Mark 1:1-8
Mark’s introduction of Jesus is unique. Instead of a genealogy (like Matthew’s gospel), a prologue of Jesus’ family (as in Luke) or the cosmic implications of Jesus’ condescension (as in John), Mark begins with our fundamental problem and its remedy.
John the Baptist was more than just the last of the Old Testament prophets. John’s preaching signified the end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new. And John’s message signified the heart of the Law: which is to expose our sin that drives us into the arms of the Living God through repentance and faith.
The Law was never meant to be anything more than a road to Jesus, and this is why John is described as the messenger who “would prepare the way of the Lord.” John’s mission was to encapsulate and complete the mission of all the prophets before him – to show that Jesus is the final destination of the Law, that Jesus is where the road of the Law ends.
Jesus is the Way to salvation. John’s message was the way to Jesus. So his divine task was to preach “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
Water baptism is the symbolic act of the burial of sin. John taught that in order to come to God one must turn from their sin so radically that it becomes dead to them. And this message resonated with a great deal of Judea, as their open confession of their sins indicates that his preaching had touched their hearts. The people heard this mysterious and humble, Elijah – this prophet dressed in animal skins, living alone in the desert and eating honey like his protégé – and became humble themselves. The soil of their hearts had been tilled by John’s preaching in preparation for the Great Sower who getting ready to plant the gospel in their hearts.
Despite the success of his ministry, John understood that his preaching only pointed to Christ. Water baptism was merely a symbol, but the One coming after him would bring the reality. In Christ, one is baptized into the Holy Spirit so that sin is tangibly, not just symbolically, removed. Through John’s baptism our sins are acknowledged, but through Christ’s baptism our sins are forever buried in his death and resurrection.
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