(Read Mark 1:1-8)
Note: This blog post is split up into sections for ease of reading.
Mark 1:1
Each word of this title is important in order to understand what Mark wishes to transmit to his readers. It is clear that this title is first of all a profound statement of Mark’s own faith. Mark is not simply writing a life of Jesus of Nazareth, a biography as it were. He is presenting him to his readers as “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That’s the good news they need to hear. Sinners need a Savior.
The opening words, “the beginning,” take all who are acquainted with Scripture back to Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” With the coming of Jesus Christ, Mark tells us, there is a new beginning, a new creation. His coming fulfills all the Old Testament promises and prophecies concerning the Savior who would come to redeem men from sin and everlasting death. Mark’s words, “the beginning,” include everything he wrote in his gospel. He identifies the new beginning as Jesus Christ and all that he said and did.
As we read these words, we naturally also think of their sequel—the story of the gospel’s spread throughout the world. A portion of that history is our own coming to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. The final chapter of this gospel story will be ushered in on the great day of judgment when the Savior says to us, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
Mark describes his message as gospel. Gospel means “good news.” Not all news is good, but that about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is. The bad news is the news of our sin and its bitter consequences. There was and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We desperately need someone to take our place and pay our penalty. That this person came and completely fulfilled all that was promised and foretold, Mark designates as the good news. It is thus not at all strange that the word gospel was later chosen to designate the four accounts in the New Testament that relate the story of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is good news.
The good news that Mark and the other gospel writers report centers on Jesus of Nazareth. Mark calls him Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus was his personal name chosen by God and revealed to Joseph by the angel saying, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is the New Testament form of the name Joshua, which means “Yahweh is help and salvation.” It was a very popular name. But for Jesus of Nazareth it is descriptive of our Lord’s mission—to be mankind’s Savior.
The name Christ, used here as a proper name, is also descriptive of our Lord’s mission. Christ means “the anointed one.” This Jesus, of whom Mark writes, is thus not just any Jesus but the Jesus anointed by the Holy Spirit to be our Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus himself in his ministry avoided using the name Christ, or Messiah, because by that time the name had been given false political overtones. He therefore preferred to call himself the Son of Man. Only after he had by word and deed instructed his disciples did he finally ask them, “Who do you say I am?” and then accept Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ” (8:29). And when Caiaphas the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus replied, “I am” (14:61,62).
The emphasis in Mark’s opening statement lies on the final words: “the Son of God.” This is the point of view from which Mark presents his account of the good news about Jesus Christ. Though Jesus Christ was rejected by his own people and crucified as a malefactor, Mark tells us that he was anything but a malefactor. Mark’s answer to the question Who is Jesus Christ? is: He is the man who is the Son of God. The study of Mark’s gospel leads step-by-step to the conviction arrived at by the centurion at the cross: “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (15:39). Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who lived as a man among men, who became tired and hungry and thirsty, who experienced pain and death, was more than just a great man, an eloquent teacher, a mighty miracle worker—he is God the Son, God together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It is Mark’s God-given purpose to lead you and me to recognize the man Jesus Christ as the very Son of God and to confess him as such (see 1:11; 3:11; 5:7; 9:7; 12:6; 13:32; 14:36,61; 15:39). In this, Matthew (1:23), Luke (1:35), and John (1:14; 20:31) fully agree with him.
Verses 2 to 13 present the credentials of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. His entrance on the scene is prepared by the messenger foretold in the Old Testament. He is approved by the heavenly Father and attested by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. In the temptation that follows, he overcomes the archfoe of God and man—Satan.
Mark 1:2-8
In the gospel of Matthew, one statement stands out because of constant repetition, the words: “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.” Matthew stressed that fact because he wrote his gospel for Jewish readers well acquainted with the Old Testament. Mark wrote for gentile readers and so, except for this one instance, does not personally refer to the Old Testament prophecies. In writing his gospel, he simply wants us to observe Jesus in action and in doing so wants us to come to the same conclusion Matthew drew from the Old Testament prophecies he quotes so frequently. The Holy Spirit has blessed both ways of writing, and both are important.
Mark opens his gospel with the Old Testament prophecy concerning John the Baptist. In thus presenting John’s credentials, Mark likewise presents the credentials of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose forerunner John was. Note, therefore, that Christianity is not a new religion but is the fulfillment of God’s Old Testament promises.
The words Mark quotes are taken from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. Mark mentions only Isaiah because Isaiah was the prophet who spoke about the coming Savior in greater detail than any other Old Testament prophet. It is Isaiah’s words that cause us to understand the words of Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, in their messianic sense. This is therefore not an error on the part of Mark, as some commentators insist. It is the Holy Spirit who caused Mark to write as he did. And it is the Holy Spirit who here teaches us that the words of Isaiah, first fulfilled in the return of Israel from Babylon in the days of Cyrus, found their greater fulfillment in John and Jesus.
These Old Testament prophecies make clear that it was God who sent John the Baptist as his messenger to announce the coming of his Son and thus to prepare the hearts of his people to receive him. Mark shows us how John fulfilled these words of prophecy. When John the Baptist came, those who saw and heard him could draw only one conclusion, namely, that with the appearance of John, the promised Messiah would also soon appear. Comparing prophecy and fulfillment, we have no doubts that he who followed John the Baptist was indeed the promised Messiah. John was God’s messenger, God’s voice. He did not proclaim his own wisdom but God’s wisdom.
John the Baptist wore rough clothing, woven of camel’s hair. His diet was wilderness fare—locusts and wild honey. He was another Elijah, whom 2 Kings 1:8 describes as “a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist.” When John began his work in the desert region, the uninhabited area near the Jordan, the similarity was not lost on the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem who came out to hear him. The 20-mile journey was an arduous one, downhill from Jerusalem and uphill on the way back. It took them away from their business deals and their hours of relaxation. But they came because they sensed the power of God in John. They were excited. After all, it had been four hundred years since a legitimate prophet had appeared on the scene. They had to find out, and they did.
John the Baptist “came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Why? Because the hearts of the people had become a desert region, and they needed to be rescued. What he offered them in this baptism of repentance was not merely a ritual washing but the gift of forgiveness. His baptism was essentially no different from the baptism by which our Lord comes to us today with his pardon and peace. The forgiveness granted through John’s baptism was not a reward because they had repented but a wonderful gift of God who through John’s preaching brought them to repentance and gave them a change of heart.
That’s why Mark does not emphasize John’s preaching of the law, although John did that too, as is evident from the other gospels. John the Baptist’s message, as recorded by Mark, was the gospel pointing forward to Jesus Christ and his great work of redemption. John did not claim to be what he was not. He was not the Christ, and he set the record straight when he said, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” In Jesus’ presence John the forerunner did not even consider himself worthy to render the service of a slave.
Note also the comparison: “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Shortly before his ascension into heaven, Jesus explained John’s words. In Acts 1:5 Jesus said, “John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Thus the words of John referred to the Day of Pentecost, when the church was indeed to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months before, people had turned away from Christ. On Pentecost after Peter proclaimed Christ, we read: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41).
But all this depended on something else, something that had to precede, and that is our Lord’s work of redemption. It is only because of that, that John’s baptism brought forgiveness of sins and that God today deals with us in the same way in Word and sacrament. Without Christ this could never be accomplished. That’s why John was sent—to prepare the people to receive Christ. His coming assures us that this Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our Savior. John is and remains one of Jesus’ credentials. John the Baptist is part of the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
This blog post is an excerpt from The People’s Bible: Mark. You can check out the book here. The People’s Bible series is a Bible commentary for everyone. The authors of the series have served as pastors, college teachers, or seminary professors. Each author began with the original Hebrew or Greek text and then worked to bring the message of God’s Word to Christians who are looking to dive deeper into their study of the Bible. Two important truths guide all the commentaries: First, the Bible is God’s inspired Word and is therefore true and reliable. Second, the central message of the entire Bible is Jesus Christ.