| John
the Baptist was a charismatic and highly popular
leader whose preaching drew people closer to God,
and brought Jesus out of the hidden life of Nazareth
into public life. Each evangelist presents a somewhat
differing picture of John. Mark is determined
to keep our attention on Jesus, so that for him
John is an ascetic who dresses like a desert Bedouin
and who proclaims ‘a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sin’. ‘The whole Judean countryside
and the people of Judea’ streamed out to him,
but for Mark, John’s primary role is to point
towards the one ‘who will baptise with the Holy
Spirit’. John does not give this person any name.
Nobody knows his name except us, and we know because
Mark has already told us. John baptises--‘immerses’--people
in water as a sign of repentance. Unlike John,
this person will baptise--‘immerse’--us in the
Holy Spirit. Mark contrasts John the servant who
kneels with the more powerful one.
Mark introduces Jesus with solemnity: It was
in those days = at this time. While it was
people from Judea and Jerusalem who came to John
in the wilderness, Jesus comes south from the
small village of Nazareth in Galilee, a place
unmentioned in the whole of the Old Testament,
and about which the apostle Nathanael said: Can
anything good come from Nazareth? [John 1,46].
Mark tells us simply about the baptism of Jesus.
Again he puts the stress on Jesus and his vision
and the descent of the Spirit. The heavens are
torn apart, just as the veil of the Temple will
be torn apart at the death of Jesus [Mark 15,38].
There is a new relationship between earth and
heaven. Heaven, closed since the Fall in the Garden
of Eden, has opened up again as communication
is restored. The Holy Spirit of God is in the
midst of his people and the Father is no longer
silent. What He says recalls the Word of God in
the Old Testament. Psalm 2 says “You are my son”.
Isaiah 42,2 speaks of the servant, the chosen
one “in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit
in him”, and Isaiah also prays “why do you not
tear the sky open and come down?” [64,1]. Here
the revelation is made to Jesus alone. Mark does
not suggest that the Baptist or anyone else is
a witness to this—again, except us, who read and
hear his words. Mark has told us that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God, in whom prophecy
is being fulfilled. [The word ‘beloved’ may translate
the Hebrew for ‘unique’ or ‘only’.]
• Jesus does not come to John the Baptist alone
but in the company of the crowds who repented,
who acknowledged that they had sinned. Neither
does he need to be baptised. Jesus acts in solidarity
with sinners, showing himself, as St Paul put
it, “the first among many brothers and sisters”
[Romans 8,29]. Can I think of Jesus as my ‘big
brother’ in this sense? And that I qualify because
I am a sinner?
• The voice of the Father is heard at the baptism
of Jesus. Did the same voice not say at my Baptism
“You are my beloved child, in whom I am well
pleased”?
• The river Jordan, not very wide, is something
of a wonder, rising in the mountains and flowing
south through the Sea of Galilee to end in the
salt and lifeless waters of the Dead Sea at
the lowest place on earth. To the east is desert,
to the west the hostile wilderness of Judea,
but there is also fertile Galilee and the date
palms and lush warmth of the oasis of Jericho,
so that even the river in today’s gospel draws
attention to the effect of water, and therefore
of Baptism. Having had all too much water fall
on us from the sky over the last few months,
water as a symbol may pass me by if I do not
stop to think about it.
• Seeing the Holy Spirit as a dove is scarcely
much help in trying to get some image to grasp
in our minds. Perhaps the Spirit is best seen
as God at work in my life. If I look back over
my life do I see evidence of the Spirit at work
at any time?
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