Epiphany 2B – Mark 1: 1-11 (text from Baptism of Jesus)
You might recall much of this reading from the second Sunday of Advent; on that Sunday, our focus was on John, the Baptizer, and how his teachings may or may not have influenced Jesus. Today, we’ll focus on Mark, why he began his gospel as he did, and the significance — for him — of Jesus’ baptism.
Now that the Christmas season is over — with its stories of angels and magi and virgin births — along comes Mark and turns everything catawampus. There are no pretty tales of angel greetings; no angel choruses, no shepherds rushing to greet the birth of a child. Just an announcement: The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So, what’s up with Mark? What does he have against stories that portend the birth of a special child?
Well, maybe Mark simply wasn’t as good a storyteller as Matthew or Luke. Or maybe, just maybe, he didn’t feel it was necessary to create a birth story for Jesus. Maybe he figured the LIFE of the man was the most important thing and that it wasn’t necessary to compete with the birth story of Caesar. In his mind, there was no competition: the LIFE of Jesus was what mattered.
It’s important that we know something about Mark’s gospel because, even though it is the shortest gospel, it was the first one written, closest to the time of Jesus. It’s also the gospel that will be the central focus of this lectionary year, Year B.
For Mark, Jesus bursts on the scene at the time of his encounter with John in the wilderness; what may or may not have happened prior to this time — if anyone really knows—is incidental to Mark. Jesus’ ministry is what matters.
Modern Christians may find three surprises in the beginning of Mark’s gospel: its abruptness, the meaning of “gospel” as proclamation, and the importance of the titles “messiah” and “Son of God.” Our experience with the other gospels — particularly as emphasized in our annual celebration of Christmas — leads us to expect either a birth story — as in Matthew or Luke — or a poetic meditation on Jesus’ pre-existence with God, as in John’s gospel. But the danger of infancy narratives is that they produce questions and speculations about the childhood of Jesus and his family — most particularly his mother — which may overshadow the REAL story of salvation. In early Christianity, there were a number of writers who provided readers with various speculations — and even in modern times, writers claiming special psychic wisdom have produced works that claim to fill in details of the hidden life of Jesus. The abrupt beginning of Mark provides an opportunity to highlight a different feature of our Christmas celebration: the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation.
But let’s start at the beginning: we might hear the opening line of Mark’s gospel differently than it was originally intended: the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “Christ” was a title, used to convey the meaning that this particular person was “anointed” by God. In that sense, many priests and prophets and kings of Israel were also “christs” — people anointed by God. The Hebrew word is “messiah.” As for the title, “son of God,” that, too, wasn’t a title used exclusively for Jesus. Psalm 2[1] reads: I will tell of the decree of God who said to me: “You are my son; today I have begotten you. There is some uncertainty as to whether David or someone else wrote this psalm, but regardless of who wrote it, one who was anointed by God could well have been referred to as “God’s son,” adopted by God.
Whatever Mark meant to imply in his opening line by his titles for Jesus isn’t something of which we can be absolutely certain. Many ancient manuscripts do not even include the words, “son of God.”[2] Even the word, Christos — “Christ” — “was so commonly used as a designation for Jesus that without further specification the word did NOT imply a particular dignity.”[3] It’s possible, however, that the hearing of the divine voice and the descent of the Spirit on Jesus at his baptism suggest his anointing and divine adoption.
So what did Mark mean by “good news” or “gospel?” If that was his primary point in his opening line, what was he intending to convey — and why was everything that came before this point in Jesus’ life incidental?
Perhaps Mark understood that if he created stories about Jesus’ birth — as the other gospel writers did — then the REAL focus of the story would be lost. “Good news” may be difficult to hear, especially when that news upsets the world as we know it. And Jesus’ life certainly “upset the apple cart” for many of those who “mattered” in the world of his day. And maybe even for us. We’d really rather concentrate on something OTHER than his life; we’d rather settle on something else. So at Christmas we sing carols about the wonderful story of Jesus’ birth; we fill the sanctuary with decorations and a Christmas tree; we arrange all the characters in the crèche. But, in the end, what have we done other than turn our focus away from Jesus’ LIFE and onto details that — in the greater scheme of things — don’t really matter much. And maybe that’s what Mark understood: start with what counts, not with incidentals. Figure out what God was doing in the life of the one known as “Jesus” — whom many prefer to call “Christ” – possibly because that blurs the reality of the MAN, the flesh and blood human being who walked the face of this earth.
John Shelby Spong, in a poem entitled “Christpower,” has this to say about Jesus:
“Finally, in the fullness of time,
within that human family,
one
unique and special human life appeared:
whole
complete
free
loving
living
being
at one
at peace
at rest.
“In that life was seen with new intensity
that primal power of the universe —
the life force of God called Christpower…
And it was good!
“Of that life people said: Jesus,
you are the Christ,
for in you we see
and feel
and experience
the living force of life
and love
and being
of God.”
What matters in this poem — or in Mark’s narrative — is that the message points us to God, to what God was doing in this event, WHY God was doing it, the folks for whom God was doing it. But as Christians are inclined to do, we take the message and develop it into a doctrine.[4] Yet whether it’s a poem or a story labeled as “good news,” these are stories, written in awe, crafted by those who struggled to share something about this mystery, intended not for history books, but for books of prayers, poems, and praise.
The point of scripture isn’t for us to focus on human beings — whether it’s Mary or Joseph or John the Baptist. The point is to look beyond them and see what God is doing through this mystery, this miracle, this conundrum.
The importance of the message about salvation is underscored when we realize that the word gospel originally meant “proclamation” or “good news.” Christianity did NOT begin with a new book. Its Scripture was that of the Jewish people, of whom Jesus was one. Christianity began with a “new message” about what THE GOD known through the Hebrew Scriptures had done in Jesus. It related to the message that people had already heard through the prophets, and that may be why Mark described Jesus’ baptism as he did. He may have recalled the words of Isaiah[5]: “O that you would rend the heavens and come down!” These words may well have influenced Mark’s choice of language as he wrote of Jesus’ baptism: he saw the heavens torn apart. This was a very graphic way of explaining how, in Jesus, there was a meeting of the God sphere and the human sphere. Nothing Mark says diminishes the godliness of God or Jesus’ humanity. He simply reports Jesus’ baptismal vision in a way that makes unmistakably clear that the story that follows is about God’s activity — the “good news” of God — and that this good news is inextricably bound up with the activity of Jesus.[6]
The Baptizer proclaims that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Jesus envisions that same Spirit descending upon him as he rises from the river. But “baptizing” with the Spirit doesn’t mean some “emotional experience” as some have interpreted it. It means bringing the Spirit to people in a way that will effect release and freedom. That’s what Jesus brought to people throughout his ministry: release and freedom from the bondage imposed upon them by those who looked down upon them, who sought to oppress them. And by releasing people from their bondage — whatever it might be — it allowed them the freedom to share God’s message, to be “good news” to others.
Mark wants us to see “good news” in terms of dynamic action that flows from the Spirit and the special relationship of Jesus with God. That action provides us with a model for what it means to be a “Christian” — a follower of Jesus. It’s Mark’s way of saying: See this man, Jesus. In him, God is writing a new chapter, a new beginning. And in that new beginning was the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation. It wouldn’t be brought just to a “particular” people; it wouldn’t be even for a select few. In this new chapter, salvation was brought to ALL, even those who never thought it would come to them.
There was no path set before Jesus; he had to make one in the way he lived his life and how he embraced the people he met, regardless of who they were. We can now follow that path, or we can veer to the side and follow another easier trail. Each of us makes that decision.
The question is: WHOM will we follow? And will it be “good news” that we share? Amen.
This sermon was written by the Rev. Janet Weiblen, Intentional Interim Minister at Weston Christian Church. It can only be used with permission of the author. revj@kc.rr.com.
