Mark 1.1-8
Today, the Church invites us to consider the place and role
of John the Baptiser. We call him that,
these days, because he wasn’t a member of the ‘Baptist’ church. Being a ‘Baptist’ means believing that adult baptism
is the only legitimate baptism. In other
words, Baptists believe that the Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Methodist and
just about every other mainstream church is wrong in baptising children who can’t
confess their own faith. That is a
fascinating argument…of course. But
there isn’t time to go into it now.
This year, we are confronted with the opening lines of Mark’s
Gospel – or as Mark himself says, “this is the beginning of the good news of
Jesus Christ, the son of God”. You’ll
notice, I’m sure, that Mark launches straight into his story with Jesus as an
adult. Mark is the oldest of the Gospels. And yet he makes no mention of the Nativity, the
Virgin Birth, or the events at Bethlehem.
It is only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke which contain all wonderful
story-lines that we will be focusing on in a couple of weeks – and they were
written rather later in history than Mark.
Again, there is a lot I could say about this – but again, there isn’t
time. If you are interested in ‘decoding
the Christmas Story’, you might like to join us next Saturday, here in church,
for FaithTalk – when I’ll be thinking a bit more about these themes.
Today, though, let’s focus down on John the Baptiser. Mark launches straight into his story by
reminding the reader of Isaiah’s prophecy of a messenger who will be sent ahead
of the Messiah. Mark is absolutely
convinced that John is that messenger – so he goes on:
“John the Baptiser
appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins”.
John is the last of the Old Testament prophets. He follows
the tradition of living apart from civilisation, and of calling people to
repent of their evil ways. So, picture the scene: Imagine, if you will, a rather dirty fellow,
who has probably never visited a barber, dressed in camel-hair, covered in
bee-stings (from raiding wild bee hives) with honey stuck to his shirt, and munching
on a locust...and declaring at the top of his voice “Repent! For the kingdom of
heaven has come near”.
I wonder what our reaction would be if we met someone like
that in the streets of Havant – or even here inside the church. I think we’d try
to get him some serious help from a mental health professional!
But there was something about John that attracted people to
him. There was something about his message which, according to both Mark and Matthew’s
Gospels, had people coming out to him in the wilderness from “Jerusalem, all of
Judea, and all of the region along the River Jordan” (Mt 3:5)
According to Matthew’s rather expanded account of Mark’s
bare-bones passage, John was not a man to mince his words either. He taunted
the religious leaders of the day with phrases like “You viper’s brood” (Mt 3:7)
He warned them against the complacency of their religion. “Just because you are
Abraham’s children,” he would say, “don’t go thinking that gives you an
automatic right to heaven” (Mt 7:8 - paraphrased)
There are, in fact, a number of puzzling questions about
John. First there is the fact that he didn’t join up with Jesus. Why didn’t he
set aside his baptising, and become a follower of the Lord? And then there’s
the fact that when he was in prison he sent word to Jesus to ask him if he
really was the Messiah.
It’s pretty clear that John had a different vision of what
the Messiah would do – he seemed to
expect a Messiah who would be full of swift judgment against the evil people of
the day. See what he says in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 3:
“...he will gather his
wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire”.
(Mt 3: 12).
John’s expectations of the
Messiah are based in the language and concepts of the Old Testament. He expects
the ‘great and terrible Day of the Lord’. John expects action – he expects the Lord to
arrive with a winnowing fork – scattering the grain into the air and separating
out the wheat from the chaff – and he expects it to happen soon. Later, John uses the metaphor of an axe which
is being put to the root of the trees – a sense in which ‘any minute now’ the
tree is about to be chopped down.
Jesus simply doesn’t match up to John’s expectations of what
the Messiah would be like... should
be like. And he was Jesus’ cousin! I wonder how many of us sometimes do that? How often do we simply assume that God will
be as we expect him to be…rather than how God actually is? How often do we assume that God must surely
agree with our beliefs? Entire nations go to war over that mistake. To
put it in our own terms - how many Tories assume God is a Tory? How many socialists are just certain that God would surely vote for Jeremy Corbyn? How many racists or homophobes automatically
assume that God agrees with them? How many religious extremists – on every
side, assume that God condones their violent actions?
But Jesus has his own agenda. He himself speaks of the
coming day of the Lord, and the separation of sheep from goats – later in
Matthew’s gospel in fact. But Jesus
places that event at some distance in the future – and in very mythical
language. He won’t actually separate actual sheep and goats – but there is a
difference between those who chose his Way, and those who do not.
John’s language is the language of criticism and
warning. “You’d better do what I say, or
God Almighty is going to smite you!” John’s kind of repentance is a rather
mechanistic thing. “Repent, and be
baptised, and you will be forgiven of your sins – you’ll be saved from the
wrath that is to come”. John is offering
a rather simple passport to heaven – rather like the indulgences that Martin
Luther rightly condemned 1500 years later.
Jesus, on the other hand, speaks words of forgiveness,
acceptance, and love. John is the apocalyptic
doom-sayer. Jesus offers life and hope.
John is an important figure in the Bible – but we need to
see him in his context. As I said
earlier, he is often described as the last of the Old Testament prophets. He marks the passing of an age when dire
warnings were used to persuade people to change their ways. A great deal of the Old Testament is
precisely that…a lot of dire warnings of peril. It’s great stuff for the news-channels – who like
to appeal to our inbuilt fascination for danger.
Jesus is not immune from that tradition, either. Certainly he gives plenty of warnings, and he
even appropriates John’s use of the phrase ‘viper’s brood’ – to describe the
religious leaders of the day. But on balance, Jesus’ tone in very different to
John. His ‘new testament’ is an
invitation to join in with the good
in the world, not to focus on the bad.
He invites us to commune with each other and with him around a
meal. He even includes Samaritans, Zealots,
tax collectors and even his future betrayer into that community. He even includes women(!) – which in his time was an incredible thing to do.
Jesus speaks the language of radical inclusion, whereas John speaks of unquenchable fire and winnowing
forks. Jesus invites all of us on a journey
of faith, self-discovery, community-life and growth. He calls it the Way, and the Kingdom.
Jesus wants us to repent, yes – just like
John. And Jesus also advocates baptism - but as a sign and a seal on the beginning of
that journey. John’s call is a for a simple
legal transaction – “repent, get baptised, and you’ll go to heaven”. Done.
Dusted. It’s like those Christians,
even today, who are more interested in whether you have ‘accepted Jesus into
your heart’ or 'washed in the blood of the lamb' than whether you are actually living
Jesus’ kind of life.
Jesus’ call is a deliberate, daily, turning away from human
ideas about how things should be, and a deliberate, constant, tuning-in to God’s
loving, merciful, ultimately positive view
of the universe. The baptism of Jesus
marks the very start of an entire
journey of faith.
That’s why, incidentally, I do believe in infant baptism. For I think that it is never too early, in
God’s inclusive Kingdom, to invite another person to journey with God.
Amen.
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