Mark 1:9
Do
you remember when you were a kid, how waiting for the presents to be opened
seemed to take forever? At least it did in my house. We would get to open our
stockings as soon as we woke up, but we had to wait until after breakfast before
we sat down as a family and opened the presents one at a time, taking turns. That
waiting was at times almost too much to bear. You could see the bundles wrapped
just a few feet away, but you couldn’t open them up. The anticipation would
build until the appointed time.
In
Mark’s gospel, we don’t have much anticipation. In the previous verse, John
contrasted his ministry with that of Jesus. He said that he would use water to
baptize people and that Jesus would use the Holy Spirit to baptize people.
These two elements that Mark includes in his quick version of the events show
up in our text over the next couple of days.
Mark
now begins to write about John the Baptists ministry with Jesus coming to John
for the purpose of being baptized. This seems very odd, because John’s baptism
was a baptism of repentance. People came and confessed their sins and then were
baptized. But for Jesus, there was nothing to confess. So why would Jesus go
through this ritual? What did he gain? Why travel for something you don’t need?
Our
text Jesus came from Nazareth, his hometown. It was a small town, isolated from
its neighboring towns by the geography. The only way to get to the town, which
is situated on a hill, was to climb a winding footpath. For Jesus to get to the
Jordan River to be baptized, it would have taken him several days to travel.
Although the trade route comes close to the town, there is no direct road to
the Jordan. We also don’t know exactly where John was baptizing. How did Jesus know
where John would be? The Jordan is a winding, usually shallow stream. Which
pool of water did Jesus visit with John? Mark doesn’t tell us.
What
I find interesting is that Mark doesn’t include the question by John to Jesus.
He doesn’t include his objection to the baptism. If we read Matthew 3:14, we
find that John objects to Jesus submission as he knows that Jesus has the upper
spiritual hand. John sees that his baptism doesn’t fit with Jesus’ position in
salvation history.
Have
you ever participated in a ceremony of honor and recognized your own
unworthiness to be honored, but you went through the ceremony anyway, allowing
others to render you honor? In a few weeks I will go through a retirement
ceremony, one in which there will be others also honored. Some of those with
whom I will be honored are heroes. They have been wounded. They gave parts of
their body to ensure our freedom. I haven’t been wounded in this way. I feel
humbled to be in their company. I feel like the ceremony is too much for me.
There are others who deserve honor much more than I do. But, I will allow the
ceremony to go forward with my active participation. For me the ceremony marks
the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
I
think Jesus goes through baptism to provide the opportunity for John to
complete the connection between the promise as the forerunner to the Messiah
and the Messiah Himself. Sometimes the ceremony is for people other than the
participants. Sometimes it just isn’t about us!