4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” 9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
In Mark 1:4-8, Mark specifies the significance of John the Baptist. In verses 2-3, he has already understood scripturally the appearance of 4John the baptizer in the wilderness. The harsh Judean wilderness was like a desert. It might seem like an unlikely spot for the flowering of new faithfulness. The wilderness way is treacherous and only the essentials will find a place. The wilderness way is about survival, life and death, sin and grace. Preparing for wilderness travel is challenging work. It involves anticipating what might happen out there in the wilds and then preparing for it. Anticipation and preparation are the keys to wilderness survival. The desert had been the place where the Lord called Israel after Egyptian slavery in the exodus. The wilderness was where Israel lost its way in the 40-year wandering. John invites Israel back into the wilderness to repent.
So much of what I know about John makes me think I would have gone out of my way not to see him. “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd,"[1] would apply to John. He sounds too much like those street evangelists who wave their Bibles and tell you that you are going to straight to Hell unless you follow his directions. He would know whether you have successfully repented. Of course, such persons tend to plant themselves in your way. You have to cross the street to avoid them. They get in your face and dare you to ignore them. John planted himself in the middle of nowhere. He planted himself in the wilderness. If you wanted to hear him, you had to go out of your way and go through some trouble to hear him. Yet, many people in his day went through all of that to hear what John had to say to them. People felt drawn to him, not only because of who he was and what he said, but also because of what he offered them - a chance to come clean, to stop pretending they were someone else and start over.
Therefore, we read that John came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark views John as already connecting baptism and the forgiveness of sin, an important connection in the rest of the New Testament.[2] Such a theme is consistent with the prophetic tradition. It also is a difference between John and Jesus, for the latter did not baptize.[3] Repentance involves a turning around, a radical change of direction, involving the heart and will. Repentance involved the whole being of the repentant one. Repentance is the hopeful word of John, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around. We need to experience the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[4] Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[5] 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem turned from their settled and comfortable lives and were going out to him, turning toward the wilderness and the message of John, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan. The symbolic use of water has a connection with Jewish sects of the time. It was a form of ritual purification. The Essene community practiced it daily. Some groups practiced it to mark significant transitions in life. Jewish proselytes self-immersed in water. Josephus connected the baptism of John with ritual purification.[6] However, John invited the Jewish people to submit to his baptism.[7] Water symbolizes purifying of life. In this way, people came to John confessing their sins. Such persons joyfully participated in preparations for the coming of the Lord. Such preparation can only mean the rule of God is near. Submitting to baptism was a concrete expression of the act of repentance. Such confession took place before or during baptism. The good news as found in the preaching of John is that forgiveness of sin is already available. Thus, the first step is simple honesty. We sin, we wander, we lie, and we do not know how to save ourselves through our efforts. Repentance is the admission that in our sin we need to receive forgiveness. Yet, the first step has a close relation to the second step, in which we acknowledge that God forgives. The good news begins in Mark as John invites people to receive forgiveness. We can receive the gift of washing, cleansing, and new birth. We can start over, fresh, like a newborn infant. God forgives. Such is the beginning and end of the good news. For all sin, God forgives. Outside the ascetic life of John is despair, the proud attitude that denies the need for or the possibility of forgiveness.[8] Sinners have all the advantages in this good news. God is willing to stay with us in our meanness, weakness, and stubborn self-righteousness. We are better off spiritually if we confess our sins rather than keep a list of the sins of others against us.[9]
Further, when John preached and issued a call for baptism, it would neither have shocked first-century Jews nor disturbed the ruling class. Ritual washings in mikva'ot (immersion baths or pools) were commonplace, and people believed that this practice cleansed the body of its chronic profanity and sanctified it for worship of God. This proclamation is undoubtedly what leads Luke to specifically identify John the Baptist's message as the beginning of the "good news" (see Luke 3:18) God intends for the people of Israel. Such baptism was a ritual lustration with roots already established within Jewish practice. Ritual purification with water was an important feature of Israelite religion, particularly regarding the impurity associated with various aspects of sexuality (e.g., intercourse and childbirth; see, e.g., Leviticus 15:18; Numbers 19:13). Ritual practices were widespread in Greco-Roman religion also, especially in cults associated with healing deities. While it is clear, therefore, that the practice of ritual purification with water did not originate with John the Baptist (and common sense would suggest that there was no one “inventor” of the practice), the New Testament first identifies baptism with John’s ministry and preaching, and only later and more significantly associated with Jesus (e.g., Matthew 29:19). In any case, for all its associations with the Greek and Jewish world, the baptism of John was unique.
Repentance is John’s hopeful word, pointing out our self-deceiving beliefs that we are good, worthy, deserving of our salvation and reminding us that our lives need turning around, to experiencing the washing in the cleansing waters of baptism as we anticipate the coming of the one mightier than John is. One does not experience enlightenment by simply imagining the light. One must also become conscious of the darkness.[10]Every day is judgment day. Through our deeds and words, our silence and speech, we are writing in the Book of Life.[11]
C.S. Lewis describes the unrepentant condition as being in a "hole" where we need the help of a friend (i.e., a savior) to get us out. Into what sort of hole is it that we have gotten ourselves? It is behaving as if we belonged to ourselves. We are not simply imperfect creatures who need improvement; we are rebels who must lay down our arms. "Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor -- that is the only way out of a 'hole,'" says Lewis. This process of surrender is what we call repentance (the underlying Greek word means "changing the mind" or "turning around"), and it is what John was calling for in his prophetic preaching. Lewis adds this important note: "... this repentance ... is not something God demands of you before he will take you back and which he could let you off if he chose: it is simply a description of what going back to him is like." We cannot be right with God without repentance; it is like asking God to take us back without actually going back.[12]
The writer Kathleen Norris gives us another way to understand repentance. She tells of working as an artist-in-residence at a parochial school and telling children something about the psalms. The kids are often astonished to discover that the psalmists expressed the more unacceptable emotions like sadness and anger, even anger at God. She says that because the children know what it is like to be small in a world designed for big people. They identify quite readily with the psalmists, and often do quite well when she invites them to write their own psalms.
She tells of one boy who wrote a poem/psalm called "The Monster Who Was Sorry." He began by admitting that he hated it when his father yelled at him, and in the poem, he pictures himself responding by throwing his sister down the stairs, wrecking his room and then wrecking the whole town. The poem ends with, "Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, 'I shouldn't have done that.'" Norris concludes her account of this boy's poem by referring to the fourth-century monks who guided beginners in the faith and suggesting that those monks would have told this boy "that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy, they might have said, why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?"[13]
Stephen Vincent Benét once wrote a Christmas play in which the wife of the innkeeper -- truly a bit part, if ever there was one -- has a memorable line. Looking on in wonder at the strange events of that holy night, the innkeeper's wife realizes that something of tremendous import has happened there in her husband's barn. And so she declares:
Rise up! The loves we had were not enough.
Something is loosed to change the shaken world,
And with it we must change!
That is the message of John the Baptist. Something has happened, and we must change.
The baptism of John continues to have significance for Christians. The fact that Jesus will submit himself to his baptism should be enough reason. God forgives sin, brings deliverance, and gives the gift of salvation. It means acceptance of daily repentance so that a new self will arise to live with God.[14] Some Christian traditions have learned to have some embarrassment over the stereotype of old-fashioned preachers hammering their people on sin and making people feel guilty. To them, talk of repentance makes them nervous. This feeling has some truth contained in it. A French proverb says that years of repentance are necessary in order to blot out a sin in the eyes of human beings, but one tear of repentance suffices with God. Approached from another perspective, however, repentance is the doorway to the spiritual life and is, in fact, the only way to begin. Repentance is the journey of discipleship and the only way to continue in the path. Anything else is foolishness and self-delusion. Repentance suggests a form of both brute honesty and joyfulness that we will need for the spiritual journey. Of what in my past do we need to repent to allow God to do a new thing in us? Of what do we need forgiveness? Whom do we need to forgive to begin moving toward a different future? We might ask the question differently. From what do we need healing? The cleansing of the Baptist talked was not just a matter of what happened in the past. Such fresh and new people will receive the Holy Spirit that prepares them for ministry and mission.
Mark makes it clear that John is an historic figure of his time. Mark does this again with his description of his clothing. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. Zechariah 13:4 suggests prophets had “a hairy mantle,” while II Kings 1:8 describes Elijah the Tishbite as a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist. Malachi 4:5-6 looks forward to the expectation that Elijah would return at the end of the age. Mark also describes his diet: and he ate locusts and wild honey. Bedouins eat such food. John represents a wilderness ascetic movement of this time prior to 30 AD. The apocalyptic fervor of the day fueled his preaching. He may have had some connection with the Jewish set that authored and housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, texts that combined apocalyptic thought and an ascetic way of way of life. He may have some affinity with Essenes.
The content of the message of John is direct. John looks forward, in the form of a prophecy, 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. Such a prophecy will require fulfillment if the prophecy is true. Mark is going to say that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Of this person, John assures us: I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. John is clear in this disclaimer as to his role in the coming of the rule of God. John is almost demure in these matters. John also notes that the ministry of the one to come is quite different from his ministry. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. The risen Lord uses the phrase in Acts 1:5 and 11:16. The material Matthew and Luke share in common uses a similar phrase but adds that the baptism to come will be with the Holy Spirit and fire. The distinction between John and Christian baptism, of course, is the coming of Jesus. We can see here an understanding of the announcement by John in terms of Christian baptism with the Spirit.[15] The distinction holds in Acts 19:1-7 with Apollos and his baptism. Baptism with the Spirit and water baptism held no distinction in the early church. It knew of one baptism, administered with water and normally linked to the gift of the Spirit. Christian baptism outdates this distinguishing feature between it and John.[16]
The Holy Spirit gains a great deal of attention in some circles. We might say that it seems as if Jerusalem, with its pretend piety, temple taxes, and priestly focus, had covered up the Holy Spirit. They had snuffed out the Holy Spirit. God moved a prophet, John, to escape it all and move to the wilderness. John was socially unacceptable. Yet, he fanned the flame of the Holy Spirit for the people of Israel.
Yet, I have some misgivings. Some people use the Holy Spirit as a code word for a very intense sort of religion. I have nothing against such an experience. Yet, I do not think such an experience is a requirement for faithfulness. William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, in referring to a conversion experience, used the analogy of snow on a barn roof. It builds up and builds up, and at some point, one more snowflake makes the difference, and the roof collapses. Thus, we may go through life for many years having a wide variety of experiences that still leave us unconvinced of the Christian faith. Then some event, some encounter, not major by itself, may precipitate a conversion experience. When the right situation occurs, God will do the work. My point is only that too much of the talk about the Holy Spirit can become manipulative of emotion rather than open the door for God to work.[17]
Mark has set the stage with a tantalizing presentation of a new Elijah and a transforming new experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to come. The good news, already present in John, will come forth in a dramatic way with the coming of Jesus.
Applied to today, we might consider that the evangelical address of the church is in the situation and function of John the Baptist, which is also a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, and baptizing with water. The church is not worthy to unloose the shoes of its Lord. The church has the duty of summoning people to knowledge of Christ and readiness for baptism with the Spirit.[18]
The theme of Mark 1:9-11 is the story of baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. This baptism has the primary implication for us today in that when we receive baptism, we are publicly uniting ourselves with and standing with Jesus. In that sense, it becomes the basis for the early church to invite new believers to submit to baptism as well. Baptism is a sign that the favor or grace of God rests upon us. Baptism is a form of anointing us for ministry. Baptism is a sign that we have committed ourselves to the reign of God. As the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist stands at the beginning of his public ministry and had implications throughout that ministry, so our baptism stands at the beginning of our vocation to become increasingly a Christian. God calls Christians into fellowship with Jesus. In that way, the beginning of the ministry of Jesus is not of merely historical interest. It became exemplary, normative, and binding in respect of the form of the beginning of their new life. The beginning of a life of fellowship with Him is at issue. It followed His act of submission to God, of solidarity with humanity, and of service to God.
We learn that 9In the days of the preaching of John the Baptist Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee (28 AD). We know from other sources that nationalist uprisings occurred when Jesus was two and twelve. However, a non-violent protest by peasants occurred in Caesarea occurred against Pilate. A few months later, Jesus will come to the Baptist for baptism. It will be the first crucial decision he makes publicly. We can understand the ministry of the Baptist as inviting people to leave “Egypt,” that is, Jerusalem and the corrupt ways of institutional life in Israel and come to the wilderness. The Baptist patterned his ministry after Moses, Elijah, and other prophets. Significantly, however, Jesus does not stay with John in the wilderness. He will return to Galilee. John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan. The question naturally arises as to why Jesus was among those who freely submitted to the baptism of John. This act of Jesus is one of the few incidents in the life of Jesus in which scholars agree that it happened. The question arises as to whether Mark thought Jesus needed the kind of repentance and forgiveness the baptism of John signifies. Some would suggest a plain reading of the text demands an affirmative answer. I think a plain reading suggests a negative answer, given the private revelation to Jesus that occurs after his baptism. Thus, Mark then offers us a theological interpretation of this event in the life of Jesus. For Mark, the relationship between John and Jesus is not important. Rather, the revelation from God, which he now shares, is what is important to him. What occurs after the actual baptism is the primary point of the baptism. Thus, 10 as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw first, the heavens torn apart, a violent verb signaling the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. Mark will use the save verb in 15:38 to describe the tearing of the curtain in the temple. Both events go completely unnoticed by others. Second, Jesus saw the long absent Spirit, which swept over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2,descending through the torn open heavens like a dove. Such an image is not common in Judaism. An interesting recognition among scholars is that in the Roman imagination, the descent of a bird was a crucial omen for the life of a great leader. Usually, this bird was an eagle, the symbol of Roman legions and military might. Mark uses this trope but subverts it, placing the peaceful dove instead of the aggressive eagle. The reign of God, for which Jesus is the sole leader, comes as a peaceful and sacrificial dove instead of the Roman eagle. The dove descended on him (εἰς αὐτόν, upon or even into him). However, the resting upon persons, as in Isaiah 11:1-3, is a feature of prophetic literature. The point is that the living presence of the Holy Spirit will empower the ministry of Jesus. John had promised that the one to come after him would be different, and we see here the first expression of that difference. The baptism is the beginning of the eschatological age, which the theological significance of the Father tearing open the heavens and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. Further, 11a voice came from heaven, which we will not hear from again until the transfiguration of Jesus, saying, “You are my Son, (Psalm 2:7 as a royal psalm) the Beloved; with you I am well pleased (Isaiah 42:7 as a suffering servant).” Mark can begin his gospel seriously, having revealed to us the unique nature of Jesus of Nazareth. These verses reflect a private revelation to Jesus, or better, a private confirmation. They reveal the future of Jesus as king and servant, enthronement and suffering. We should view this combination of Messiah and suffering servant as a uniqueness that comes from Jesus of Nazareth. They convey an intimate, unfathomable moment of closeness between the beloved and the ultimate power of the universe. As readers, we will know things about Jesus that the disciples and the contemporaries of Jesus will not know. Mark keeps the secret hidden from the view of others, even if he does not keep secret from us. God chooses an unknown person from a small village in a marginal region. Jesus did not have the right pedigree. Yet, the choice of God occurs apart from recognized human authorities. We have here the impartation of the Spirit and the thought of adoption.[19] Some scholars will remind us that the Roman emperor designated his successor as his son. Often, this son was not the biological son but one of his adopted sons. Jesus is the elect Son of God.[20] As such, Jesus becomes a model of election as serving humanity for the mission God gave him.[21] The baptism proclaims divine sonship and relates it to the future of his public ministry.[22] Such statements have validity only from the standpoint of the Easter event.[23] Yet, what will of this mean? Mark will show the reader throughout the gospel. Mark has set the stage for the one who is more powerful than the Baptist, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. The one whose identity we as readers of this gospel know will contest with human beings who stand opposed to the good news and the rule of God.
[1] Flannery O'Connor
[2] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 240.
[3] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 240.
[4] Carl Jung
[5] Martin Luther King Jr.
[6] Josephus (Antiquities 18.117 [cf.18.5.2])
[7] (see further, Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1:584).
[8] Kathleen Morris, The Cloister Walk, New York: Riverhead Books, 1996, p. 128, quoting Bededicta Ward.
[9] Barbara Brown Taylor, Gospel Medicine, Boston: Crowley Publications,1995
[10] Carl Jung
[11] Martin Luther King Jr.
[12] Lewis, C.S. "The perfect penitent." Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillian Paperbacks, 1960, 56-61.
[13] Norris, Kathleen. "Repentance." Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. New York: Riverhead Books, 1998, 69-70.
[14] Martin Luther, Small Catechism.
[15] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 623.
[16] Pannenberg Systematic Theology Volume 3, 259-60
[17] Dr. Carver McGriff inspired these comments.
[18] Barth Church Dogmatics IV.3 [72.4] 854.
[19] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 266.
[20] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 306.
[21] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 457.
[22] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 1, 309.
[23] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume 2, 247, 365.
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