Introduction
Who is this Jesus? That is the question that underlines the gospel of Mark. He is a man like us and yet so much more. Throughout his gospel Mark raises that question and he begins in his opening passage about John the Baptist.
The Prophecy
2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way”—
3 “a voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
Immediately, in Mark’s dramatic fashion, we are taken to prophecy. To use the movie image, the movie director Mark would have had this prophecy scrolling up the screen as the first image we see as is done in the Star Wars movies.
2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: Actually the whole quote is not from Isaiah. The first two lines are from the prophet Malachi, chapter 3, verse 1. Mark makes a slight change. The Malachi verse reads: “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” The “me” is God, the Lord Almighty. Mark’s modifies the pronouns to show that the prophecy is about the Messiah. The Lord Almighty is coming, to be sure, but he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
This opening serves as an introduction to the Isaiah verse (40:3):
3 “a voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
Then John’s introduction: And so John came. Now, what is it that Mark has accomplished with these two verses? He has established that John is himself the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. Furthermore, it is the prophecy related to the hopes of Israel – the coming of the Messiah. Both the Malachi and Isaiah passages were understood as pertaining to the Messiah’s coming. Let me read the larger context for each quote:
Malachi 3:1-4: “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.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
Isaiah 40:1-5: Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
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.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
Malachi prophesies of the Day of the Lord to come when he will purify his people. Isaiah prophesies of the day of redemption to come when the Lord’s glory will be revealed. They are different perspectives of the same event – the coming of the Messiah in the name of the Lord.
But someone is to come before the Messiah – a messenger to prepare the way. And this is Mark’s emphasis and the reason for combining these two verses and cutting out the rest. A messenger is to precede the Messiah to prepare his way.
Preparing the Way
The question then is how he prepares the way. Does he simply say, “The Messiah is coming”? Does he organize a welcoming committee? Make contacts to assure a warm response from officials? Set up speaking engagements? What does he do?
The next two verses reveal the answer. 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 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.
Note here the identifying mark of John – baptism. Three times the word appears in these two verses. In verse 8, when John contrasts his work with that of the Messiah, it is baptism that he uses to identify his work and the Messiah’s. This action is a bit odd and is certainly unique in the manner John used it. Prophets are identified by their preaching; the first action to identify John’s ministry is baptizing. He is then described as preaching, but what he preaches about is baptism. Why was baptism such an integral element of John’s ministry? The answer to this question leads us to the answer of how he prepared the way for the Messiah.
Baptism was not a practice prescribed in the Old Testament; nevertheless, it was a familiar practice by the time of John. It was a purification rite for Jews desiring to be ceremonially clean. In towns there were buildings called mikva’ots, which were ritual baths. If someone became unclean, for example through touching a dead person, he would baptize himself in the purification bath by immersing his whole body. In Jerusalem, at the foot of the temple mound where most pilgrims would enter the temple gates, there were dozens of mikva’ots where they would baptize themselves in order to enter the temple area ceremonially cleansed.
Besides being a purification rite that one would perform many times, it was also an initiation rite. Gentiles desiring to become Jews would be baptized as part of their entrance into Jewish life. The Essenes, a strict religious Jewish community, required baptism for all of their initiates who entered into full-fledged membership.
For that matter, both types of baptism were widespread in the Gentile world of pagan religions. Ritual baptism was common for pagan priests, and initiation baptism was a common rite of entry into many pagan cults.
So, baptism itself would not have been considered a novelty by the people of John’s day. What is significant is the meaning he gave it; for his baptism was neither a purification nor an initiation rite. He did not have a religion or religious community for people to enter, and it is clear that he was not interested in ceremonial cleansing.
This is one thing that being out in the desert or wilderness signified. John was not part of the establishment. Even though he was a Levite (his father a priest), he carried out his ministry outside of the temple and Jerusalem. He was not part of the religious system. It was not external purity that concerned John, but internal; it was the heart that mattered. He was not purifying people who had inadvertently become unclean; he was baptizing those whom he described as wicked. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. The wilderness itself symbolized in Jewish religion the work of God’s Spirit in bringing about change.
Mark explicitly states that the baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, what is taking place in a baptism of repentance, or rather, what statement is being made by the one being baptized? In the purification baptism, the individual is saying, “I want to be cleansed from my impurity so that I will be acceptable to God.” In the initiation baptism, the individual is saying, “I want to belong to this religion or community so that I will be acceptable to God.” In the baptism of repentance the individual is saying, “I have gone the wrong way, and I want to turn to God so that he will make me acceptable to him.”
What were the people doing when they were baptized? They were confessing their sins. They were acknowledging that they had been going the wrong way. What did they hope to obtain? Verse 4 – the forgiveness of sins. They were turning from sin to God that they might receive forgiveness. But you don’t need to dip yourself in water for this, and certainly John, as any true prophet before him, would not have taught that ceremony was necessary for acceptance with God. What baptism became for the people was their visible demonstration of the change they were making. It was their statement that they were sinners who now were turning to God in hope for his forgiveness. Again, it was not mere ceremony. We know through the other gospels that John was relentless in demanding true change in the way the people lived, particularly that they be just in their dealings with others. But baptism was the public testimony by which they made clear that from that moment on there would be a change in their lives for God.
Now, again, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Did they receive forgiveness? To understand the answer, remember John’s purpose – he had come to prepare the way for the Lord, not to do his work. After a description of John in verse 6 showing that he fits the image of a prophet in the Old Testament tradition, Mark finally records John’s actual words: 7 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. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
What is John’s message? Someone else is coming who is more powerful and of greater honor, and it is that person who will do the real work of baptism. John baptizes with water. That’s all it is, and it is the best he can do. It symbolizes a change of heart, but it actually effects nothing. The one who comes next will baptize with the Holy Spirit, who actually changes the heart. The clear implication is that when that person comes, the hope of real forgiveness takes place.
How great is this person? So great that a prophet of God is not worthy to do even the most humblest of tasks for him. Not even a Jewish slave was required to untie his master’s sandals. How powerful? He uses the Holy Spirit of God as John uses water. And so, as John’s baptism looked to the forgiveness of sins to come, Jesus’ baptism would signify the forgiveness that had come.
Try to understand how important this was to the Jewish people. They knew their Scripture. Yes, they looked to the day the Messiah would come and restore Israel as the kingdom of God. That was a day to hope for, but it was also a day to fear, for they also knew that with it would come judgment. The Gentiles were in for a bad time, but also unrighteous Jews. I’ve already read from Malachi who prophesied the coming of such a messenger as John. Hear what more the prophet prophesies:
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty (3:2-5).
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse” (4:4-6).
When the people heard John preaching repentance, they were not hearing just another sermon about how bad they were and had better change. They were also hearing the message that the Messiah was coming, that the Day of the Lord was near. Mark does not include these words, but Matthew and Luke do: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 4:11b,12). And so they came to repent of their sins and receive the hope of their water baptism that their baptism by fire would bring forgiveness and purification, and not destruction.
Lessons
Let’s go back to our original question: How was John to prepare the way for the Messiah? The answer is by preparing the hearts of people to receive him. He prepared their hearts by calling them to repentance of which baptism was the symbolic act.
What can we learn from this? Our situation is different; the Messiah has come. But there are ways in which our situation remains the same. For one, though the Messiah has come once in the flesh, there is still the truth that he must for each of us come. What is it that we must do to prepare? The same as the Jews to whom John preached – we must repent. We must confess our sins and turn to God for forgiveness.
We don’t have quite the appreciation for this act that John’s hearers had. There were people then who did not think that they had to repent, but that was only because they thought they had all along been making appropriate redress for their sins. They were doing what was prescribed by the Law. We today just don’t see sin as the fundamental problem between God and us. We acknowledge that we haven’t been spiritual enough, in tune with God enough. We may acknowledge that there are things that we need to improve, but we don’t fear condemnation. What we want is simply to have a better relationship with God. But John had it right. To prepare for the Messiah, to prepare for the Savior, we must confess that our problem is sin, our sin. Our sin must trouble us; we must want to turn from it and receive forgiveness.
Our other similar situation is that the Day of the Lord is still to come. The Messiah will come again and this time carry out the work of judgment. He will gather his wheat (those who belong to him) and burn up the chaff (the unrighteous who do not repent) with unquenchable fire. When is that day? It could be today. There is no more work that Scripture tells us that must still take place. Christ has done all that is necessary: he came to save through making atonement for sin on the cross; he conquered death through the resurrection; he ascended back to the Father to make intercession; and he has sent his Holy Spirit to baptize his people. The only act we know left to be done is his return, and the sum of what we know about that is that he will come as a thief does – when we least expect it.
Do you know the most effective tactic that Satan uses to keep people from repentance? It is to give them the sense that they always have time later to repent. And don’t we feel that way? Who really feels that the Day of the Lord may be today? I’m not asking who believes, but who emotionally feels that way. Or who believes that today he or she may actually die? Time, we all believe we have it; we all believe that no matter how we may be living now, we will the time to get things right.
But our situation is also different from John’s hearers. They still did not know the one of whom he spoke, and even when they met him, they still did not understand the atoning work he would accomplish. John’s contrast between his baptism and Jesus’ baptism should give us all hope. The best John could do was call people to make a change; Jesus had and has the power to change. He baptizes not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.
Some could mistakenly interpret our passage to mean that we have to change our lives before we receive Jesus. I’ve heard people say that: “I’ve got to get my life in order first.” That was not the meaning though of John’s baptism. Purification baptism was for people already in right relationship with God (at least in their minds). They were just maintaining their relationship. Initiation baptism was for those who had proven they had already made the necessary changes. Repentance baptism was for those who said, “Help me, God. I’ve messed up. Forgive me. I want to live for you.” That’s what we are all called to do, and the promise that is given is this: we will receive the baptism of Jesus, which is the baptism of regeneration. We will be born again.
And he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit accomplishes everything those other baptisms merely symbolized: for Jesus purifies his people and makes them clean; he does bring them into his kingdom; he even leads them to repent and gives them their hope – the forgiveness of sins.
Be warned: you must repent of your sins to prepare for the Messiah. Be comforted: the Messiah will work within you real change.
