The Final "Yes"

After leaving the waters of the Jordan and dry arid sand of the desert, Mark begins to speak of the beginning days of Jesus' ministry.  As He began His preaching ministry in Galilee, four men became His first disciples.  Simon and Andrew were the first to hear Jesus calling, "Follow Me..."  (Mark 1:17). The brothers, James and John, were the next two who left everything to follow Jesus.  One of the interesting and often missed things about the moment of their entering into a relationship with Jesus was that it all happened at His initiative.  It was truly a moment of grace which, of course, is always the case.  It was then and continues to be.   

Those four fishermen were not required to attend a discipleship training class to prove themselves.  Jesus took them as they were and they were four fishermen who knew how to fish, but not really trained for being entrusted with the affairs of the Kingdom of God.  Such training would come over the next three years, but at the moment of their calling they were raw and untrained.  What cannot be missed as we read the text is that Jesus saw them.  He chose them.  They did not make any initial movement toward Jesus. They became disciples because He chose them and called them.  Everything those four fishermen did that day was in response to what Jesus was offering to them.   

It is still working the same way today.  Our faith in Christ is not the initial act which brings us into relationship with Jesus.  Grace is the primary and the original factor in the relationship we have with Jesus.  This is what Paul was affirming as he wrote those oft quoted words to the Ephesians, "For by grace you have been saved through faith..." (Ephesians 2:8).  All of us are created by God.   All of us are seen by God.  All of us are chosen by God.  All of us are called by God.  Even as those four fishermen had to abandon a life dependent on self and choose to follow Jesus, so do we.  His grace makes it all possible, but the final "Yes" is ours to speak.

Seeing What Has Been Unseen

Mark looks at the life of Jesus and sees the unfolding plan of God.  It is evident in the very first part of his gospel.  As he tells the story, it is as if he is saying, "this event follows this event and then comes the next event."  For Mark the story started centuries earlier with the prophecies of Isaiah who not only spoke of Jesus as the suffering Messiah, but also spoke of one who would come to announce the coming of the Holy One of God.  "As it is written,.." he says.  (Mark 1:2).   Then John the Baptist appears to baptize and to proclaim, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming..." (Mark 1:4-7).  

"Jesus came..." (Mark 1:9)  He was baptized, anointed by the Holy Spirit and led into the wilderness,  (Mark 1:9-13).  John is arrested and the ministry of the Kingdom begins. (Mark 1:14-15).  Each event is like the building block for what is to come.  Everything happens in such rapid fire fashion those reading the story hardly have time to catch their breath, or perhaps, to absorb the significance of what is unfolding before their very eyes.  What we see is the plan of God, one step at a time.  Surely, this Word from the Word which tells us that we are not outside the plan of God is true.  God does not just have a plan for certain folks, but for all of us.  

What is also true is that we live such hurried lives that we miss seeing the steps which God has used to bring us to place where we are.  Our lives are not just about our efforts and what we manage to accomplish, but a plan that God put in place from the moment of our conception in our mother's womb.  It is His grace and His plan which has taken us from there to here.  The season of Lent calls us to a period of reflection which can be used to look back, see what we have not seen, and be grateful. 

Abandoning Self

I wonder what John the Baptist thought when he saw Jesus coming out of the crowd and walking down toward the waters of the Jordan.  We have no idea how long it had been since the two of them had seen each other.  Their families were related and it is likely they spent some time together.  They surely knew each other's story.  It is hard to imagine that Elizabeth and Mary did not tell their sons about the first meeting the boys had while both were still in the womb.    

Before Jesus showed up at the Jordan, John spoke of Jesus by saying, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me..." (Mark 1:7). Given their history, I wonder how John, who was expecting Jesus, actually felt when "Jesus came from Nazareth  of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." (Mark 1:9)  Even as John's imprisonment and death seem to trigger deep emotion in Jesus, seeing the One he had been told to proclaim as coming must have had a profound impact on the man from the wilderness.  When Jesus showed up the Jordan, I wonder if John realized his ministry was coming to end.  With the coming of Jesus, he had fulfilled his part of the plan God was working out in those days.  

One of the many things Jesus and John the Baptist had in common was their personal abandonment to the plan of God.  Nothing was more important than being obedient to that plan.  In both cases their absolute desire to be obedient to God took them to deaths that were both untimely and unjust.   During these day of Lent when we are called to consider how much we we are willing to give up as expressions of our obedience to God, it would do us well to look at these two and see once again what it means to completely abandon self for the purposes of God.

The Impossible

John the Baptist and Jesus were certainly not strangers to each other.  Mary and the mother of John were relatives. When the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would bear a son who would be called the Son of the Most High, she was told that Elizabeth who was far beyond the child bearing age was in her sixth month of a pregnancy that would bring forth a son.  It was Gabriel's way of saying to Mary, "For nothing is impossible with God."  (Luke 1:37).  Mary went to see Elizabeth.  For her it was a means of confirmation.  It was no doubt a visit which cemented the faith growing in her. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the still in the womb, John, "leaped for joy."  (Luke 1:44).   

It is interesting, too, that both disappear in those years between boyhood and age thirty.  It would seem that John became a forerunner to the Desert Fathers who would appear centuries later though there is some speculation that both John the Baptist and Jesus were acquainted with the Essene community of the Dead Sea area, or perhaps, were even a part of it for a time.  Of course, it is all speculation.  What we do know is that their lives were connected from the beginning and as they lived out the plan of God in each of their lives, their paths crossed once again out there at the Jordan River where John baptized Jesus.  

At first glance it would seem that their paths ran forward from their boyhood days separately, perhaps, even in a parallel manner, and then a at a time ordained by God, they intersected to bring a part of His plan to completion.  It is amazing how God can do things that seem impossible from a practical standpoint.  In fact, some of them are so impossible we know it is not about us, but that it has to be about Him.

The Surprise

One of the surprising things about the brief story of John the Baptist in Mark's gospel is that people went out to where he was preaching and baptizing.  So many came, it had to be of God.  He was not a preacher who made it easy for people. He was not into tickling their ears, or saying easy things to swallow.  He preached about the need for a baptism which spoke of repentance and forgiveness.  What is often missed because of the cultural differences is that baptism was a ritual for the unclean Gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism.  Baptism was both unnecessary and unthinkable for any respectable person of the Jewish faith.  

In light of this reality, Mark 1:5 proclaims a surprising Word, "And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized in the river Jordan, confessing their sins"  The message John was preaching was attracting and changing the lives of country folks as well as those who lived on crowded city streets.  His preaching had such power it penetrated the barriers put up by religious institutionalism and touched hearts that were hungry for something new from God.  What was happening out there at the Jordan was a precursor to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for the salvation to everyone who has faith.,," (Romans 1:16).  

It was not the eloquent speaking of John the Baptist, nor his wilderness attire which attracted so many, but the power of the gospel.  What he was preaching was inherently powerful.  The church today, with its ears so attune to the directives of culture and its desire to please, needs to once again reclaim a vision of being a vessel of God's power in the world.  All that stuff the church says and does to blend in with culture will be part of its vestments when buried.  It is in the embracing of the radical message of Christ which has saving power that it will find its life and its future. 

The Greater Purpose

When we read the beginning of Mark's gospel, we are not introduced to men who heard angels singing, or to a young couple searching for a place to give birth to their child, but to a man who had been listening to the silence of the wilderness most of his life.  His skin was darkened by decades of exposure to the burning sun of the desert and coated with layers of its dust and sand.  He was  born with the name John, but came to be known as the Baptizer.   

From his early adult years to the onset of his thirties, he was unseen and silent.  The only explanation for him coming out of obscurity is that it was time.  He was a part of the plan of God and his time had fully come in those days.  His appearance had been spoken and written about by the prophet Isaiah.  He was as sent by God as much as any prophet or Apostle.  When God's timing was full, "John the Baptizer appeared..." (Mark 1:4).  He wore the clothing of a prophet and his voice sounded forth with the authority of a man called by God.   

John was like a bright burning flame that only burned for a moment.  Before the lights on the stage of history had become fully focused on him, he was arrested and quickly died a martyr's death. This messenger of God who was called to "Prepare the way of the Lord,"  (Mark 1:3) spent the bulk of his life alone in tbe wilderness preparing for a ministry that would be measured more by months than years.  John served God as one whose voice announced the coming of the Lord and whose ministry pointed people toward Jesus.  Whether we are called for the lights of center stage or the shadows offstage, there is no greater purpose for our living than to be one, who like John the Baptist, points people to Jesus. 

The Beginning Point

When I was active as a pastor of a local church, I was frequently asked about a good starting point for reading the New Testament.  I always directed folks toward the gospel.  It seemed more important to encounter Jesus before reading the systematic teachings about Jesus that the Apostles wrote to the early developing churches. Of course, there are four gospels and I usually ended being torn between suggesting either Mark or John as the beginning  point.  The first three gospels are collectively referred to as the Synoptic Gospel because of their similarities. 

Of those three Mark was the first one written and may well have served as a guide for Matthew and Luke when they later wrote their respective accounts of the life of Jesus.  From a practical standpoint, it was often chosen because it is the shortest gospel as well as one which has little fluff.  Mark wrote in a manner that was to the point utilizing as few words as possible.  On some occasions the gospel of John was selected  There were three reasons.  It has always been my favorite.  Secondly, it has some wonderful stories of people encountering Jesus which are not recorded in the Synoptic group.  Finally, John is rich in  images that take us beyond the factual information about Jesus to a place of wonder and contemplation. 

There are always some who want to begin at the beginning.  Genesis and Exodus are full of great stories of God interacting with His people, but Leviticus has often turned into a graveyard full of the bones of those who began as eager readers.  Of course, the whole Bible reveals God at work among His people.  Those who read the gospel first will learn much about the nature of God for as Jesus said, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father>" (John 14:9).