Daily Devotion – December 3, 2020 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
Mark 1:1-8
1:1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
1:2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way;
1:3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'”
1:4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
1:5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
1:6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
1:7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.
1:8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
I love the Gospel of Mark. I love how, when it starts, it tells you it’s starting.
And it starts before Jesus shows up – like a good movie where the star enters pretty early but not at the very beginning. We get Isaiah right after the opening sentence, written hundreds of years before John the baptizer starts his ministry and meaningfully quotes it. So for hundreds of years the Children of Israel have been waiting for these words to come true, and John repeats them faithfully while pointing to the one who is coming shortly into the movie that is already underway.
It makes the story that Mark is telling, the story of the coming of The Son Of God, very very big. It makes this story’s roots into the past very old and long. It makes Jesus the fulfillment of the prophesy. But it doesn’t show Jesus right away. It shows John out in the wilderness, getting attention, urging people to repent, and whipping up suspense for an entire people, a whole nation that has been kicked around for centuries. John is amazing, but he is the opening act for a greater attraction, and he lets people know that.
So Jews would have known the prophesies of Isaiah, and they would have heard of John the baptizer. They would have felt at home having suspense created for the Son of God coming to fulfill the prophesy. But also Gentiles who had no knowledge of these things could have read or heard Mark’s gospel and understood it as a great story, beginning. A great telling of an amazing, larger than life story. A wonderful opening scene in a movie unlike any other.
Advent is the season during which we can claim our part in this greatest story in the history of humankind, as it is beginning to unfold.
Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you giving us the gospel of Mark, written specifically to help all people understand the bigness of your story, the radicalness of your caring for Israel and for us, through your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
