Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God;
The missing genealogy is not an oversight. One writer ties it to the glory Mark sets out to show.
He is the Son of God in service, humbling Himself willingly as no one else has. This is His brightest glory — a poverty by which He makes others rich. That is why the genealogy which comes first in Matthew is not found at all in Mark. Love needs no title to serve but the power to do so. His birth is not given, nor are His earlier years. The gospel goes straight to His ministry, and pictures all its tenderness and grace in fine detail.
Three books of the Bible open with the word "beginning," and they do not mean the same thing.
This beginning is not the beginning of John 1:1. That verse speaks of the Lord's eternal existence "with God," and as being God. Nor is it the beginning of creation (Genesis 1:1). It is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming in blessed Servant character.
So where does the good news start? Commentators differ, and one writer points to the ministry that follows the title.
John the Baptist's ministry is called here, I take it, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whatever its own claim, it was the good news about Him — "the Mightier comes." John's ministry was the start of the testimony, because it introduced Him. It was not merely prophecy, as earlier ministries had been until then. It went before His face to prepare His way.
"Gospel" here does not mean a book. One writer explains when that meaning appeared, and whose news the word points to.
"Gospel" here is not used in the literary sense of "book." That meaning did not appear until well into the second century… Zahn, however, sees that the real force is "beginning of the Gospel" as ministered — good news brought by Him… It is a portrait of His service, a model for His workmen.
The news is good because of where it comes from. Another writer shows this by contrast with what came before.
There was no good news in Judaism… Judaism had a killing law. That is all it had — a condemning letter, a claim that left man more hopeless than he was before it met him… When I read that verse, "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," the greatest comfort to the heart is that here at last is something that comes from heaven.
Mark fixes His title before he tells one scene of lowly service. One writer sees a safeguard in that order.
This Gospel presents Jesus Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, the One the ancient prophecies said would come into the world. How fitting that we are reminded of His Deity before we read of His ways in lowly service! Then we do not in our hearts take anything from His glory. He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. He learned obedience by the things He suffered. And this One was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The title does not clash with the servant theme. It explains it, and it carries a lesson for anyone who serves God.
The Servant is the Son of God. His obedience proves this great truth, for He always did the will of Him that sent Him. His mighty miracles, which went with His loving service, prove it too. If He were not the Son of God He could not have rendered the perfect service. Sonship and service always go together… The more deeply we realise and enjoy our sonship, the more obedient and constant our service will be.
There is something fitting in who holds the pen.
- Beginning — Not creation and not eternity, but the start of good news. It begins with John's ministry, which prepared His way.
- Gospel — Not a book but a message. The law only condemned; this news He brings comes from heaven.
- Jesus Christ — No genealogy, no birth story. Love needs no title to serve, only the power to serve.
- Son of God — Mark names His Deity first. That guards His glory through every lowly scene that follows.
- Servant — Sonship makes perfect service possible. God gave the record of it to a man who had once failed at serving.
as it is written in [Isaiah] the prophet, Behold, *I* send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way.
Mark gives no birth story and no family line. He opens with words spoken centuries earlier, and three questions follow. Why start with prophecy? Why name Isaiah when the first words come from Malachi? Why change one small pronoun?
Each Gospel opens in the way that fits its subject, and Mark's subject is a Servant at work. A record of service does not need a family tree.
In John, a human genealogy would be out of place. That Gospel presents Him as the Word who was God. It would be just as out of place in Mark's Gospel, though for the opposite reason, since Mark shows Him as the Servant. As another has said, "Mark is devoted to the details of His service… So, as the Lord was the perfect Servant, the perfect account of it says nothing here of a genealogy; for who would ask the pedigree of a servant?"
What a servant does need is proof of who sent him. The prophecy gives it.
If a servant's family line is not a needed opening to the account of his work, is it not fitting to state his credentials? … Jehovah guaranteed that Jesus was the promised Servant. That should have secured His acceptance by the people chosen to guard the prophetic writings.
The words that follow come from Malachi. The words in the next verse come from Isaiah. Some copies smoothed this over by reading "in the prophets." The older manuscripts keep Isaiah's name.
In Mark 1:2 the Revisers have rightly dropped "in the prophets," though most manuscripts give it. It is a clear correction made to ease the difficulty… Even on human ground it is absurd to suppose that the writer did not know that the first words quoted came from Malachi 3:1. If we allow inspiration, the only question is the principle of merging a secondary quotation into a primary one… Careless readers have been quick to charge a slip, as the later copyists were to remove it. But it is as irreverent as it is unwise and evil to hide or deny the truth in points like these, because Scripture applies Scripture in ways that differ from the ways of ordinary men.
In Malachi, God says the way will be prepared before Me. Mark has before your face. The words now address the One who was coming.
Second, we have here Jehovah speaking and Jehovah sending — "Behold, I send my messenger." And as it is Jehovah who sends, so it is Jehovah who is coming. Malachi is precise about this: "Behold, I send my messenger before my face." In Mark the pronoun changes from the first person to the second, "before your face," because of the incarnation. He who sends had taken the place of the sent One, but the Sender and the Sent are one… So He who stands before us in this Gospel as Jehovah's Servant is the One who sends the greatest of all servants besides Himself.
The prophecy gives John two titles. Both point away from the man himself.
He is called "My messenger" and "a voice." The important thing about a messenger is the message he brings, and a voice is important for what it speaks. The Lord Jesus (though far more than a messenger) was bringing the matchless message of the grace of God. The way must be prepared for this, however. John's message called people to repentance, the only attitude that rightly values God's grace.
Jesus applied these words of Malachi to John himself, and He did it when John sat in prison.
The Baptist's testimony was over. He was in prison, and to all appearance he and his work had failed. Then the Lord said plainly, "This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.' Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist"… John abased himself in line with the prophecy of Isaiah, but the Lord exalted him in line with the prophecy of Malachi.
In Malachi, these words open onto a day no one could survive. Mark quotes them anyway.
The One predicted is the coming Judge. The prophet goes on: "Behold, He is coming, says the LORD of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap…" This looks forward to a day of judgment still future. Yet the same Person who is then to come as supreme Judge came to John to be baptised in the Jordan.
- Sent — the verse gives a servant's credentials, not a family tree. Mark shows who sent Jesus.
- Written — Malachi's words stand under Isaiah's name. Commentators call this deliberate: a secondary quotation merged into a primary one, not a slip.
- Yours — Malachi's "before Me" becomes "before your face": the God who sends and the Lord who comes are one.
- Voice — the messenger matters only for his message: repentance, clearing the road for grace.
- Coming — the Judge of Malachi's refining fire is the same Person who came to the Jordan to be baptised.
Voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of [the] Lord, make his paths straight.
Mark opens with a voice, not with a birth or a family line. An unnamed herald stands in an empty place and calls people to clear a road. Whose road is it, and what does He ask of them?
The words come from Isaiah. There the road belongs to the LORD Himself. Mark applies them to Jesus:
Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. The second quotation from Isaiah speaks of preparing the way of the LORD. So again it is Jehovah whose way is prepared — for Jesus is Jehovah.
Mark names the herald by his sound, not his name. Pressed to say who he was, John the Baptist answered:
They were determined to have an answer, and he gives them one. They would force him to speak of himself, and he does. But notice his answer! Who or what was he? Nobody. He was only "a voice." There is a real moral beauty in this. Here was a man of real power and dignity, one of Christ's most famous servants, holding the very highest position. His preaching had stirred the hearts of thousands. Angels had announced his birth. Prophets had foretold his ministry. He was the herald of the kingdom, the friend of the King. Yet when this remarkable man is forced to speak of himself, he will say only, "I am a voice." Not even a man, but only a voice.
Why did this call go out in an empty place? By human standards the world of that day was in good order:
Everything was in the most perfect order, as far as man could judge, and as far as man's wisdom could achieve it. You will find the emperor in his place, and the priests in their place. Government and religion were all in their proper place and order... Still all was a wilderness as far as God and light and truth were concerned... The servant of God stood outside that ordered state of things. He was not claiming a throne for Jesus, but ploughing up the consciences of men.
The command falls on the hearers, not the herald. So what did God want from them?
Repentance was necessary. Self-judgment, and the confessing and forsaking of sins, were essential if their portion was to be blessing and not judgment. For the One whose way John was to prepare was Jehovah Himself, the Lord. What then was John compared to such a glorious Person? He was but a voice... In preparation for receiving Jehovah their King they were to make His paths straight. As His people they were to walk in His paths and not paths of their own choosing. Reality and the evidence of it was what was required, not natural claim and empty profession.
Mark joins words from two prophets but names only Isaiah. Commentators differ on why. One writer says the two prophecies point in opposite directions:
Malachi foretells the messenger who was to bring in the promised One. Isaiah foretells the message itself. A nameless, unknown "voice" crying in the wilderness would announce it before the Messiah came. In Malachi the messenger prepares the way; in Isaiah the voice calls on the audience to make ready the way. The later prophet looks on to coming judgment, the earlier to coming salvation.
That difference, the same writer suggests, explains the naming — and the silence:
John's preaching produced a moral preparation, and that is what this Gospel writer records. So he names Isaiah, who prophesied of this preparation and not of the future day of judgment... Leaving out Malachi's name here says something loud. "The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" agrees with the prophecies of mercy, not with the prophecies of punishment.
Was the road ever cleared? One writer holds that the cry met refusal, so the promise still waits:
Israel as a whole was blind and deaf. The testimony was cut short, and the people refused the Messiah... The way of Jehovah was not yet prepared, and there was no straight highway in the desert for God. Man was left on his own responsibility, and he heard the cry only to sin the more. But in time God will make it all good in grace by His own power.
- Wilderness — Outward order can still be a desert to God. That is where God set His witness.
- Voice — The herald claims nothing for himself. He is only a sound carrying a message about Someone else.
- Way — The road belongs to Jehovah, and Jesus is Jehovah. The verse is a claim about who He is.
- Straight — What God asks for is His paths, not ours; reality, not profession.
- Glory — The cry was refused then, so the highway is still unfinished. God will complete it by His own power.
There came John baptising in the wilderness, and preaching [the] baptism of repentance for remission of sins.
Mark opens with no birth story and no family line. The first voice we hear belongs to a man in the desert. Two questions come at once. Why does this Gospel begin in an empty land instead of the temple? And what could his baptism offer people before the cross?
Matthew and Luke both trace family lines. Mark gives none. Writers see that silence as a choice, not a shortcut.
Mark 1 presents neither genealogy nor early history, as we have in the accounts of Matthew and Luke. Yet this is not because he was shortening facts already well known. It is because of the divine design, which made a genealogy out of place here. The service even of such a Servant did not call for it. The forerunner is introduced briefly, preaching and baptizing.
John came from a priestly family. He could have asked to preach in the temple, and he did not.
It is not even mentioned that John was from a priestly family. His service comes first: he baptized in the wilderness, preaching the baptism of repentance with a view to the forgiveness of sins. Being a priest, he might have asked permission to preach in the temple. Instead he went to the wilderness, and this matched the spiritual desolation of Israel. No impressive legal forms and ceremonies were there to attract people. There was only the solemn, serious declaration of their guilt, and of God's requirement that they repent. They were baptized — figuratively buried in the muddy Jordan River — confessing their sins. The Jordan pictures death, running into the Dead Sea. It was God who brought the crowds from Judea, and especially from Jerusalem, to accept in effect the sentence of death against themselves — a death deserved because of their sins.
The place itself raised a question about Jerusalem.
But where does this voice of the herald cry, and where was he baptizing? "In the wilderness." What, then, was the state of Jerusalem and the people of God? They had to go outside to John if they wanted to take their right place before God. The effect was great — I do not say saving, but wide-reaching, and not without touching the conscience.
John's call rested on an assumption the earlier prophets did not share.
The older prophets always assumed the nation could still return to the Lord. Like them, John the Baptist had certainly preached repentance, but a repentance founded on ruin without remedy... What remains of man? Nothing. The wrath of the Lord has blown upon him. From then on, repentance meant self-judgment in the presence of God. People "went out" to the prophet, "confessing their sins," and he baptized them in the Jordan. The sinner did not stop at confessing his sins. He owned that from then on the only answer to his state was death. There was no remedy.
This phrase names the purpose of John's whole mission.
The Lord was coming according to His promise. To prepare His way before Him, John was preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This was what they needed. Forgiveness of sins for the repentant was the great thing, the formal purpose of John's mission. Repentance and forgiveness of sins have to do with the responsibility of man before God. They qualify him to receive the blessing God purposed: morally, because he judges his sins as God does; and responsibly, because God forgives them all. So forgiveness is necessarily a present, actual thing.
Commentators differ here. Another writer reads the wording as "unto" forgiveness — a hope held out, not yet a possession.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, preparing people for the coming Lord. So it was a purification. It marked out a remnant from the mass of the people, to escape the coming judgment. They are baptized for, or rather unto, forgiveness of sins, waiting for this in hope, though not yet having received it.
John's preaching broke through pretence, and his baptism had one condition.
John preached, and his word had power to break through the hollow crust of things and bring men to reality. Crowds from all the country round about poured out to listen to him, and submitted to his baptism. The conditions of it were within easy reach: every convicted sinner had in this his title.
- Servant. Mark drops the family line because a servant needs no pedigree. The Gospel opens with work, and John is the first at work.
- Wilderness. A priest's son skipped the temple and preached in the desert. The empty place matched how empty Israel's religion had become.
- Outside. Anyone who wanted right standing with God had to walk out of Jerusalem to get it. God Himself brought the crowds out.
- Ruin. The repentance John preached left man no remedy. Those who went down into the Jordan owned death as the verdict they deserved.
- Title. The forgiveness rested on the Saviour still to come. The one thing that gave a person title to it was a conscience that admitted guilt.
And there went out to him all the district of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
John preached out in the wilderness, and the crowds poured out to a man with no temple, no platform, and no position. Mark tells it in one quick sentence, but three choices sit inside it: the place they went to, the river they went into, and the words they said there.
Where John preached said something about the state of Jerusalem. Anyone who wanted their right place before God had to leave the religious centre and go out to a wasteland.
But where does this herald's voice call out, and where was he baptizing? "In the wilderness." What, then, was the state of Jerusalem and the people of God? They had to go outside to John if they wanted to take their right place before God. What he presented was the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The effect was great. I do not say it was saving, but it was widespread, and it did touch the conscience.
Kelly draws a careful line here. The movement was wide and consciences were touched, but he will not call it all salvation.
The wilderness was not just where John happened to be. God has long used empty places to speak to the heart, then and now.
He takes his stand in the wilderness, and "all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him." Long centuries before, the Lord had said to the prophet, "Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart" (Hosea 2:14). As one has said, "There was no talking to her heart in the bright, thriving city. But out in the cold, hungry, empty wilderness, He allured her." There He could speak to the conscience and win the heart. Today God often takes this same way with sinners, and with believers too. We look for comfort and ease, and too often our hearts grow cold and careless. Then the Lord breaks in on our ease with sorrow and trial, to speak to our hearts and draw us to Himself.
Mark names the river. Going down into the Jordan said something about what their sins deserved.
They were baptized — that is, buried in picture in the muddy Jordan River — confessing their sins. The Jordan stands for the river of death, running into the Dead Sea. It was God who brought the crowds out from Judea, and from Jerusalem in particular. In effect they accepted the sentence of death against themselves, a death their sins deserved.
The link between confession and forgiveness was not new. Scripture shows the same ground long before John.
It is important to notice the connection there was between repentance and baptism: so the Jews must have understood it… Confession of sins was the scriptural ground of forgiveness from the days of ancient Job. "He looks upon men; and if any say, I have sinned, and twisted what was right, and it did me no good; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life will see the light." We see how this was finally produced in Job. He says, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." … There God met him in unhindered blessing.
Their confession was also not private. It sorted the nation into two camps.
His mission left the nation as a whole standing on one side, with temple, sacrifices, ritual, priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, scribes, and unrepentant Jews of all kinds. On the other side stood a mixed number, drawn from all classes, who had only one thing in common. They were sinners — sinners who confessed it, sinners encouraged to hope only because God is the God of salvation. Their confession was not a secret either. John baptized them in public, in the river Jordan, and that marked them out as a repentant minority.
For all its power, John's baptism had a limit. John could seal a confession; he could not announce a pardon.
God taught John to point to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Yet John could not tell anyone who came to him that their sins had been forgiven… His mission was only to set God's seal, as it were, by baptism on those who, by their confession, took their place before God as sinners. Then he could turn their thoughts to One who was coming after him, the only One who could baptize them with the Holy Spirit.
One further contrast is worth holding: when Jesus Himself came to that same river, He came on entirely different terms.
The godly remnant, by John's baptism, took separate ground from the national body, in expectation of Messiah's coming: they judged themselves, and cleared themselves of the sinful condition of the nation. The Lord was baptized by John, so taking His place among the repentant in Israel — not confessing sins, but fulfilling righteousness.
- Out — God's testimony ran outside Jerusalem into the wilderness. People had to leave the religious centre to take their right place before Him.
- Alone — in the empty place God speaks to the heart, as He promised in Hosea. He still breaks in on our comfort to do it.
- Under — the Jordan runs to the Dead Sea, and going into it was accepting the sentence of death their sins deserved.
- Aloud — confession has been the ground of forgiveness since the days of Job. Here it was public, and it marked off a repentant minority from the nation.
- Onward — John could seal a confession, but he could never announce a pardon. He could only point to the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
And John was clothed in camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey.
Mark moves fast, yet he stops to tell us what the messenger in the wilderness wore and what he ate. These details are not decoration. Commentators read them as part of the message. Why did God's herald look like the desert instead of the city?
His preaching was not the only thing that spoke. One writer notes that John testified three ways at once — where he stood, what he wore, how he lived:
When John the Baptist takes this place of clearing the way and making the path plain, he does it not only by his word and testimony, but in his own person. First, his position is the living testimony of it. Second, his clothing is the testimony of it. Third, his diet, his whole way of life, is the testimony of it… He is in the desert, not in Jerusalem, not in the city but outside… his dress fits his work; there is a severity about him… And why? Because God would have reality in His people. That is the reason. It points to their moral condition.
The wording carries a detail easy to miss. The belt is not a fine sash but skin, and it links John to an earlier man in the same outfit:
Elijah is described as a "hairy man, and wearing a belt of leather." 2 Kings 1:8. The same Hebrew word is many times translated 'skin.' In the New Testament John the Baptist had a leather belt about his waist, Matt. 3:4; or 'of a skin' as in Mark 1:6.
That description was recognisable enough to serve as an identification:
Zechariah 13:4-5 shows that a rough or hairy garment was the mark of a prophet. King Ahaziah was sick, and he asked what kind of man had met his messengers. They replied that "he was a hairy man [that is, he wore a hairy garment], and wore a leather belt about his waist" (2 Kings 1:8). The king at once recognised the description as that of Elijah the prophet.
Some writers take the four items — camel, belt, locusts, honey — as a picture of John's whole ministry, fitted to a Gospel about service:
John's clothing was camel's hair, with a belt of skin. The camel is a burden bearer, a fitting reminder of John's own character. The belt speaks of his personal self-discipline. His food was locusts, the symbol of a desolate country, and wild honey, which suggests the sweetness of truth gathered without help from men. For he was a lone witness sent from God.
John looked at the world of his day and found nothing in it that he wanted:
John the Baptist found nothing in it to attract him. He was in the desert, cut off from the world completely and openly… Emptiness and silence meet his heart — "the voice of one crying in the wilderness," he says, for the world was a wilderness to him. He asks nothing of it. He does not go to it looking for soft clothing. He brings into it the customs of the country he has chosen. His clothing is camel's hair, the only rough garment the desert can offer him. He has a leather belt about his waist, as the prophet Elijah had long before… His food is locusts and wild honey, which he gathers in these empty places.
One writer sets John beside the self-indulgent king of his day. His plain clothes and food were the mark of a disciplined man:
The immoral king had given himself up to indulging every evil passion, and the ways of his court made that easy. John was the opposite. Alone in the wilderness he had learned the hard lesson of self-denial and self-mastery. His hairy garment and his plain food showed outwardly the moral attitude of the man. By severe self-discipline he made himself fit (so far as a man can) for his high mission. John called the people to sackcloth and ashes, and he was not a man "clothed in soft clothing" himself… His practice matched his preaching.
John's hard life matched what he preached about man's condition. And it left the glory with the One coming after him:
Speaking to the conscience, John shows that our sins have turned the beautiful creation into a moral wilderness, and have separated man from God. His way of life, lived apart from the world, agreed with his testimony. Above all, he bore witness to the glory of the One who was coming… John was the greatest among the prophets, yet he is glad to acknowledge that a still greater Servant has come — one whose sandal strap he is not worthy to untie.
- Place — John stood outside the city, in the desert. Where he stood was itself a testimony to the moral state of God's people.
- Dress — camel's hair and a leather belt were the known marks of a prophet. The same description once identified Elijah to a king.
- Diet — locusts and wild honey were what the wilderness gave him. He asked nothing of the world he came to warn.
- Discipline — the belt speaks of self-discipline. The preacher who called people to sackcloth and ashes lived his own message.
- Direction — it all pointed away from John to a greater Servant whose sandal strap he was not worthy to untie.
And he preached, saying, There comes he that is mightier than I after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not fit to stoop down and unloose.
Mark opens with no birth story and no family line. The first human voice we hear is John's, and it points away from himself. His few words raise the question the whole book answers: who is this One, so much greater than the greatest of prophets?
Mark reports John's preaching in two verses. What survives is testimony to a Person.
The only words of John recorded in this Gospel are in verses 7 and 8. They bear witness to the person of the Lord Jesus as mightier than John, who was unworthy to do the lowest service for Him. They also foretell His great work of baptizing with the Holy Spirit, in contrast to John's baptizing with water only. John's words are reported much more fully in Matthew, Luke and John.
Mark's concern is not John's reform work but his witness to the Lord Himself.
John's testimony here is not so much against the state of the leaders of the people (as in Matthew 3) as it is to the Lord Himself. So we read, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," with "and fire" left out. It is grace for the people rather than judgment. We do not read here of the axe laid to the root of the trees, or of the threshing floor being cleared.
The word describes something small and cheap, and the job of handling it belonged to the lowest person in the house.
The fastening, either a strap or a ribbon, of the eastern shoe or sandal. It is mentioned as a thing of the least value, and untying it was seen as the lowest kind of job.
Yet John himself stood in no small place.
He was the Forerunner of the Messiah, His Messenger, as Malachi calls him. He appeared in Judaea to announce the One whom all the prophets had spoken of, and whose sandal strap John says he was not worthy to stoop down and untie. This, we know, was the work of the humblest slave.
Matthew and Luke record shorter forms of the saying. Mark alone adds the stooping, and this fits the book he is writing.
He said, as we read in Matthew 3:11, "he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry"; or, as in Luke 3:16, "the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie"; or, as in Mark 1:7, "the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie." What complete self-effacing appreciation of his Master, and what rare humility!
The added phrase is not decoration. It sets one servant next to another.
In Mark, John's testimony keeps to the greatness of Jesus, and in it he twice underlines his own nothingness before his Lord: he was not worthy "to stoop down" and untie His shoe. This fits the Gospel that presents the Son of God as the Servant. In His presence every other servant, however high in honour, must be silent, except to witness to His glory. And to do this is the highest honour they could carry.
John is pressed twice — about who he is and about what he does — and both times he shrinks.
So the more this dear servant of Christ has to speak of himself or of his work, the more he steps back into the shade. When asked about himself, he says, "I am a voice." When asked about his work, he says, "I am not worthy to untie my Master's sandal strap." There is no pride, no exalting of self, no fuss about his service, no parading of his work. The greatest of prophets was, in his own eyes, only a voice. The most honoured of servants thought himself unworthy to touch his Master's shoe.
Yet this same man later faltered, which is a caution rather than a stain.
When he was pursuing his ministry he could say, "There comes one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose" (Mark 1:7). But when he is locked up in prison he actually sends his disciples to say, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" (Matt. 11:3). It makes all the difference the circumstances you are in.
The mightier One did not stay above a servant's place.
If the One who "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" stoops to become a Man and takes the form of a servant, then John, the greatest among prophets, gladly owns that a greater Servant still has come — the strap of whose sandals he is not worthy to untie.
He went lower still.
No one greater than John was ever born of women, yet he was not worthy to untie this One's sandal strap. And this same One wrapped a towel around Himself and washed the feet of His disciples.
- Mightier. John's whole message in Mark is one comparison. Another is coming who is stronger than he is. The message is about Him, not about John.
- Menial. The strap of a sandal was the cheapest thing in the house, and untying it was slave work — John says even that is above him.
- Stooping. Only Mark adds "stoop down." It fits a Gospel that presents Christ as the Servant. Every other servant falls silent before Him.
- Shade. Asked who he was, John said he was a voice; asked about his work, he pointed to his Master's shoe. Honour never made him talk about himself.
- Reversal. The One too great for John to serve wrapped a towel round Himself and washed His disciples' feet. The stooping John dared not do, his Master did.
*I* indeed have baptised you with water, but *he* shall baptise you with [the] Holy Spirit.
Mark keeps only two sentences of everything John preached, and this verse is the second. Why does he drop the fire that Matthew and Luke record, and what is this baptism that only Christ can give?
Mark records almost nothing of what John preached.
The only words of John recorded in this Gospel are in verses 7 and 8. They bear witness to the person of the Lord Jesus as mightier than John. John was not worthy to do the lowest service for Him. They also prophesy of His great work of baptizing with the Holy Spirit, in contrast to John's baptizing with water only.
The shortening is deliberate, not careless:
It is plain that if Mark abridges, it is an abridgment with a purpose. He is taking our eyes off other things as much as possible. He wants to fix them on the Person who is coming forth to minister. That Person is so glorious in Himself, so wonderful in the gift He brings: the Son of God, and baptizing with the Holy Spirit!
Matthew and Luke include fire in this promise. Mark does not.
This is worth noticing in our Gospel. John's testimony is not so much against the state of the leaders of the people (as in Matthew 3), but to the Lord Himself. So we read, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," leaving out "and fire." It is grace for the people rather than judgment. We read nothing here of the axe laid to the root of the trees, or of the threshing floor being cleared.
Fire is not a second half of the same blessing.
To baptize with the Holy Spirit is to give the fullest blessing that saints can enter into on earth… Fire, on the other hand, is here a picture of judgment. Compare Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16 with Mark 1:8 and Acts 1:5. Matthew and Luke both make judgment a prominent thought, and both mention baptism with fire. Mark hardly touches judgment, and Acts has only the faithful in view at that moment. Neither of them mentions the fire.
Water and the Spirit do different work.
John may indeed baptize with water. By this sign of death he separates people from their old ties with a corrupt world. But Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit — a divine Person. He is the seal that from now on believers belong to Christ in a new world.
John marks the limit of what he himself could do:
He says, "I have baptized you with water." I can bring you down into the place of death. That is the only right place for you because of your sinful state. "But He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." He alone can bring you into life. He alone can give the Holy Spirit to be the power of the life that He gives.
The promise itself tells us who Jesus is.
Only a divine Person could baptize with the Holy Spirit. So John spoke not only of the might of Jesus, but of His deity. While giving this bright testimony, the Baptist could not know all that lay before Jesus before He would baptize men with His Spirit. The Lord would not do this on earth. He would do it from His place of exaltation at the Father's right hand, after He had finished the great work of redemption on the cross.
The promise was still future after the resurrection.
Our Lord's own words to His disciples after His resurrection show that He had not yet baptized them with the Holy Spirit. Just before He went up to heaven, He was staying with them and "ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father… for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." This promise of the Father came true on the day of Pentecost.
This baptism does more than bless one person at a time.
The Holy Spirit has come down on all believers. He baptizes them all (Mark 1:8; John 1:33; Acts 1:5), Jew and Gentile alike… into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 3:6), even the body of Christ.
- Servant — Mark keeps one witness from John. A mightier One is coming, and He gives what no servant can give.
- Water — John's baptism was a sign of death, separating people from a corrupt world; it could not give life.
- Spirit — What Christ gives is not an element but a divine Person, and only a divine Person could give Him.
- Cross — The promise waited for the cross and for Christ's exaltation. It came true at Pentecost, from the Father's right hand.
- Body — One Spirit baptizes Jew and Gentile alike into one body, the body of Christ.
And it came to pass in those days [that] Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptised by John at the Jordan.
Mark opens with no birth story and no family line. The first thing we see is a man leaving an obscure northern town to stand in the Jordan among people confessing their sins. Two questions press. Why start here? And why would the sinless One join a baptism meant for the repentant?
Where other accounts give credentials, Mark gives none. The Lord appears, and the work is already under way.
In Matthew we have seen the fullest credentials of the Messiah, from angels and from people. He was born there and then as King of the Jews, in Israel's own land. But in Mark all this is, with equal beauty, absent. There is no preparation but John preaching and baptizing. Then at once the Lord Jesus appears. He is not born, not the object of homage, but preaching. He takes up the work that John soon after laid down when he went to prison.
Another writer draws out what that missing family line means.
He is the Son of God in service. He humbled Himself by His own choice, as no one else ever has, and this is His brightest glory. His poverty makes others rich. That is why the genealogy that comes first in Matthew is not found at all in Mark. Love needs no title to serve, only the power to do so.
Nazareth was not a neutral address. It carried a reputation, and He carried it for most of His life.
There is nothing a person dreads more than being nothing at all. Even to be spoken against is not as dreadful to our poor proud spirit as being unnoticed at all. Yet Jesus spent by far the greater part of His life in that total obscurity. The record holds only one incident from His earliest years until He comes out for the ministry of the word of God and the gospel of the kingdom. And He lived in Nazareth, known as the lowest place in poor despised Galilee. Even a godly Galilean sneered and wondered whether any good thing could come out of Nazareth.
Those hidden years were not empty. One writer reads them as service already under way.
The Servant appears to begin His service. He came out from Nazareth of Galilee. There too, during the hidden years, He had served.
John's baptism was for people admitting their sin. Jesus went to it with them.
God, through John the Baptist, had called His people to repentance. Those in whom His word did its work came to John for baptism. It was the first sign of life and of obedience. Jesus was perfect in life and in obedience. He had come down in grace for the remnant of His people. He goes there, takes His place with them, and receives John's baptism as they did. Touching and marvellous testimony! He does not love from a distance. He does not love only by granting pardon. He comes by grace into the very place where the sin of His people had brought them.
Mark gives no explanation. The Lord's own answer to John supplies one.
Whatever John might think, the way of Jehovah lay through Jordan. Jehovah-Jesus was looking toward those who were poor and of a contrite spirit... The Lord meant, by a public and unmistakable act, to own that way. He answered the one who tried to hinder Him with grace: "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness"... With special grace He linked John with Himself in the submission that godly service always involves. "It is fitting for us" are His words, for He was now stepping out into public view as the Servant of Jehovah.
Another writer sees the Jordan pointing past that morning to the end of the road.
Now we see Him coming out from Nazareth of Galilee, and Himself baptized by John in the Jordan. This is indeed the pledge by which He devotes Himself to the path of service that lies before Him. It is His "Behold, I have come." The Jordan pictures the death that is "written of Him in the scroll of the book," according to its law of sacrifice.
Heaven answered that lowly step at once.
Jesus comes from Nazareth, the humble and despised place in Galilee, and submits to John's baptism. He did not do it because He had anything to confess. He did it to identify Himself with those souls who in repentance were making a move in the right direction. Just then, before He came out in His public ministry, Heaven showed its approval of the perfect Servant. No one was to misread His lowly baptism.
- Servant — Mark drops the genealogy and the birth account. A servant proves himself by work, not by family line.
- Nazareth — He came from the most despised town, after long silent years. The obscurity was part of the service.
- Jordan — He steps into the water of a repentance He did not need. He joins Himself to those whose hearts God had already touched.
- Righteousness — "It is fitting for us" owns that way as God's way, and ties the messenger to the Master in one act of submission.
- Approval — Heaven's approval comes at once, so no one could mistake His humbling for guilt.
And straightway going up from the water, he saw the heavens parting asunder, and the Spirit, as a dove, descending upon him.
Mark gives no family tree and no birth story; he goes straight to the Jordan, where the Servant steps into the water and heaven answers Him. Why is the sky torn open, why does Jesus Himself see it, and why does the Spirit come as a dove?
Mark uses one word here that will come up again and again in his Gospel. It fits a servant who never delays.
The Servant appears to begin His service. He came out from Nazareth in Galilee. There too, during the hidden years, He had served. The Servant was completely sinless, and yet He was baptized in the Jordan. He showed His perfect willingness to take the sinner's place in death, in obedience to the Father's will. Verse 10 has the word "straightway" for the first time in Mark. It is the word that marks this Gospel, describing how prompt His service was. The anointing by the reception of the Spirit follows.
The word translated "opened" is stronger than it looks.
Now notice the expression used: "he saw the heavens being torn open" — that is what the word "opened" means, they were torn apart. It was as if God hurried to proclaim what His heart had found in His own Son; He tears the heavens open... the heavens are torn apart to let the whole mind of heaven out in its indescribable delight in Jesus Christ.
Heaven opened here for the opposite reason it later opened for Stephen, one of the first followers of Jesus.
The heavens were not opened to disclose an object there, as in the case of Stephen. On the contrary, heaven had found an object upon earth — the sinless and obedient Jesus. To Him came the voice, not of an angelic choir as to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem, but of the Father Himself... In this way, as Man, He was assured that God delighted in Him. So He began His ministry as the Servant of Jehovah, fully aware in Himself that He was the Son.
The form the Spirit took says something about the Person He came upon.
And then you have the seal, the Holy Spirit descends on Him. Notice the words, "the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" — that is the form the descending Spirit took, no doubt expressing what He was in His own Person. The dove, as you know, was the bird of sorrow and the bird of love. So it was a fitting picture of what our Lord Jesus Christ was in His own holy, precious, glorious Person.
The dove also recalls the dove Noah sent out over a flooded world.
When the dove was sent out for the third time she did not return, but it is not added that she found rest for the sole of her foot. Clearly she found somewhere to perch. We believe those words are left out because there is a picture here, one that comes to light when we reach Matthew 3:16. When the Lord Jesus came, there was at last found One on whom the Spirit of God could permanently rest, and not before.
The Spirit coming down on Him is the anointing, and Jesus later pointed back to it.
And all this came about. God "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38). This anointing gave Him credentials no one could question. The Lord pointed to them at Nazareth, when He announced that another prophecy about Himself was fulfilled: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor," and so on (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18). Only this Gospel says that Jesus Himself saw the Spirit given. John the Baptist saw it too, though we know of no one else, as John 1:32, 34 and Matthew 3:16 show; Luke 3:22 names no witness.
What happened at the Jordan is not only about Him.
And now where is He, the Servant, He who humbled Himself, who has His place with His poor people, the poorest of His flock? Heaven is open, the Holy Spirit descends on Him, the Father owns Him as His Son. He is the model of the position He has taken for us by redemption... For us too the veil is torn, and heaven is open. We have been anointed and sealed with the Holy Spirit as Jesus was... Jesus was such in His own proper and full right, worthy of being so in Himself; we are brought in by grace and redemption.
- At once. Mark's word for "immediately" appears here for the first time and sets the tone of the whole book: the Servant moves without delay.
- Torn. Heaven was not just opened but torn apart — God hurrying to say aloud what His heart had found in His Son.
- Found. For Stephen, heaven opened to show an object above; here heaven opened because it had found its object below.
- Rested. No resting place is recorded for Noah's dove; the Spirit at last found One on whom He could remain.
- Shared. He was anointed as Servant by right; those who believe are anointed and sealed by grace, with heaven open to them too.
And there came a voice out of the heavens *Thou* art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight.
The voice at the Jordan comes as Jesus steps out of thirty years of obscurity into public work. Heaven does not stay silent about Him. Three questions follow: who does the voice speak to, how strong is the word "beloved," and what is God looking at when He says He is pleased.
Matthew records the words as "This is my beloved Son" (Matthew 3:17). Mark and Luke record "You are." The wording differs because the purpose differs. Here the Father speaks straight to His Son.
"I have found my delight." That is, delight in the self-humbling of Jesus, seen in His submission to the baptism. This does not leave out the Lord's earlier life on earth, nor His condition before He became man… Here we have the outward attestation of the sonship, given for the Lord's own enjoyment. So in Luke 3:22. In Matthew 3:17 the Spirit records the voice as spoken to the Baptist.
The Father spoke to the Son, but others stood within hearing. One man's whole later message rested on what he heard that day.
How did John the Baptist learn that He was the Son of God? For revelation alone teaches that. Had he not heard the Father's voice speaking to His Son at His baptism in the Jordan?… The Father directed that word from heaven to the Son, but surely John heard it. Special revelation had taught John that this One would baptize with the Holy Spirit, and he could declare it with certainty. With equal certainty he could proclaim the Sonship, having heard the Father's own words to His Son.
The word translated "beloved" is not a soft adjective. In the language of the day it carried the force of only.
"Beloved Son." Compare Mark 1:11 and 2 Peter 1:17; so also in Matthew 17:5. In Luke 9:35 the best-attested reading is "chosen," which in Semitic languages is very much the equivalent of agapētos, "beloved." In Hellenistic Greek that word was a synonym of monogenēs — only-begotten.
Scripture says almost nothing about the years before the Jordan. This voice tells us what those hidden years were like.
The curtain drops at that moment on His life at Nazareth, and we see no more of Him until He reaches His thirtieth birthday. Then we learn what kind of life He had lived behind that veil. As He came out into public ministry, the heavens opened and a voice from the excellent glory declared, "This is My beloved Son, in whom is all My delight." So for thirty years God had been able to look down on Him, and in His every thought and word and deed He had found fullest delight.
So what was the Father pleased with — the work Jesus was about to do, or the Man Himself?
It is clear that Jesus was the delight of God as man. This was not merely because of a work that was going to be done. God owned the Person Himself… They must not mistake or misinterpret His baptism. For them it was the baptism of repentance, but for Him it was wholly in grace. He had nothing to own… "With you I am well pleased" — not only "I am," but "I have been." It looks back, and is not about the present moment only.
Mark's account keeps Jesus before us as the Servant. Men would not value His service, but heaven's voice supported Him in it.
Mark in his gospel tells us that Jesus "saw the heavens being torn open." This gospel presents the Lord Jesus as the Servant. His was a service of infinite grace and love, and it meant giving His life (10:45). Yet men did not value that service. The Father's voice said, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." Would not that sound be the comfort and support of this blessed Man, as He walked a path of devotion to God and love to man?
What happened over Jesus at the Jordan sets the pattern for His people. One difference never disappears.
Never had heaven so opened before; never had there been on earth an object which He could own as making His good pleasure. Now there was. For us too the veil is torn, and heaven is open. We have been anointed and sealed with the Holy Spirit as Jesus was; the Father has owned us to be His beloved sons already in this world. Jesus was such in His own proper and full right, worthy of being so in Himself; we are brought in by grace and redemption.
- Addressed — The Father speaks to Jesus, not just about Him. Mark and Luke give "You are," Matthew "This is." John the Baptist heard enough to preach the Sonship later.
- Beloved — "Beloved" here stands close to "only-begotten"; it marks Him out as the one Son, not one among many.
- Delight — "Well pleased" looks back over thirty hidden years at Nazareth, and over His self-humbling in baptism. God owns the Person before any work is done.
- Sustained — In the Gospel of the Servant, this voice is the support of a Man whose service the world would not value.
- Shared — Open heaven, the Spirit, and the Father's welcome are His by right. They are ours by grace and redemption — the same place, on different ground.