Without any elaborate introduction, Mark launches right into the story of the ministry of Jesus. He begins, with the words, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God".
What the Gospel is (Mark 1:1)
The very fact that Mark does not stop to define the meaning of the term "gospel" indicates that he knew quite well that his readers needed no definition. They had heard the gospel and, hearing it, had opened their hearts to its message and its power, and so had entered into a new fellowship with God and with one another.
To the people of Mark's day, the gospel was simply the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord.
This, of course, is the sense in which the term is used throughout the passages of the New Testament. In Acts 15:7, when Paul and Barnabas visited Jerusalem to make a report on their first missionary journey, the brethren were skeptical of the reported conversion of so many Gentiles to the Christian faith. Peter, with his characteristic boldness, sttood by Paul and Barnabas to declare, "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe." (Acts 15:7)
It was in this same sense, as the message of salvation, that Paul used the term when, in writing to the Corinthians, he said, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you ahve taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you" (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).
Jesus came to preach the gospel, but he also gave us a gospel to preach - by his life among men, by his death on the cross for our sins, and by his rising from the grave for our justification. It was Mark's purpose in writing his gospel to set for th the message of salvation as it centered in the story of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" - a voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
From Mark's point of view, the story of Jesus began with the ministry of John the Baptist. But even as Mark begins to tell briefly John's part in setting the stage for the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Gospel writer cannot refrain from making mention of the fact that the message of salvation in Christ Jesus was conceived in the heart of God long, long before the voice of the forerunner was heard crying in the wilderness.
This Mark does by referring to two Old Testament passages concerning the coming Lord:
In Malachi 3:1 - "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.
In Isaiah 40:3 - A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
In those brief words, Mark identifies Jesus as the promised Deliverer and John the Baptist as the promised forerunner. In effect, Mark is assenting to the truth that was later to be more clearly expressed by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews when he said: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." (Hebrews 1:1-2)
From the historical point of view, the message of salvation began with the ministry and message of Jesus Christ. Yet, in the purpose of God, it began the very moment that sin entered into the world to separate man from God - and, indeed, prior to that... for, as John puts it in the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, "that was slain from the creation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). The scarlet thread of God's redemptive purpose runs throughout the entire Old Testament. Jesus came in human form to fulfill God's promises to man.
And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:4-8)
For centirues the voice of the prophents had been silenced. Then suddenly, the silence was broken.
John the Baptist had only one sermon to preach. It was a bold indictment of the religious faith of his day. It was a call to repentance and confession of sin. It was a challenge to his hearers to bear witness to their repentance by submitting to baptism and thus acknowledging the judgment of God on their sins.
The Jews of John's day were familiar with baptism. They required gentiles who embraced the Jewish faith to symbolize their cleansing from their old way of life in the act of baptism. The amazing thing about John's message was that he was asking the Jews to do precisely what they required the gentiles to do. He was demanding that they turn from their sin to God.
The implications of John's message of repentance followed by baptism were both new and radical. Racially, the Jews considered themselves to be God's chosen people, but spiritually they had become far removed from God. In the light of the imminence of the kingdom of God, John declared to the Jews that they must enter into a new relationship with God, which new relationship they would symbolize by the act of baptism.
John the Baptist prepared the way, not only for the acceptance by the Jewish people of Jesus as the promised Deliverer, but for the message that Jesus himself would preach to all who hear him - the message of a heartfelt religion, the message of repentance and faith. John's message, a message of judgement, paved the way for Jesus's message, a message of redemptive love.
It is hard to account for the tremendous response of the people to John's message. There was nothing enjoyable about it. It was a strong condemnation of their sins and a clear declaration that the day of judgement was at hand.
Perhaps part of the reason for the ready acceptance of John's ministry was his striking appearance. He had the appearance of a typical Old Testament prophet. Perhaps, also, the crowd responded because of his obvious sincerity. He must have preached in dreadful earnestness. He spoke like a prophet of God.
Beyond all these reasons, however, was the fact that the people of that day were heart-hungry for a message from God. For three hundred years no one had appeared to shake men from their spiritual lethargy. No one had fearlessly declared, "The Lord says." If a people no longer attend church services gladly and expectantly, may it not be because, in part at least, the servant of the Lord does not speak with authority as a messenger of God!
John believed himself to be the prophet of the Lord. He lived like a prophet in the vast solitude of the wilderness around the Dead Sea, where he had ample opportunity to be alone with God.
Much like Amos, the prophet, who in his mountain seclusion and then at last came thundering down on the people of Jerusalem to call them from their sinfulness, so John the Baptist was concerned over the spiritual plight of his people and looked forward to the day when he could declare that the time of God's judgment and God's deliverance had come.
John dressed like a prophet, wearing a simple cloak of camel's hair tied around him with a leather belt. His very appearance led the people to conclude that this was surely Elijah who had returned from the grave.
In his devotion to his calling, John denied himself of the comforts of life, such as they were in that day, subsisting on the locusts and wild honey that were easily accessible to his hand. While rigorous asceticism is by no means a necessary part of the Christian life, most of us will agree that it is possible to pamper the physical appetite at the expense of the soul.
It is quite possible to underestimate the impact that John the Baptist had on the people of his day. It is noteworthy that, except for Jesus, Paul, and Peter, the name of John the Baptist is mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other. His appearance was so commanding, his personality so forceful, his message so challenging, and his influence so potent, that even the ruthless and powerful Herod Antipas was afraid of him.
John's message was intended to stir the people to repentance but also to make them ready to acknewledge Jesus as the Coming One.
John was disturbed by the tremendous impression he had made on the people and by the reception he had received at their hands. It would seem that they were already saying to one another, "Surely this must be the promised Deliverer."
In answer to this piont of view, John sought to make it clear that the expected Deliverer, the promised Messiah, was a far greater personality than was he. To compare John the Baptist to the Messiah was, he declared, like comparing a poor and insignificant slave to his affluent master.
John said, "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie." (Mark 1:7)
John the Baptist recognized Jesus to be greater than he, not only in person, but in purpose and in mission. John had come to offer baptism that was the outward symbol of an inner experience. Jesus would come to endow those who believe in his name with that inner experience. He would enter into the hearts of believers to make them new creatures.
It was John's desire to give to Jesus a place of eminence that the forerunner would never claim for himself. A few months later John the Baptist pursued this purpose further by saying to some of his disciples who had broght him news concerning the ministry of Jesus in Judea:
You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:28-30)
Perhaps no man was ever more tempted to stand in the bright light of public acclaim than was John. It is a tribute to his strength of character and to his faithfulness to his divinely-appointed task, that he was so completely willing to accept the lesser role that had been ordained for him in the purpose of God.
Having described briefly the mission and the ministry of John the Baptist, Mark now begins to tell the story of Jesus. The public ministry of Jesus began that day when he appeared near the Jordan and submitted himself to John for baptism, saying, in answer to John's vigorous protest, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15)
The question naturally arises, why was Jesus baptized? What was its significance to him? Obviously, it did not have the same meaning for him as it does for us, since he had no sins to confess and, therefore, no necessity for baring witness to the experience of a new way of life, as do we. And yet, Jesus's baptism was full of meaning - for Jesus himself, for John, and for all who have believed and been baptized since that day.
To the crowds that went out to hear him, John had preached repentance following by baptism.
In fact, baptism was such a significant part of his message and of his ministry that he become known, not as John the Preacher, nor even as John the Prophet, but as John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer.
There may very well have been those hearing him, who said within themselves, "The need for repentance we can clearly understand, but why should we submit to baptism?"
By coming to John in the presence of all the people, Jesus was saying, in effect, I agree with your message, and I agree with your insistence on baptism, to which I gladly submit myself at your hands. Thus did Jesus place his seal of approval on the work of his forerunner.
In submitting to baptism, Jesus also endorsed it as a Christian ordinance.
In the new order that he was about to establish, baptism would have a significant place. At the close of his earthly ministry, which Jesus began, he would say to his followers in every generation, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19)
His words would be all the more meaningful and compelling since he himself had passed through the waters of baptism.
For thirty years, Jesus had lived in comparative privacy. Only once in the New Testament is the curtain drawn aside for us to learn something of his childhood and youth, and then he is not presented as a preacher or a worker of miracles, but as an earnest young inquirer. For the remainder of those thirty years, he lived far from the public eye, in the little town of Nazareth, and was apparently known to his neighbors only as Jesus, the son of Mary, the carpenter's wife.
From the particular moment of his baptism, Jesus would forever leave behind all of this privacy and obscurity. From that day forward he would be ceaselessly engaged in his public mission of teaching, healing, and turning the hearts of men from darkness to light. His name would soon be known throughout the land of his birth and, in due time, throughout the whole world. Surely it is not at all improper to believe that, at the hour of his baptism, he solemnly devoted himself to the purpose for which he had been sent by the Father to live among men and become the salvation of the world.
Is there not a sense in which the baptism of every devout believer is a moment of commitment? There must be many who will never forget that hour, when in obedience tot he command of the Lord, we made a decision to the acknowledgment of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection... but also to our own death to sin and our new life in Christ through baptism and faith. Baptism is a moment when each believer must surely say, "Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee."
It is quite clear that God took pleasure in the baptism of his Son.
Mark records the coming of a voice from heaven saying, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Mark 1:11)
It is significant that the voice spoke in the language of the Scriptures. The words, for example, "You are my son," comes from Psalms and are a part of the coronation formula of the Messianic King (Psalms 2:7).
The phrase "with you I am well pleased" is part of the description of the Servant of the Lord (Isaiah 42:1)
The light of heaven shined brightly on the countenance of Jesus as he stepped out of the waters of the Jordan. The approving voice of the Father was ringing in his ears. But soon the light would give way to the shadows of tempation, and the voice that our Lord would hear would be the subtle voice of the tempter, for as Mark records it:
"At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him." (Mark 1:12-13)
It is difficult to understand why God would deliberately lead his Son in whom he was well pleased into the wilderness to be tempted. But this he did. It should be remembered that just as soon as Jesus would begin to exert his power against sin and darkness and all manner of evil, the ruler of the powers of darkness (Satan) would vigorously oppose him. Apparently, it was in the divine scheme of thins for Jesus to have it out with Satan at the very beginning, to convince Satan that nothing would thwart the Savior in his purpose and mission.
It has often been said that surely God will not lead anyone into tempation.
No, but we are humans. We might all too easily lose the battle. After all, we are no match for Satan - but Jesus was. He would come out unscathed, and Satan would discover surely that Christ was and is the Pure and Shining light in the darkness that the darkness simply cannot put out.
How could Jesus Christ the Son of God be subject to temptation? Was it at all possible for him to sin?
John A. Broadus, in his Commentary of the Gospel of Matthew, gives this answer to such an inquiry:
If we think of his human nature in itself, apart from the co-linked divinity, and apart from the Holy Spirit that filled and led him, then we must say that, like Adam in his state of purity, like the angels and every other moral creature, his humanity was certainly in itself capable of sinning, and thus the temptation was real, and was felt as such, and as such was overcome; while yet in virtue of the union with the divine nature, and of the power of the Holy Spirit that filled him, it was morally impossible that he should sin
In a sense, therefore, the temptation was a proof of Jesus's real humanity; and his unqualified victory over the adversary was, no less, a proof of Jesus's real deity.
The temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness was vitally related to his messianic ministry. Jesus came into the world to die for the world and by his death (and resurrection) to provide eternal life for all who would believe in his name. It was at this very point that Satan attacked our Lord.
In effect, by the three temptations that he brought before Jesus, Satan was sayin: Give up your way of saving the world. It is the way of suffering and sacrifice and death. Try my way - it is the way of self-service, and self-protection, and self-aggrandizement.
It may be said that, in his refusal to yield to Satan's offers, Jesus, then and there, won the victory of the cross. Luke records that Satan left Jesus for a season (Luke 4:13). But it was only for a season. Throughout his Gospel, Mark presents Jesus as being continually in conflict with Satan and his representatives and with the powers of evil.
Jesus was now ready to embark on his public work. Mark omits the early Judean ministry that occupied a brief period following the baptism (see John 2:13-23;John 3;John 4:1-3).
He does indicate that Jesus left Judea when he heard that John the Baptist had been imprisoned (Mark 1:14). It is believed by some that the opposition to John was a beginning of opposition to the One whom John had publicly introduced. Not willing at the moment to clash openly with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, Jesus quietly withdrew to the regions around Galilee. The time had not yet come for the issue to be clearly drawn between him and the rulers of the Jews. When the time did come, he would meet it with courage and with power.
Jesus introduced his ministry of preaching with the words, "The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15) He was thus announcing that by the preaching of the gospel and by Christ's ministry among men, God would exercise his reign in the hearts of men. Men would open their hearts to the reign of God by repentance and faithful obedience in baptism.
At the very beginning of his public ministry, Jesus gathered around him an inner group of followers on whom he would direct his special concern and to whom he would commit, in a special way, the task that he would do through human channels following his death and resurrection. The first disciples were simple men, engaged int he simple task of catching fish in the clear blue waters of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus called men who were busy with their own work that they might become busy with his work.
Simon was a born leader. Someone has said of Simon Peter that he was always striking twelve o'clock - sometimes the twelve of midnight, as when he shamefully denied his Lord, and sometimes the twelve of noonday, as when he boldly confessed that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Andrew, Simon's brother, was an entirely different sort of man. His great gift was that of bringing others to Jesus - first his own brother, then the lad with loaves and fishes, then the inquiring Greeks. He was a master of the art of bringing others to his Lord.
John was a man of spiritual insight. Though he was a man of passion, a son of thunder, he was to become known as the beloved disciple.
James was a man of real courage and devition. He was to be the first of the twelve apostles to become martyr to the cause of Christ.
These first four disciples were different in temperament, in gifts, and in fitness for the various roles that they would be called on to fulfill. It is even so in this our day. God takes us as we are, with the gifts that we have, and transforms us by his grace and asks each of us to use his individual abilities in the service of the kingdom, his church.
God asks only that we respond to his call to our hears and minds with the same forthrightness as these first four responded to Christ's call to them, when without delay he called them, and thy left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him (Mark 1:20).
May we not push the comparison further?
As Jesus called these disciples, he promised, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Mark 1:17)
Varied as their services were, all four disciples were promised, equally, the designation "fishers of men". Shouldn't we be candidates for the same degree in whatever capacity we are called on to serve?