John the Baptist Prepares the Way (Mark 1:1-8)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way for Jesus (Mark 1:1-8)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (1:1)

The Good news is my coming, Jesus Christ. In the past, God and humanity were separated by the sin of humans, and I came to reunite humans and the Father. The first victory was in me, and then I trained others to see the victory in them and around them. In me, humanity and God were united again and are still today. I came to deliver humanity from its separation from God and all the diseases and demonic oppressions that resulted from this separation. The salvation, the deliverance I bring are not theoretical, it has an impact on the spirit, the soul and the body. Many understand my deliverance only as spiritual, forgetting that I want to bring deliverance also at the soul and the physical level. That is what I did when I came on earth, that is what the Holy Spirit and I we still want to do, so that the Father will be glorified through every person who believes in us. I explained it very simply and it was noted by John in his Gospel: John 15:7-8, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 

There is much to say concerning this, but with this first verse, just remember that I came to deliver humanity completely - at the levels of body, soul and spirit. 

I am the Son of God. Associating the fact I was the expected Messiah (Christ in Greek), and that I was the Son of God was something that shocked many. I was really both man and God. It was of key importance for the deliverance of humanity. I am the firstborn, to lead many to be fully adopted as sons and daughters of God. Each person that believes in me can become a child of God. It is true, the Father created the earth and each human is therefore, in a limited sense, a child of God; but we want much more. We want each human to have a real relationship with the heavenly Father. That is why I spoke so much of our merciful and wonderful heavenly Father. I taught my disciples to come to Him in prayer, and to believe that He can and wants to bring the freedom that is in heaven also on earth (your will be done on earth as it is in heaven). This first verse already encapsulate key elements of all the Good News I came to bring on earth. 

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight. (1:2-3)

John came to prepare people to welcome me. He cried in the wilderness, he led many to realize that the Messiah was coming. 

His message was not painful but joyful. He said: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near” (Mt 3:2). Therefore the people rejoiced since they had been waiting for so long for the kingdom of God to come. What people imagined was that the kingdom of God was like in the time of David, when the people of Israel was mighty and won the battles against all their neighbors when they attacked them. I did come for victory, but victory against the real enemy of God, the devil, that was manipulating so many people. I did not come to crush the Romans, but to crush the one who made the Romans harsh and unloving. 

For the kingdom of God to come, people had one thing to do: repent from all that was not the will of God. They knew enough through the Ten Commandments and through the Torah (the Pentateuque), so that they came joyfully to John for repentance. This repentance was their part in preparing the way of the Lord, to make his path straight. 

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. (1:4-5)

Repentance does not bring deliverance or forgiveness of sins. Repentance is the human part to ask the Father to forgive. Forgiveness is God’s part to reunite humanity with Him. This forgiveness was prepared through John’s baptism of repentance. It was to be fully accomplished through faith in my sacrifice on the cross. Repentance, turning away from sin, needs the Father’s grace. Sin enslaves and humans who have sinned need help from God in order to turn away from sin. This was the reason of my coming, to bring this help more fully to all humans, to open a new path through my life, death and resurrection. I am the path to life, I am the way and the life. In repentance, people are invited to both do all their efforts to turn away from sin and to turn toward God. At the same time they need to be aware that it is only with the help of God that they will succeed. Successful repentance requires both resolute action and faith in God that He delivers. I came to bring this power of God more fully in humanity, I am Yeshoua (= God delivers), so that humans could enter in a new depth of relationship with the Father, so that the original sin of Adam and its consequences could be undone in the heart of people, so that fellowship with the Father would be again possible, like in the first days of Adam and Eve. 

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. (1:6)

His clothing was the same as Elijah, which was one way to tell people that he was indeed the Elijah who was coming. As Elijah invited people to repent of idolatry (1Kings 18), John invited people to repentance. John did not bring miracles similar to Elijah, but prepared for greater miracles that I showed to them. 

John lived away from people, so that he could be in constant communion with God, to prepare my coming when I would be able to be both with God and with people. Through me, holiness became possible in the midst of relationships with people, even if these people were not holy. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I would enable every person to become a temple of God, that carries the Father’s presence everywhere they go. Since I came, people don’t need anymore to move away from human fellowship in order to live a holy life, through the Holy Spirit every human can live in this world while having their heart united to the Father through the wonderful Holy Spirit, in abiding in me and I in them. It does not mean that it is easy, but it is fully possible and we want that in order to transform this world and bring it back to the Father. As Paul said, the whole creation awaits the revelation of the sons and daughters of God. 

And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. (1:7-8)

In John’s words, he was helping people to realize that I would not be a simple human. In the Roman world even a slave could not be forced to stoop down and untie the straps of his master’s sandals. John was considered highly by our Jewish people, as a prophet. Yet he was saying that between him and me the distance was greater than the distance between a servant and a master, the greatest social distance that existed in the society then. This was his way to point to my divinity, the fact that I was much more than a man or even a prophet. 

He was baptizing with physical water, because he was from the earth - from below. I came to baptize with the Holy Spirit, the water from heaven - from above (see John 7:37-39, John 3:31). The Holy Spirit is much more than water, or fire, or wind. Yet, when he manifests himself (or herself *), he can appear in this form. He is a person, and people can discuss with the Holy spirit, yet he does not have a body like I have since my coming on earth. 

The physical water would stay outside of the body and this cleansing would need to be repeated. The cleansing that the Holy Spirit would bring would be inside the person - the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and people would be able to keep the Holy Spirit in them forever. That was a key part of my ministry, to carry in me the Holy Spirit during my whole ministry, and to release him so that other humans after me could experience this wonderful joy of being full of the Holy Spirit and to be able to walk with him and in him all the days of their lives.