Off with His Head! Pt. 2

Mark 1

New International Version (NIV)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—

3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Right here is the start of Jesus' ministry. John the Baptist is like the warm up band for the main act of a concert. John is setting the mood, getting everyone hyped up on what is about to happen. He's getting everyone starting to sweat, the pit is heating up, and people are ready to get to work. John is letting everyone know Jesus the Messiah is coming and ya'll need to straighten up! It states Isaiah wrote the verse, but we actually have two verses of scripture used in verses 2 and 3. The first one is from Malachi 3:1, the second verse is from Isaiah 40:3. Malachi was the latest of the prophesies and Isaiah was the longest. Note: Before I forget to mention this, if you take a look at the verse 1 where it says good news, that means gospel. So it was prophesied John the Baptist would be "my messenger" which is God's messenger about Jesus coming to proclaim the gospel to the people.

As verse 3 says and verse 4 reiterates, John was in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. What does that mean? Well, it means baptism was the outward showing of an inward change, they were showing they were transforming themselves. Going to the back half of verse 5, "confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." They were telling how much they screwed up (sinned) and they showed everyone they had repented of those sins by being baptized by John. Who were they confessing to? The part we skipped in verse 5 tells us; the WHOLE Judean countryside and ALL the people of Jerusalem. Everyone was going out to see John. People were going to see him like it was the Dew Tour. They wanted to see what was going on and get close to the action. There were thousands of people going out the Jordan River to hear John preach and get dunked for the repentance of sins. He was telling everyone to get right with God and to repent, which is the same thing Jesus does in his ministry.

In verse 6 we get a description of how John dressed. He was modest to say the least. He wore a garment of camel hair, which was common dress for a prophet. The prophet Elijah wore the same type of clothing. The camel hair was coarse and matted and not at all attractive. It was wore by the prophets to show self-denial. Their mission as messengers was more important than social status. John ate locusts; think big grasshoppers and honey. A lot of historians believe the honey was used to either fry the bugs or use it as a sweet dipping sauce. I think I will stick with chicken nuggets and bbq sauce! His clothing and food choices showed the people who came to see him they were to live a simple life, giving up many of the earthly comforts and focus on repentance. Not only does John submit to a life of self denial, but he preaches it too.

John lives a life of self-denial in lifestyle and preaching. Verses 7 and 8 give us a harsh look at how John denies himself and his ministry to usher in the ministry of Jesus. John says he isn't worthy to untie Jesus' sandals, and that is the lowest of low. Picture how their feet would have looked; dusty, caked with dirt, perhaps scratched up. The sandals of that day were nothing more than a piece of leather with either leather straps or a shoestring-like cord wrapped around the foot and ankle. There weren't paved roads or sidewalks, they walked on dusty sand paths. If it rained, you walked in mud. Sandals were pretty gross, and if they were clean they were still covered in sweat. John claims himself as not being worthy enough to touch Jesus' sandals and feet. (It is interesting that Jesus stoops low enough later on to wash all of his disciples' feet at the last supper.) John continues about the very thing he is doing for the people as he greets them at the Jordan River, the baptism he preforms is nothing compared to the baptism of the Holy Spirit which Jesus gives. John is like "Ok I can give you a 99 cent squirt with a dollar store water gun, but Jesus uses that awesome Supersoaker with the backpack you wanted as a kid." Baptism up until then was a new idea. It was a simple emblem of a change in someone's life to lead a God driven life. It was John who was ushering in this new idea so when it came time for Christ to give us the gift of the Holy Spirit through baptism it would be more accepted.