Mark 1:1-15
Dear RTB’ers,
We leave Numbers and the Old Testament for three weeks before returning to finish the Pentateuch with Deuteronomy later this month. Our New Testament interlude is Mark’s gospel, arguably the first of the four gospels to be written. We can chat about that tomorrow at our RTB gathering.
Today Mark covers three topics – John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus’ baptism, and Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. All this in fifteen verses, with half of these covering John the Baptist! That is, Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism and especially His time in the wilderness is quite short compared to other gospels.
I was struck by two items. First, in verse 1 Mark makes it clear to his readers that Jesus is God (the Son of God): The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is Mark’s opening statement; he will follow that up with accounts of what Jesus does and a lot less of what He says. Second, I’ve probably seen this before, but it struck me today: And when He came up out of the water, immediately He saw the heavens being torn open… (v. 10a) He saw the heavens opening. I’m picturing Jesus in the water, coming up out of the water and looking up into the sky to see His “Brother”, the Holy Spirit descending as a dove and hearing His Father speaking. He knows who He is and His Father confirms it. When we ask questions about Jesus’ deity up against (or coincident with) His humanity, it is this verse and His transfiguration that confirm to me that Jesus knows who He really is.
Spoiler alert: (Thank you, John, for that phrase!) As to Mark’s gospel being the first of the four gospels to be written, research has shown us that much of what Mark writes is also included in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, often word-for-word. In fact, I asked AI (Copilot) how much of Mark’s gospel was “standalone”, is material not included in any of the other gospels. AI replied with six items: Jesus as a carpenter; Jesus as “the Son of Mary”; the parable of the growing seed; the healing of a deaf and mute man; the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida (in two stages); and the young man who fled naked.
See you tomorrow, I hope!
Blessings!
See also: January 11 (2021) / Mark 1:1-13