Commentary on Mark 1:9-13
© Seth Kniep, 2009. All rights reserved.
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1:9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
If Mark was making up this story about Jesus being God and the one who died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead, he is doing a pretty bad job of it. The underdog type who rises up from some no-name town and conquers his enemies did not hold the attraction in Mark’s day that it does in ours. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans held no respect for someone who grew up in Nazareth, an ancient ghetto town, so despicable that one of Jesus’ disciples asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Not only does Mark hurt his case for Jesus’ deity by revealing Jesus’ lowly hometown, but he says that John baptized Jesus. Even John was at first repulsed by this idea (Mat 3:14). Baptism was for sinners, dirty people, people who had no hope unless God showed them mercy. If Jesus was the Son of God, He had to be sinless. But Jesus gets baptized. This is the same guy who never lusted, never coveted, never flipped somebody off, never entertained a single sinful thought. Yet He asks John to dunk him in the Jordan as if He was the very thing He came to die for.
God made Jesus who knew no sin to become “sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
When God came to save the world through Jesus, He didn’t do it be dominating, forcing, manipulating, or punishing sinners. He did it by taking the sin on Himself. If Jesus was going to die for our sin, then He needed to be treated as if He was the One who committed our sin. Raised in a slum and baptized like a sinner, Jesus embodied the brokenness and sinfulness of our world. The Bible is the only book that claims that God was wiling to fix our problem by becoming the problem. He would become the scapegoat, the goat the Israelites would lay their hands on, confess their sins out loud, and then send into the wilderness to die. He was damned so you and I could be delivered. He was cursed that we could be blessed. When God decided to save the world, redemption came by rejection.
1:10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him...
The heavens cracked open—what this looked like is hard to imagine, but I find it hard to think this was two puffy little clouds moving aside. “Wow—look, two clouds just moved! It’s God!” Perhaps a hole opened up that shot up through billions of galaxies and down came the Holy Spirit, hovering like a dove over Jesus’ head.
Why would the eternal Son of God who created heaven and earth, who would rise from the dead, and who created the very Jordan River He was baptized in need the Holy Spirit before He started in His public ministry? To identity with us. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). Instead of dipping into the credit card of His deity, Jesus set aside this great privilege and depended on the Holy Spirit just as we have to. By doing this, Jesus had no more spiritual resources available to Him than the Christian does. In this passage (Mark 1:9-13) Jesus identifies with all humanity at the lowest possible common denominator by growing up in the ghetto as if He was poor (Nazareth), getting baptized as if He was a sinner, receiving the Holy Spirit as if He was weak, being affirmed as God’s Son as if He didn’t know it, and getting tempted by the devil as if He wasn’t God. That God was willing to meet us at our level is the most earth-shaking, heart-breaking act of love history will ever know.
1:11 ...and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
This was not done for Jesus’ sake but those watching. God announces before John and all the people that Jesus is more than flesh and blood. He’s the Son of God! This man willing to be treated like a sinner so that He could identity with sinners whom He’d save from sin is the eternal Son of God.
1:12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.
The Spirit led Jesus into a lonely place where He would starve and suffer temptation from the Master Tempter for 40 days straight. God never tempts anyone—Jesus or people (Jam 1:13), but God does will for us to be tempted so that through the pain of resisting our faith will flourish. Likewise, Jesus needed to feel the pain and misery of temptation so that He could identify with our sufferings, yet without ever sinning (Heb 4:15).
1:13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
What Jesus suffered is unimaginable. No human will know the bitter level of seduction and temptation that Satan tried to break Jesus with. Like a wild man in the woods with the beasts, Jesus walks and prays and fasts and resists the devil for 960 hours, all because He loves the Father and He loves you and me. Finally, when the hour of temptation has passed, the angels come to serve and strengthen Him (Mat 4:11), just as God sends angels to serve all His children (Heb 1:14).
If Mark was making up this story about Jesus being God and the one who died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead, he is doing a pretty bad job of it. The underdog type who rises up from some no-name town and conquers his enemies did not hold the attraction in Mark’s day that it does in ours. The Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans held no respect for someone who grew up in Nazareth, an ancient ghetto town, so despicable that one of Jesus’ disciples asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Not only does Mark hurt his case for Jesus’ deity by revealing Jesus’ lowly hometown, but he says that John baptized Jesus. Even John was at first repulsed by this idea (Mat 3:14). Baptism was for sinners, dirty people, people who had no hope unless God showed them mercy. If Jesus was the Son of God, He had to be sinless. But Jesus gets baptized. This is the same guy who never lusted, never coveted, never flipped somebody off, never entertained a single sinful thought. Yet He asks John to dunk him in the Jordan as if He was the very thing He came to die for.
God made Jesus who knew no sin to become “sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).
When God came to save the world through Jesus, He didn’t do it be dominating, forcing, manipulating, or punishing sinners. He did it by taking the sin on Himself. If Jesus was going to die for our sin, then He needed to be treated as if He was the One who committed our sin. Raised in a slum and baptized like a sinner, Jesus embodied the brokenness and sinfulness of our world. The Bible is the only book that claims that God was wiling to fix our problem by becoming the problem. He would become the scapegoat, the goat the Israelites would lay their hands on, confess their sins out loud, and then send into the wilderness to die. He was damned so you and I could be delivered. He was cursed that we could be blessed. When God decided to save the world, redemption came by rejection.
1:10 Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him...
The heavens cracked open—what this looked like is hard to imagine, but I find it hard to think this was two puffy little clouds moving aside. “Wow—look, two clouds just moved! It’s God!” Perhaps a hole opened up that shot up through billions of galaxies and down came the Holy Spirit, hovering like a dove over Jesus’ head.
Why would the eternal Son of God who created heaven and earth, who would rise from the dead, and who created the very Jordan River He was baptized in need the Holy Spirit before He started in His public ministry? To identity with us. “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). Instead of dipping into the credit card of His deity, Jesus set aside this great privilege and depended on the Holy Spirit just as we have to. By doing this, Jesus had no more spiritual resources available to Him than the Christian does. In this passage (Mark 1:9-13) Jesus identifies with all humanity at the lowest possible common denominator by growing up in the ghetto as if He was poor (Nazareth), getting baptized as if He was a sinner, receiving the Holy Spirit as if He was weak, being affirmed as God’s Son as if He didn’t know it, and getting tempted by the devil as if He wasn’t God. That God was willing to meet us at our level is the most earth-shaking, heart-breaking act of love history will ever know.
1:11 ...and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
This was not done for Jesus’ sake but those watching. God announces before John and all the people that Jesus is more than flesh and blood. He’s the Son of God! This man willing to be treated like a sinner so that He could identity with sinners whom He’d save from sin is the eternal Son of God.
1:12 Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness.
The Spirit led Jesus into a lonely place where He would starve and suffer temptation from the Master Tempter for 40 days straight. God never tempts anyone—Jesus or people (Jam 1:13), but God does will for us to be tempted so that through the pain of resisting our faith will flourish. Likewise, Jesus needed to feel the pain and misery of temptation so that He could identify with our sufferings, yet without ever sinning (Heb 4:15).
1:13 And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.
What Jesus suffered is unimaginable. No human will know the bitter level of seduction and temptation that Satan tried to break Jesus with. Like a wild man in the woods with the beasts, Jesus walks and prays and fasts and resists the devil for 960 hours, all because He loves the Father and He loves you and me. Finally, when the hour of temptation has passed, the angels come to serve and strengthen Him (Mat 4:11), just as God sends angels to serve all His children (Heb 1:14).