I
don’t know if you’ve ever read anything by Tom Clancy. He is a writer for guys
mostly, I think is the best way to describe his writing. He imagines wars and
battles, trying to write out different scenarios about what might happen in the
future and how America, or the West, with its gritty and determined spies or
military might, will win. He writes spy novels, he writes military stuff. I
like his writing. It is a nice escape from the stuff I usually read. There is
often a guy and girl love interest, although since he writes primarily for
guys, so I’m not always sure why that part is included. We need more
descriptions of things blowing up, more descriptions of air battles between
F-16’s and Russian Migs. But I digress. That’s my opinion. The only problem I
have with Tom Clancy novels is that it takes so long to get into them. All
these seemly random events happen, and then ties them together and then he
plays out the conclusion of those events. The end result is that it takes about
100 pages of reading to get into the story; where you know who the heroes are,
what they have to do and you begin to get interested in the book. I have
started several of his books and then I couldn’t make it to page 100. I just
lost interest, found something else to read. Mark, in his gospel, does
something similar, but much quicker.
Last
week we looked at Mark beginning his good news, his version of the events of
Jesus life. Mark started off his gospel not with Jesus birth, but with a small
bit of prophesy from Isaiah concerning John the Baptist, and then introduced us
to John. We learned a little about who John was, what he was doing out in the
desert as he preached and baptized people in the Jordan River; a baptism of
repentance. John was the precursor, the voice crying in the wilderness to get
ready for Jesus, who was coming. Get ready, get your hearts ready and straight
before God, because He is coming!
Then
in today’s text, Mark goes into the reason John was preaching; Jesus. Mark has
set up a simple but effective introduction for Jesus. You’ll notice many first
chapters in book that the author doesn’t jump right into the main character of
the book, but lets events around the main character begin to define the main
character. That is what I think Mark is doing; he was building up the suspense
last week with John the Baptist. He was giving his readers a context to
understand who Jesus was when He walked onto the scene. And so he does today.
He walks onto the scene, and Mark focuses on Him for the rest of the gospel,
which is completely appropriate. Let’s take a look at our text for today, Mark
1:9ff
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John
in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus
was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit
descending on him like a dove. 11 And
a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased.”
12 At
once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by
Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into
Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is
near. Repent and believe the good news!”[1]
Let’s pray.
Mark is a great book in the New Testament. It is one of 4 books in the NT that describe Jesus life; it was likely the first finished version of Jesus life. Because it was the first finished, I had always assumed the Mark was a rough version of the events of Jesus life; when I was in seminary we would compare the Greek in Mark to the Greek in Luke and Matthew, and it was pointed out to us students that the Greek in Mark is extremely rough-unpolished and uses words that the others doesn’t use. For example, when Jesus is sent out into the desert to be tempted by the Spirit, the Greek word there literally means “kicked out” and is used in other places to describe Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden of Eden. Luke and Matthew use less aggressive words to describe Jesus being sent out into the desert. So I had always had an image of Mark that it was a rough draft almost, but that image is changing for me. Dr. Ken Bailey is opening up different ways of looking at Mark, a more systematic view that shows how different themes are grouped together that makes me rethink my assumptions that Mark is a rough draft of sorts. Maybe rough draft is a bit harsh, but clearly both Luke and Matthew were working with a copy of Mark close by.
So here we are as Jesus is introduced to us…what does Mark want our first impression of Jesus to be? Is He powerful and mighty? Is He a baby in a manger? Is He descending on a cloud from Heaven? No, He Himself comes out to the desert, to meet John, to be baptized. This is not a powerful opening, this is a humble opening scene on Jesus life. Not only does He come to John, instead of having John come to Him, as would befit a king, but He also gets baptized. Let’s dive into the text.
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John
in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus
was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit
descending on him like a dove. 11 And
a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well
pleased.”
12 At
once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by
Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Bailey has noticed this little passage has an interesting structure; it starts with Jesus, goes to the HS, and then to God the Father in the voice coming out of Heaven. Then the passage goes back to the HS, and then back to Jesus. Quite an interesting little structure to the passage. In technical Biblical studies this form is called a chiasm; which is not all that important to remember. If you read closely, though, you’ll occasionally notice other chiasms in Mark. The important thing to remember about a chiasm is that it is the middle that is the focus. In English literary structure, we work straight through; if A is true, then it follows that B and we conclude C. The end is the most important part in English literary style. In a chiasm, though, the last point is not the important focus; the middle is. The author builds to the important point, and then builds away from the point using the same points. The structure goes A, then B, then C, then B, then lastly A. And the middle of this chiasm is not Jesus, or the HS, but the middle character is God. Mark wants His readers to know right away that God is pleased with Jesus. This person we’ve barely been introduced to at this point has God’s approval. God is going to be important in this story of Jesus life that Mark is telling.
That is certainly true; God is at the center of Jesus’ life and deeds. Everything is done to please God; everything is done to God’s glory. In that, we try to emulate Him. Our lives need to be directed toward God, aimed toward God, aimed by God in all that we do and are. This was how Jesus life was; it is what we aim for with our lives. There is something interesting about this passage; if Jesus was sinless, which we affirm He was, being completely perfect, and remembering that John’s baptism was for the repentance from sins, why would Jesus get baptized by John? Was there some sin we don’t know about? No. In His baptism, Jesus was identifying with us humans, and also submitting Himself, humbly to His role in the grand plan for the straightening of humanity. It is in this humble act that we see Jesus initiating His ministry to save us from our sins. It is also the place where we see God blessing that ministry; Jesus begins His journey to straighten humanity with God’s blessing, both from God the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is one of the few places where we see all three persons of the Trinity together; Jesus in the water, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and God the Father’s voice from Heaven. Just a reminder, we affirm that God is One, but composed of three distinct persons within the One. Here we see all three persons, interacting as they do in complete love, initiating Jesus ministry on earth. What a thing for the readers of Mark to begin to understand.
What God the Father says would have immediately reminded Jewish readers of more prophesy from Isaiah, specifically 42:1ff. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations…” it goes on from there and I invite you to read that entire section of Isaiah. It describes the Servant of the Lord, and what He will do. Remember, the Israelites reading Mark would have the OT memorized, and would have connected it immediately.
The other half of the first little section is about the Holy Spirit kicking Jesus out into the desert in order to be tempted by Satan. The desert has always symbolized spiritual purity for the Jews; the desert is where the Jews wandered until they were ready to enter the promised land. The desert is where King David learned to trust God completely. Mark just barely touches on Jesus temptation, we know from Luke and Matthew a little more about what that temptation entailed. It involved appealing to Jesus physical needs, His need for power and so forth. But Mark doesn’t seem as interested in the temptation. It happened, He didn’t sin, let’s move on to other topics. Mark wants his readers to know Jesus was tempted, in all ways He was a human just like us, except that He didn’t sin. Mark wants you to know that it happened, but focuses less on the specifics of the temptations than the other gospels.
The fact that Mark relates Jesus baptism to His temptation leads me to believe that the same qualities we see in Jesus in His baptism can be seen in His temptation. We see His obedience to the Father’s will, His humility to submit to the time in the desert, His the focus on God’s will to help Him through the time of temptation. This is something we all can learn from; even though we are tempted, there is always a way out if we seek to glorify God with our lives.
Then Mark, in just 2 verses, describes the world changing proclamation and teaching of Jesus.
After John was put in
prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The
kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Mark announces to his readers, and we all hear, that in Jesus Christ, God has come near us all. The preparation time is over; now is the time to straighten the paths of our lives and follow Christ. God is here among us; repent and turn your lives over to Christ. Believe the good news; that in Jesus Christ is life, the godly life on earth and eternal life once death is past for us. The kingdom of God had come near-Jesus had come from Heaven to earth, became one of us and in the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, God came near us. Not just the people back then, but all of us. God went from being a deity far off, powerful and unknowable, capable and willing to smite anyone who stepped out of line. And then, in the most powerful act of love ever, Jesus came to us. Not because we deserved it, but out of love. It is God’s love that compels the kingdom of God to come near to sinful humans. It is God’s love that compels Christ out of Heaven to suffer what we suffer, to live what we live, to hurt as we hurt, to being us close to Himself, ultimately.
And so the time came. The earth had changed in Jesus birth, but even more, the earth was going to change in forever in Jesus teaching, death and resurrection. Our response to Jesus has always been the same; it is to repent, to turn from the way we were headed and instead had toward God. It is to turn from selfish, self absorbed lives and to instead live for God; live to see more people come to Him, live to grow deeper in knowledge and love of God, live to serve Him in the expansion of His kingdom. His Kingdom is ever expanding, and it is our purpose to play a role in the expansion of the Kingdom of God. Not only do we repent, put behind us the sins that so easily entangle us and move forward in our relationship with God through Christ, but it is also to believe.
Belief has always been the key for Christians. We believe not in ourselves, but in Christ Jesus our Lord. We believe He lived and died and was resurrected, not for Himself, to prove that He could do it for some reason, but He did all that for us. Belief is very simple. Being saved by Christ is very simple. It is simple belief. Acts 2:21 says very clearly that Christianity is very simple. “And everyone who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Paul echoes this in Romans 10:9ff That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[2]
We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It really is that simple. Mark is very quick to get to the main point of his gospel; that this Jesus Christ is worth repenting for, worth giving up the garbage in our lives, worth getting up and following, something we’ll get into next week as Jesus calls His first disciples. The time really had come for those first century people to hear the good news that God had come close. As they read this new gospel, this story of Jesus, they would have understood something new was happening. It was time to stop messing around with their lives, following themselves and their selfish whims.
The same is true for us. Maybe you’ve gotten off track in your life. Maybe you need to stop what you are doing, and get back right with God. This is not an uncommon thing for Christians. Repentance happens once; once you make the turn toward God, and He sends the Holy Spirit, and you are His. But there are little turns, little course corrections that need to be made as we are making the journey toward God. Maybe today is the day you need to ask God to help you make a course correction. You’ve gotten off track, knee deep in the cares of the world, and you’ve temporarily forgotten about God. Today’s the day, to recommit yourself to knowing God deeper through His Word, and through time spent each day in prayer. I cannot, and I would not, force you to make a course correction. Your relationship with God is yours and yours alone. But I can encourage you to think deeply about your life. Think about the ways your need to repent, and give over your life to Jesus in all the different areas of our lives. I desire us to be Christians in every area of our lives. We should be Christian parents, glorifying God in the ways we raise up our children, the things we teach them and the ways we discipline them. We should be Christian neighbors; kind, helpful and not spiteful. We should be Christian workers; honest and hard working because how we work reflects our relationship with God.
There are ways for our lives to get off track in so many different areas of our life; and they tend to bleed over into other areas. We need, for our sake and for the health of our relationship with God, to repent, and get back straight with God. And the next time it’s necessary, we need to courage to do it again. And again. And again. Repentance is a one time event but it is also a lifestyle lived before God.
Let’s pray.