You Are My Son, The Beloved

You Are My Son, the Beloved

Mark 1:4-11

We have come to the Sunday on the Church calendar where we remember that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan. This account is contained in all four Gospels, even though John does not explicitly mention it, just that He came to John where the Baptist was baptizing. Of all of the Gospels, Mark’s account which is the lectionary text for today is by far the shortest. In fact, the introduction to the gospel is minimalist. There is no mention of Jesus’ birth. We have no Magi with gifts or the presentation of Jesus in the Temple as well as Jesus confounding the teachers at the Temple when He was twelve. There is hardly any introduction to John the Baptist either. The Gospel begins with the short statement: “The beginning of the Good News concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is followed by two short Old Testament citations, one from Malachi 3:1 and a longer one from Isaiah 40 which introduces John the Baptist as the messenger God had sent to prepare the way before the Lord in the wilderness.

So when we ask the question why the introduction of Mark’s gospel is so short, including a very brief note about the Temptation in the wilderness. It is true that Mark is the shortest Gospel, but Mark’s account is not always the shortest in dealing with the life of Jesus. In particular, the passage about the healing of Jairus’ daughter intermixed with the woman with the issue of blood is much more elaborate than Luke or Matthew. A similar treatment is given to the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the Temple.

The sparseness of the beginning of the gospel makes the passion account much longer in relation to the gospel than either Luke or Matthew. This places special emphasis on the passion. In Fact, Lane in his commentary calls Mark: “a passion account with an introduction.

We must remember that the Holy Spirit is the true author of Scripture. The Holy Spirit does use humans as well in these accounts, but we must remember that the Holy Spirit shares in the omniscience of the Holy Trinity. He knew from the beginning that there would be four gospels. So some of the questions that Mark leaves us are answered in the other Gospels. This means that when we look at Mark, we should emphasize what is said in his text. By omitting details, he is stressing certain things.

The first thing that Mark wants us to zero in on is in the phrase, “the Son of God” in verse one. This is the same confession the Roman Centurion at the cross makes. The traditional author, John Mark was said to be the son of a Roman soldier and a Jewish mother. Although we cannot determine this for sure, there are some Latin terms in the text. The mention of wild beasts in the wilderness is only in Mark, If Mark was writing to a church or churches in Rome, we can thing of the Christians being thrown to the wild beasts in the wilderness. Jesus faced the wild beasts in the wilderness and angels ministered to Him. In the same way, angels will minister to us in times of our greatest distress. The mention of the blind man’s name as Bar-Timaeus is interesting as it is a mix of Latin and Aramaic. There also seemed to be a person in the Roman church by that name.

The reason I have introduced this is that the term “The Son of God” was significant in the Roman world. This is the title of the Caesars who ruled Rome. The Roman Centurion made a daring confession. He had made an oath to serve Caesar as the Son of God. But now, in front of other Roman soldiers, he was confessing that it was this crucified Jew who was indeed the Son of God, not Tiberius Caesar. He was putting his life on the line to make such a confession. So here, in one short statement, there is a great deal of information to be had. Confessing Jesus is the Son of God is risky for us as well.

The two short citations of Scripture in verses two and three demonstrate that the coming of both John the Baptist and Jesus was part of God’s plan from the beginning. He could have quoted many Scriptures, but these two make the point. Even though John and Jesus appear suddenly in the gospel does not mean that it was spontaneous.

In accordance to Isaiah 40, John the Baptist preached in the wilderness. Later on, Mark mentions that he was clothed in camel hair and a leather belt and ate locusts and wild honey. Even though Mark does not cite Malachi 4:4-5 which mentions the return of the prophet Elijah before the Lord comes, the dress of the Baptist was the same as Elijah.