Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, December 10, is from Mark chapter one verses one through eight, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the country of Judea, and all Jerusalem, we're going out to him, and we're being baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, John was clothed with camels hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, After me, comes here, who is mightier than I, the strap of who sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Here ends the reading. Mark is a different gospel than the others because it begins very briefly and very simply, with the title almost the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so the gospel of Mark is really just the story of Jesus, as he goes on this mission, the Son of God, a heroic mission to go to the cross. And his heroic journey is what actually brings him to death. It's kind of a tragedy in the in the, in the literary sense that Jesus is this heroic figure, whose mercy and love leads him into conflict with the Pharisees. And that ends up causing his death. And then his resurrection raises him to new life. This Gospel begins with a messenger, a quotation from Isaiah, Behold, I will send my messenger, the one crying in the wilderness. We read that in the Isaiah passage earlier this week, and I got to talk about that a little bit. Isaiah points forward to this man who appears next John, called John the Baptist, because he baptizes in the wilderness proclaiming this baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, one of the questions that people might ask is, what is the difference between a Christian baptism and John the Baptist baptism? I'm not sure if this text actually gives it to us. But we do know that the Christian baptism is what happens after Jesus comes. And so it's a different thing. I think perhaps the the phrase that we're looking for is at the very end where it says, I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And so we see after Jesus, the baptism comes with the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of faith, which is why we baptize children as well as adults, because it's God's gift given to us. Now, John has an interesting figure. All the country goes out to see him and they're baptized, and they confess their sins. And so we see John's baptism focusing on this repentance and forgiveness of sins. And as she tells us about him, now John was clothed with camels hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. This is an image of a kind of a crazy man, right? You've got the the the camels hair and leather belt, and he's out eaten this weird food. I kind of want to imagine him with crazy hair and the giant bushy beard and the wild eyes. The idea of sort of like Elijah, the prophet being out there in the wilderness, this great prophetic model. And he says, After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of who sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. This is the great thing of John the Baptist is that he doesn't point to himself. He doesn't develop a church, a mega church out in the wilderness and then get ready to pass it on to his children and build mighty ministries and get his name on books and billboards. He says, Don't look at me. Look at Jesus. He's the one you got to pay attention to. Don't follow me. Jesus is coming. And that is the message that every pastor and preacher in our age needs to say A it's not about me it's all about Jesus that's all I have for today we'll see you on Sunday bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai