Scripture Daily

Context No. 3 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 1:1-8: in context

1The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2As it is written in the prophets, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you: 3the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!’” 4John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. 5All the country of Judea and all those of Jerusalem went out to him. They were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins. 6John was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 7He preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen. 8I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

Mark is the shortest and, most scholars think, the earliest of the four Gospels, the accounts of Jesus's life written in the decades after it. It skips the birth entirely. There is no manger, no genealogy. Written around AD 70, it opens abruptly in the desert with a promise from scripture. Mark credits the prophets, and the quotation draws on two: Malachi's promise of a messenger sent ahead (Malachi 3:1) and Isaiah's voice crying in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3).

John the Baptist arrives dressed for the part. Camel's hair and a leather belt are the clothes of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8), the prophet Israel expected to return before the day of the Lord. He eats what the wilderness gives, locusts and wild honey. Crowds come out from Jerusalem and Judea to be washed in the Jordan and to say their sins aloud. And John keeps pointing past himself. The one coming is stronger, and John is not fit to stoop and loosen his sandal strap. John washes with water. The other will drench them in the Holy Spirit.

John's whole role is to prepare the way and then step aside. Where am I holding a place that was only ever meant to point past me?

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