Mark 1:4
In
the military, you never move without orders. Someone is always telling you what
to do, how to do it, and when to do it. When you change duty stations, you get
a paper copy of the orders that you present to every official that lets them
know the details of the relocation. Without the orders, no processing can be
done.
Amazon
knows how to process orders! Their warehouses are filled with millions of items
ready to be picked and shipped all over the world. Nothing leaves the facility
without the appropriate paperwork. Someone had to order it. Someone had to pay
the price.
John
the Baptist had orders. They were given by the Holy Spirit to the prophet
Malachi and Isaiah that Mark quoted in verses two and three. As we read in the
other gospels, John the Baptist was special from before his birth. His parents
knew he had a special assignment before he was even conceived.
Notice
that John just appears in the wilderness. We know nothing of his childhood or
any other details of his life. But in keeping with his orders, Mark reports
that he appears. Sometimes people do just seem to appear in life. They may have
been there all along, but then suddenly they take on a new significance, a new
relationship with the world. John doesn’t materialize out of thin air, but the
beginning of his ministry is sudden.
John’s
orders are to act as God’s representative and proclaim a simple message:
repent! We have all repented, changed our mind and actions. We were going in
one direction and chose to reverse course. But this change of course is in our
relationship with God. We were ignoring the forgiveness that is only found in a
relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and chose to try to deal with life
on our own terms. John is God’s messenger on God’s mission putting people of
official notice that they must repent and demonstrate that inner attitude
change with baptism.
It
is important to note that baptism by itself does nothing. It is simply a bath
without soap. But when it is combined with repentance toward God, it then becomes
an official act which completes the repentance. And this repentance is more
than turning around because you forgot something important at home. This
repentance involves a change of heart and will, not just the mind. It is a much
deeper change. It involves a determination to continue in right relationship
with God, no matter the cost. It involves an acknowledgement of the sin and
sins that have separated you from God’s forgiveness.
When
we repent in this manner, God forgives the sin. The normal penalty for the sin
is canceled. We don’t get what we deserve. Someone else paid our sin-bill. We
are now free to live a life of obedience to the will of God.
John
went out officially proclaiming as God’s representative that sin was standing
in way of a fruitful relationship with God and that turning from sin was a
necessary prerequisite of restoring the intended relationship with God. When
that repentance takes place, then baptism followed as an outward sign of this
inward change. This was the content of John’s orders.