In the Beginning

1st Sunday of Advent December 3, 2023  

First in series on Gospel of Mark   Mark 1:1-9

Mark begins his Gospel with these words
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ

The beginning of the good news; ‘gospel’ means Good News. Mark is announcing that he has a story of good news: good news in the sense of what he is about to tell about Jesus but also good news from none other than God.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus the Christ. The word ‘Christ’ means Anointed or Messiah; someone set aside by God for a special task. Aaron, Moses’ brother, was anointed to be the first priest of the Chosen People. David was anointed to be the king of Israel while he was still a shepherd youth.

Moses announced to the people that there would be another Anointed One--one like himself. In Deuteronomy 18:17, we have this proclamation from Moses:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me form 
among you, from your countrymen you shall listen to him. 

For Mark, the beginning of the good news of Jesus the Anointed One, the Messiah,
doesn’t begin with his birth nor does it begin with Jesus’ appearance and baptism. This good news begins with what Mark thinks is the real beginning: the words from two Hebrew prophets: Malachi and Isaiah.
I will send my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way (Malachi 3:1) 

a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
     make straight paths for him.’ (Isaiah 40:3)

Both of these prophets declared that there would be a messenger, a prophet, who would prepare the people for the Anointed One. Mark is building a case to establish why his audience can believe Jesus is the Christ by linking Jesus with trusted forebears.

Now there was a 400-year gap between these prophetic announcements during which the Chosen People heard no word from God. No new prophet arose in that time to relay God’s word to the people. So the people were uneasy; restless, worried. God’s silence bothered them. They were languishing in a great cosmic spiritual silence and they were impatient for this promised messiah to appear.

That’s why Mark begins his story by lifting up these ancient declarations. You might think of him as saying to his audience: “Remember in Sunday school, when rabbis taught you the scriptures. Remember how the prophets said One would come to prepare for Messiah? And how these prophets said this preparer would be a man of the wilderness and that he would alert us to prepare for the Messiah?  that we were to be alert and watchful? I’m here to tell you this preparer came and we know him to be John the Baptist.

So Mark tells his audience that the beginning of the good news was declared by Isaiah and then Malachi and then came to pass in the person of John the Baptist. 

Mark then itemizes how John fulfills the Malachi and Isaiah prophecies: he was a man who appeared in the wilderness; he was dressed in camel’s cloth, belted in leather and ate a wilderness diet of locust and honey.  Mark wanted his readers to understand that John the Baptist fulfilled the words of Isaiah and Malachi. 

Mark continues by saying that John came as a prophet, a declarer of God’s Word and he called us to repent, to ask forgiveness, to be baptized, purified. 

So, Mark reports that all the country came: the sophisticated urbanites, the religious leaders, political operatives, merchants from the stalls, shepherds from the hills, farmers from their fields, women from their houses. 

Not everyone heeded John’s call, but many, many did.

In addition to his message of repentance, John declared that there’s Another One coming. far greater than he. He said that 
I baptize you with water only but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. 
The Spirit who brooded over the waters of the deep at dawn of time; the Holy Spirit of God.

And now, we come to verse 9 where Mark records: at this time, Jesus came from Galilee. Mark continues the links he’s been making: from Isaiah to Malachi to John, and now to Jesus. 

For Mark’s readers, this is a lineage as clear and dependable as a lineage marked by birth certificates.

Mark has made his case to his readers. His good-news story is about the One Sent by God to redeem humanity

Like his original audience, Mark has alerted us, his readers, to prick up our ears,
focus our attention, take to heart and to prepare as did the people of John’s day to:
repent, pray for forgiveness, seal our surrender by Baptism, commit to a life of in right relationship with God.

We are to clear out the debris: all the old attitudes, all the laisse faire posture toward things spiritual and awaken our souls, quicken our hearts, open our minds. To be ready to receive some really good news: potent, powerful, life-changing, oppression-breaking
news.

And what is our proper posture to this Great Coming?  Is it not to reflect on the health and vitality of our relationship with God? To consider and repent of the ways we have not honored that relationship as we ought? To bow humbly before God and yield with readiness and obedience to God’s claim on us? And then to rejoice at the coming of the One who makes us whole. 

To prepare ourselves as if Jesus were to show up today?

L Quanstrom