November 27, 2022

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 that 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.” So here we begin in verse nine, by reading these words―in those days. ‘Those days’ will just point us right back to the previous episode, the days of John's activity in the wilderness, as John is baptizing and preaching in the wilderness, essentially at the height of his popularity, at the height of this time in which people are coming out by the 1000s into the wilderness, to confess their sins, to repent, and to be baptized into this baptism unto forgiveness―at the height of that is when this episode takes place. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. Mark is the only one who tells us that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. So he makes his journey from Nazareth. Mark is specific to tell us that it's not just Galilee that he comes from, but indeed, it's Nazareth of Galilee. So this tells us a little bit about the Savior, about our Messiah. We know that he comes from Galilee. And the other gospel writers mentioned that he comes from Galilee, of course. So this region of Galilee was this region up near the north, up near the area of Samaria. This would have made the Messiah to have come from an area that was scorned, that was disdained by most Israelites. The region of Galilee was right beside this region of Samaria. And during the period of the exile, and shortly following the exile, it was an area in which a lot of intermarriage took place between Israelites and non-Israelites. A lot of idolatry was tolerated. It was just known as a spiritually backward sort of an area, not to the extent of Samaria, but along those same sorts of lines. So coming from Galilee, would have immediately put him with this mark of scorn across his name, across his reputation, but then Nazareth sort of takes it up a notch above that. Nazareth would have been the most backward, podunk, nothing of a village in this area of spiritual backwardness known as Galilee. Nazareth is where the Messiah comes from. We are told that in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and he makes this trek into the wilderness to be baptized. So from this point, let's now turn on, if you will, your spiritual imagination. And we're going to use some of the details that Mark gives us, as well as some of the details from the other gospels. And we want to try to place ourselves, to put our thinking, into this situation. So Jesus here, leaves Galilee, he leaves Nazareth, on his way to find John in the wilderness. He's heard about John, he's heard about John's activity, about his preaching about his proclaiming about his baptizing here in the wilderness. And as we said, last time, he was all over the wilderness, so he doesn't know exactly where he is most likely, but he's making this trek to find John the Baptizer in the wilderness. And he leaves this area of Galilee of Nazareth, which was his hometown, Jesus would not have remembered living anywhere other than Galilee, Nazareth of Galilee. He spent those short years in his young life in Egypt, escaping the death sentence of Herod. But then, at a very young age, he was brought back and brought back to Nazareth. So all of his memories will be of Nazareth in Galilee. This is where he grew up. This is where his family is. This is where all of his friends are. This is where all of his childhood memories are. This is where he learned the trade of carpentry. We're told in the scriptures that his (I'm sorry), Mary's husband―Joseph was not his biological father, obviously―Mary's husband, Joseph was the carpenter. And we're told that Jesus also was the carpenter. So a carpenter in these days, don't think of a person who works exclusively with wood. But a carpenter in these days was more like a builder. They would have worked with rock, they would have worked with stone, they would have also worked with trees, meaning lumber, they would have worked with all sorts of materials. They were essentially a builder. And so Jesus has learned and engaged in the this, this trade of, of carpentry of building things. This is where he grew up. This is where everyone he knew lived. And so he leaves this area. Right now, you're kind of making a connection, maybe with Abraham, as Abraham is called out of the land in which he, that's all he knew. That's where everyone he knew lived, he was called out of that land. Jesus also leaves this land of Nazareth. And he's making this trip into the wilderness towards where John, the Baptizer, is doing his baptism work. So as he's making this journey, in my mind, I picture him making this journey alone. It could be that he had some friends, and maybe some family members that came with him, he certainly has no disciples at this point, he hasn't begun any of his ministry. So he's most likely making this journey alone. So picture in your mind Jesus walking on this journey of anywhere from one to three days. There's a span of difference there, because we of course, know where Nazareth is, and was, but we don't exactly know where John is, at this point is somewhere in this huge area known as the wilderness. So it could be as short as a one day journey, or as much as a three day journey. So we'll just say a couple of days. He's making this journey and maybe two days, he's carrying with them some water and some food, and he's probably journeying by himself through this wilderness area, looking for John and the crowds of people that he's heard about, leaving behind him everything that he's known. Now he is, in his heart, and in his mind, he is initiating, he's beginning the period of his life, in which he will now leave behind all of the total obscurity in which he has lived the great majority of his life. So if we remember, of course, the story of Jesus, remember, there was that great notoriety upon his birth. Shepherds coming to see the baby Jesus. And then a short time later, a couple of years later, there's these wise men from the east of the Magi coming to bring gifts to adore and to honor and to worship the boy king. And so there was all this notoriety around his birth and his very young life. But then Jesus enters into this period of absolute obscurity. Except for that one instance, when he was 12, that Luke records for us in the temple where he gets separated from his parents, and then they're amazed at the knowledge that he has, outside of that, one instance, when he was 12, we know nothing about Jesus's life from the time he was about two, to this time, which is going to put him somewhere around 30 years old. So at least a dozen years now have passed in which the world has not known of him. Jesus will leave behind the obscurity in which he has lived the anonymity in which he has lived, and he will now step into worldwide fame, recognition. In just a short time, Jesus will be recognized everywhere he goes, he will have no time alone, unless he gets up at 3am and sneaks off into the mountains or into the Woods by himself. He will be recognized everywhere he will be followed, he will have crowds around him for three years leading all the way up into hit the point of his death, at which he’ll have even a crowd around him at his death. He's leaving behind this obscurity, which by the way, just a sort of a side note, all through marks Mark's gospel we're gonna see indicators that tell us of something of the believability, of the credulity of Mark's gospel. Because here we have the Messiah, who is completely unknown, up into the point of his of his 30, around 30 years old, we know of his birth, and then there's this huge gap of time. So the fact that the gospel writers leave this completely blank outside of that one instance, in the temple, when he was 12―the fact that that's completely left blank, gives to us credulity or believability to the story. If you've ever wasted your time by reading some of the false gospels that were written a century two, three centuries after Jesus's life, then you know that one of the things that they always do is they have these ridiculous stories of Jesus when he was a boy, of these ridiculous miracles that he supposedly performed as a boy. How he would resurrect a dead bird back to life or, or create a toy for his friends to play with―ridiculous miracles that are completely the fabrication of people. The true Gospels have none of that. They are completely comfortable leaving the Messiah living and growing up in complete obscurity. But he leaves all this behind as he leaves Nazareth and he makes his way to this wilderness place where he hears of John the Baptizer who is heralding the Messiah that is to come. And as he's traveling, and you can just imagine the heat of the day the sun, the blazing hot sun, the sand, the wind, just the arid, dry, chalky conditions. Here he's traveling and you can just even imagine in your mind, maybe he crests over one of the hills and down across the valley, He sees this site that takes his breath away―1000s of people gathered on the banks of the Jordan probably on both banks of the Jordan. Thousands of people that are gathering, and some of them are in the water and people are being baptized. And here he's found the Baptizer. And so as the baptizer has been doing his work here in the wilderness, I picture this as a work that sort of like a two phase kind of thing. There's proclamation, there's preaching, and then there's baptizing because we're told, that's what John has been doing. He's been proclaiming, and has been baptized. So perhaps there's periods of preaching and teaching, and then that's interrupted by periods of baptism. So as he comes here, he sees this huge crowd that's gathered, and they're sitting on the banks, they're sitting in the sand, some of them are in the water. And perhaps there's John there teaching and preaching. And so Jesus perhaps goes down and sort of mingles in with the crowd, and begins listening to the to the Baptizer, giving his proclamation message. And we know the theme of that message, the theme is, repent, Messiah is coming. Turn from your wickedness, tax collectors stop cheating the people, soldiers stop extorting money. And―I baptized in His baptism of repentance. But after May comes one, I'm not even worthy of taking his sandal off after one. After me comes one whom He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit, I baptize you in this symbolic water baptism, he baptizes you into God. And so Jesus sort of mingles in with the crowd and listens here. And you can just imagine his thoughts, as he knows that the baptizer is speaking of him. But he doesn't make himself known. Now is some time for the baptizing to take place. And we talked last time about how many 1000s of people there would have been, Mark tells us that all of Jerusalem and Judea are coming to be baptized. And so there's 1000s, and perhaps 10s, of 1000s of people to be baptized. Last week, we said that perhaps John's not the only one doing the baptizing. He has disciples, maybe some of the disciples are helping him to baptize. Or maybe it's just John that's doing the baptizing. But in either case, we can certainly assume that his disciples are helping him to facilitate this. We're talking about 1000s of people here, they're not just waiting out into the water and congregating around John, there's some organization to it―has to be. And so this organization would certainly consist of, of cueing the people up into some sort of a line, some sort of a baptismal line that leads up into the Jordan, and John is probably out here in the water, and he's baptizing out in the water. And on the banks, there's a line of people. And in that line of people, there are some disciples of John who are helping him to facilitate this enormous happening. And some are helping the people to just stay organized and stay in the lines. But then you can just imagine how at the very end of the line, the last person in the line would have been some sort of vetting-type of person. Can you imagine that some sort of person there, who's probably going to ask something like―the name. What's your name? Where are you from? And then certainly, I think it's safe to assume that there have been some sort of spiritual questioning took place. Some sort of, you know, do you have any sense to confess? This is a baptism of repentance. What do you want to confess? Tell me, tell me some things. Tell me why you're here. They don't want people just going into the water just because they're there. So certainly, there's some sort of person there that's asking some kind of a spiritual question. And then getting their names and where they're from. As they go down into the water, we can also imagine that this person is probably announcing them―Benjamin of Jerusalem. And then as he goes into the water, there may be another disciple there who helps them to get over to John who's in a deeper part of the water. And then John maybe says some things, maybe has a little short conversation with the person baptizes them, brings them up out of the water. Then maybe there's this expression of joy and happiness, John perhaps hugs them, maybe the other disciples hug them, maybe the friends of the person hug them. And then they make their way out of the water. And then perhaps the next person's ready to come in Daniel from Samaria. And Daniel makes his way in. Mary from Judea, and so on and so on. You can imagine how this is, this is taking place here. So this line here, you can imagine a rather slow moving line as this person―it probably takes, you know, maybe 45 seconds, a minute or a minute and a half for all this to happen for John to have this maybe short little conversation, for the baptizing to take place. Some sort of proclamation as they come up out of the water. And this line is moving so slow, every minute you take a step up, then another 45 seconds, another minute goes by and take another step up. In this line is Jesus. And in front of Jesus and behind Jesus are people that are there to repent. And you can even imagine just maybe some of the conversations that are taking place as they're talking to one another and finding out where each person is from. “Did you hear what John was telling the tax collectors to do? Did you hear John saying that after him comes one who will immerse us into God? John said that Messiah is coming right after him. People are saying that he's Elijah.” So you can imagine Jesus hearing this. And being part of these conversations, Surely he's, he's still not making himself known. But as they may, perhaps say to Jesus, what's your name? Jesus, where you from, Nazareth? Well, Jesus of Nazareth, the Baptizer. He says that after him is coming, one who will immerse us into God. And the Baptizer says that he's not even worthy of taking his shoe off. And Jesus would say, I heard that. Hallelujah. Take another step up. And so now, as this line is slowly making its way up, there's gonna come a point in which Jesus reaches the person who's doing the vetting. What's your name? Jesus. Where are you from, Jesus? Nazareth. What do you have to confess? What does he say? Nothing? How would that have perhaps gone over? I mean, it's easy―we're speculating here. This is all conjecture. But this is fitting of the text testimony. Certainly he couldn't say why have nothing to confess. Perhaps he confessed the sins of the person doing the vetting. Or perhaps he confesses the sins of all the people, we don't know we're not told. But then he makes his way down into the water. He came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. So here we come across the first “problem” of the text. And that “problem” is―this is a baptism of repentance, of confession of sin. Jesus were told repeatedly in the scriptures of Jesus's sinlessness, First Peter two and verse 22―In Him was found no sin, nor is deceit found in his mouth. He has nothing to confess, nothing to repent, and yet he submits himself to this baptism of forgiveness, unto the repentance unto forgiveness of sin. So why is it and how is it that Jesus has submitted? Now, Luke, as well as Mark, feel no tension whatsoever in the sinless Son of God, submitting himself to a baptism of forgiveness, but it seems as though Matthew sort of feels the tension of this. So in Matthew's account, Matthew records this objection, in your notes it’s Matthew's objection―it was really John the Baptizer’s is objection, I should have put it that way. But he records this objection from the Baptizer. And then the objection goes like this―what are you doing? I should be the one that's being baptized by you, not the other way around. So he sees this sort of disparity. He sees this, this flip-flop of roles here, and it doesn't make sense to the Baptizer―You should be baptizing me, not me baptizing you. Reminds us of another nearly identical disparity that we're going to read about at the end of Luke's Gospel, in which―you remember the story―of the thieves on the cross. And there's the one thief it says, Wait a minute, we deserve to be here. He doesn't. He's in a place he doesn't deserve to be. Similar to that. John, the baptizer says―Wait a minute, we're in the opposite roles here. I don't deserve to be baptizing you. You should be baptizing me. And then Jesus responds, suffer it, as the King James language, suffer it that may be so to fulfill all righteousness, right? And then at that point, John says, okay, he consents to this―so that it may be fitting for all righteousness or all rightness. It is right that we do this. Which by the way, John, the Baptizer. And Peter, of course, have one thing in common. Both of them tried to stop Jesus from doing what Jesus was here to do that the baptizer tries to stop him from being baptized. And of course, Peter tries to stop him from going to the cross. We see some similarities there. But then Jesus says, this is right that I do this. So why is it that Jesus is submitting himself to this baptism of repentance of sin unto the forgiveness of sin? Well, there's at least two reasons that we that we must see here. First of all, we must see and see clearly Jesus as the perfect Lawkeeper. As the perfect obey or of every command of God. God has commanded His people to repent. And Jesus is the model Obeyer, obeying everything that precedes from the father's mouth. So the Father has said―offer yourself, come unto repentance, and Jesus here obeys. But then even bigger than that we must really see here. Jesus is submitting to the baptism of repentance of sin, unto the forgiveness of sin, as one who without sin, is submitting himself to a baptism of repentance, not for his own sin, but for ours. Jesus had no sin to repent of. But Jesus will have sin. Not that he will commit sin―He will never commit sin, but he will be made to be our sin. He will be the sin bearer for us. Jesus cannot, as John's going to exclaim, in the first chapter of John's gospel, the Baptizer is going to exclaim―Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus cannot take away the sin of the world, without becoming the sin of the world. So though he has committed no sin, he submits himself, nevertheless, to this baptism of repentance because he will take onto himself the sin of all the people. His identification with the people will be of that nature―so close, that he submits himself onto this baptism of repentance, not for his own sin, but this baptism of repentance for their sin. And so he'll then enter into the baptismal waters. And he will then be baptized into this baptism of forgiveness. So this is a baptism of forgiveness, a baptism of confession of sin. Remember what the word baptize means or baptism―it means to submerge or to immerse. And so Jesus will submit himself to be immersed into the waters of confession of sin. So think with me for just a moment about them. The staggering reality of what Jesus submits to. Now the water that he will be immersed in, is just water. It's just dirty river water. But ritually, ceremonially, symbolically, this is the water of all of the people sin. And Jesus will be immersed into the people's sin. Jesus will never be the same after this point. Jesus, who will never commit sin, has never committed sin, up until this point has nevertheless been somewhat distant from sin. He, being sinless, though, surrounded by sinners, and living in a world in which the consequences of sin are all around him―just think back to the time in which all the two year old and younger boys were killed because of him. He lives in a world of the consequences of sin. Nevertheless, there's some aspect of his distance, of his separation from sin until now. Because now Jesus becomes immersed in the sins of those whom he is here to bear their penalty. We all know what it's like to go under the water, right? It's―you just know that that feeling you go into the water, Jesus would have gone under the water like any other human. He would have had to hold his breath. Or if he didn't, then the Son of God would have choked under the water. So he must hold his breath, he probably pinches his nose. As he goes under the water―you know what it's like to go under the water. You sort of hear that, you hear the sound of the water all around you. And as John's holding him on to the water, he's probably looking up and he's seeing as the sun through the through the water there above him. And then as it comes up out of the water, his hair soaking wet, his beard dripping wet, His clothes are soaking wet. And as he went under that water, he was going under just regular old plain water, but yet he was also going under, into, immersed into our sin. Never again, to be distant from it never again to be separate from it. But from this point forward to be on a trek, on a journey, on a pathway, of being made to be that sin. This is unlike any other religion any other religious leader. Any other religious person or personality who might say to their followers, to just do this and do this and you'll come up to the level where I am. Jesus instead not just comes down to the level of his people but immerses himself into their sinful condition. Isaiah 53 In verse six―All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So he's going to speak here, this baptism into the confessional waters of his people. It's interesting how Jesus will even speak of His cross as being the baptism of his cross. Remember, as he's asked that question, can we sit on your right hand and on your left hand? And Jesus will say to them―well, can you be baptized with the baptism I'm going to be baptized into meaning, the baptism of the cross? So even Jesus will speak of that final―being made to be sin―even he will call that at that point of baptism.