Introduction
We come now to Jesus’ appearance. Mark, in verse 8 sets us up to expect his coming in power, and yet, Jesus’ first action is an act of humility. John, who was not worthy to tie Jesus’ sandals, baptizes him as he does everyone else. But it is this act of humility that will reveal his greatness, and this act of identifying with the people will actually set him apart.
The Baptism 9-11
Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee. Mark identifies Jesus according to his home. It was a common designation for Jesus even after his resurrection. Note how it distinguishes Jesus from everyone else coming to John. They are from Jerusalem and the Judean countryside; Jesus is from Nazareth of Galilee in the north. Already he is set apart, although in this case it would be considered a negative distinction. Galilee was far from the spiritual center of Israel and its people regarded to some degree as lower class. For that matter Nazareth was not highly regarded even among Galileans. Remember Nathaniel’s remark? “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46)
It is the next comment that is most baffling: and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Mark moves on as though he has written nothing unusual. But if he were reading his gospel to an audience, surely someone would have interrupted him and said, “Wait a minute. What is Jesus doing getting baptized? John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance; what did Jesus have to repent of?”
Nothing. Mark would have replied, “Let me finish. See what happens.” 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.” What takes place at the baptism is Mark’s focus.
Now, Mark’s fellow gospel writer, Matthew, did think it was strange for Jesus to request baptism and he lets us know that John did hesitate when Jesus came to be baptized. He records their meeting this way:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented (Matthew 3:13-15).
It seems that Jesus saw baptism as a means to identify with the people he had come to save and to signify the work he was going to do. He would later refer to the sacrifice he was to make as the baptism he had to undergo. Remember what statement the people were making by their baptism? They were sinners; they were turning from their sins to God in hope for forgiveness. Jesus’ statement would have been this: “I will take on the sins of my people and undergo the real baptism that provides forgiveness.”
But, again, Mark’s focus is not on why Jesus thought he should be baptized, but on the result of the baptism, which was to reveal who Jesus was. In John’s gospel, John the Baptist reflects on Jesus’ baptism with this comment: “I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:31). This baptism reveals him. How so? Let’s look at what he experienced.
10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open. What a dramatic phrase – heaven being torn open. What is being signified? Why doesn’t Jesus just see the Spirit coming down? There is a similar phrase in Isaiah 64:1 which goes like this: Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! Isaiah is calling to God up in heaven to come down and help his people. Perhaps Mark is alluding to that passage, stating that in Jesus God did come down or that God came down to descend upon Jesus.
As I was reflecting upon the language, it occurred to me how similar the wording was to another dramatic scene. Listen to this passage in Mark 15:37-39: With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. 38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” It is clear what the curtain being torn in two signified. The curtain separated the Holy of Holies (God’s dwelling place) from the rest of the temple. It was a statement that God could not be directly approached. Jesus’ death removed the separation curtain and gave us direct access to God.
Now think. When is heaven torn open? Immediately after Jesus’ baptism. What real baptism does this water baptism signify for Jesus? His death. When is the curtain torn in two? Immediately after his death. The same Greek word is used for torn in both places. It seems to me, Mark is demonstrating the direct access to God that Jesus possesses and that he will give through his baptism of death. One might have concluded without this phrase that the descending Spirit served as an intermediary between God and Jesus. But no, heaven was split open that there might not be anything between them.
Next is the phrase the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Jesus has open access to God the Father; he is anointed by God the Holy Spirit. What’s taking place here? His baptism. The one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit is himself baptized with the Spirit. He is not merely anointed by the Spirit, but with the Spirit. And it is this anointing that validates and empowers him for his work as the Messiah.
What do I mean by that? Wasn’t Jesus already filled with the Holy Spirit, and, for that matter, why does the Son of God need the Spirit of God to validate his ministry? To illustrate what is happening, consider my own case as a minister. My becoming a Christian meant that I was baptized by the Holy Spirit, who from then on continued to dwell within me. It is also the Spirit who endowed me with the gift to minister the Word, which I exercised before becoming ordained. Even so, it was not until the moment of my ordination, by the laying on of hands, that I was publicly set apart and recognized as a Minister of the Gospel. That event validated my calling to be a minister. It also signified that the Spirit had empowered me for that calling.
Jesus’ baptism became his ordination. He was directly ordained by God the Father, who through the sign of the dove validated and empowered his Son for the specific ministry of the Messiah. Isaiah spoke of this empowerment.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD (Isaiah 10:2).
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him (Isaiah 42:1).
And then there is the passage Jesus himself quoted to refer to himself:
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor (Isaiah 61:1,2).
I am not sure how significant it is that the Spirit comes in the form of a dove, except that the dove was a bird of endearment to the Jews as well as to most peoples. Certainly Mark’s readers, both Jews and Gentiles, would have thought such an imagery to be fitting to express both divinity and affection.
So Jesus sees heaven open; he sees the Spirit descend upon him; he then hears a voice: 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” More is happening here than just a father saying that he is proud of his son.
God the Father is visibly and audibly placing his seal of approval on Jesus to be the Messiah. Any Jewish rabbi or priest would have thought of two biblical passages upon hearing these words. One is Psalm 2, which was taken to be a messianic psalm, i.e. one which foretold of the Messiah. Here is verse seven:
I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:
He said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
The other passage we have already read - Isaiah 42:1:
Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight…
God the Father is affirming Jesus as his Son who has come as the Messiah. It is a clear public statement, as well as a clear statement to Jesus. He is now ordained.
Before we go on, though, I want to draw your attention back to that passage in Mark 15 we’ve read. Remember, I was comparing Jesus’ baptism with his death and showing how the water baptism foreshadowed his baptism of death. We noted how each baptism resulted in tearing open the veil that separated God from man. Look at yet another comparison. After the baptism and the rending of the heavenly veil, God affirms Jesus to be his Son. Listen again to Mark 15:39: And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Do you catch what is going on? Follow the pattern in each passage. There is a baptism: the water baptism and the baptism of death; there is a rending of the veil that separates God from man: the heavenly sky and the curtain in the temple; finally, there is an affirmation that the one who goes through the baptism is the Son of God. And how, by the way, does Mark first refer to Jesus in the opening verse? Jesus Christ (Messiah), the Son of God. I’ve already noted that this is the theme of Mark’s gospel – that Jesus is the Son of God. We see it in the first scene in which Jesus appears and then near the conclusion of the gospel.
Now, what I want you to note is the activity that reveals Jesus’ divinity, or to put it another way, that reveals his glory. It is the activity of redemption. His death on the cross was his work of redemption. His water baptism signified that real baptism of death. By the way, it is in Mark 10:38 when Jesus is respond to James’ and John’s request to sit in the highest positions with him in glory. Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” The point that I am making is that it is redemption, which reveals the glory of Jesus.
Listen again to Isaiah 40:3-5:
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.”
What God is like our God who displays his glory through the redemption of rebels, and who redeems them through an act of humiliation – dying on a cross? Who is like Jesus who proves he is God’s Son by being man’s servant? Who else, through his greatest act of humiliation, most glorifies himself?
The Wilderness 12-13
But, we are still in Mark 1 at Jesus’ water baptism, and redemption is only being foreshadowed at this point. Once he is baptized, anointed by the Spirit and affirmed by the Father, he is worshipped by everyone and proclaimed the Messiah. It doesn’t quite work that way, does it? This same Spirit, who anoints him and signifies his favor with God, now drives him into the wilderness.
I’m sure you have already noticed what is missing in Mark’s account of Jesus’ wilderness experience. The dialogue between Jesus and Satan, found in Matthew and Luke, is missing. Why would he omit such vital information? Who knows; maybe he didn’t have the information. But it is evident that he focuses on Jesus being in the wilderness. Actually, the wilderness or desert has figured prominently all along. Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of the voice calling in the desert. John baptizes in the desert, which is where Jesus is baptized. His going into the wilderness is really a going further into the wilderness alone.
Note the emphasis on the severity of Jesus’ experience. He is driven forth immediately by the Spirit. “Driven” fits the Greek term better than “sent.” There is no time given to basking in his acclaim. He is there for forty days. It is not a weekend camping trip. He is tempted by Satan. The archenemy is doing his best to break him down. He is with the wild animals. Mark is not portraying danger so much as he is Jesus’ isolation. He is not communing with nature and enjoying the companionship of God’s creatures. He is out there without friends. But he does come through the experience safe. At the end he is befriended and ministered to by angels.
Now, though we might think this experience strange for Jesus to have to go through, it would not have been for the Jews. If anything, it would have only served as another confirmation that he was the Messiah. Moses, after all lived in the wilderness forty years before returning to Egypt to deliver God’s people. He was on Mt. Sinai forty days alone when God called him up to receive the commandments. Elijah traveled through the wilderness for forty days without food. And, of course, God’s people wandered through the wilderness for forty years. These events were regarded as times for spiritual testing and preparation. Remember, it is in the wilderness where God works spiritual change.
It is only appropriate that the Messiah would face his wilderness experience. And it is only expected that he would successively come through, ready to embark on the ministry to which he was called.
Conclusion
Now, let’s review what Jesus experienced. First, it was a baptism. Just like everybody else, he is baptized, the one difference being that, whereas the others were baptized as a sign of their repentance, he was baptized as a sign of the death he was to undergo for their forgiveness.
He next experienced an ordination – an empowerment from the Holy Spirit and blessing from the Father. Though he already possessed both, this moment was the public affirmation and commissioning for his ministry. He then experienced a test – a period spent in the wilderness. This test would further prepare and confirm him for the role he was to carry out.
And what was that role? Listen to the writer of Hebrews in 4:14-5:10. You would think he is writing a commentary on this very passage in Mark.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
4 No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”
6 And he says in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus was made a priest, our priest. That was the role he was to fulfill. And he is a priest who has gone through the temptations and trials that we have. Not that he was ever disobedient, but he learned through experience to be obedient in the midst of temptation and trials. We’ve talked about this before. Because he has gone through the same trials as we, we know him to be sympathetic to us. And because he was obedient, we know that he is heard by God.
That baptism he received is a sign for us of the sacrifice our High Priest offered up for us. That ordination he experienced is a sign for us that he was chosen of God and empowered by him to carry out his atoning work. And that test in the wilderness is a further sign to us that he was worthy of his calling.
Blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ who was and ever remains our High Priest.
