Mark 1:1-8
Second Week of Advent
December 4, 2005
This is a fairly straight-forward passage here as Mark chronicles the prophecies concerning John the Baptist (Malachi 3:1 & Isaiah 40:3), his arrival, and the basic substance of his message to Israel. John went into the Judean wilderness (of which there is much, even today), preaching that people should be baptized as testament of their repentance and God’s forgiveness of their sins. Mark says that everyone in the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem came to hear him, many confessed their sins, and many were baptized as a result. John dressed poorly, ate meagerly, and was completely aware of what his task was upon the earth: proclaim the soon-coming arrival of the Messiah and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that He would be bringing. It would have been rather easy for John to claim all kinds of credit for compelling people to repent and be baptized, much as many of us become prideful in our spiritual work. However, the lesson here (besides the obvious fulfilling of Isaiah’s prophecy in the coming of John the Baptist) is that just as John was self-deprecating and self-effacing in his role, so should we be in proclaiming God’s message to the world. Yes, John spoke boldly, but he did not become puffed up in doing so; he realized that he spoke for another, that his words were not for his benefit, but to proclaim the Advent of the Messiah.
December 4, 2005
This is a fairly straight-forward passage here as Mark chronicles the prophecies concerning John the Baptist (Malachi 3:1 & Isaiah 40:3), his arrival, and the basic substance of his message to Israel. John went into the Judean wilderness (of which there is much, even today), preaching that people should be baptized as testament of their repentance and God’s forgiveness of their sins. Mark says that everyone in the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem came to hear him, many confessed their sins, and many were baptized as a result. John dressed poorly, ate meagerly, and was completely aware of what his task was upon the earth: proclaim the soon-coming arrival of the Messiah and the baptism of the Holy Spirit that He would be bringing. It would have been rather easy for John to claim all kinds of credit for compelling people to repent and be baptized, much as many of us become prideful in our spiritual work. However, the lesson here (besides the obvious fulfilling of Isaiah’s prophecy in the coming of John the Baptist) is that just as John was self-deprecating and self-effacing in his role, so should we be in proclaiming God’s message to the world. Yes, John spoke boldly, but he did not become puffed up in doing so; he realized that he spoke for another, that his words were not for his benefit, but to proclaim the Advent of the Messiah.
posted by APN | 6:38 PM
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