MORE POWER! MORE GLORY!! MORE SPIRIT!!!
SURVEYING THE SITE—Mark 1:1-8
As frightening and hopeful as last week’s text was, this week’s text gives us Mark’s great Easter proclamation: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
READING THE BLUEPRINT
This opening statement of Mark clearly announces who Jesus is, but it is only a statement that can be made with certainty after the resurrection. It is this resurrected Jesus who is going to make the difference. In his resurrection, Jesus exerts the power and authority of the truly human and truly divine. It is this resurrected Jesus who has the power to cleanse the unclean, to forgive sins, to save and make whole.
Mark also declares that the authority of Jesus opposes Roman authority. The title, “son of god”, was used by Tiberius and other emperors. Once they earlier emperors were declared to be the gods of the Roman empire, their sons became the sons of god. When Mark uses this title for Jesus, he puts the ways of Christianity above and ahead of Roman authority. With the declaration of the centurion, “Truly, this was God’s son” (15:39 NRSV), and with the witness of the empty tomb, we are able to affirm the initial statement of Mark’s Gospel.
In this same opening statement, Mark’s words echo Genesis: “the beginning of”. As Genesis engages us in the creation of the world, concluding with God creating humanity in God’s image, Mark engages us in the creation of the new world—in resurrection living. This resurrection living is going to be known as the kingdom of God. Here the barriers between heaven and earth are torn apart and Jesus models what gracious living is all about.
ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE
No house is complete without a John, and so we are introduced to the baptizer who “appears in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance.” As all of the Israelites went into the wilderness through the Red Sea in Exodus, so now, the people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem go into the wilderness with John to pass through the Jordan River to the promised land. As Moses was only able to take the people so far, so now, John claims that he is limited. The one who comes after, the one whose sandals he is unworthy to stoop down and untie, is coming to baptize, not with water, but the Holy Spirit, the gift which is from the resurrected Christ, as stated in the other Gospels.
PUTTING UP THE WALLS
The words “creation”, “good news”, “Son of God”, and “Holy Spirit” establish a framework for understanding the person and message to follow. And although the disciples and those whom Jesus encounters on the way will not recognize Jesus as the resurrected Christ, the demons and unclean spirits will. Indeed, the declarations from the extra-normal beings will continue to be our witnesses throughout the struggles ahead.
HANGING THE TRIM
As the day of resurrection is always both behind us and ahead of us, Isaiah’s words speak to us with urgency in this Advent season, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ These are good words for us, my John companions, as we journey to our next little Easter.
No comments:
Post a Comment