Mark 1:9

Cinderella pumpkins from the Toy Box suburban farm

Every time a window opens I see old friends with fresh eyes. For as long as I have been reading the Gospel of Mark I have treated his story of Y'shua's immersion and time in the wilderness as if they were simply the Reader's Digest version of the full story as told by the other Gospel authors. The suggestion of RT France that perhaps only the setting is the same but the message is different, richer, more complex then the surface story told by Matthew, Luke and even John, was a small revelation to me.


My perception of Marks telling of Yochannan's immersion of Y'shua (John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus if you are still new at dabbling in Hebrew) will now and forever be seen by me as the changing of the guard. At this very moment in history the world of men said good-by to dependence on prophets (and from judgement of their integrity) to faith in the son of God / ben YHVH). It happened so quickly that I must have blinked.....I missed it until just this week.

 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 opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove;  and a voice came from heaven, "Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased."
Mark 1: 9-11   RSV

I have a hand penned note in the crowded margin of my Bible that proclaims  "God spoke in a day without a prophet." I wish I had written that note in pencil so I could erase it. It is not true. Yochannan the Immerser was the last prophet of YHVH and the people of Jerusalem and Judea flocked to him. The other gospels tell their readers that John was conceived and born to be a prophet of YHVH. That ministry came to an end as Y'shua came up out of the waters of his immersion. Before he returns from his forty days in the wilderness, Yochannan will apparently have been arrested. Ready or not, the king, the arm of The Lord, will speak to a people who must still repent but must act not out of duty but faith. The heavens opened, the Kingdom of God came near. A whole new world.

In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Hebrews 1: 1-2   RSV

Repent and believe.

MsH 10/19/12