Mark 1:9-13 — "You are my beloved Son..."

Mark 1:9-13
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Comments:

Jesus came to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. This is an example of the dragnet Gospel that I wrote about previously. This is the briefest mention of both Jesus’ baptism and his subsequent temptation in the wilderness. There are longer accounts in both Matthew 3-4 and Luke 3-4. For Mark, it is an event that happened and the witness (Peter) reports it briefly to the Roman Christians.

For Jesus, his baptism was a matter of not only obedience to the Father’s leading, but of 

Jordan River near the Dead Sea

 the relational revelation that followed. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized for sins he committed (he never sinned) but to immerse himself fully into our experience, to identify with those he came to save. As baptism for the Christian is a sign of their turning away from their sins and follow Jesus through identifying with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, so baptism for Jesus is a public declaration that he is on assignment from the Father even unto his own death, burial, and resurrection. He is moving from the private life of a Nazareth carpenter into the public and focused mission as the Messiah of God.

Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing and only said what he heard the Father saying. Here in the muddy waters of the Jordan River Jesus comes up out of the water and "immediately" (one of Mark’s favorite words) saw two things and heard another.

·       “He saw the heavens being torn open”—have you ever wondered what this looked like? In any event, it certainly was a physical picture of the new season of revelation that was being released as the Spirit and the Father testified regarding their relationship with Jesus.

·      “The Spirit descending like a dove” (John the Baptist saw this too). In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit might come upon a person temporarily for a specific task. Here we see the Spirit descending upon Jesus which would indicate that God was going to do something big or say something important through him...that he was, in fact, the promised Messiah or Christ.

·       Jesus heard God the Father speak, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

Judean Wilderness

It might surprise many to see that upon the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus and after God’s loving verbal approval, his circumstances didn’t improve. In fact, the Holy Spirit “drives” Jesus into the wilderness. It is there in the wilderness that the devil tests Jesus on his understanding of God had said. Jesus believed God’s Word and acted upon it and it carried him through the time of temptation.

Surrendering to God’s will is no guarantee of an easy road. Jesus’ experience at the Jordan led to him being driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. Should we be surprised when after great seasons of revelation we face soul-testing times in the desert of our circumstance? It is merely the beginning of our standing with the God who suffers for us. The picture of the angels ministering to Jesus in the wilderness is an allusion to the experience Jacob had when he saw the angels climbing the staircase to heaven in an area very nearby. Jesus is seen to be on a higher level than a prophet or even a patriarch.

Questions:

Are willing to die to our own dreams and surrender to God’s plan?

What does the Father say about us?

How does he sustain us through the trials and testing we face?