Mark 1:1
The gospel begins with the words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The word “gospel” means a proclamation of good news, and this good news is about to begin.
The word “beginning” can be taken in three senses. First, Mark’s gospel itself is a proclamation, and the proclamation is beginning with its opening words. This proclamation will continue as the gospel is read by the reader.
Second, Mark’s gospel announces Jesus Christ. He is the gospel and verse 1 is the beginning of the narration of his person. The announcement continues with the whole of Mark’s gospel which sets forth and makes real the person of Jesus Christ to those who receive the gospel. As the gospel of Mark makes clear, those who met Jesus were profoundly affected, and the same is true today for those who receive the Lord Jesus made present in the words of Mark’s gospel.
Mark’s gospel sets forth the words and deeds of Jesus, and therefore, the content of Mark’s gospel is the narrative of portions of Jesus’ life. By the communicatio idiomatum, the human words and deeds of Jesus are the words and deeds of God. Consequently, the words of Mark’s gospel, setting forth the words and deeds of Jesus are God’s words. When received, Mark’s gospel has the power to create new life beyond the possibilities inherent in our present way of life. “For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).
These first two meanings of the beginning of Mark’s gospel corresponds to the second article of the The Nicene Creed which describes the person of Christ, and this is also seen in point 3 of the “Principles of Interpretation” as found in the Introduction to Mark.
The third sense of the phrase, “The beginning of the gospel,” corresponds to the third article of the Nicene Creed and to principle 6 of the “Principles of Interpretation.” According to that principle, the “Spirit takes the creative, powerful words, deeds, and appearances of God narrated in Scripture and repeats them in life today as a foretaste of God's final victory.” Mark’s gospel is an account of the words, deeds, and appearances of God as the person of Jesus Christ. The church is created by these words and deeds, and further, ministers these words and deeds in the power of the Spirit. In other words, it is understood that the words of deeds of Jesus, narrated in the gospels, are repeated in the ministry of the church today. Therefore, when Mark says “The beginning of the gospel,” he is saying that the life of Christ will begin to unfold in the lives of believers as they read, believe, and put into practice Mark’s gospel.
All four gospels affirm this third sense of the “The beginning of the gospel …” All four gospels proclaim that Jesus is risen from the dead and alive in the church. The one who lives in the church is the Lord Jesus who lived in Galilee in the days of his flesh, and all four gospels record his words and deeds in the flesh with the understanding that these words will be proclaimed by believers and that they will do his deeds. In our study of John's gospel, Trinity and Incarnation, it was affirmed that believers were given the authority to do the works of Jesus and to speak his words. In Matthew, the risen Jesus commands the disciples to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). As one reads the gospel of Matthew, it becomes apparent that the disciples were commanded to do what Jesus did and proclaim his message. They, in turn, were to make disciples throughout the nations, teaching them also to proclaim the message of Christ and do his deeds. This command, given to all believers everywhere, would be Christian's marching orders "to the end of the age." The gospel of Luke is followed by Acts, and in Acts, one can see that the disciples proclaimed the message of Jesus and did his deeds.
Mark's gospel, the most abbreviated of all four gospel, ends with what some have taken to be an addendum (16:9-20). In these verses Jesus commands his disciples to preach the good news to all creation (verse 15), that is, “everywhere” (verse 20), and that in the name of Jesus they will be able to heal and cast out demons, and further, if they are accidentally poisoned or bitten by poisonous snakes, they will be protected. This ending is missing in a number of important early manuscripts, although present in other early manuscripts, and therefore needs to be corroborated with the other gospels. Nowhere are Christians commanded to drink poison or allow snakes to bite them. They are, however, commanded to proclaim the gospel, to heal and to cast out demons, and this is attested throughout the New Testament as well as in the life of the early church. Whatever the case, the ending does indicate that the early church, as also seen in Matthew, Luke, and John, believed the apostles were sent to preach the gospel to the nations, to heal, deliver from demons, and that they were protected against evil of all kinds. From this perspective, the phrase, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” means that the life of Christ begins in the church as the church proclaims the words and does the deeds of Mark’s gospel.
According to Principle 2 of the “Principles of Interpretation,” Mark 1:1 needs to interpreted in “light of the whole of the biblical narrative, beginning with creation, centered on Jesus Christ, and culminating with the life of the world to come.” The phrase, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” connotes Genesis 1, the series of divine words that created the world out of nothing. Mark’s gospel is equally creative, making those who receive its words new creatures, transforming them and their lives into something new. This transformation redeems the creation corrupted by sin and death, and introduces the new order created by the Lord Jesus, the redeemer of the world. As will be seen, the titles, Jesus, Messiah, and Son of God, point to his redemptive power to make all things new. This redemptive beginning will be completed when Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead. Those who are transformed by his words and deeds give thanks and rejoice as they await his coming.
The word “beginning,” Αρχ? can also mean “primacy” or “first in rank.” That is, the proclamation of the divine/human words and deeds of Christ are primary, the foundation, the first reality of all. This was affirmed in point 3 of the “Principles of Interpretation.” No other presumed revelation stands before or alongside this proclamation – whether human wisdom, traditions, feelings, other powers, deities, proclaimed truths of any kind, intuitions, visions or trances, none of these have validity. At times, God speaks in events or circumstances, the words of others, through visions or dreams, but all these are secondary and only have validity if consistent with this proclamation, the eye-witness account of Jesus Christ.
The proclamation that begins with verse 1 is the “gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The name Jesus means “Yahweh is salvation,” while “Christ” is the Greek word for Messiah which means “anointed.” Among other things, these titles convey that the person of Jesus is intimately connected with the revelation to Israel. Yahweh is the name of the tribal God of Israel, and when Jesus saves, he fulfills the salvation that began with the liberation from Egypt and the gift of the land under the covenant. As messiah, Jesus is the fulfillment of the hopes of ancient Israel, above all, the undivided kingdom achieved under David, a kingdom in which Israel defeated all her enemies and secured her territory. Exodus, the land, the kingdom of Israel are all types which are fulfilled by Jesus, yet each of them is but a shadow of the fullness that is found in Christ. How this is so will be explored as we proceed. As we shall see, Jesus carries out a new Exodus, conquers a different kind of territory, and establishes a righteous kingdom that knows no end. Unless, however, we see how the kingdom of Israel was established, and how the revelation in Christ fulfills and yet transcends the Old Testament revelation, the revelation in Christ will not be properly understood.
In Old Testament usage, the term “son of God” normally referred either to the nation of Israel or to the Davidic king. In Hosea 11:1 the Lord says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son,” and in reference to the Davidic king, the Lord says, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). In general, the term referred to Israel, or to the king representing the people of Israel, standing before God in a special relationship of dependence and obedience. God chose Israel out of all the nations to be in a special relationship of a son, and in the same way, the Lord Jesus was chosen by the Father as previously mentioned in Mark 1:11 and 9:7. Like king David, Jesus is the head of his kingdom, and through him, believers become the sons and daughters of God. The meaning of the terms Jesus, Christ, and Son of God are illumined by the revelation to Israel, but are fully defined by Christ himself, his words and deeds, and these are set forth in the gospel of Mark. We are capable of imagining all sorts of meanings to these words, but Mark’s gospel, its narrative, will reveal to us the true meaning of these words. These words and deeds also define those who belong to the Kingdom founded by Jesus.
Principle 4 of the “Principles of Interpretation,” states that “when reading Scripture, genre needs to be taken into account.” What then is the genre of Mark’s gospel? As described in the Introduction to Mark, it is apostolic testimony. That testimony has a purpose and that purpose is salvation. It is not a modern biography since so many aspects of Jesus’ life are ignored. The parts relevant to salvation are recorded, where salvation is understood as given by God in the person of Jesus. It is possible to imagine many things as constituting salvation, but Mark’s gospel will show us what salvation means, given in the person of Christ. The terms Jesus, Messiah, and Son of God convey this. Therefore, this gospel is to be read with that purpose, as an announcement that God will carry out his salvation today as readers receive the gospel of Mark.
Mark 1:2-8
After the initial verse announcing Jesus as his message, Mark takes us at once into history, the events that precede the appearance of Christ. This is the ministry of John the Baptist and it is announced by quoting two passages from Scripture, Malachi 3:1 followed by Isaiah 40:3.
As the New Testament repeatedly proclaims, Jesus was and is the fulfillment of the Law and the prophets. This is amply attested throughout the New Testament and discussed in the essay, The Creeds and Biblical Interpretation. Therefore, as noted in Jesus’ titles, his work needs to be understood in relation to the Old Testament. In regard to verses 2-8, the church fathers affirmed that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New, and this means that there is a similarity between his actions in both the Old and the New Testaments. This similarity extends into the present as well. This has been expressed in the tradition of biblical interpretation by means of types. What happened in the Old Testament was a type of what God does in Jesus, and this in turn normatively reveals what God does today. In their Old Testament context, the two passages quoted in verses 2 and 3 set forth two types of divine action, God’s purifying judgment and his coming with salvation and relief. In Mark 1:2-3, both types of divine action refer to what is going to happen in the person of Jesus.
The first passage from Malachi announces the coming of a messenger who will proclaim God’s judgment. John the Baptist is that messenger and he announces the impending judgment. John was a prophet, and like the great Old Testament prophets, he called on the people to repent lest God’s judgment fall upon them. That was the theme of the passage of Malachi 3, a call to repentance. Here is Malachi 3:5 which lists the sins requiring repentance.
Then I [God himself] will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:5).
According to Mark, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He does not tell us what sins the Baptist had in mind, but his listeners were Jewish. They knew the law and the commands of God. Malachi 3:5 lists typical sins committed by God’s people, and they are sins today as they were then. When John proclaimed that One was coming after him (Mark 1:7), and when he called the people to repentance, it was understood that he was preparing the people to meet the Lord (Mark 1:3). As many passages in the Old Testament show, sinners cannot come before the Holy God. As will be seen later in Mark’s gospel, Jesus ate with sinners, yet he called all to repentance. Those who wish to meet Jesus can read and study Malachi 3, and in light of this passage, as well as many other Old Testament passages, turn away from evil and receive the forgiveness of sins which is freely given. It might be good to briefly list the substance of Milachi 3:1-5 against the backdrop of the Old Testament with some reference to the New.
1. Not only sorcery, but all forms of the occult or the worship of other deities are strictly forbidden in the Old Testament.
2. Adultery is not simply a matter of the act, but of the heart. It is a sin to lust after others. Sexuality is limited to marriage between a man and a woman.
3. Oppressing the hired worker in his wages means not paying the worker enough to live a full life, including raising a family. It is God’s will that all his people be blessed with the bounty of creation.
4. In every society there are the weak, such as widows and orphans. They are to be cared for by those who repent and honor God.
5. In societies of every form, whether nations, churches, clubs, or families, there are those who are not socially accepted. Like the sojourner, they often find themselves on the outside, ignored if not actively persecuted. Many churches, for example, tend to accept and welcome those who have wealth or social standing. According to Malachi 3:5, the poor, the outsider, are to be welcomed.
We will be tempted not to do these things, and the fundamental reason we give in to this temptation is that we do not fear and honor God. Let us ask God for mercy. “Oh Lord, have mercy upon us and help us to spend the rest of our days relying on your forgiveness and mercy, and showing mercy to others as you teach us in Malachi 3:5.” Fear the Lord!
Putting Malachi 3:5 into practice is not simply an individual matter, although individuals usually lead the way. It is a social endeavor. Taking care of orphans, or paying a living wage, or teaching and enabling people to overcome the occult, is something that will only come about if groups of people work together to bring it about. We need to reform our own lives, and we need to work together with others to reform our common life. The church is the place where the new day dawns, and its dawning is usually heralded by individuals who have the faith and the courage to lead the way. “Oh great and living God, let it happen!”
It is significant that the quotation from Isaiah (Maek 1:3) uses the term, “Lord.” This is a title for God, and in context, it refers not only to God who is coming, but also to Jesus who comes to those who repent. Those who repent will meet God in the person of the Lord Jesus, where meeting Jesus occurs as the community is impacted by the words and deeds narrated in Mark’s gospel.
The judgment of God, when received in repentance, is always followed by his mercy and the passage from Malachi is followed by the quotation from Isaiah. Of the two passages, Mark places greater emphasis on the Isaiah passage, presenting both (verse 2) under the auspices of Isaiah. The literary and historical context of Isaiah 40:3 is deliverance from exile in Babylon. The prophet announces to the broken-hearted people that the days of punishment have ended, the time of comfort has come, and the glory of God will soon be manifest. These glad tiding of great joy apply directly to those who repent and receive the Lord Jesus, and therefore merit an extended quotation.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken (Isaiah 40:1-5).
What a beautiful passage! What a promise! What a blessing to be comforted by the Lord, to no longer have to fight to live, to have one’s sins forgiven, and to have the path of life made smooth by God’s providential care! And even more, the greatest blessing of all – to see the glory of the Lord! In the context of Isaiah 40, this glory is the deliverance of God’s people from Babylon. Mark’s gospel is a gospel of deliverance as well, and the reader who receives the gospel will be delivered by the risen Lord Jesus. How this is so will be clearer as the gospel unfolds. At the moment, however, there is a sense of expectation. Something is about to happen, and Mark encourages his reader to expect the appearance of the deliverer.
According to Mark 1:4, John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, and he “was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey” (1:6). The wilderness is an important biblical theme. After God delivered his people from Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. As God’s people returned from exile in Babylon, they journeyed through the wilderness. Before Jesus began his ministry, he was sent out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. These are types of God’s action, for God uses the wilderness to enable his people to know him. Why is this? Let us think about this further.
According to Genesis 4: 16-17, after Cain had killed his brother Abel, he “went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, “Enoch.” In one sense, building a city could reflect God’s purposes, for on the last day the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2) The social life of the city with God in our midst is God’s final aim, but Cain built his city after leaving the presence of God. This can indicate that a primary purpose of cities, and civilization itself, is to make life bearable without God. Without the city, without civilization, without the comforts of home and the armies of the homeland, human beings are alone and subject to the dangers of life. In the wilderness one learns to rely on God rather than the securities and distractions of the city. Anyone who seeks a revelation from God, anyone who seeks to enter into the depths of God, anyone who wishes to proclaim his Kingdom and witness to the Lord Jesus, will be led into the wilderness. It may not necessarily be a physical wilderness since the physical wilderness is the type of every form of wilderness, but it will be a place in life in which the normal comforts that sustain life are stripped away and one is brought face to face with the fact that one relies on lesser loves rather than on God. Then, and this is what happened to Jesus in the wilderness, the devil will appear and tempt us to reassert control over their lives, tempting us to make sure that our comforts are preserved and our lives enhanced. John appeared in the wilderness, the people went out to see John in the wilderness, because that is where life with God begins. The paramount sign of this is the cross, the place of utter abandonment.
The church, if it is to be a church, must be informed by the message of John, and its members need to be like John, persons who have gone out into the wilderness to be stripped of their fine clothes (Luke 7:25) and, once there, sustained by God. Then, having passed through the wilderness and seen their sins – recognized as a deep desire for the securities of this world rather than the provision of God -- they become qualified to live and proclaim the gospel for they know their sin and the grace of God first hand. This is what the church needs and it will happen when we are willing to allow God to lead us into adversity so we can see how deeply we long for the comforts of Bablyon, how deep our sin is, and how gracious God is who forgives the penitent. As it is, churches are often built up by worldly persons who preach a gospel of success and comfort, thereby denying the one who pleased God by being stripped naked and hung upon a cross. Such persons and churches may well succeed in this life, but they will be confronted by the Lord in the life to come.
According to verse 5, “all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” This is the beginning of the church, when its members are willing to go to one who speaks the truth of God, confess their sins, be baptized, and receive forgiveness.
The passage does not say how the sins were confessed, and here we must rely on other passages of Scripture, the great tradition, and common sense. If one considers the ministry of Christ, it is apparent that he frequently brought hidden matters into the light of day. For example, restricting myself to Mark’s gospel for the moment, Jesus brought into the open the hidden thoughts of the teachers of the law in Mark 2. In Mark 5, Jesus brought into the light the deed of the woman who touched the hem of his garment. In Mark 9, Jesus brought to light the hidden motives of the disciples who were arguing as to who would be the greatest. According to Mark 4:22, when the Kingdom comes, “nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.” According to James 5:16, Christians are called to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”
Sin loves darkness and hates the light. Light occurs when persons bring their sins into the open, confessing them before God and others. It seems reasonable to conclude that those who went out to see John verbally confessed their sins to him. This is important. One of the great tragedies of the church is that its members, and this applies to the leadership as well, do not confess their sins to anyone. Sins held secret tend to grow and fester. It is absolutely important that those who wish to follow Jesus have at least one person to whom they confess their sins. This needs to be a person who knows their own sins, believes in forgiveness, and will not gossip or repeat anything told to them in confidence. It is best to go to a person who is not interested in power or influence, but simply in helping others love God. Repeatedly, the church is damaged by leaders who have secret sins and temptations. They do not rely on anyone to help them with these secrets. The sin grows, becoming irresistible, and finally, the pastor or leader falls into a sin which, when discovered, hurts the church. These terrible wounds in the body of Christ can be avoided if Christians did what those who went out to John did, namely, confess their sins.
At the time of the Reformation the tradition of confessing sins was abandoned by some of the Reformation churches because of abuses of confession by the Roman Church. But the principle is sound. Become clean, do not hide your sins, bring them into the light and let God forgive you.
John also proclaimed Jesus as one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. This is important and all four gospels reference John as proclaiming that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit and its being given by the one who comes after John needs to be placed in a wider context. John’s proclamation was an eschatological proclamation, proclaiming and impending act of God, a time of judgment, purification, and the coming of one who would bring salvation. It was commonly believed that the dawn of this new salvation would be carried out by a messiah, a liberator who would, among other things, deliver the people from their enemies. A new return from exile would occur, and in this new age, the Spirit would be poured out upon the people. Previous to this time, and here I am indebted to Joachim Jeremias and his excellent text, New Testament Theology,(1) the Spirit had not been active in the life of the people, having died out with the last of the writing prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Christians belong to the new age, an age in which the Spirit is poured out on all flesh. Among Christians, biblical passages such as Numbers 11:29 and Joel 2:28-29 are being fulfilled.
Like us, the first readers of Mark’s gospel lived on the other side of Pentecost. They, like us, knew that the Spirit had been given, and they knew that Jesus poured out the Spirit upon believers. This has been discussed in the essay, Baptism and the Holy Spirit, and need not be discussed here except to say that believers today need to receive the Spirit, and as they do so, the Spirit will enable the life of Christ to unfold in their midst as they read Mark’s gospel. Without the Spirit, Mark’s gospel will become a dead text.
Mark 1:9-11
Aspects of this passage have already been discussed in the essays on baptism, especially the essays on baptism in relation to God Baptism and God the Father, Baptism and the Lord Jesus, and Baptism and the Holy Spirit. Let me encourage the reader to read those essays.
It is difficult to imagine that Jesus would do the things that he did without being authorized and called by God and all four gospels narrate that call which occurred at his baptism. Christians are similarly called, and the sign of that call is their baptism. In the essay on Baptism and the Holy Spirit, I discussed at some length the relationship between baptism and Christian experiences. Many people have experiences of being called by God, but not all have such experiences. Experiences can, of course, be doubted. First and foremost, by faith, Christians are to recognize that their baptism is God’s covenant promise that he has called them, designated them as his son or daughter, and empowered them by his Spirit to faithfully follow Christ. With or without a specific experience of a call, we are all called to step out in faith and boldly live the Christian life. At the same time, it is good to be open to experiences of God’s love and direction, asking him to reveal himself and show the way. More needs to be said on this, but it has been discussed in the essays on baptism.
One of the church fathers, Hippolytus (170-236), commenting on the phrase, “the heavens were opened,” had this to say,
A reconciliation took place between the visible and the invisible. The celestial orders were filled with joy, the diseases of earth were healed, secret things made known, those at enmity restored to amity. … At the baptism of Christ the Bridegroom, it was fitting that the heavenly chamber should open its glorious gates.(2)
It is important to recognize that, in Jesus, heaven comes down to earth. Those who follow Christ receive the blessings of heaven, beginning dimly in this life and completed in the life to come. It would be good to carefully read and reflect on the words of Hippolytus. As I have described in a number of essays,(3) it is possible to know the joys of heaven.
Mark 1:12-13
According to Mark 1:12, the Spirit “immediately drove him [Jesus] out into the wilderness.” The word for “drove” in this verse is ?κβ?λλει, and it is a very strong verb. It means, according to the Friberg Greek Lexicon, “ejection by force, to throw out, expel, or drive out.”(4) The text does not say whether Jesus objected to being driven into the desert. Quite likely, as was the case with the crucifixion to an even greater degree, it was an ordeal which the natural man would certainly resist. This ordeal in the desert prepared him for his ministry. Having been commissioned at his baptism, he now must be made fit to bring about the Kingdom of his heavenly Father. This can only happen by recognizing and rejecting all lesser kingdoms and desires. In Matthew and Luke the devil’s temptations are spelled out in some detail – the desire for bodily comfort by turning stones to bread, the lust for power and wealth by being offered the kingdoms of this world, and finally, spiritual fame by miraculously being saved from death in the sight of the multitudes. When a person is lead into the desert, physical comforts, possessions, the esteem of others, and the presumed support of God are taken away. When that happens, our desire for these things will be awakened, and we can be driven by impulses to restore our lost loves. These impulses can be very powerful, but they can be defeated by the mighty name of Jesus. Jesus defeated the devil by quoting Scripture, the primary source of his knowledge of God. It is important to know Scripture, for by study and prayer believers can know the will of God and recognize temptation as temptation. Without knowledge, many people fall into temptation and do not even know it has happened. Knowing Scripture, discerning God’s will, however, is not enough. In fact, we simply, in and of ourselves, do not have the resources to resist the devil. We do, however, have a Name, the mighty name of Jesus. In his name we pray against the evil one, “I command you Satan in the name of Jesus, have nothing to do with me.”
In subsequent verses, more will be said on Jesus’ authority to deliver people of evil spirits. Those infected with evil spirits find it difficult to resist temptation. Even if we have been cleansed by deliverance it can still be difficult. We need to humble ourselves before Lord, begging him to not allow us to fall, for we know our weakness and our sins. All of us want the comforts of life, we would like to be recognized as a significant person, and if we feel we are nobody, we still would like to be loved, or at least not be so lonely. We would like to have some sign, some proof, some saving act of God that guarantees that God will not allow disasters to come our way. God has his signs, his rewards, his ways of blessing, his friendships, but his ways are at times inscrutable, and in the darkness of temptation, it is best to resist the devil and to throw ourselves on the mercy of God.
The Spirit leads people into the wilderness in varying ways and with varying intensity. Many Christians do not enter deeply into the desert, others have spent years in difficulties. It is good not to make too much of these matters, allowing all people to be lead by the Spirit and recognizing that not all are alike in the Kingdom of God, though all are loved by the Father. Further, it must be noticed that the desert did not last forever. Being in the desert is not God’s final aim, but only a temporary time of preparation. We need to ask the Lord to deliver us from temptation and to allow the fruits of this testing to be evident.
Finally, for Jesus, the desert was in a sequence -- his baptism and commissioning, his temptations, followed by his ministry. This order gives the essential events of the Christian life, but the Holy Spirit does not always apply them in the sequence we see here. Sometimes the Spirit waits years to lead a person into the desert. Or, a person may be baptized and then years later discover what it means to be a son or daughter of the Father. All these realities are set forth according to the wisdom of God and a person’s willingness to be open to grace.
Mark 1:14-15
Jesus is now ready to begin his work. His ministry begins “after John was arrested,” an event that casts a somber shadow over what lies ahead. John went the way of a prophet, persecution and death, and Christ was now about to begin his public ministry, which as the gospel makes clear, will end in death. In Christ’s words, taken from Luke’s gospel, “I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). In varying ways, all faithful Christians share in this prophetic suffering, although, depending on circumstances, some pay the final price while others are blessed by serving Christ without undue persecution. Be that as it may, the Christian life normally entails a degree of rejection and we must not be surprised by this.
Having rejecting all kingdoms except the Kingdom of his Father, Jesus now proclaims the Kingdom, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (v. 15). The Kingdom proclaimed by Chris was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and it entailed a relationship with God and among the people based on covenant and this covenant encompassed all aspects of life – religious, social, and economic. The Kingdom was God’s rule, and the parameters of his rule were established by covenant. These laws had penalties, but above all, God enforced the covenant by his judgment, blessings such as prosperity and peace, or disasters such as diseases or invasions, or forgiveness by such things as the defeat of enemies or return from exile.
When Jesus announced the Kingdom, the Jews were oppressed by a foreign power, corrupted from within, and desperate for relief. They looked forward to the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom. The phrase, “the time is fulfilled,” means that the time of waiting is over and a new act of God has finally arrived. In Christ, God is about to establish his Kingdom.
The phrase “is at hand” is a translation of the word ?γγικεν which means “to come near.” This statement implies that there are times and places when God’s Kingdom is not near. God’s action is dynamic. He speaks with words of love and power and his speech is punctuated by his silence. In his silence, we wait for him. But now, through the testimony of Mark, believed in faith and empowered by Spirit, he comes close to us. What does he want of us? The message is clear: “repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). These two things, repent and believe, are connected. If one, for example, were to repent by applying the teaching of Malachi 3:5 to one’s life, and earnestly attempt to put it into practice in community with others, this would entail a radical change. Would we be any happier? Wouldn’t life get more complicated? Would it not be difficult? Why should we believe Jesus when he tells us to repent, especially when we notice that John the Baptist was thrown in jail as a prelude to Jesus’ announcement? Faith is required. Christ asks us to have faith -- to believe that he is truly the Son of God and therefore speaks with God’s authority, that he does indeed bring salvation and can be trusted, and that he is the Messiah, anointed to bring something we have all longed to see at first hand. His call to repentance is worth it, even if we cannot perfectly see where it will lead. It will lead somewhere and he tells us where -- the Kingdom – the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and our hopes as well after we have been cleansed from sin and allowed to see clearly. Then we will see that the Kingdom is what we wanted all along. Start now. There are great things before you, good things, things that will never pass away. “Oh Lord God, help us to repent, believe, and enter your Kingdom. Amen.”
Mark 1:16-20
What happens next is startling. Jesus calls four disciples and they immediately leave their work, their father, and their expected futures to follow Jesus. It is possible, in light of John 1:35-42, that they already knew something of Jesus. Perhaps both of them were disciples of John and John had told them that Jesus was the one that he, John, had come to announce. In any event, following Jesus is a decision. Some people make this decision without reservation. Others are more cautious. The Lord understands that. Make the best decision you can and go forward. When I began to follow Jesus, I didn’t even know he existed. I said, “Jesus if you exist, reveal yourself to me,” and then I set out to go in his direction. The blessings and costs of this decision become apparent as one follows. When Jesus called the first disciples, he did not offer them success, health, deliverance, or anything else. He only makes one promise, that he would make those who follow him “fishers of men.” The Lord Jesus is forming his Kingdom and he needs people who are willing to follow him. The first step in building that Kingdom is to assembly a body of men and women who are willing to follow Jesus. The apostles were the first in that process, and further, they would work with Jesus to call others. As will be seen, following Jesus is worth everything.
As stated in the previous section, the Kingdom begins with repentance (1:15). The verb there is μετανοε?τε, which means, according to the Friberg Lexicon, a change in the way one thinks and acts. What sorts of things do we think about, and what are we doing? It would be good to spend some time reflecting on this. How do you spend your time? What do you do with your abilities? Who do you love and how? The verb “repent” is in the imperative tense, meaning it is something that Jesus commands us to do, and he does so with the full authority of God. The most important change called for in Mark 1:6-21 is to follow Jesus. All of us are led by something – we follow our own will, the leading of others, or the impressions we receive from various sources. We follow these various leadings every day. Rather than these leadings, we are called to follow Jesus every day. The disciples who followed Jesus were with him daily, being taught by him, speaking with him, working with him and others as they carried out his ministry. Those who follow Jesus do so today through prayer, worship, study, and ministry with others who follow Jesus. This has been described more fully in the essay, Following Jesus. Let me encourage the reader to read that essay. It is simple but basic.
Mark 1:21-22
Jesus was Jewish, and as man of the covenant, he obeyed the laws of God. One such law was to keep holy the Sabbath day. Jesus did so by attending the synagogue where the Scriptures were read and interpreted, and where they prayed and worshipped the God of Israel. Sometimes visiting teachers would be invited to speak and Jesus was one such teacher. Why did he, unlike the scribes (the official teachers), teach with authority? The text does not say, but the context of the narrative can tell us. He had been called by God to announce the Kingdom, anointed with the Spirit, and he had conquered the devil in the wilderness. Having passed through these experiences, he knew the Father. That was his authority, knowing God, and further, he had a specific calling, to proclaim and establish the Kingdom. How God can be known was described in the essay, Knowing the Christian God. As described in that essay, knowing God means to hear and see God where he has chosen to reveal himself. Jesus knew God by his study of Scripture (Luke 2:46-47), in events such as his baptism and conquest of the devil, and in nature where he could see the goodness of God (Matthew 6:26-30). Believers can also know God and they can live with authority as they carry out the ministry he has entrusted to them. Being a follower of Christ entails being blessed to know the Father, and further, being empowered by the Spirit to carry out specific ministries. That gives a person his or her authority.
Mark 1:23-28
There is an invisible spiritual world that manifests itself in space and time. It contains both good and bad, and among the evil aspects of the spiritual world are the evil cosmic powers, evil spirits, dark forces and heavy loads. God has final and decisive authority over all things and he sent his Son the Lord Jesus to rescue those afflicted by evil. The man in the synagogue was infected by the evil powers. He had an unclean spirit. The word “unclean” is ?καθ?ρτ? and it has three primary meanings: 1. In religious observance -- that which is ritually not acceptable, defiled, unclean, especially used of everything related to idolatry 2. Morally – indecent, filthy vices. 3. Of demons or evil spirits -- a spirit that causes one to be unclean.
In Mark 7, Jesus teaches that it is the moral vices, rather than ritual impurities that make a person unclean. He then lists some of the vices as follows,
What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (7:20-3)
The root of these vices is sin, sin that lives in the heart. Evil spirits take advantage of this sin, driving a person to higher and higher levels of wickedness. They usually do this in secret. They function by twisting each person’s good capacities into an ugly caricature of God’s intended blessedness. For example, God creates human beings with perceptions, feelings, desires, will, purpose, and strength. These are good. It is good to bend the mind and strength toward work. It is evil when that same capacity is twisted into covetousness and a desire to steal. It is good for a man and woman to make love within holy matrimony. It is evil when this good desire to love is twisted into adultery and sensuality. It is good to have a measure of one abilities and callings. It is evil when this is twisted into pride and foolishness.
Evil spirits work at every level. They twist perceptions, distort feelings and desires, bend the will, divert purposes, enhance a person’s capacity to do wrong, and more. Like the Holy Spirit, they have power and a direction. Their power and direction is to mobilize the whole person in the direction of evil.
As the Messiah, the one sent to effect salvation, Jesus had authority and has authority over evil spirits. According to verse 24, the evil spirit recognized Christ’s authority. He called Jesus the “Holy One of God,” and feared that Christ had come to destroy him and the other evil unclean spirits that afflicted the man. Jesus commanded him to be silent and come out of the man and they did.
It would be good to see this event in wider context. In the context of what we have read so far, Mark’s readers were asked to repent, to confess their sins, to be baptized, to follow Jesus, to resist temptation, and now they are taught that Christ has power over evil spirits. These go together, and when ministering to those afflicted with evil spirits, it is good to teach them how to confess their sins, to repent, and to ask God’s help in cleansing them. Then, pronouncing the forgiveness of God won on the cross, assuring them of God’s favor, it is good to command the evil spirits to be gone in the name of Jesus, naming them one by one and waiting for them to flee. By naming them, I mean firm statements such as “Spirit of fear I command you to be gone in the name of Jesus,” or “Spirit of lust I bind you in the name of Jesus and command you to depart.” Sometimes God gives other names and sometimes the evil spirits identify themselves as occurred in the Gerasene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20). It is also good, as did Jesus, to command the spirits to be quiet. As they leave, the person being prayed may suffer the agitations of the evil spirits, and the less they suffer the better. There is no need for excitement, shouting, or hurry. Sometimes there are physical manifestations and sometimes there are not. The man in Mark 1:23-27 was convulsed. I am convinced that Mark included some of the more dramatic of Jesus’ acts of power. Almost always in ministering to those who seek liberation, more than one or two times of prayer are needed. Sometimes it takes months to set people free, and once relatively clean, it is good to stay clean by adopting the disciplines that open one to God’s goodness. A fuller treatment of this matter in regard to the saving of the lost soul can be found in the essay Saving Lost Souls.
As can be seen in the essays, God's Baptismal Promises and The Believer's Baptismal Promises, deliverance is closely connected with baptism. In baptism God promises to deliver believers from evil, and the early church, at least by the fourth and fifth centuries, required a period of exorcism prior to baptism. Doubtless deliverance was practiced by the early church in the earliest centuries as well. Further, the essay, Eucharist as Deliverance from Evil, related the blessings of Eucharist to the conquest of the devil. Baptism and Eucharist are the rites which represent the fact that God cleanses his people and makes them whole, but these rites do not exist in isolation from wider ministry of the church, including the ministry of deliverance. All these go together, the sacramental rites, the ministry, and the proclamation of the Word of God by preaching and teaching. The teaching of Jesus in the synagogue was intimately connected with his casting out an unclean spirit. Mark made this connection, as did the people who heard his teaching and saw him set the man free (Mark 1:27). Apart from his deeds of mercy, his teaching makes no sense, and apart from his teaching, his deeds of power can be easily misunderstood. This latter point will become more apparent as we continue to read Mark’s gospel.
Finally, there is a vast literature on the subject of deliverance. Some of it is quite healthy, but a goodly portion is not well founded and too preoccupied with deeds of power rather than the love of God. I will leave it to the reader to pursue these matters further. A good place to begin would be the writings of Francis McNutt.(5) He not only writes on deliverance, but other forms of healing as well.
Finally, not all are called to a ministry of deliverance, just as not all are called to other ministries such as preaching and teaching. All would be blessed to receive deliverance, and of those who do, certain ones can discover they have this gift by study and working with those already practicing the ministry. That, I think is the best way to go away training in deliverance.
Mark 1:29-31
This is another healing story and we can notice several features of this healing. First, the passage says that Jesus “came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.” As can be seen from other healing stories, it was not unusual for Jesus to touch the person being healed. There were, of course, times when he healed without touch. The Christian religion is an incarnational religion, and its members are the body of Christ. Christ lives in them and he communicates himself through their actions including touch. Touch is one of the most powerful of senses, and for that reason, healing is often effected through the laying on of hands. Since touch is such a powerful mode of human contact, it is good, if possible, to have another person with you when praying for others. I like men and women teams, consisting of at least one man and one woman. It is easy, when touching someone, to be seduced into sexual attraction. Two people praying together guards against this possibility. Further, there are some people who are very uncomfortable when touched. It is good to ask about this before praying with someone, or to withhold the laying on of hands, or even asking about it, if someone does not seem receptive. God can heal without the laying on of hands.
Secondly, and this is a very important point, after she was healed Peter’s mother-in-law got up and began to serve those around her. This act clearly reveals the purpose of healing. God is compassionate. He heals because he loves. Yet, he is also the Lord, expecting the love and obedience of his children. Although he heals, the Lord expects his children to serve him, and to serve by serving others. That is the goal of healing, to enable a person to follow Jesus by serving others. Jesus’ first call was to “follow me,” and that call always remains preeminent. Following Christ, serving others, learning to love, is the final aim of the Christian life. Or, to state the negative -- going from healing to healing, from blessing to blessing, is not the true aim of the Christian life. The aim is to love God and one’s neighbor.
Finally, the evidence would indicate that healing and deliverance were one of the primary ways that Christianity spread throughout the pagan world. Ramsey MacMullen, in his book, Christianizing the Roman Empire (A.D. 100-400), describes how this would typically happen. Someone in a non-Christian family would get sick, or they would be oppressed by an evil spirit, and having heard of Jesus, they would seek out a Christian to help them. ”So a priest is sent for, or an exorcist; illness is healed; the household after that counts as Christian; it is baptized; and through instruction it comes to accept the first consequences: that all other cults are false and wicked, all seeming gods, the same.”(6)
In the world today, healing and deliverance are one of the most important ways the gospel is proclaimed.(7) In the West, however, at least for the past few centuries, the gospel has been proclaimed primarily through the Word apart from healing and deliverance. This preaching, however, rested upon a Christian presupposition, that there is a Holy God who would one day judge us for our sins. Under those conditions the gospel of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was vital. That presupposition no longer exists, but people are still hurt, broken, sick, and afflicted. That is the human condition and it will doubtless always be the human condition. People need to meet a God who can save them in the literal biblical sense of the word -- acts of God that restore us to our intended selves. For that reason, the churches that practice healing and deliverance are growing throughout the world, while many other churches are in decline. Of those that do practice healing and deliverance, there are many who fail to do justice to the latter sections of Mark’s gospel. As these latter sections will make clear, the final and decisive work of Jesus was to reconcile us to a holy God who judges us for our sins. This only happens through redemptive suffering, that of Christ on the cross and that of the believer as well. In terms of emphasis, that is first. Nevertheless, these early sections do present a vital truth, Jesus healed in his earthly ministry and therefore he heals now. There is no hint in Mark’s gospel that the atoning death of Jesus was eternally effective, but his healing and deliverance were not. All of it is God’s revelation and all needs to be put into practice.
Mark 1:32-34
The Sabbath ended at sundown, and therefore it was possible to bring the sick and oppressed to Peter’s door without violating the Sabbath rest. Jesus healed them, but he commanded the demons not to speak because they knew him. This is rather puzzling, and this passage, along with others, constitute what scholars have called the Messianic secret. Why did Jesus command the demons to be silent because they knew him (Mark 1:25, 34)? Why did he speak in parables to the crowds and then interpret the teaching privately to his disciples? Why did he tell certain person to say nothing of their healings, and then, tell others to go home and describe who God had done for them? We will have to wait until we have seen more examples of this before addressing this issue. For the moment, however, it must be said, that the text would indicate a certain reserve toward healing and deliverance, as if it were not the end of the matter.
Mark 1:35
It is possible to appear to lead the Christian life, and even to do so with some apparent success, without actually building up the Kingdom of God. For that to happen, one needs to set aside time for prayer, both private the corporate. According to Mark’s gospel, Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath and he also went off by himself to pray. Given what God had sent him to do, proclaim and live the Kingdom, he needed love, encouragement, insight, authority, and direction from God. Over time, that is what God does through prayer, although at times it may seem as if God were saying and doing nothing as we pray. Even so, we are called to persist, and not only in private prayer, but in the many ways God’s goodness and grace come to those who believe. The essay, The Believer's Baptismal Promises, the section entitled “Practical Commitments,” listed a number of commitments that enable one to live in and from God’s grace.
Mark 1:36-39
Verse 36 states that “Simon and those who were with him” went in search of Jesus. This is an example of inclusio, the inclusion of the apostle whose testimony comprises the gospel at decisive moments throughout that gospel narrative. Simon was emphasized at this point because the narrative is based on Peter’s (Simon) account of Christ’s life.
When Simon and those who were with Jesus found Jesus, they said, "Everyone is looking for you." The people were looking for him because he blessed and helped them, and the same is true today. Everyone is looking for something, and Christ is the one we are looking for. When he is found and received, he blesses and gives life. As stated in verses 39-40, he preached the gospel and delivered people of their evil spirits. He gives the church the authority to do the same. For that reason, this passage is a word of hope for the church since its founder lives on in the church, doing today what he did in the days of his flesh. When the church preaches the message of forgiveness and deliverance, people will come to the church looking for the very life of God. When the churches does not proclaim the Lord by word and deed, people may or may not come to such churches, but when the do, they will not find the Lord Jesus. As a consequence, these verses can also be seen as a judgment against the church for failing to proclaim in word and deed a living Jesus.
We may also notice in verse Mark 1:38 that Christ said, “Let us go on to the next towns,” thereby proclaiming the duty of the church to spread the gospel to all quarters. It is also significant that Christ said, “Let us,” meaning, he expected his disciples to accompany him. He brought them with him because he was building up the community of God, and subsequently, his apostles were to become leaders in his Kingdom. His preaching and mighty acts were to establish that Kingdom, and as we have seen in previous sections, that Kingdom includes every aspect of life – social, economic, and spiritual. From this it follows that preaching and healing have a goal, the formation of a body of believers who will establish a redeemed community. The preaching and deliverance were not to enable individuals to adjust to an alien community, the community of the world, but to take their place in the new community which is the living church of the living God.
The world, as seen in the temptations of Christ discussed above, is governed by the pursuit of wealth, power, and status. In this process, the strong and aggressive oppress and exploit the weak, and this harsh and sinful world drives people into the ground. They come to the church seeking relief and this is good. True preaching will not only proclaims a risen Jesus, but will deliver them from the world, teaching them to repent of their worldly passions and thereby receive forgiveness and healing, and blessing them with a new community built on endless forgiveness and love.
It must also be said, Mark 1:39, that preaching and the pastoral ministry go together. When the preacher stands up to preach, there needs to be concrete and specific things his listeners can do, persons, times, and places for ministry, opportunities to enter into fellowship and to minister to others. In other words, effective preaching requires effective pastoral ministry, not only persons, but also social forms and processes by which ministry can take place. This is well known, but it is good to restate these things for the sake of completeness.
Finally, it needs to be recognized that Jesus’ popularity only occurred at the beginning of his ministry. Later, as Mark’s gospel makes clear, he was abandoned by many, even vilified by those he once had blessed. There are times and circumstances when a person or a church, if true to Christ, will not be popular, but persecuted. Even then, however, Christ can heal, for the greatest healing took place on the cross when he reconciled the world to God.
Mark 1:40-45
To be continued.
Endnotes
1. Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology, translated by John Bowden (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971), pp. 80-82.
2. Thomas C. Oden and Christopher A. Hall (editors), Ancient Christian Commentary On Scripture, New Testament II, Mark (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1998), pp. 11-12. .
3. See, for example, Face to Face, Knowing the Christian God, How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?, Eucharist as the Dawn of the Age to Come, Eucharist and Charismatic Worship.
4. Unless otherwise noted, I will use the Friberg Analytical Greek Lexicon given in BibleWorks 8.
5. MacNutt, Francis. Healing. Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1999. He has published a number of other books. This is also a good one, MacNutt, Francis. The Nearly Perfect Crime: How the Church Almost Killed the Ministry of Healing. Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2005.
6. Ramsey MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire (A.D. 100-400) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 41.
7. See, for example, Nepal Testimonies.
The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.
