MARK 1:1-8 MEDITATION - Part 2
The good news is not just that of a man called Jesus, nor is it the good news of the anointed one of God. It is the good news of Jesus, the Son of God. Those words are revolutionary. This opening sentence reveals the essential identity of the person who has and who is that good news. The expression “Son of God” reveals God to be Father 1 and reveals the Son to be of the same essence of the Father so that anyone who sees the Son also sees the Father. Mark is actually saying Jesus Christ, true God and true man, has actually entered the world of our wounded humanity to elevate it beyond itself to abundance of life. As Athanasius once wrote "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." 2 God himself has become man so that man can become God, partakers in this same divinity (2 Peter 1:4). The Gospel of Mark relates how the words and actions of Jesus firmly establish this identity.
The second verse takes a step back into the past to explain that this arrival had already been foretold centuries earlier and that God has been guiding the course of history towards this momentous event. He takes us back to what we call the Old Testament and what the Jews call the Tanak, to the time of the prophets Isaiah and Malachi. 3
This reference to the prophets of the Old Testament is important as it shows that God has a plan for mankind which has been foretold centuries earlier and finds its fulfilment in the figure of Jesus Christ. There is direction in the journey of humanity at the end of which all will be summed up in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). Here we see the pivotal moment of the working out of that plan.
Time is no impediment for God who is outside of time. He patiently guides the events of human history and so arranges things that his plan for the good of mankind is achieved. They also tell us that if God has arranged everything over the centuries of human history for the good of mankind he can and is arranging everything in our lives to achieve his plan in and for each one of us.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
As he sent John the Baptist as a messenger he also sends a messenger ahead of the coming of Christ for each of us. That messenger could be anyone that crosses our path who will call us to prepare the coming of Christ into our hearts.
Leave what you are doing, leave your concerns and anxieties, withdraw into the desert of your inner self, that self that is imprisoned in what is working against your interests, those negative forces that keep you from being a free person, all that is leading you along the road of destruction and death. You were made to receive love, and, above all to give love. That cannot be until you let go of that hatred and those grudges that do more harm to you than to the persons they are directed against. Lay down those negative thoughts and emotions, those bitter memories that you hang onto, let go of the past that oppresses, the self-pity that extinguishes the life within. Lay everything at the feet of he who wants to come to you, to love you. Let go of all that is leading you down the road of destruction and death. Listen to that inner voice crying “prepare the way of the Lord”, the Lord of life who wants to transform your inner wilderness into fertile soil where his Holy Word can take root and transform you. Make his path straight for he can do nothing in you, through you or for you unless you open yourself to welcome him and you cannot welcome the Lord of life until you let go of the lord of death. Remember the choice we have is life or death. The call to a change of mind and heart can be heard in the centre, in the depths of your being, the call for a change of direction is there if you but only listen. Turn from the way of death and embark on the road that leads to life. This is repentance. Let us repent of everything that blocks or hinders our true self-fulfilment according to God’s plan for us. These forces, tendencies, actions and thoughts that go against our self-fulfilment according to God’s plan for us are called “sin”. Are you really earnest in seeking self-fulfilment? Then go down into your inner desert, listen to the voice crying out to you and give the Lord of life a chance. Everything that you think, say or do, that is working against your happiness, turn your back on it hand it over to the Lord of life and you will then experience that full immersion or “baptism” in the love of the Father who is waiting to draw you to himself through his Son who has come for you, just as you are. Join the crowds that flocked to that voice in the wilderness, join them there, in your own wilderness. If you do not have the strength to forgive then follow the example of Christ who, on the cross, asked the Father to forgive on his behalf, “‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’” (Luke 23:34)
There was nothing to commend John the Baptist socially or politically. He didn’t belong to the elite, to the aristocracy, to the establishment. He was not a religious leader. He was the strangest of persons. He had nothing, not even a decent set of clothes: “clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist”. His diet was just as strange: “he ate locusts and wild honey”. I like honey but draw the line at locusts; I don’t know about you. But he was the messenger of God and as such drew people not to himself but to the one who was to come after him, the Lord of life. The people crowded around him. They wanted life and they found it in the wilderness, from that solitary voice that pointed in the direction of Life, the Lord of life.
In John the Baptist we have the model of God’s messenger which both you and I can also become. First of all God’s messenger is not someone who takes the initiative, he is sent by God: “I am sending my messenger ahead of you” (v. 2). He is not a self-proclaimed messenger. He has a spirit of detachment, detached from wealth and fine clothes, from anything that might draw attention to his own importance. John was important, "Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11) He is important yet in his words, in his demeanor there is not a hint of this. He is a model of humility, aware of his own unworthiness to stand in the presence of the Lord of life. He does not compare himself to other people but to the Son of God, a lesson for each of us who is perhaps only too aware of our own importance. We always seem to compare ourselves to those we in some way consider inferior to us. That way we are reassured of our own importance. That is not the messenger God wants. What a lot we have to learn from John, this model messenger! “I am not worthy” not only to stand in his presence but even to stoop down to loosen the straps of his sandals to take them off his master’s feet, the lowliest of tasks. God’s messenger is always someone who is humble, who is aware of not being worthy, a selfless person who denies self, poor in himself but rich in the Lord. His weakness and his nothingness are his strength and his fullness:
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
(Luke 1:51-53)
That fullness will come with immersion in the Holy Spirit of God. John’s baptism was of water, Jesus’ baptism is with the Holy Spirit that Spirit that leads to all truth, joy and life. That Spirit has now been poured out on all of mankind and is hovering above you. What are you going to do? That baptism is now available for all, let us make straight the path to this immersion into the Spirit of God by saying "Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20), come into my very being, lead me along the path of your joy, your peace, your life from which no one can ever separate us.
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