1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark does not just call Jesus the “Christ”; he goes further. “Son of God” is an astonishingly bold term that goes beyond the popular understanding of the Messiah at the time.
1:2-3 It is written in Isaiah the prophet:…
By quoting Isaiah’s prophetic passage, Mark asserts that John the Baptist fulfills the “voice” calling out in the desert. Since Mark equates John with the one who would “prepare the way for the Lord,” by clear inference, it means he is equating Jesus with the Lord himself, with God Almighty. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the biblical prophets’ longings and visions, and he is the one who will come to rule and renew the entire universe.
1:9-12 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
There are three parties active in the creation of the world: God, God’s Spirit, and God’s Word, through which he creates. The same three parties are present at Jesus’s baptism: the Father, who is the voice; the Son, who is the Word; and the Spirit fluttering like a dove. When Jesus comes out of the water, the Father envelopes him and covers him with words of love. Meanwhile, the Spirit covers him with power. This is what has been happening in the interior life of the Trinity from all eternity. Each person of the Trinity glorifies the other. It is a dance.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each centring on the others, adoring and serving them. And because the Father, Son, and Spirit are giving glorifying love to one another, God is infinitely, profoundly happy.
If this world was made by a triune God, love relationships are what life is all about. Love can exist only in a relationship. If a unipersonal God had created the world and its inhabitants, such a God would not in his essence be love. Power and greatness possibly, but not love. But if the ultimate reality is a community of persons knowing and loving one another, then the ultimate reality is about love relationships.
Why would a triune God create a world? He must have created us not to get joy but to give it. He must have created us to invite us into the dance.
1:12-13 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert,…
Satan tempts the first human beings, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden. Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness. Satan is tempting us away from the dance. That is what we see with Adam in the Garden of Eden and again with Jesus in the wilderness.
But God did not leave us defenseless. God said to Jesus, “Obey me about the tree” — only this time the tree was a cross — “and you will die.” And Jesus did. What he has enjoyed from all eternity, he has come to offer to us.
Note from King’s Cross: Understanding the Life and Death of the Son of God.
Grow In God's Grace 