Fiive marks of discipleship

“…The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)

Mark 1:1-8 (Year B: Second Sunday of Advent  6th December 2020)

The Gospel of Mark, which we read over most Sundays from now until Christmas of 2021 is a very concise account of the life of Jesus Christ. The first chapter reads, in many respects, as a type of ‘executive summary’ of this entire Gospel and all four canonical Gospels. The opening 8 verses of Mark 1, which provide the reading for this Sunday, are a prelude for what is to follow.  What it is to follow may be summarised in five key points as follows:

To repent of our sins (v 15)

To believe in Jesus (v 15)

To be healed by Jesus (v 34)

To follow Jesus (v 17)

To be sent by Jesus (v 17)

We would do well to take Mark in hand this Advent/Christmas and let the words and their meaning sink in. We ought to take some time out to go with the Five Marks of discipleship presented to us by Mark in the opening chapter of his Gospel and of which today’s reading is an introduction.

The first chapter of the Gospel of Mark is worth reading slowly and prayerfully. It holds the key to the entire Good News story about Jesus. When a sentence or a phrase strikes we can just stop there and linger awhile in silence and quiet. A quiet spot and a regular time of day is an idea for this type of exercise. It takes practice and discipline. It bears fruit. In that way we can ‘prepare a way’ in the desert of our lives. And we will be overtaken by surprise – surprise that God loves us more than we ever imagined possible.

We go from a raised awareness of our need for repentance (a turning towards others and God) to a continuing healing to an active decision to follow the One who has prompted us. In following the One, we help prepare a way for others, too.

We may note that our Messiah didn’t just pop up in Palestine 2,000 years ago. The way was prepared over a long, long time by people including prophets, kings, servants and, more recently, by John the Baptist. Others had sown the seeds over generations. Mary had to say her yes.  Joseph has to say his yes to what was unfolding.  John (the Baptist) assembled some disciples, first. At the end of his life – a mere three years before his death – Jesus steps out and begins to proclaim a kingdom of values that would shake and reshape the world forever.

John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, points to a new way of life and a new order of things which is already breaking into our world. He was no ordinary person. Clothed in ‘camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist’ and with ‘locusts and wild honey’ as his food we are picturing, here, not some finely clothed priest in the Temple or some man about society and the synagogue.  Here was someone who is message and its impact. However, the cousin of Jesus plays something of a very backseat role in the was a reproach to the social norms of the time. Yet, people came to him. There was something about hgospel. Just as Jesus emerges on the scene, the Baptist fades away. Yet, his role and ministry is hugely important – like of that of Mary the mother of Jesus.  John the Baptist helped make the gospel welcome where he was and where he was sent.  We, too, have a call to do so.

This advent is a time to be refreshed and to experience, again, the fruits of our own baptism. The year 2020 has been an extraordinarily difficult year for nearly everyone.  We have been forced to slow down and make hard choices.  A chink of light is visible now but relief is some way off.  Advent, this year, will be different.  However, we can make it a reality for ourselves and others by taking the gospel to heart in our daily lives. We need to be  open to change. Change is possible no matter who we are and where we are at or which pandemic strikes next as it will in this new world of nature imbalance and hyper globalism.

 

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A short commentary

Preliminaries

The Gospel of Mark is thought to have been written before the other three Gospels that we recognise and have received. In common with the other three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Luke and John), Mark gives some prominence to the role and person of John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus.  It is also striking that the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3 is explicitly mentioned in each Gospel.

A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

It is as if each of the four evangelists wants to emphasise that Jesus is fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah foretold and what the Jewish people longed for and expected for over many generations. Now, the Lord has arrived. However, the way was prepared by John the Baptist who preached repentance and forgiveness of sins and gathered a community of disciples around him. John gives way to Jesus. His mission was to be a sign and a witness pointing the way to Jesus who was to come. Mark jumps straight to the Baptism and mission of Jesus in the opening of the Gospel of Mark (1:9-11). Mark gives John his due acknowledgement as a key figure in preparing the way for Jesus. However, from now on, the disciples of John must look to Jesus even if questions lingered for some years after the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

1:  In the beginning

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That is a very concise beginning to a very concise Gospel and a very concise opening chapter. What this Gospel is about is quite simply the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God.  Mark could not be more concise!  With Mark there is no extended hymn and reflection on the Logos who became flesh and lived among us as in the Gospel of John.  Neither is there an extended genealogy for the edification of Jewish ears as in Matthew.  And, there are no extended narratives on how Jesus was conceived and born as in Matthew and in Luke.  Mark jumps straight into the opening ministry of Jesus.  Matthew, Luke and John have important points of emphasis to bring and which are missing in Mark.

2-3:  Drawing on the prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”’

Malachi 3:1 –  See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. 

The entire chapter 40 of Isaiah is worth reading again.

4-5:  Here comes John the Baptiser

‘John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.’

6-8:  And here is what he taught

‘Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

The first mention of baptism in this Gospel is to baptism in the Holy Spirit. Baptism and the Holy Spirit are central to Christian discipleship. Mark is being very clear, lest there be any lingering doubts, with the community for which he wrote around the decade of the 70s following the death and resurrection of Jesus: John the Baptist was a prophet and a mighty one at that but he was not the messiah. Rather, he pointed to the Messiah who was already here in our midst.  Today, that same Messiah is in our midst no less than 2,000 years ago. We must open our eyes and hearts.