JESUS IN REAL TIME—Mark 1:1-13
Who is Jesus? The name “Jesus” evokes mental images about God, religion, ethics, or personal faith. Some of those images might be warm and fuzzy, while some might be dark and dreary. Some might be reflections of personal ideals and biases—a Jesus who supports the worldview of the person who believes.
Jesus can even be like a cultural “meme”—an idea or image that spreads through groups of people, taking on new meanings for different religious movements, internet influencers, or the tattoos of superstars or white supremacists. ***Preacher: You could project some internet memes or images of Jesus here.**
Mark portrays Jesus in his gospel, not merely as a symbol of faith or religious ideals, or a cultural icon. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is “that guy”—the one known by him and the people around him.
How did Mark know Jesus? Mark 14:51-52 has an intriguing detail in his account of the arrest of Jesus in the garden: “A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.” Mark doesn’t say who that young man was, but it makes sense that it was Mark himself.
Mark knew all of the apostles. Acts 12:12 tells us that when an angel sprung Peter from prison, “he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.” His mother was one of the women who had traveled with Jesus, and she had been one of the first to see Jesus after he rose from the dead.
Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabus, but he knew Jesus best through the eyes and ears of Peter. As a Galilean fisherman, Peter’s native language was Aramaic. He could probably understand Greek, the language of gentile Christians in the Roman Empire, but he used a translator when he spoke or wrote. Silas helped him write the letter known as 1 Peter, and there is a strong tradition that Mark translated for Peter when he spoke to Greek-speaking audiences.
A third century historian with access to sources no longer available described how Mark wrote his gospel: “The Elder (probably the apostle John) said this also: Mark, who became Peter’s interpreter, wrote accurately, though not in order, all that he remembered of the things said or done by the Lord. For he had neither heard the Lord nor been one of his followers, but afterwards, as I said, he had followed Peter, who used to compose his discourses with a view to the needs of his hearers, but not as though he were drawing up a connected account of the Lord’s sayings. So Mark made no mistake in thus recording some things just as he remembered them. For he was careful of this one thing, to omit none of the things he had heard and to make no untrue statements therein.” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.39.15)
Mark’s gospel presents Jesus as Peter knew Jesus. Peter came to know Jesus in real time, gradually comprehending who Jesus was.
WHO IS JESUS?
Read Mark 1:1-13 (if you have not already read it).
-JESUS WAS A MAN. “The beginning of the gospel about JESUS…”
***A story is told of a woman working at an emergency call center in a large city. A text came in, saying, “I need someone to help me with Jesus. He won’t do what he promised.” The woman was a caring Christian person, and she replied, “I’m so sorry. Sometimes life is hard, but be patient; Jesus our Savior will never let you down.” The man replied, “Lady, I don’t know what your problem is, but Jesus (pronounced Hay-SOOS) owes me a lot of money, and I need it now.”**
Jesus is a common name in Spanish-speaking countries, and it was a common name in Palestine. Jesus of Nazareth was a pretty normal-looking guy, like anybody else in some ways. He couldn’t be in two places at once, and he didn’t teleport from one place to another; he walked the 70 miles from Nazareth to the desert place where John was baptizing. Although he sometimes knew what people were thinking and saying, he did not know everything, for he said he did not know the time of his second coming. When he wanted to talk with his Father in heaven, he got up early in the morning to pray, just like you might.
His name was not chosen at random, however. When an angel appeared to Joseph to tell him Mary was pregnant, he said, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) The name Jesus, like the Hebrew name Joshua, means, “Yahweh is salvation.”
John the Baptist had known Jesus from childhood. Their mothers were relatives, and when Mary found out she was pregnant with Jesus, she traveled to Judea to talk with Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John. Although Jesus grew up in Galilee, and John in Judea, Jesus and his family traveled to Jerusalem for the major festivals. Since Bethlehem was only 5.5 miles from Jerusalem, we can imagine the two families getting together for Thanksgiving (the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles), and John and Jesus hanging out together, like two cousins of the same age.
I like my cousins, but I would not say of them what John said about Jesus: “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his sandals.” John had the utmost respect for Jesus, and he recognized that Jesus was chosen by God for a special purpose.
John had been at the Jordan River for a while, preaching about repentance, and baptizing people as they confessed their sins, when Jesus showed up! Jesus didn’t need to repent and have his sins washed away, but he went into the river to be baptized anyway.
Why did Jesus insist on being baptized, symbolizing repentance? He was identifying with all of humanity, because sin and brokenness is common to all of us, except for Jesus.
***It is sort of like a team captain who gets after the rest of the team for being lazy, merely going through the motions. He tells them to repent—to run laps after practice—and then he runs with them, even though he hasn’t been a slacker. Jesus didn’t need to repent, but he identified with those who needed to repent.**
As Jesus came out of the river, he had a vision of the Holy Spirit coming on him like a dove, and he heard the voice of God. What a fantastic experience!
What would Jesus do next?
***A few years ago, Disney had an ad campaign at the end of the Super Bowl, where the most valuable player of the game was asked, “What are you going to do next?” The superstar was paid to answer, “I’m going to Disney World!”**
Jesus did not go to Fantasyland. Immediately, the Spirit sent him into the wilderness, for 40 days! He was alone, hungry, and tempted by the Great Tempter, Satan. These were the first of many temptations, and even later in the chapter, Mark indicates that Jesus was tempted several times to abort his mission and abdicate his calling from God.
Why did Jesus have to be tempted? He was human, like us. Hebrews 2:14-18 says, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity…he had to be made like them, fully human in every way…Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Jesus was a man, human as we are human.
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus the Messiah, THE SON OF GOD.”
If you look in your Bible, you might notice a footnote that says, “Some manuscripts do not have ‘the Son of God.’” Most of the earliest and best Greek manuscripts do have it, but if Mark did not put it in his introductory statement, it is clearly found in verse 11: “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mark 1:10-11)
Considering the Christian teaching about the Trinity, we can see here a beautiful picture of the Triune God converging on Jesus at the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus, while the Father affirms Jesus as his Son with love and approval.
The people at the river that day probably didn’t see all that, however. Mark tells us Jesus saw heaven opened and heard the voice, but he does not say that others shared in the experience. Even if they had, they would probably not have understood that Jesus was the “one and only Son,” as John 3:16 describes him.
Jesus WAS God, but that truth dawned slowly on Peter and the other disciples. The first hint comes just a few verses later in Mark, as Jesus is in the synagogue in Capernaum, and people are amazed that he teaches with authority. Then in chapter 2, Jesus claims authority to forgive sins, and the teachers of the law recognize that only God has the right to forgive sins. In chapter 9, Peter sees Jesus transfigured, and hears a voice saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
The deciding factor for Peter was Jesus’ resurrection. At Pentecost, Peter declared that Jesus was “exalted to the right hand of God…[and] God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” We might miss it, but for Jews in Peter’s time, “Lord” meant “God.” Peter was saying that Jesus, risen from the dead, was God.
(The Jewish background is key: In the OT, God is Elohim (God), Adonai (Lord), or Yahweh (YHWH or Jehovah). To avoid taking the divine name in vain, the Hebrew YHWH was read aloud as LORD. The NIV preserves that reading in the OT, replacing YHWH with LORD in all-caps, to distinguish it from Adonai, Lord.)
-JESUS IS THE MESSIAH. “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus THE MESSIAH…”
The Messiah (or Christ in Greek) was One who would fulfill all the promises of the Old Testament—a servant of God, who would represent God’s people and lead them in righteousness. Messiah is literally “anointed one.” Prophets, priests and kings were anointed in the Old Testament, and the Messiah would perfectly fulfill all of those roles; he would speak for God as a prophet, he would represent God as a priest, and he would rule as God’s king.
Mark tells us, (Mark 1:10-11), “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’”
This was a fulfillment of messianic promises in the Old Testament.
Mark says the heavens were torn open, using a violent word (“schizo”) translating Isaiah 64:1, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!” When life on earth gets crazy, God’s people wish that God would come and make things right.
Mark said the Spirit descended on Jesus, echoing Isaiah 42:1, “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.” The Messiah, or the Servant in Isaiah’s vision, would represent all of God’s people. All of God’s people need the Spirit of God.
“You are my Son…,” echoes Psalm 2:6-7, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have become your father.’” Jews recognized this as first a reference to Solomon, but also to the coming messianic king in the line of David.
This was the anointing of Jesus as Messiah: he received the Spirit without measure, he heard the voice of God, and he was pronounced King, as God’s beloved Son.
-JESUS IS THE ONE WHO MAKES US LIKE HIM!
C.S. Lewis poignantly said, “The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.”
We need to be careful how we understand that, of course. We do not become gods, and we do not want a “Messiah complex,” so that we try to save the world. Yet there is a sense in which we become like Jesus, through Jesus.
Romans 8:14-17 says, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
This is remarkable! The Holy Spirit came on Jesus, and the Father declared that Jesus was the Son he loved—the one who pleased him. Paul says we can have a similar experience! The Holy Spirit comes upon us, we are adopted as God’s children, and we are “co-heirs with Christ.” We become like Jesus in his human relationship to the Father. In fact, Paul goes on to say in Romans 8:29 that God intends for us to be “conformed to the image of his Son, that he [Jesus] might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
How can that happen? Jesus makes it happen!
In Mark 1:8, John said, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
When Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus said to him in John 3:3-5, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again….no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of WATER and the SPIRIT.”
The water of baptism symbolizes repentance. We must turn away from sin and impurity, and seek God’s way. Then the Spirit—the Holy Spirit—connects us with God. We are adopted as his children, guided by his commands, seeking to please him.
God invites us to be blessed like that!
After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, Peter preached the good news at Pentecost. He concluded his message by saying, (Acts 2:36-39) “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord (that is, God) and Messiah.” Then he said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Jesus is the One who connects us with God, so that we become like him: children of God, guided by the Holy Spirit, pleasing to God.
The good news of the gospel is that, through Jesus Christ, we can be connected with God TODAY. You can repent and receive Jesus today, if you have never done that. We can all come to Jesus today, repenting of our sins, and receiving more of the Spirit that came on Jesus that day. We can all experience the joy of being children of God, obeying his commands and pleasing him. That is the “good news of the gospel” that Mark presents to us.
