Mark 1. 1-8

Mark begins his gospel by signaling the connectivity of Israel with Jesus “by conflating material from Isaiah, Exodus, and Malachi” (Lectionary Commentary: Gospels, 162). By making this move Mark unveils the fact that Jesus is intelligible only within the necessary backdrop of Israel’s history. Furthermore, if Jesus inaugurates a new world within the old then it must be properly understood how God the creator is redeeming the very creation he had created. The historical mode that designates God’s promise of redeeming the world through Israel we name as covenant. It was the covenant of God that was to solve the problems within creation. This covenantal relationship was established by God in electing a particular group of people to embody an alternative sociology in contrast to the surrounding nations, thereby giving witness to an attractive example of perfect community that could then be emulated by others. Therefore, it was the crucial task of Israel to be faithful to God rather than forcibly correct pagan nations. For Israel, this happened through the set apart practicing community of Israel rather than through theory or a simple “matter of the heart” piety among individuals. This covenant was not to deny the role of individuals in community but rather to grant priority to the whole nation of Israel in which individuals were incorporated in through birth or conversion (Authentic Witness, 80). Following the Torah was not primarily an individual private matter but obeyed rather for the purpose of setting apart Israel by visibly displaying what it means to live as we were created to by “reflect[ing] the image of their maker” in order to be a light to the world (Fresh Perspective, 89). Jews did not understand the law as a means to salvation if obeyed perfectly but a way to identify themselves with the covenant community. Therefore if a Jew chose not to continue practicing the law it was assumed that they had self-excommunicated him- or herself by stepping outside the boundaries of the covenant community.

Although God had called Israel to be a light to the nations in order to solve the problems of the world, “the covenant people [had] become part of the problem, not the agents of the solution” (Fresh Perspective, 29). Was God then to abandon the covenant community and set out on a different plan to redeem the world? Rather than take this path, as many Christians have assumed over the centuries, God choose to renew and restore his chosen people through the activity of Jesus in gathering his people and fulfilling the covenant on behalf of the world, which was Israel’s original task. Therefore, the long anticipation of the restoration of creation and Israel is accomplished by God. I mention “gathering his people” because “the twelve disciples could refer only to the twelve tribes of Israel” (Jesus and Community, 10). Furthermore, it is suggested that these twelve came from various regions and sects within Judaism to further represent “the gathering of all Israelites” (ibid, 11). It can be seen from this short summary of Israel’s divine purpose that faith is a matter of the Messiah’s faithfulness to the intended plan of Israel rather than human faith in the Messiah. Since God’s called people are the earthly representation of God, then for God to sanctify his own people is to sanctify his own name. The “Good News about Jesus the Messiah” therefore is a new aeon set within yet beyond the old. For Mark to recall the story of Israel when introducing the Messiah is to historically situate how God is faithfully fulfilling his promises.

Secondly, that Mark begins his gospel with pairing repentence with baptism in declaring the Good News that was prepared by John the Baptist is to reiterate that the people of God is not incidental to faith since in baptism and confession “[we] acknowledge our dependence on others; we recognize the indispensability of the church in the work of God; we inject ourselves willingly into the practices of the Jewish tradition. We tell the world that we cannot make it on our own” (Lectionary Commentary: Gospels, 166). Take confession for instance. By confessing my sins in general terms to God in the privacy of my consciousness I could easily neglect particular sins that I might not see without the presence of other people to point them out for me and keep me honest as well. “For it is one thing to confess our sin in general, but it is quite another to confess our sin to one in the church who we may well have wronged and to seek reconciliation” (After Christendom, 110). It is noteworthy that it is John the Baptist who was chosen to prepare the way for the Messiah seeing as how he inverts all earthly values thereby orienting us to properly anticipate the one who is to come to be characterized not by popularity or power but humility. Metanoia, the Greek terms for repentence, “literally means a change of mind or a reorientation of perception and understanding” (Authentic Witness, 125). John the Baptist preaches repentence at the same time that he changes our perspective on what the Messiah is going to be like. That the kingdom can only be received through metanoia unsettles us to acknowledge that peace and reconciliation in community is possible only through repentence and forgiveness rather than knowledge and power. Therefore the church is not incidental to the Good News because we depend on each other to point out our particular sins and remind us that forgiveness is the necessary process that makes community possible.

Baptism similarly inducts us into a community of discipleship “that has so truthful a story that we forget ourselves and our anxieties long enough to become part of that story, a story God has told in Scripture and continues to tell in Israel and the church” (Resident Aliens, 59). Baptism therefore is our adoption into the new humanity of Christ which is a new way of living in the world which transcends all other identities and classifications such as gender, class, ethnicity and nationality. “Thus the primary narrative meaning of baptism is the new society it creates, by inducting all kinds of people into the same people” (Body Politics, 32). This is the best response the church has to individualism and discrimination. In Christian baptism we are gathered together in anticipation of the eschatological gathering and bear the first fruits of that hope.