a
herald of Christ's coming Kingdom, and as such is often depicted with wings
in icons of the Eastern Church. So, just as the nativity of Christ is
filled with stories of messengers, so is the beginning of Jesus'
ministry, His baptism, an event celebrated in the ancient Church
together with His nativity. Let us consider then images of messengers,
of good news, of communications we may or may not want to hear. In
Christ's story, something new is breaking through into the world, being
inaugurated. There are those who tell of this news, John the Baptist
who dedicates his life to this event, the evangelists who tell us and the apostles who
will be sent out with this good news, who will proclaim through the text
and through their lives to all of us this good news of this Kingdom
breaking through into this world. How do you hear the news today? What
message does the Spirit have for you?