1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2As it is written in the Prophets:
| "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You." 3"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.'" |
4John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
6Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. 8I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Gospel means "good news". So I think it is wonderful that the book of Mark starts out telling us that we are about to read good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God.
I remember the stories of Mary and how after she agreed to the will of God she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. There was always that interesting statement that Elizabeth's baby lept in her womb when she saw Mary. Well, Elizabeth was pregnant with John at that time, this same John as John the Baptist. Even though I remember reading and hearing the story of Mary and Elizabeth for years I never really thought about this connection until recently.
The statement of John clothed with camel's hair always catches my attention. It makes me think of a book we read to our daughter when she was a small child, Hiram's Red Shirt. One of the shirts Hiram tried wearing was made of horse hair, but it was too itchy. I would think that clothing made of camel's hair would be very itchy too. I'm not sure why John would have been wearing itchy clothing - if that was all that was available to him, or if it was to make some kind of statement. But he did sound like he would have been a memorable character if he wore camel's hair clothing and ate locusts. (Though my Bible makes a reference to the fact that his clothing and diet linked him with the prophet Elijah).
I like the phrase "the voice of one crying in the wilderness". When I first read it I thought of wooded uninhabited forest land. But if I really think of a wilderness, I think a wilderness can be any strange place where you feel kind of lost -- for example, to me even though a strange airport has lots of people and modern conveniences, it would be a wilderness to me if I didn't know what to do or where to get help. This could be referring to a similar kind of wilderness for John, where there may have been many people. But how do you get started preparing the way for Jesus when no one there understands what Jesus' coming will mean or that they even need Jesus?
Also, when I think of a voice crying out in the wilderness, if I am a lost person and were to hear a voice crying out, I would be drawn to that voice. Even not knowing what the voice might lead to, as a lost person that voice could save me from the wilderness. So I really like the imagery of the "voice of one crying in the wilderness". Though I hope crying refers to a person trying to be heard and not to a hopeless cry of defeat.
This says the prophets wrote that a messenger would come to prepare the way of the Lord. And the description of John's work in verses 4-8 definitely matched what was prophesied in verses 2-3. It is interesting to see prophesies fulfilled throughout the Gospel.
I think John's work would have been very difficult. According to the old laws, I don't think people would have felt they were sinning by what they were doing so why repent. But it sounds like he got many people to come to him to be baptized.
The other thing I have read about, was that the Jews thought only they were entitled to God and His care. However, many of the Jewish leaders were upset that John was baptizing everyone who would confess their sins. This to me means that this was the first time that God was presented as everyone's God. Many of the people of that time were not ready for that yet.
The other wording that catches my eye is in verse 2 where it says "Behold, I will send My messenger before your face" . It makes me think of the modern day expression of "getting into someone's face" to really make a statement heard. I wonder if John used this technique of "getting into people's faces" and if that is how he was so successful with getting people to come to be baptized. -- probably not, since it seems to me to be such a modern day phrase, but who knows?