Mark gives us the ministry of the Lord. His account is brief and there are few events which are not recorded by Matthew and Luke. Nevertheless, what a gap there would be in our view of the Savior's life and work here below if we did not have the gospel of Mark!
In none of the other gospels do we have a more characteristic manner of presenting what is given us. In none do we have such graphic, vivid life-touches of our Master, not only what He said and did, but how He looked and felt. Besides, there is the evident design of drawing our attention to His gospel-service. All the incidents chosen and the peculiar mode in which they are handled will be found to bear upon this weighty and affecting theme: the Lord God as the Servant in lowly, faithful ministration of the gospel here below.
The very opening verses illustrate this. "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. The voice of one crying," etc. We at once enter on the great business the Holy Spirit had in hand There is no blowing of trumpets to usher in the king in due style and title. This has its just place in Matthew, where the descent traced from Abraham and David, along the chosen royal line of Solomon too, so admirably agrees with God's object there.
The circumstances before and after His birth follow, all carrying out the same end of presenting Jesus as the true and blessed Messiah of Israel. Luke and John, it could be readily shown, were endowed by the Spirit with equally striking and suited wisdom for maintaining the aim of their gospels respectively.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
It is well, however, in noting the beautiful closeness of the picture here brought before our eyes, to observe that there is no precipitancy, no omission of what is a most important preface for the account of Jesus thus ministering. The previous appearance and services of John the Baptist are alluded to in the opening words. It was more than prophecy, though in accordance, as verses 2 and 3 prove, with the prophets. "The law and the prophets," we are told elsewhere, "were until John" who took a great step in advance "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." This was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, after long silence had reigned as to God's testimony in Jerusalem.
It is touching to see that if we are about to follow the steps of God's faithful and only perfect Servant, the change which the Holy Spirit in sovereign wisdom makes (v. 2) in His citation of Mal. 3:11Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1), points to the divine glory of Jesus. In the prophecy it is Jehovah sending His messenger who would prepare the way before Him. In Mark it is still Jehovah sending His messenger, but it is now before "Thy face," or the face of Jesus Christ. The truth is, Jesus was Jehovah even though He humbled Himself as He did. Matthew elicits the same truth from His name, "Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins." The Jews were the people of none but Jehovah.
It is the more remarkable in the opening of our gospel, for Mark, unlike Matthew, rarely quotes the Scriptures. It is perfectly in keeping with this gospel and its opening verses. If the Lord of glory were coming or comes in the form of a servant and the likeness of men, it was most appropriate that prophecy should not be broken, but bend before Him, and that a new and still more blessed testimony should begin.
John in the Wilderness
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 must go outside to John if they would take their right place before God. What he presented was the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. The effect was great, not meager, but extensive and not without touching the conscience. "There went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.”
All this is here sketched by Mark, clearly but rapidly and in brief, without stopping by the way to set it before us as was needful to the purpose of God in Matthew. There the proud and falsehearted men stood in the place of religious leaders of the day, objects of God's certain and scrutinizing judgment.
John's Special Place
But if John had his own special place, and if his abode, dress, and food witnessed his separation from the evil state of Israel, it was his happier task to testify to the superiority of Christ's person and of His ministry as compared with his own. Nothing is here said of baptizing with fire, as in Matthew and Luke, to both of whose subjects it was requisite. But Mark was inspired to speak only of that part of John's testimony which is directly associated with the Lord's gospel work-baptizing with the Holy Spirit. It is not that under Christ repentance ceased, for in a world of sin repentance is the necessary pathway of a soul that is born of God. Still, the turning of a soul to God, in a sense of sin and self-judgment is different from the divine power which sets evil aside on the basis of a redemption accomplished by the grace of God. This is the characteristic blessing of Christianity.
Yet Jesus, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, was Himself baptized by John in the river Jordan. He Himself receives the Holy Spirit! What a sight and what a truth! Infinitely above sin and sins (which He did not even know), yet He was baptized with water. He had no unrighteousness to confess, but thus it became Him to fulfill all righteousness. From Nazareth of Galilee He came, the One who was God over all, blessed forever. There He dwelt, as Matthew tells us, so that the prophets' sayings in this might be fulfilled.
The Heavens Opened
Could heaven behold such grace unmoved? Impossible. "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened [cleaving asunder] and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him." What meaning that act of baptism had in the mind of God! "And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." As John says, "Him hath God the Father sealed." It is not merely the fact, but "he saw," etc., which is here recorded.
Though truly God, He was man; though a Son, He became a servant and was now about to enter into His ministry He receives the Spirit as well as the recognition of His Sonship. He had justified God's sentence on Israel, and call to Israel. In grace He had joined the souls who had bowed to it in the waters of Jordan. But this could not be without the answer of the Father for His heart's joy in the path He was about to tread. The one was the fulfillment of every kind of righteousness and not legal only (this in grace, for there was no necessity of evil in His case). The other was His recognition by the Father in the nearest personal relationship, over which His submission to baptism might have cast a cloud to carnal eyes.
Jesus in the Wilderness
"And immediately the Spirit driveth Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him." vv. 12,13. What a picture of His position in a few words of God!
Moses, the lawgiver, had been with God on the mount forty days. Elijah, the prophet, had been in the wilderness with God for the same number of days, sustained without the need of man's food. But what was either miracle compared with the position of Jesus? For Him, the Son, to be with God was, and had been from all eternity, His natural place. But now He was come down to the earth, a Man among men and in the wilderness to which sin had reduced this fair creation, He is for forty days tempted of Satan. Man was not there, but the wild beasts were, as Mark so forcibly adds. There were angels, too, ministering to Him. It was all His wondrous preparation for a service no less wondrous.
Wm. Kelly