Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 1:9
And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
9 11. The Baptism of Jesus
9. in those days ] i. e. towards the close of the year a. u. c. 781, or a. d. 28, when our Lord was thirty years of age (Luk 3:23), the time appointed for the Levite’s entrance on “the service of the ministry” (Num 4:3).
came from Nazareth ] where He had grown up in peaceful seclusion, “increasing in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man” (Luk 2:52), in a town unknown and unnamed in the Old Testament, situated among the hills which constitute the southern ridges of Lebanon, just before they sink down into the Plain of Esdraelon.
baptized of ] i. e. by John. Comp. Luk 14:8, “when thou art bidden of (=by) any man;” Php 3:12, “I am apprehended of (= by) Christ;” Collect for 25th Sunday after Trinity, “may of (=by) Thee be plenteously rewarded.”
in Jordan ] Either (i) at the ancient ford near Succoth, which some have identified with the Bethabara or rather Bethany of St John (Joh 1:28); or (ii) at a more southern ford not far from Jericho, whither the multitudes that flocked from Juda and Jerusalem (Mar 1:5) would have found a speedier and more convenient access. From St Matthew we learn that (i) the purport of the Saviour’s journey from Galilee was that He might be thus baptized (Mat 3:13); that (ii) His Forerunner instantly recognised His superhuman and stainless nature; that (iii) he tried earnestly to prevent Him; that (iv) his objections were overruled by the reply that thus it became Him to “fulfil all righteousness,” i. e. every requirement of the Law. St Luke tells us that the Baptism of our Lord did not take place till “ all the people had been baptized ” (Luk 3:21).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See the notes at Mat 3:13-17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mar 1:9-10
Jesus came from Nazareth.
Nazareth of Galilee: The fitness of the spot
1. Its seclusion. It lies in a narrow cleft in the limestone hills which form the boundary of Zabulon, entirely out of the ordinary roads of commerce, so that none could say that our Lord had learnt either from Gentiles or from rabbis.
2. Its beauty and peacefulness. The flowers of Nazareth are famous, and the appearance of its inhabitants shows its healthiness. It was a home of humble peace and plenty. The fields of its green valley are fruitful, and the view from the hill which over shadows it is one of the loveliest and most historically striking in all Palestine. (F. W. Farrar, D. D.)
Nazareth
The village of Nazareth is reached by a narrow, steep, and rough mountain path. But the distant view of the village itself, in spring, is beautiful. Its streets rise in terraces on the hill slopes toward the northwest. The hills rise above it in an amphitheatre around to a height of five hundred feet, and shut it in from the bleak winds of winter. The flat-roofed houses, built of yellowish-white limestone of the neighbourhood, shine in the sun with a dazzling brightness, from among gardens and fig trees, olives, cypresses, and the white and scarlet blossoms of the orange and pomegranate. (C. Geikie, D. D.)
Hidden worth
Oh how much hidden worth is there, which, in this world, is either lost in the dust of contempt and cannot be known, or wrapt up in the veil of humility and will not be known! But sooner or later it shall be known, as Christs was. (M. Henry.)
Jesus Christs early youth and baptism
I. There is here an intimation of the fact, that Christ had hitherto resided in the city of Nazareth, in lower Galilee.
1. The name of this city attached itself to Jesus Christ as a term of reproach.
2. In this city Christ lived thirty years in seclusion, etc.
discharging the humble and homely duties of His station-thus obeyed the law in all its precepts.
II. When Christ was about to show Himself to Israel, He came to John to be baptized. He thus acknowledged the appointment of John, and honoured his office. He was made subject to the law. He thus dedicated Himself to the service of God.
III. The baptism of Christ was signalized by several miraculous and striking accompaniments.
1. The heavens were opened.
2. The Spirit descended.
3. There was a voice from heaven. (Expository Outlines.)
And was baptized of John in Jordan.-
Our Lords baptism
It is not possible for us to understand the whole mystery of this act, but we may reverently consider some of the motives which prompted the amazing condescension.
1. It may have been to consecrate water for the remission of sins. Just as the brooding of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters at the first creation reduced order out of chaos, and prepared that element for all the purifications of the first dispensation; so when the moral re-creation of the world was inaugurated the operation of the same Blessed Agent, descending upon our Lord in the river Jordan, sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin.
2. It may also have been that He designed thereby to be made one with His brethren, or to taste for their sakes at the outset of His ministry that curse of sin which He felt in all its intolerable burden at the close, before His cry of desolation.
3. Another motive He has expressly revealed. When the Baptist shrank back from an act that must have seemed profane, He pointed out that it was incumbent on Him to show an example of perfect obedience to His Fathers will.
4. Underlying this resolution of obedience was the consciousness of a deep humiliation. His self-abasement reached its lowest depth in His baptism. To be misinterpreted and misunderstood at every step was bad enough; but to be told that by His own confession He was a sinner, one with publicans and harlots, and that by His own act and deed He admitted His guilt and sought to have it removed-such self-abasement is more than man can either measure or conceive. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
The public commencement of a great life
I. That it emerged from comparative obscurity. From Nazareth of Galilee. Christs coming from Nazareth would tend-
1. To correct the proud nations of those to whom He came.
2. It would be a means of self-discipline.
II. That it was characterized by true humility.
1. Humility was shown in appreciating the worth of another mans work.
2. By giving preeminence to a man of inferior moral worth.
3. By submitting to the ceremonialisms of life.
III. That it was favoured with happy visions-He saw the heavens opened.
1. Christ was favoured with a revelation of the unseen world.
2. This revelation was given in the performance of a comparatively trivial duty.
IV. Christ was honoured by a Divine commendation. This is my beloved son, etc.
1. This commendation was paternal.
2. It was sympathetic.
Learn:
1. Comparative solitude is the best preparation for a life of public usefulness.
2. That men are not to be judged by the surroundings of their childhood.
3. That humility is the true adornment of a young man about to commence public life.
4. The happy interchange of sympathy between heaven and a truly pious soul. (Joseph S. Exell, M. A.)
The baptism of Christ
Note,
I. The time of it-In those days, A.D. 28, Jesus thirty years of age, the age at which the Levites began their ministry.
II. The place of it. Either the ancient ford at Succoth or near Jericho.
III. The manner of it. Of John. In Jordan. To fulfil all righteousness.
IV. The blessing that followed it. Credentials of Messiahship. Anointing for ministry with power (Cf. Rom 1:4; Act 10:38). Tranquility (Dove; see Isa 6:6). Expression of Divine favour. (H. Thorne.)
The baptism of Christ: Its significance
Jesus was baptized by His forerunner, who was both the representative of the old economy and the preacher of repentance for the new.
I. In the former relation the Baptist performed on the person of the Christian High Priest the washing which preceded His anointing with the Holy Spirit. The typical high priests were washed before their anointing.
II. In the latter relation the preacher of repentance administered the pledge of penitent washing for the Messiah to One who was also the representative of sinful man. Two ends were thus accomplished.
1. Christ was baptized as the Head and Surety of the human race; assuming in its symbol the transgression of mankind.
2. He was designated as the Messiah, in whom were combined all the offices to which His types were of old anointed. In the former sense, His baptism represented a sin assumed but not shared; He was numbered with the transgressors, and came by water before He came by blood. In the latter it represented the perfect purity which His preeminent ministry required; the water represented not the cleansing, but the absense of the need of purification. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
The Baptism of Jesus
If we can distinguish between the important and the unimportant in this scene, between the transient and the permanent, we shall not study it in vain. Essential truths do not grow old.
1. Applying this test we find that one of the unessential truths concerning Christs baptism is its mode. The exact mode could not be reproduced; none of us can have the Jordan ford for our baptismal font.
2. The heavenly phenomena accompanying the baptism are not among its essential features. The accessories cannot, from their very nature, be universal What then were the essential features?
I. Christ our Lord there set for us a perfect example of perfect obedience. Baptism was an ordinance of God; Christ will not exempt Himself from any duty. Why should I be baptized? Because God commands it. Have you less need than Christ? The King of Glory did not despise it as a mere form of the Church. He received baptism as ratifying the mission of His great forerunner, and He also received it as the beautiful symbol of moral purification and the humble inauguration of a ministry which came not to destroy the law but to fulfil.
II. That it was his way of publicly renouncing sin and publicly professing religion. Christ is our Example as well as Redeemer. Every true follower of Christ must publicly renounce his sins and confess his faith.
III. The evident approval of the Father in heaven. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
The baptism of Jesus
I. The baptism of Jesus was the sign of the close of Johns commission as the forerunner. Every ministry has its culmination. Well if it be borne with Johns self-abnegation and humility!
II. The baptism of Jesus was the sign of the opening of Christs commission as the Redeemer.
III. The baptism of Jesus was the sign of a new era of spiritual influence. This gift now was the prelude and foretoken of that great pentecostal bestowment.
IV. The baptism of Jesus was the sign of the speedy fulfilment of the Fathers great design of redeeming love.
V. Practical lessons.
1. It should enhance our love to Jesus to see Him identifying Himself with all His sinful people.
2. We have an example of reverance for all Gods ordinances.
3. Baptism significant in connection with Christs own baptism. When it is more than a mere ceremony it is our burial with Christ into His death, pledges us to fulfil all righteousness.
4. Christ kept His baptismal vow. He has fulfilled all righteousness, not for Himself alone, but for His people also. (Anon.)
The Saviours consecration to His work
I. Our Lord was consecrated to his work by His baptism by the forerunner. The inferior started the superior on His public work. Many a man has received the first open recognition of his mission from one mentally and spiritually lower than himself.
II. Our Lord was consecrated to His work by prayer. St. Luke, who calls attention frequently to the prayers of Jesus, alone mentions this important fact. No great work should be entered on without prayer, especially no work connected with Gods kingdom.
III. Our Lord was consecrated to His work by the gift of the spirit. Outward ordinances, as the laying on of hands, etc., are for this end, etc.
IV. Our Lord was consecrated to His work by the approval of the Father. The approval and blessing of God are essential to a true work. (Anon.)
The coronation of the King
The baptism was, on His part, the assumption of His Messianic office; and on Gods, His anointing or coronation as the King. There are three stages in this lesson: The preliminary dialogue, which explains the paradox of the baptism of the sinless by and with the sinful, the Divine anointing of the King, and the Divine proclamation.
I. The becomingness of the apparently unbecoming baptism. The stern preacher bows in lowliest abasement before his carpenter cousin, and feels that his own character shows black against that lustrous whiteness. Who would have thought, when John was flashing and thundering against sin, that such sense of his own evil underlay his boldness? He clearly feels that Jesus is his superior, and needs no baptism of repentance. How had he come to this conviction? Difficulties have been raised as to the consistency of these words with his declaration that he knew Him not. But, not to dwell on the fact that anticipations and expectations are not knowledge, why should this insight into the character of Jesus not have then been granted to him by prophetic intuition, as he gazed on the gentle face? Why should not the Divine voice have then for the first time sounded in Johns heart, Arise, anoint Him: for this is He? It is a pure assumption that John had previous knowledge of Jesus. The city in the hill country of Judaea where his boyhood had possibly been passed, was far from Nazareth, and he had very early betaken himself to the desert and its isolation. The circumstances of the nativity may, or may not, have been known to him; but there is no reason to explain this conviction of the inappropriateness of his baptism of Jesus by previous knowledge. The other explanation seems to me both more probable and more accordant with his prophetic office. Christ accepts without demur the place which John gives Him. He always accepted the highest place which any man put Him in, and never rebuked any estimate of Himself as enthusiastic or too lofty. If Jesus had not up till that moment lived a perfectly sinless life, He committed a black sin in tacitly endorsing this estimate of Him. If He had lived such a life, on what theory of His nature is it explicable? A sinless man must be more than man. The same consciousness of blamelessness is put into plain words in His answer to John, which is Jesus own explanation of His baptism. It was an act of obedience to a Divine appointment, and therefore it became Him. It was the fulfilment of righteousness; that is to say, Jesus did not confess sin, but professed sinlessness in His baptism, and submitted to it, not because He needed cleansing, but because it was appointed as the duty for the nation of which He was a member. Why, then, was He baptized? For the same reason for which He was found in the likeness of the flesh of sin, and submitted to other requirements of the law from which as Son He was free, and bore the sorrows which were not the issue of His own sins, and went down at last to the other baptism with which He had to be baptized, though His pure life had for itself no need to pass through that awful submersion beneath the black, cold waters of death. The whole mystery of His identification of Himself with sinful men, and of His being made sin for us, who knew no sin, lies in germ in His baptism by John. No other conception of its meaning does justice to the facts.
II. We have next the Divine anointing or coronation. The symbol of the dove seems to carry allusions to the grand image which represents the Spirit of God as brooding over chaos, and quickening life, as a bird in its nest by the warmth of its own soft breast; to the dove which bore the olive branch, first messenger of hope to the prisoners in the ark; to the use of the dove as clean, in sacrifice; to the poetical attribution to it, common to many nations, of meek gentleness and faithful love. Set side by side with that, Johns thought of the Holy Spirit as fire, and we get all the beauty of both emblems increased, and understand hew much the stern ascetic, whose words burned and blistered, had to learn. He knew what manner of spirit the King possessed and bestowed Meekness is throned now. Gentleness is stronger than force. The dove conquers Romes eagles and every strong-taloned, sharp-beaked bird of prey. The Prince of the kings of the earth is anointed by the descending dove, and His second coronation is with thorns, and a reed is His sceptre; for His kingdom is based on purity and meekness, is won by suffering, and wielded in gentleness. As is the King, so are His subjects, whose only weapons He has assigned when He bids them be harmless as doves. The purpose of this descent of the Spirit on Jesus was twofold. In Johns Gospel it is represented as principally meant to certify the Baptist of the identity of the Messiah. But we cannot exclude its effect on Jesus. For Him it was the Divine anointing for His mediatorial work. A king is king before he is anointed or crowned. These are but the signs of what we may call the official assumption of His royalty. We are not to conceive that Jesus then began to be filled with the Spirit, or that absolutely new powers were given to Him then. No doubt the anointing did mark a stage in His human development, and the accession to His manhood of all that was needed to equip it for His work. But the Spirit of God had formed His pure manhood ere He was born, and had dwelt in growing measure in His growing spirit, through all His sinless thirty years. Since He was a man, He needed the Divine Spirit. Since He was a sinless man, He was capable of receiving it in perfect measure and unbroken continuity. Since His baptism began His public career, He needed then, and then received, the anointing which at once designated and fitted Him for His work of witnessing and atonement.
III. We have finally the Divine proclamation. God Himself takes the heralds office. The coronation ends with the solemn recitation of the style and title of the King. Two Old Testament passages seem to be melted together in it: that in the second Psalm, which says to the Messianic King, Thou art My Son; that in Isa 42:1, which calls on the nations to behold Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. God speaks from heaven, and quotes a psalm and a prophet. Why should He not speak from heaven an illuminating word, which interprets whole regions of the Old Testament? This Divine testimony touches first the mystery of our Lords nature. Son of God is not merely a synonym of Messiah, but it includes the distinct conception of Divine origin and of consequent Divine nature. The name implies that the relation between Him and the Father is unique. The voice attests the Divine complacency in Him. The form of the verb in the Greek implies a definite past delight of the Father in the Son, and carries back our thoughts to that wonderful intercourse of which Jesus lets us catch some faint glimpse when He says, Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. From eternity the mysterious depths of the Divine nature moved in soft waves of love, and in its solitude there was society. Nor can we leave out of view the thought that the Fathers delight in the Son is through the Son extended to all who love and trust the Son. In Jesus, God is well pleased towards us. That complacent delight embraces us too, if we become sons through faith in the only begotten Son. The dove that rested on His head will come and nestle in our hearts, and brood there, over their chaos, if we have faith in Christ. (A. McLaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. – 11. See the subject of these verses which contain the account of our Lord’s baptism, explained. Mt 3:13-17.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Christ, who, Luk 2:51, went with his parents to Nazareth, and was subject to them, after he had been disputing with the doctors in the temple, now goes from Nazareth, a city in Galilee, to that part of Galilee near Jordan, or rather to Bethabara, where John was baptizing, and was baptized: See Poole on “Mat 3:13“. “Mat 3:16“. “Mat 3:17“. “Joh 1:28“, where this piece of history is more fully related. Luke addeth, that Christ was now about thirty years of age.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And it came to pass in those days,…. Whilst John was preaching and baptizing in the wilderness, and had large crowds of people flocking to him, to see his person, hear his doctrine, and to be baptized by him; some for one thing, and some another;
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee; the place where he had been brought up, and lived, and dwelt in from his infancy, to this time:
and was baptized of John in Jordan; which was the reason of his coming from Nazareth to him; see Mt 3:13, where this is observed; and in some verses following, an account is given of what passed between Christ and John, on this occasion.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Baptism of Jesus. |
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9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. 10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: 11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. 13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
We have here a brief account of Christ’s baptism and temptation, which were largely related Matt. iii. and iv.
I. His baptism, which was his first public appearance, after he had long lived obscurely in Nazareth. O how much hidden worth is there, which in this world is either lost in the dust of contempt and cannot be known, or wrapped up in the veil of humility and will not be known! But sooner or later it shall be known, as Christ’s was.
1. See how humbly he owned God, by coming to be baptized of John; and thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness. Thus he took upon him the likeness of sinful flesh, that, though he was perfectly pure and unspotted, yet he was washed as if he had been polluted; and thus for our sakes he sanctified himself, that we also might be sanctified, and be baptized with him, John xvii. 19.
2. See how honourably God owned him, when he submitted to John’s baptism. Those who justify God, and they are said to do, who were baptized with the baptism of John, he will glorify,Luk 7:29; Luk 7:30.
(1.) He saw the heavens opened; thus he was owned to be the Lord from heaven, and had a glimpse of the glory and joy that were set before him, and secured to him, as the recompence of his undertaking. Matthew saith, The heavens were opened to him. Mark saith, He saw them opened. Many have the heavens opened to receive them, but they do not see it; Christ had not only a clear foresight of his sufferings, but of his glory too.
(2.) He saw the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. Note, Then we may see heaven opened to us, when we perceive the Spirit descending and working upon us. God’s good work in us is the surest evidence of his good will towards us, and his preparations for us. Justin Martyr says, that when Christ was baptized, a fire was kindled in Jordan: and it is an ancient tradition, that a great light shone round the place; for the Spirit brings both light and heat.
(3.) He heard a voice which was intended for his encouragement to proceed in his undertaking, and therefore it is here expressed as directed to him, Thou art my beloved Son. God lets him know, [1.] That he loved him never the less for that low and mean estate to which he had now humbled himself; “Though thus emptied and made of no reputation, yet he is my beloved Son still.” [2.] That he loved him much the more for that glorious and kind undertaking in which he had now engaged himself. God is well pleased in him, as referee of all matters in controversy between him and man; and so well pleased in him, as to be well pleased with us in him.
II. His temptation. The good Spirit that descended upon him, led him into the wilderness, v. 12. Paul mentions it as a proof that he had his doctrine from God, and not from man–that, as soon as he was called, he went not to Jerusalem, but went into Arabia, Gal. i. 17. Retirement from the world is an opportunity of more free converse with God, and therefore must sometimes be chosen, for a while, even by those that are called to the greatest business. Mark observes this circumstance of his being in the wilderness–that he was with the wild beasts. It was an instance of his Father’s care of him, that he was preserved from being torn in pieces by the wild beasts, which encouraged him the more that his Father would provide for him when he was hungry. Special protections are earnests of seasonable supplies. It was likewise an intimation to him of the inhumanity of the men of that generation, whom he was to live among–no better than wild beasts in the wilderness, nay abundantly worse. In that wilderness,
1. The evil spirits were busy with him; he was tempted of Satan; not by any inward injections (the prince of this world had nothing in him to fasten upon), but by outward solicitations. Solicitude often gives advantages to the tempter, therefore two are better than one. Christ himself was tempted, not only to teach us, that it is no sin to be tempted, but to direct us whither to go for succour when we are tempted, even to him that suffered, being tempted; that he might experimentally sympathize with us when we are tempted.
2. The good spirits were busy about him; the angels ministered to him, supplied him with what he needed, and dutifully attended him. Note, The ministration of the good angels about us, is matter of great comfort in reference to the malicious designs of the evil angels against us; but much more doth it befriend us, to have the indwelling of the spirit in our hearts, which they that have, are so born of God, that, as far as they are so, the evil one toucheth them not, much less shall be triumph over them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
In the Jordan ( ). So in verse 10, , out of the water, after the baptism into the Jordan. Mark is as fond of “straightway” () as Matthew is of “then” ().
Rent asunder (). Split like a garment, present passive participle. Jesus saw the heavens parting as he came up out of the water, a more vivid picture than the “opened” in Mt 3:16 and Lu 3:21. Evidently the Baptist saw all this and the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus as a dove because he later mentions it (Joh 1:32). The Cerinthian Gnostics took the dove to mean the heavenly aeon Christ that here descended upon the man Jesus and remained with him till the Cross when it left him, a sort of forecast of the modern distinction between the Jesus of history and the theological Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS BY JOHN, V. 9-11
1) “And it came to pass in those days,” (kai egeneto en of ekeinais tais hemerais) “And it occurred in those days,” an indefinite period of time, after John had come from heaven, preached in wide areas of Judea and in the Jerusalem, and had baptized many who had repented, and given evidence of regeneration, Mar 1:5; Mat 3:5-6.
2) “That Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee,” (elthen iesous apo Nazareth tes Galilaias) “Jesus came, of His own choice, from Nazareth of Galilee,” from Nazareth in Galilee of the Gentiles, from a distance of near 60 miles, Mat 3:13; Mat 4:15-16; Act 10:37. He had come from the State of Galilee, and His home, to the State of Judea, to receive heaven sanctioned baptism from John the Baptist.
3) “And was baptized of John in Jordan.” (kai ebaptisthe eis ton lordanen hupo loannou) “And was baptized into (the) Jordan (river) by John,” near Bethabara where John was baptizing, Mar 1:5; Mat 3:13-17; Luk 3:21-23; Joh 1:28-34. Among the things John the Baptist was sent, mandated from heaven to do, was to baptize Jesus Christ, Mat 3:15-17; Joh 1:30-34.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mar. 1:10. Straightway.. Marks constant use of this word of transition shows how full his heart was of his subject. It would appeal to the prompt, energetic spirit of his Roman readers. He (i.e. Jesus) saw.The Baptism over, He was engaged in prayer (Luk. 3:21), and then the vision was vouchsafed. The heavens opened.Rending. Same word used of rending of veil of temple and rocks at the Crucifixion (Mat. 27:51). The Spirit like a dove descending.This was seen also by the Baptist (Joh. 1:32-33), and was the sign by which he recognised in Jesus the Lamb of God. It was His solemn inauguration as the Messiah (Act. 10:38). A dove.Fit emblem of His gentle rule.
Mar. 1:11. A voice from heaven.Heard again at the Transfiguration (Mar. 9:7), and in the temple court (Joh. 12:28). In whom I am well pleased.In whom I decreed for good, the good being mans redemption purposed by God in Christ from all eternity. In Mar. 1:10-11, we behold all Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity working together to accomplish mans salvation.
Mar. 1:12. The Spirit driveth Him.The human soul of Jesus, which shrank from the cup in Gethsemane, would naturally shrink also from close contact with the prince of evil. But, abhorrent as such an encounter was to His pure and holy nature, it could not be avoided. Nay, it must needs be the first act of His official life. The Second Adam must triumph where the first Adam fell.
Mar. 1:13. With the wild beasts.Far from human habitation and companionship. Nothing was wanting to complete the loneliness of our Divine Champion in His first combat with the enemy of souls. The angels ministered.Doubtless both to His bodily and spiritual wants. He who would not turn stones into bread was now fed; He who would not call upon angels to uphold Him in rash confidence was now sustained by them; He who demanded worship for God alone received homage from these servants of God.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mar. 1:9-13
(PARALLELS: Mat. 3:13 to Mat. 4:11; Luk. 3:21 to Luk. 4:13; Joh. 1:29-42.)
Christs preparation for ministryThe beginning of the gospel advances here another stage. The Coming One has come. The Son of God takes His place in history as Son of Man, and proceeds to fulfil all righteousness, identifying Himself in every possible way with the race He has come to redeem and save.
I. Christ is prepared for ministry by baptism.
1. He was about thirty years of age at the time (Luk. 3:23)the age at which the Levites entered upon their work (Num. 4:3). Hithertowith the exception of an occasional visit to the capitalHis life had been passed in seclusion at Nazareth, the Scriptures His daily study, the deep problems of human sin and misery His constant thought. Now He prepares to stand forth as the Champion of humanity by confessing their sins and expressing their repentance.
2. The placeon the eastern bank of the Jordan, near Jerichoto which Jesus came from Nazareth to be baptised was full of historic memories, carrying the mind back to the greatest of the judges, and one of the greatest of the prophets. There the Israelites crossed the Jordan dryshod, and entered with Joshua the promised land (Joshua 3); there Elijah, accompanied by Elisha, smote the stream with his mantle and opened a passage through its rapid waters (2Ki. 2:8).
3. But why should Jesus submit to the baptism of John? If we could answer this question fully, we should be well on the way to solve the mystery of the Incarnation. We can only dimly perceive some of the motives for this amazing condescension.
(1) Although the Sinless One, Christ was baptised with the baptism of repentance, because He chosefor us men and for our salvationto be reckoned amongst sinners as if He were one Himself, and to receive the outward sign of the cleansing away of that evil and defiling thing in which He had no part.
(2) Although Johns superior in nature, Christ received baptism from him as if He had been inferior in office, for He was now dedicating Himself to His great work as the Second Adam and New Head of the race.
(3) Although King, Messiah, and not merely a subject in the heavenly kingdom, it was yet fit that He should be anointed for His own place in that kingdom; and who was so fit to perform that office as he who had prepared the way before Him?
(4) Moreover, by Himself receiving baptism, He sanctified water to the mystical washing away of sin. This was the beginning of that sacramental system which naturally flows from, and is the extension of, the Incarnation. Hitherto baptism had been but a sign, a figure, an emblem; henceforth it was to be a means, a channel, for the conveyance of Divine grace: hitherto God had been conceived of as far away in heaven; now He was to be regarded as having come down to make His abode amongst men.
4. Here, for a brief moment, the veil was drawn aside which shrouds the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The voice of God the Father is heard from heaven, God the Holy Spirit is seen descending through the opened heaven to earth, and God the Son is incarnate on earth in the likeness of our humanity, as the link between it and heaven.
II. Christ is prepared for ministry by temptation.
1. A special interest belongs to this chapter of Christs life, because the narrative can only have been derived from His own lips, no human eye having witnessed His contest with the powers of evil.
2. From the waters of baptism He proceeds at once into the fires of temptation. This was no accident in His life, but part of the Divine plan for His equipment as our Representative and Head. Just when Satans fury was at its heightthe heavenly attestation of Christs Sonship ringing in his earsthe Holy Spirit urges Jesus forward to the battle. Both the combatants realise that it is a matter of life and deaththat if Satan be worsted now, it is the beginning of the end of his rule over men. He lays his plans accordingly, with the utmost skill and craft.
3. The scene of the encounter, if tradition may be trusted, was the wilderness of Jericho, the Quarantania of later days; a region full of rocks and caverns, to which hermits have often resorted, and whither pious pilgrims still wend their way, believing that a vivid realisation of their Saviours victory will be helpful to themselves. Some suppose, however, that Christ was carried by the Spirit into the more distant desert of Arabia, to the place where Moses and Elijah had fasted and held communion with God (Exo. 34:28; 1Ki. 19:8-18), and where afterwards St. Paul passed a season of seclusion and prayer (Gal. 1:17).
4. How far was it possible for Christ to be tempted? The following answer, condensed mainly from Dr. Liddons Divinity of our Lord, may help to place this matter in a true light.
(1) We must here distinguish between (a) direct temptation to moral evil, i.e. an appeal to a capacity of self-will which might be quickened into active disobedience to the will of God; and (b) what may be termed indirect temptation, i.e. an appeal to instincts per se innocent, as belonging to man in his unfallen state, which can make obedience wear the form of a painful effort or sacrifice.
(2) Jesus was(a) Emmanuel (Mat. 1:23), Himself God the Saviour; (b) Son of God (Luk. 1:35), implying a pre-existent superhuman personality in Him.
(3) This union of the Divine and human natures in Christ was not fatal to the perfection of either. But it was inconsistent with the presence of anything in Christs manhood that could contradict the essence of the perfect moral Being, i.e. the holiness of God. If He could have sinned, the Incarnation would have been a phantom. The sharpest arrows of the tempter struck Him, but, like darts lighting upon a hard polished surface, they glanced aside. Moreover, as it would seem, the personal union of the two natures in Christ involved, at least, the sight of the Beatific Vision by His humanity; and if we cannot conceive of the blessed as sinning while they worship around the throne, much less can we conceive it in One in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
(4) But the union of Christs manhood with His Godhead did not exempt it from simple human instincts, such as, e.g., a shrinking from bodily pain. See Hooker, E. P., Luk. 1:48. Upon Christs human will in its inchoate or rudimentary stage of desire, uninformed by reason, an approaching trial might so far act as a temptation, as, e.g., to produce a wish that obedience might be compatible with escape from suffering. But it could not produce, even for one moment, any wish to be free from the law of obedience itself.
(5) Questions: (a) Is this statement consistent with Heb. 2:17; Heb. 4:15; Heb. 5:7? Yes: see Heb. 7:26; 1Jn. 3:5. Scripture denies the existence, not merely of any sinful thinking or acting, but of any ultimate roots and sources of sin, of any propensities or inclinations, however latent and rudimentary, towards sin, in Christ. When therefore Scripture speaks of His perfect assimilation to us, it must be understood of physical and mental pain in all their forms, not of any moral assimilation. (b) Is this account consistent with the exigencies of Christs redemptive work? Certainly. He is not less truly representative of our race, because in Him it has recovered its perfection. His victory is none the less real and precious, because, morally speaking, it was inevitable. Nay, He could not have been the Sinless Victim, offered freely for a sinful world (1Pe. 3:18), unless He had been thus superior to the moral infirmities of His brethren. (c) Does not such an account impair the full form of Christs example? We gain in the perfection of the moral Ideal thus placed before us, to say nothing of the perfection of the Mediator between God and man, more than we can lose in moral vigour, upon discovering that His obedience was wrought out in a nature unlike our own in the one point of absolute purity. (d) But does not such an account reflect upon Christs moral greatness, and practically deny His moral liberty? No. The highest liberty does not imply the moral capacity of doing wrong. God is the one perfectly free Being; yet God cannot sin. The real temptation of a sinless Christ is not less precious to us than the temptation of a Christ who could have sinned would be. It forms a much truer and more perfect contrast to the failure of our first parent. It occupies a chief place in that long series of acts of condescension which begins with the Nativity and ends on the Cross. It is a lesson for all times as to the true method of resisting the tempter. Finally, it is the source of that strength whereby all later victories over Satan have been won: Christ, the Sinless One, has conquered the enemy in His sin-stained members.
Lessons.
1. Seasons of special grace are often succeeded by seasons of special difficulty and trial; therefore, be not high-minded, but fear.
2. Solitude and separation from the world are no more free from spiritual danger than a state of intercourse with ones fellow-men.
3. While ever praying, Lead us not into temptation, and being careful not to run into it of ones own accord, the Christian must remember that when he is tempted it is his duty to fight, and by Gods grace overcome.
4. Christ fought the battle, and gained the victory, with the very weapons that are in the hands of all Christians; and He now waits to succour all them that are tempted.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mar. 1:9. The Jordan, says Dr. Otts, has so many peculiarities that it cannot be compared with any other river on the face of the globe. It is the one sacred river of Scripturethe only one. It has never been navigated, and it empties itself into a sea that has never had a port. It springs out of the snows that rest upon the lofty tops of the heaven-aspiring mountains, and it rushes madly through its narrow and ever-descending valley until it empties itself in a sea that is far below the level of all other seas. It is full of life, but after running its short career it suddenly dies away in the lap of death. At its sources, and for a long way down its course, its waters are as clear as crystal; and flashing in the sunbeams, they look like a flowing stream of molten silver; but before losing itself in the sea of death, its waters become muddy, as if filled with the filth of earth. Flowing into a sea in which no life can live, and which its unceasing flow never fills, it is a fit symbol of human life, ever descending and becoming corrupt, and finally plunging into the gulf of death which swallows up all streams flowing into it, and is never filled. In this stream was Jesus baptised, symbolising the glorious fact that He has entered the stream of our human life to redeem our souls from the sea of death into which all human life flows.
Mar. 1:9-10. The baptism of our Lord.
1. By His own conduct and example Christ here teaches us to fulfil all righteousness. He would have us ready and eager in our work for Goddoing not as little but as much as we possibly can, determined to exceed rather than fall short.
2. By His own submission to baptism at the commencement of His ministry, He teaches us that this is the manner in which we also must begin to be His disciples.
3. As it was on His coming up out of the water that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, so He teaches us to believe that in the sacrament of regeneration the babe baptised with water is baptised also with the Holy Spirit, who then cleanses the soul and makes it partaker of a new, even a Divine nature, by incorporation in the body of which Christ is the Head.
Christs baptism an epoch in His own consciousness.We must not imagine that every day was the same to Christ, or Christ the same on every day. He had His great moments, as we have. We call the supreme moment when the soul awakens to God, and the man realises manhood, conversion. What this experience signifies to us, the moment symbolised by the baptism signified to Jesus, only with a difference in degree which His pre-eminence alone can measure. It marked His awakening to all that was involved in Messiahship; and such an awakening could not come without utmost tumult of spirittumult that only the solitude and struggle of tht wilderness could calm. The outward expresses the inward change. Before this moment no miracle; after it the miracles begin and go on multiplying. Before it no speech, no claim of extraordinary mission, only Divine and golden silence; after it the teaching with authority, the founding of the kingdom, the creating of the worlds light. Before it the carpenter of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Mary, doing, in beautiful meekness, the common duties of the common day; after it the Christ of God, the Revealer of the Father, the Life and the Light of men. Now He who became so different to others had first become as different to Himself. What was soon to be revealed to the world was then made manifest to His own soul.A. M. Fairbairn, D. D.
Mar. 1:10. The Holy Ghost at the baptism of our Lord.In pictures of Christs baptism one sees Jesus standing in the shallow water of the river, John from a shell or vessel pouring water on His head, and the Dove hovering over Him. The impression conveyed is that the Holy Ghost descended from heaven and lighted upon Christ during the performance of the rite, corresponding to, and a visible token of, the regenerating influence of the Spirit in Christian baptism. Yet the language of the Gospels gives no support to this idea. They all agree that the descent of the Spirit occurred after Jesus had been baptised, and when He had come up out of the river. St. Luke adds that the Holy Ghost assumed a bodily form, and that it was while Christ prayed that the descent took place. We may account for the general mistake in the artistic representation of this transaction by the prevailing notion which from primitive times has connected the Holy Spirit with the grace of baptism, and which saw in the details of the baptism of Christ a plain proof of this connexion. Of course there is a great truth in this idea, but it is not necessarily conveyed by the fact of Christs baptism; and if we hold this truth, we derive our belief from other sources, and not from this incident properly regarded. The general opinion is given, e.g., by Hilary: the Dove settles on the head of Jesus, in order that we might know that at our own baptism the Holy Spirit descends on us, and that we are bedewed with the unction of celestial glory, and are made the sons of God by adoption in Christ. But Jesus did not come to Johns baptism that He might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Johns baptism did not impart grace. It was merely a formal ceremony, witnessing to the inward desire and striving of the heart. The water was a sign, and nothing more; it carried no inward and spiritual grace. Had the Holy Ghost descended as is represented in popular pictures, it would have indicated that what is true of Christian baptism was also true of Johns rite; and this we know is not the case. The baptism of John was from heaven; it was a preparation for entrance into the new kingdom; emptying Himself of, or voluntarily obscuring, His Divinity, Jesus constrained John to perform the initiatory rite, thus fulfilling all righteousness. His private life, so to speak, ended in Jordan; the consecration to His mission was to follow. So issuing from the river, He stopped upon its bank, and prayed, and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in a bodily shape, and rested upon Him, and the heavenly voice proclaimed Him Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased. Thus was He announced as Messiah; thus did He receive the fulness of the Spirit for His Messianic work; thus by the unction of the Spirit was He consecrated Messiah-King. One naturally sees here a lesson concerning the Christian ministry. Not natural endowments, not the ordinary grace that accompanies baptism, equip a man to exercise the office of minister in the Church of God, but the special gift of the Holy Ghost bestowed and received for this end. I would submit a further thought concerning the spiritual life and well-being of individual Christians. As Christ was not prepared and commissioned for His work without the additional effusion of the Holy Ghost, so the Christian needs the added gifts of the Spirit to fit him for his duty as the servant of Christ. If we look to the early records of the Church, we find that apostolic teachers were not satisfied with leaving to their converts only the grace which they obtained by baptism; they supplemented this by conferring upon them further good things. A practical comment on our passage in the Gospel is afforded by a transaction mentioned in Act. 19:2-6. Surely they are not to be contemned who see here a cogent argument for the practice of confirmation. To fit the neophyte for the battle of life, to enable him to play his part as Christs faithful soldier and servant, he needs a fresh outpouring of the Spirit with His sevenfold gifts.W. J. Deane, M. A.
Christ comes in the strength of gentleness.Through the ages Christs strength has been the strength of gentleness, and His coming has been like that of Noahs dove with the olive branch in its beak, and the tidings of an abated flood and of a safe home on its return. The ascetic preacher of repentance was strong to shake and purge mens hearts by terror; but the stronger Son comes to conquer by meekness, and reign by the omnipotence of love. The beginning of the gospel was the anticipation and the proclamation of strength like the eagles, swift of flight, and powerful to strike and destroy. The gospel, when it became a fact, and not a hope, was found in the meek Jesus, with the Dove of God, the gentle Spirit, which is mightier than all, nestling in His heart, and uttering soft notes of invitation through His lips.A. Maclaren, D. D.
The Holy Spirit came as a dove,a gentle, joyous creature, with no bitterness of gall, no fierceness of bite, no violence of rending claws; loving human houses, associating within one home; nurturing their young together; when they fly abroad, hanging in their flight side by side; leading their life in mutual intercourse; giving in concord the kiss of peace with the bill; in every way fulfilling the law of unanimity. This is the singleness of heart that ought to be in the Church; this is the habit of love that must be obtained.Cyprian.
Mar. 1:12-13. Lessons.
1. We in entering upon our Christian vocation ought so to behave ourselves as Christ did in entering upon His mediatorial office. He retreated from the world, and by that retreat He virtually declared that He had nothing to do with the world. Those therefore who are called to the preaching of the gospel, or to any other the like duty, are by this example taught to wean themselves from the things of this world, and to renounce whatever may hinder them from the performance of that duty, to which they are called.
2. Christ willingly follows whither the Spirit leads Him; and what His Father commands Him that He undertakes with all alacrity: we in the like manner ought cheerfully in all things to comply with Gods will and pleasure; nothing ought to deter us from a steady performance of our duty; nor hunger, nor thirst, nor deserts, nor devils ought to be terrible to us, whilst we are safe under the conduct of Christ and His Spirit.
3. Christ soon after He was baptised was led into the wilderness to be tempted. After we have listed ourselves amongst Christs soldiers, we must not expect to be idle, but must prepare ourselves for battle. Christ armed Himself against the assaults of the devil by fasting; this armour He Himself did not want, but He therefore put it on, that we might learn how to arm ourselves against our spritual enemies.Bishop Smalridge.
Mar. 1:13. Jesus was tempted.
I. That He might sympathise with us in our trials, and assist us in our times of need.The mariner who has once been cast on an inhospitable shore hastens with greater ardour to the relief of a shipwrecked crew than the callous inhabitant of the land who has never known the dangers of the deep. The orphan knows best how to mourn with his friend the loss of a parent; the bereaved parent most tenderly sympathises in the death of a brothers child. As we feel in ourselves, so we judge of others; and it is a consolation to us, not only that our Saviour was of the same nature and constitution as ourselves, but that hardships, miseries, and temptations of the same kind were suffered by Him, and in a manner more severe than human nature is generally called to endure. We trust that He has learned to sympathise with us, and that His sympathy will teach Him to relieve.
II. That we might learn from His example how to resist temptation and to conquer.The only weapon that He used was the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, which is equally available for us to wield. It furnishes us with the plainest directions for holiness of life, and the most powerful motives to obey them; it shows us clearly the pitfalls in our path, and how to avoid them; it animates us with visions of heavenly things, and wondrous promises to such as overcome.
III. That we might be convinced that this is Gods appointed path to perfection.God has had one Son without sin, but no son without temptation. Christs trial consisted in the invitation to accept a lower ideal than the highest, to be content with a dazzling carnal glory instead of winning His way through divinely appointed sufferings to eternal renown. He was shown how He might turn out of the steep and stony path of sacrifice into the smooth and easy road of earthly pomp and grandeurhow with the worlds weapons He might win the victory. But He sternly and emphatically refused to entertain the tempters suggestion; and His refusal is a clarion call to us to remain loyal to our better selves, to trust implicitly the high convictions of our souls, to take up the cross and in it find the crown. It is not he that shirks the battle, but he that endureth to the end, who shall be saved: i.e. completely emancipated from all evil around and within, and presented faultlessunimpeachedbefore the throne.
Three prominent points in our Lords temptation.
1. The relation of the supernatural to the natural in Himself; or, on the other side, His relation to God as His ideal human Song of Solomon 2. The relation of God to the supernatural in His person, and the official in His mission.
3. The nature of the kingdom He had come to found, and the agencies by which it was to live and extend.A. M. Fairbairn, D. D.
Jesus the representative Man.Jesus is here the representative Man, the Source and Head of the new humanity, the Founder of the kingdom that is to be. When He triumphs, it triumphs. When He is victorious, all are victorious that live in and by Him. And His victory, as it was for humanity, was by humanity. The supernatural energies that were in Him He did not use for Himself. In our nature, as in our name, He stood, fought, conquered. How perfectly, then, is He qualified to be at once our Saviour and Example!Ibid.
Christ with wild beasts and angels.
I. The companionship of the wild beasts.
1. Not only a graphic indication that the place was wild and desolate, but also a reminder of the dominion over the lower creatures given originally to man, and doubtless exercised by our first parents unfearing and unfeared.
2. Nor can we doubt that the fiercest denizens of the wilds would become tame and gentle in the presence of the Second Adam, the Lord from heaventhe dumb animals rebuking the madness of all who recognise Him not!
II. The ministrations of the angels.
1. The connexion between the three worldsEarth, Heaven, Hellis closer than we think.
2. Let the thought of our invisible friends banish all fear of our spiritual foes.
Christ manifested as Monarch of all.
1. Of hells minions, whose assaults He triumphantly repels.
2. Of earths fiercest inhabitants, whose wild passions are subdued in His presence.
3. Of heavens angels, whose delight it is to minister to Him.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Mar. 1:9-11. Christ the rainbow of the new covenant.The baptism of our Saviour stands us under the gospel, instead of the same comfort, which the rainbow afforded unto the old world. The rainbow is a reflexion of the sunbeams in a watery cloud, and was ordained as a sign of pacification (Gen. 9:13) that Gods anger should no more strive with man. Such a rainbow was Jesus Christ (Rev. 4:3). Look upon Him, not standing majestically in a cloud above, but wading, like a humble servant, into the waters of Jordan beneath; look upon Him, how He sanctifies that element, which was once a means to drown the world, and now is made a means to save it; look upon Him in that posture, as a rainbow in the water, and you may read Gods sure covenant with His whole Church, that His anger is pacified in His well-beloved Son, and that He will be gracious with His inheritance (Joh. 1:29; Eph. 2:14; 1Pe. 3:21).Bishop Hacket.
A further revelation of the Godhead.There are some of our ancient cathedrals, such as York and Lincoln, crowned with triple towers; yet when seen afar off in the blue distance, only a single mass of building can be discerned; but when advancing on our journey nearer, we nerceive that there are towers, though perhaps we cannot clearly trace their form or numberbut when we arrive yet closer, we can see and admire the grand central tower, and the two western campaniles in all their grace and majesty. So the old world was taught first to recognise the Unity of God; then as the ages passed away the Second and the Third Persons of the Trinity were revealed; and at last in the fulness of time we behold the glory of the Most Sacred Trinity made manifest to men! When the Incarnate Redeemer went down into Jordan, the heavenly light of the Divine Spirit descended as a dove, whilst the Fathers voice proclaimed His almighty sanction!
Mar. 1:9. The fellowship of penitence.A strange thing happened a few years ago in an American court of justice. A young man was asked if he had aught to say why the extreme penalty should not be passed upon him. At that moment a grey-haired man, his face furrowed with sorrow, stepped into the prisoners box unhindered, placed his hand affectionately upon the culprits shoulder, and said, Your honour, we have nothing to say. The verdict which has been found against us is just. We have only to ask for mercy. We!there was nothing against the old father; yet in that moment he lost himself, and identified his very being with that of his wayward boy. So in His baptism Christ pushes His way to a place beside us, lays His hand upon the sinners shoulder, and bears the shame and sorrow with him.
Mar. 1:12-13. Quarantania.This wilderness has been identified, by the voice of tradition, in the Greek and Latin Churches, as that wild and lonely region between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, called in modern geography Quarantania. It is an extensive plateau, elevated to a considerable height above the plain of Jericho and the west bank of the Jordan; and hence the literal accuracy of the expression in St. Matthew, that Jesus was led up into the wilderness. Travellers have described it as a barren, sterile waste of painful whiteness, shut in on the west by a ridge of grey limestone hills, moulded into every conceivable shape; while on the east the view is closed by the gigantic wall of the Moab mountains, appearing very near at hand, but in reality a long way off, the deception being caused by the nature of the intervening ground, which possesses no marked features, no difference of colour on which to fix the eye for the purpose of forming an estimate of distance. Over this vast expanse of upland country there are signs of vegetation only in two or three places, where winter torrents have scooped out a channel for themselves, and stimulate year after year into brief existence narrow strips of verdure along their banks. The monotony of the landscape and the uniformity of its colouring are varied only when the glaring afternoon sun projects the shadows of the ghostly rocks across the plain, or, at rare intervals, when a snowy cloud, that seems as if born of the hills themselves, sails across the deep-blue sky and casts down on the desolate scene the cool, dark mantle of its shade. A more dreary and lonely scene it is impossible to imagine.H. Macmillan, D.D.
Great temptations.The story of the Temptation is peculiar, but not wholly unique. It is not without its parallel in human experience, not without its analogue in literature and history. The great heroes whom the world reveres have passed through similar experiences of test and trial. Thus, in the legends of the East, there is brought to us the story of the temptation of Buddha on that night when all the powers of evil gathered around about him to assail him by violence or to entice him by wiles.
Nor knoweth one,
Not even the wisest, how those fiends of hell
Battled that night to keep the truth from Buddh:
Sometimes with terrors of the tempest, blasts
Of demon-armies clouding all the wind
With thunder, and with blinding lightning flung
In jagged javelins of purple wrath
From splitting skies; sometimes with wiles and words
Fair-sounding, mid hushed leaves and softened airs
From shapes of witching beauty; wanton songs,
Whispers of love; sometimes with royal allures
Of proffered rule; sometimes with mocking doubts,
Making truth vain.
So, in the mythology of Greece, we have the story of the temptation of Hercules. Pleasure comes to him in wanton but bewitching form, and bids him follow her, and promises him the cup of pleasure and that he shall drink of it. She will strew his path with flowers all the way, and accompany him with song and dancing. Wisdom comes to him with sterner voicewith beauty, indeed, but with solemn and almost forbidding beautyand calls him to combat and to battle that he may win manhood. So in the later history of the Church is the strange, mystical story of the temptation of St. Anthony, with its wiles and its enticements, with its demons inviting to sin by smiles, and its demons tormenting with red-hot pincers. In human history we find the same or like record. We have like temptations in the lives of John Wesley, of Luther, of Xavier, of Loyola. Open the page of history where you will, and you can hardly find the story of any great, noble, prophetic soul that has not had its hour of battle with the powers of darkness. As in the story of Napoleon the Great, concerning whom history tells us that for two long months he struggled over the question whether he should divorce his faithful wife and take another that he might build up a European dynasty, and came out from his chamber after the last night of battle with a face so pallid, so wrought upon by the struggle, that it was as no face he ever shewed after the hottest battlefield of Europe. But love went down before the hope of ambition in that battle; and the devil won.
Tempted like as we are.It is recorded of the great soldier, the gallant Montrose, that finding his followers ill provided with armour, he stripped off breastplate, and steel cap, with his stout leathern coat, and rode into battle in his bared shirtsleeves, at the head of his men, to show them that he scorned to use defences of which they could not avail themselves. Even so our Great Captain laid aside the panoply of heaven, and as a man entered into the conflict.
Temptation following on privileges.Pirates, when they see a ship set sail for a rich cargo to foreign parts, keep away, and take no notice of her; they let her go by in peace; but when she is coming back from that foreign port, laden with rich goods, the case is very different. Then the pirate uses all his efforts to take that ship, and leaves no means untried. So with us; after Holy Communion the devil knows that we are very dear to God, and have received Christ.
Satan vanquished.There is in Tintern churchyard, not far from the grand ruins of the abbey, a defaced and broken tombstone, grass-grown, and whereon only one sentence can be read; it consists of these striking wordsI tread Satan under my feet, not a word more; it is the record of an unknown fight, and a nameless victory over the wiles of the devil. Such may, through Christs help, be one day the triumphant exclamation of us all.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(9) And it came to pass.See Note on Mat. 3:13. St. Mark adds from Nazareth to St. Matthews more general statement, from Galilee.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. BAPTISM OF JESUS, Mar 1:9-11 .
9. In those days The days in which John was baptizing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And it happened that in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptised of John in the Jordan.’
The fact of Jesus coming to John to be baptised is plainly stated and it is deliberately in parallel with what had happened to the people (Mar 1:5). He is being identified with them in His baptism. But Mark then moves immediately on. Not, however, before drawing attention to the fact that Jesus came from Nazareth, a small and insignificant place in the Galilean hills. His background is unassuming. He is not only a despised Galilean (see Joh 7:41; Joh 7:52), but from an insignificant village, a ‘root out of dry ground’ (Isa 53:2). This was the last place from which any good thong could be expected (Joh 1:46). But what a difference was about to take place. He comes to the Jordan. The River Jordan was the place of entry into the Promised Land, and Jesus was as it were here being prepared for His entry into it to establish the Kingly Rule of God. Here was the greater Joshua, come to establish God’s Kingly Rule. (Mark is eager to get to the essence of his account, but he recognises that the foundation must be firmly laid).
Mar 1:5 has informed us that at this stage the main interest in John has been by the Judeaeans and Jerusalemites. Thus the appearance of Jesus as a Galilean indicates a deliberate identification of Himself by Jesus with the work of John. He has come a good way for this sole purpose, to confirm His support for John in his ministry, and to indicate that John and His own future work are all part of God’s plan and purpose. And by it He is being identified with all the people who are responding to John’s ministry. He is not shy of being seen as a part of this movement of God.
Mark does not question the incongruity of Jesus being baptised. Indeed he deliberately stresses that Jesus is being baptised in exactly the same way as the people (apart, that is, from the confession of sin). The question of incongruity is raised in Matthew where John says to Jesus, ‘I have need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?’ (Mat 3:14). But that incongruity is partly dependent on interpretation. If John’s baptism is a symbol of the washing away of sin (for which there is no direct evidence in the context, and little if any evidence elsewhere in the Gospels and epistles) then there is indeed a problem, although we could argue that He was but identifying Himself with the sinners He had come to save. But if, as we have affirmed, it is a symbol of the coming of Holy Spirit like life-giving rain, a symbol of being part of God’s new people enjoying the blessing of the Spirit, the problem is far less, if it arises at all. For there is no reason to question why the Holy Spirit should not come powerfully on Him. Indeed it was to be expected, and was indeed what was about to happen.
The incongruity to John was twofold. Firstly because he felt he was not worthy to perform the baptism on One whom he knew to be so greatly superior to himself, (and remember he was Jesus’ cousin and knew Him well), and secondly because he recognised that he himself needed the supreme baptism of the One Who could baptise in Holy Spirit. How then could he baptise the baptiser in Holy Spirit? How could the shadow baptise the reality?
But Jesus clearly did not consider it incongruous. It is true that there was no need of repentance, admission of sin and forgiveness in His case, but those were activities preparing people for baptism, making the person ready for acceptance by God in the final act. Without them the people could not be baptised. But they were not what the baptism symbolised, for they preceded it, (even though they were, of course, also evidenced by it). Baptism, however, took place because, once repentance, admission of sinfulness, and forgiveness had occurred, it was a seal that these baptised people were now declaring themselves to be forgiven sinners, made ready to receive the pouring out of the Spirit when the time came. So while Jesus did not need to repent and receive forgiveness of sins, He did firstly desire to join with all the people in indicating His acceptance of the God-given authority of John and secondly in His readiness to receive God’s Spirit, in His case on their behalf as the One Who would baptise in Holy Spirit. ‘So it becomes us to fulfil all that is right’, He declared (Mat 3:15). As representative Man He must do what any righteous man should do, participate in that which points ahead to the work of the Spirit.
So by His act Jesus is clearly identifying Himself with the people to whom He has come, acknowledging John’s position as a man sent from God, and confirming the validity of his baptism and the fact that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was coming.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Coming of Jesus – The Descent of the Spirit on Him As The Sealing and Empowering of the King (1:9-11).
The preparations completed Jesus now comes to John to be baptised, in exactly the same way as the people had, and having been baptised the Holy Spirit comes on Him as the One Who is introducing the age of the Spirit. And at this point a voice from heaven says, ‘You are my beloved Son (Psa 2:7), in you I am well pleased’ (Isa 42:1). By this He is declared to be both God’s Son and God’s Servant. (Or alternately, ‘You are My Son, the Beloved in Whom I am well pleased’ – compare Mat 12:18).
Psalms 2 initially announces the acceptance of David’s heirs as God’s adopted sons (Mar 1:7, compare 2Sa 7:14), but it also has especially in mind the great king who is coming, His anointed one (Mar 1:2) who will establish his rule over the nations (Mar 1:8-9). Isa 42:1-4, along with Isa 49:1-6; Isa 50:4-8 and Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12, has in mind the great Servant of the Lord who will bring about God’s purposes through suffering.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God the Father’s Proclamation of Jesus’ Righteousness ( Mat 3:13-17 , Luk 3:21-22 ) Mar 1:9-11 gives us the account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. There were three people at this baptism to testify to the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God: John the Baptist (Mar 1:9), the Holy Spirit (Mar 1:10), and the Heavenly Father (Mar 1:11). Mar 1:9-11 emphasizes the testimony from God the Father justifying Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Mar 1:9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
Mar 1:9
Mar 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Mar 1:10
Mar 1:11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Mar 1:11
Comments The voice of God the Father spoke from Heaven to mankind on a number of occasions. God spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar when he took his mind from him for a season (Dan 4:31). God spoke from Heaven at the water baptism of His Son Jesus Christ (Mat 3:17, Mar 1:11, Luk 3:22). God spoke to the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mat 17:5, Mar 9:7, Luk 9:35-36, 2Pe 1:17-18). God spoke to Jesus when He rode into Jerusalem before His Passion (Joh 12:28-29). Jesus spoke to Paul from Heaven on the road to Damascus (Act 9:3-7).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Baptism of Christ and the Beginning of His Ministry.
v. 9. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
The Mode of Baptism
The Lutheran Church has always held that it is a matter of indifference, so far as the command of God is concerned, and therefore a point of Christian liberty, whether Baptism is performed by immersion or dipping, by sprinkling, by pouring, or by washing, the essential thing being the application of water, not the form of this application. Other church bodies are very narrow in this respect, the Greek Catholic Church maintaining that a threefold immersion is necessary, and the Baptist and Campbellite churches insisting that immersion it must be, at all costs.
In deciding this question, it would obviously be useless to refer to the New Testament passages in which the Sacrament of Baptism is instituted, for there we gain no explanation of the method used by Christ and the apostles, and experience has shown how foolish it is to draw conclusions from attending circumstances about which we know little or nothing. The historical accounts, however, have some value. For instance, the apostles, on the Day of Pentecost, would have had neither time nor the water necessary to immerse the three thousand that were converted by the sermon of Peter, Act 2:41. Also, the number of rivers in which the eunuch of Queen Candace of Ethiopia might have been immersed by Philip can easily be counted by an infant of a day, for there are none.
But a better method to get a clear under. standing of the form of Baptism is to take the use of the word baptize in Scriptures, in passages where it is used in its ordinary meaning, where the Sacrament is not spoken of. Verse 4, in the chapter above, is a passage illustrating such use. That cups and pots were immersed in ceremonial washing, might still be plausible, but that the couches of the dining-room were also dipped in water every day, is clearly out of the question. The prescribed form of ceremonial purification, which was the method in common use, was the sprinkling of consecrated water. The baptism of the children of Israel, 1Co 10:2, was not by immersion, as was that of the Egyptians, but by sprinkling. The Bible throughout prefers sprinkling to immersion as a symbol of cleansing, Isa 52:15; Eze 36:25. In Joe 2:28 pouring, not immersion, is the figure employed. In fulfillment of this prophecy, the apostles, on Pentecost Day, were baptized with the Holy Ghost, Act 1:5; Act 2:3. See Act 2:41; Act 10:44-48; Act 16:32-35; Act 8:38
The fact that the mode of Baptism was not fixed by Christ or by His apostles, but that this was left open to the Christian Church, is substantiated also by the testimony of history. In a book which is reckoned with those of the Apostolic Fathers, called The Teaching of the Twelve, w hich dates not later than the middle of the second century, the passage occurs: “If you have not living water, baptize into other water; and if you cannot baptize in cold water, do so in warm; but if you have neither, then pour out water three times on the head in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. ” Walafrid Strabo, a German monk and writer (808-, tells us that St. Lawrence, a Roman deacon who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Valerian about 258, baptized one of his executioners with a pitcher of water, by pouring the water on the man’s head. The cases recorded in history might be multiplied indefinitely and brought forward to the time of the Reformation. But the conclusion which we must reach, after comparing all evidence, is that, while immersion was the rule for baptisms in the post-apostolic age, other modes of Baptism have always been in use in the Church, and anyone of them may be employed, so long as the application of water with the appropriate formula, as instituted by Christ, is made.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 1:9-11 . See on Mat 3:13-17 ; Luk 3:21 f.
] Conception of immersion . Not so elsewhere in the N. T.
] usual form in Mark; we must, with Tischendorf, read it here also. It belongs to .: immediately (after He was baptized) coming up . A hyperbaton (Fritzsche refers . to ) just as little occurs here as at Mat 3:16 .
] Jesus, to whom also refers (see on Matt. l.c. ). Mark harmonizes with Matthew (in opposition to Strauss, Weisse, de Wette), who gives a further development of the history of the baptism, but whose . presents itself in Mark under a more directly definite form. In opposition to the context, Erasmus, Beza, Heumann, Ebrard, and others hold that John is the subject.
, conveying a more vivid sensuous impression than Matthew and Luke.
Lange’s poetically naturalizing process of explaining ( L. J. II. 1, p. 182 ff.) the phenomena at the baptism of Jesus is pure fancy when confronted with the clearness and simplicity of the text. He transforms the voice into the sense of God on Christ’s part; with which all the chords of His life, even of His life of hearing, had sounded in unison, and the voice had communicated itself sympathetically to John also. The dove which John saw is held to have been the hovering of a mysterious splendour, namely, a now manifested adjustment of the life of Christ with the higher world of light; the stars withal came forth in the dark blue sky, festally wreathing the earth (the opened heaven). All the more jejune is the naturalizing of Schenkel: that at the Jordan for the first time the divine destiny of Jesus dawned before His soul like a silver gleam from above, etc. See, moreover, the Remark subjoined to Mat 3:17 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
SECOND SECTION
CHRIST
______
Mar 1:9-13
(Parallels: Mat 3:13 to Mat 4:11; Luk 3:21 to Luk 4:13; Joh 1:29-42)
9And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of [by] John in Jordan. 10And straightway coming up out of [from, 4] the water, he saw the heavens opened [parted], and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. 11And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom5 I am well pleased. 12And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. 13And he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Mar 1:10. Straightway, .Marks watchword, constantly recurring from this time onwards. But here it means that Jesus only in a formal sense submitted to the act, and therefore did not linger in it. Much in the same way as Luke hastily passes over the circumcision of our Lord.He saw the heavens.Not John (as Erasmus and others), but Jesus is the subject of the seeing (Meyer): yet the concurrent and mediate beholding of the Baptist is not excluded; see John 1. That the occurrence should not have been only an external one, but also an internal (Leben Jesu, ii. 1, S. 182), Meyer calls fantasy. But it is certain that without the fantasy of theological spiritual insight we cannot penetrate the internal meaning of the text, and must fall now into mere dogmatism, and now into rationalistic perversions.
Mar 1:12. And immediately the Spirit driveth Him. is stronger than the of Matthew and the of Luke.
Mar 1:13. And He was there forty days tempted of Satan.According to Meyer and others, Mark (with Luke) is here out of harmony with Matthew. This difficulty springs from neglecting to distinguish, 1. between real difference and less exactitude, and 2. between the being tempted generally of Satan, and the being tempted in a specifically pregnant and decisive manner. But it is evident that Mark places the crisis of Christs victory already in the baptism. That act of victory over self, and humiliation under the baptism of John, had already assured Him the victory over the now impotent assaults of Satan.With the wild beasts.The older expositors find hi this circumstance a counterpart of the serpent in paradise. Starke:The wilderness was probably the great Arabian desert, and Satan attacked Him also through the beasts. Usteri and others:Christ as the restorer of paradise, and conqueror of the beasts. De Wette:This is a mere pictorial embellishment. Meyer:He is threatened in a twofold manner: Satan tempts Him, and the beasts surround Him. But this is a misleading view. A threefold relation of Jesus is here depicted, 1. to Satan, 2. to the beasts, 3. to the angels; and it is arbitrary to separate the second from the third, and make it the antithesis of the first. There is nothing in the to justify this.The angels.Not merely fortuitous individual angels. By the individuals which minister to Him, the angel-world is represented. Meyer:By the ministering we are not to understand a serving with food, but a sustaining support against Satan and the beasts. This is more than fantasy.The theory concerning the various forms of the history of the temptation, of which Mark is supposed to have used the earliest and simplest, we pass over, as flowing from the well-known scholastic misapprehension of this Evangelists original view and exhibition of the Gospel.Ex ungue leonem! This holds good of Christ, as He is introduced by Mark; and in another sense it holds good of the beginning of the Gospel itself. Remark the expressions: , etc.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The self-denial and self-renunciation with which Christ, the Son of God, had lived in the seclusion of Nazareth, was the condition and source of that strength in which He subjected Himself to the baptism of John in the Jordan. This act of subjection sealed His submission under the law, His historical fellowship of suffering with His people, and His passion. The baptism of Christ was consequently the pledge of His perfect self-sacrifice. Hence it was in principle the decision of His conflict and His victory; and therefore it was crowned with His glorification. In this one act there was a consummation of His consciousness as God, of His consciousness as Redeemer, and His consciousness as Victor.
2. Christ really decided, in His baptism, His victory over Satan. He went into the wilderness and made it a paradise. The serpent in this paradise assaults Him, but cannot hurt Him; the wild beasts sink peaceably under His majesty; and the angels of heaven surround and serve Him.
3. John is in the wilderness, and Satan tempts him not. Jesus is led up from the wilderness into the wilderness,that is, into the deepest wildness of the wilderness (this being the residence of the demons, see Com. on Matthew 4),and Satan comes down to assault Him there. But the Evangelist deems it superfluous to remark that Jesus overcame Satan. After what had just preceded, this was self-understood. Moreover, it is in the casting-out of the devils, that Mark presents to us Christs concrete victories over Satan. Yet this victory is intimated in the fact that He maintained His abode in the wilderness for forty days in spite of all the assaults of the devil, and that in that very wilderness the angels ministered to Him. The incarnate Son of God could hold His heavenly court in the place which Satan preminently arrogated for himself. The Lords relation to His surroundings is threefold. 1. It is a sovereign and inimical one towards Satan, whose temptations appear only as impotent assaults. 2. It is a sovereign and peaceful one towards the beasts: they dare not hunt the Lord of creation, nor do they flee before Him. Jesus takes away the curse also from the irrational creation (Romans 8). According to the same Mark, who places this circumstance at the outset of his Gospel, Jesus commanded at its close that His Gospel should be preached to every creature. See Daniel in the den of lions. Comp. Gthes Das Kind und der Lwe. 3. A sovereign and friendly one towards the angel-world. The world of the angels is subjected to the dominion of Christ: Eph 1:21; Col 2:10; Hebrews 1.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The abode of Jesus in Nazareth, or His self-humiliation, the foundation of all the Divine victories in His life, Php 2:6 seq.The greatness of Christ by the side of the greatness of John.Even in humiliation Christ is above John, in that He voluntarily submits to his baptism.With the submission of Christ to the baptism of John, and what it signified, the whole course of His life, and also His victory over Satan in the wilderness, were decided. Hence His tarrying in the wilderness was the festival before a new career.The perfected unfolding of the consciousness of Christ at His baptism, in its eternal significance.With the self-consciousness of Christ was perfected the consciousness of the Son of God and of the Son of man at one and the same time: Thus, 1. the consciousness of His eternity in His Godhead, and 2. of His redeeming vocation in His humanity.The significance of perfect self-knowledge in self-consciousness: 1. Finding self, 2. gaining self, 3. deciding and dedicating self in God.The kindredness and difference between the development of the Redeemers consciousness and that of the sinner: 1. Kindredness: humiliation, exaltation. 2. Difference: a. Christs humiliation under the judgment of His brethren; b. the sinners under his own judgment;a. Christs exaltation through the contemplation of the communion of the Trinity; b. the sinners exaltation through faith in the fellowship of the Redeemer.As our consciousness, so our history: This holds good, a. of our true consciousness, b. of our false.The abode of the Baptist and of the Lord in the wilderness, a token of the destruction of the satanic kingdom.The inseparable connection between the divine dignity and the redeeming vocation of Christ: 1. He is Christ, and submits to Johns baptism of repentance; 2. He sees the heavens open upon Him, and enters into the depths of the wilderness to contend with Satan.The connection between the Lords baptism and His temptation.The connection between the humiliations and the exaltations of our Lord, an encouraging sign to all who are His.The connection between the invigorations and the new conflicts of Jesus, an admonitory sign to all who are His.Christ takes possession again of the wilderness (the world), without asking leave of Satan whose dwelling it is.Christ in the wilderness Ruler of all: 1. Of the abyss, whose assaults He regards not; 2. of the earth, whose wild beasts and passions sink to rest at His feet; 3. of the heavenly world, whose angels minister to Him.Wherefore the Lion of Judah, according to Mark, so often goes into the wilderness.How the Holy Spirit opens, with the manifestation of Christ, the decisive conflict with the spirit of apostasy.How the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of might, drives the Lord into the decisive conflict. Even Christ did not go led by self into the contest.Christ changing the wilderness, despite Satan, into a paradise.Adam in paradise, and Christ among the beasts in the wilderness.
Starke:Humility the best adornment of teachers.Jesus of Nazareth (despised): So little does the great God make Himself, and thus at the same time constructs a ladder by which we may go up.Jesus sanctifies through His baptism the laver of regeneration in the word.Rejoice, O soul, in that God is well pleased with His Son, and with thee also, who through Him art reconciled to God! But thou must in faith be made one with Him, Eph 1:5-6.As soon as we become Gods children, the Holy Ghost leads us; but the cross and temptation come forth-with.What the first Adam lost among and under the beasts, the Second Adam has asserted and regained among the beasts.A pious man has nothing to fear, among either wild beasts or bestial men.
Gerlach:How infinitely high does Christ stand above all human teachers, even those inspired by God.Schleiermacher:The legal excitement which John occasioned, and the excitement which Jesus enkindled.Gossner:Solitude and the wilderness have their temptations equally with the world.Baur:No one is near to celebrate this victory, yet Gods angels are there to glorify Him.
Footnotes:
[4][Mar 1:10.The reading of the Received Text is , which is also adopted by Scholz, and agrees, moreover, with Mat 3:16. But Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Meyer, following B., D., L., and the Gothic Version, read . Griesbach also favored this reading. The English Version out of accords with the latter reading, but not with the former. The use of the two prepositions is seen m Luk 2:4 : And Joseph also went up from () Galilee, out of () the city of Nazareth, &c. Beyond doubt, remarks Winer, indicates the closest connection; one less strict; and more especially , one still more distant.Ed.]
[5]Mar 1:11.After B., D., &c., Lachmann and Tischendorf read , in Thee.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Spiritual Reparation
[An Analysis]
Mar 1:9-45
(1) John’s dispensation was thus shown to be of divine appointment. Notice the beauty of John’s work in relation both to the past and to the future: it was a baptism unto repentance; a baptism, and so connected with the ceremonial past; a baptism unto repentance, and so introductory to a new and more intensely spiritual state of things.
(2) But why should Jesus Christ identify himself with a baptism which was unto repentance? His identification with that baptism was not for the purpose of personal confession, but for the purpose of official absorption. He took up the dispensation, and ended it by the introduction of a better. So, when he took upon himself the nature of mankind, he did not degrade and enfeeble God, he elevated and glorified man.
10. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.
11. And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Whatever is done in the divine name and for the divine glory is succeeded by increasing evidence of divine favour. What Jesus saw on coming out of the water, we should all see on returning from every act of homage and obedience. (1) The Spirit is a heavenly gift, not a natural grace. (2) Sonship is not generic; it is specific thou. (3) Sonship is not left a mystery; it is declared and confirmed to the individual heart.
12. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
13. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.
(1) Sonship does not exempt from temptation. (2) Temptation does not invalidate sonship. (3) Temptation, rightly answered, makes sonship a life and power. We are not to be content with nominal sonship. We are to be proved men. Contrast Matthew’s account of the Temptation with Mark’s. The one is minute and elaborate; the other is compendious. What history may be put into a sentence! There are experiences which cannot be put into words they can only be hinted at. Some men have not the power of spiritual analysis; they cannot follow a temptation through its changing assaults and attitudes. Mark was probably not equal to Matthew in this particular. As with temptation, so with conversion. Some men can only say that they are converted; explanation and discussion are beyond their power. “And the angels ministered unto him.” The darkest temptation has some light to relieve it. When we feel the devil we should look for the angels.
14. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.
15. And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
(1) The imprisonment of the servant does not hinder the progress of the Master. (2) Ill-treatment of the messenger may actually help the divinity of the message: ( a ) it tests sincerity, ( b ) it tests the sustaining power of the doctrine that is preached.
The 15th verse shows Jesus Christ in three aspects: (1) as the interpreter of time; (2) as the revealer of the divine kingdom; (3) as a spiritual regenerator. Under these heads note Time: The preparative process; the development of opportunity; the moral import of special times.
Kingdom: Not a transient erection; not a subordinate arrangement; not a human ambition the kingdom of God.
Regeneration: Vital; progressive; spiritual. Vital Repent, destroy the past, humble yourselves on account of sin. Progressive after humiliation is to come trust, the broken heart is to be the believing heart. Spiritual not a change of mere attitudes and relations, but a change of life.
It is to be specially noted that Jesus Christ preached the kingdom of God as a gospel: rightly understood, it is not a despotism, it is not a terror; it is the supremacy of light, of truth, of love.
16. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
17. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
18. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.
19. And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.
20. And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
(1) Christ is the preparer of his servants “I will make you”: how much was involved in that promise! ( a ) Authority; ( b ) qualification. (2) Small beginnings compatible with sublime results. (3) The claims of God over-ride all other claims the sons left their father. (4) The discharge of common duties the best preparation for higher calls two were casting the net into the sea, and two were mending their nets. The transition from one duty to another need not be abrupt. The humblest duty may be very near the highest honour. (5) The place of the servant is after the Master “Come ye after me”: they are not invited to equal terms they must walk in the King’s shadow.
Some hearts respond to Christ instantly some linger long, and yield, as it were, with reluctance.
“They left their father Zebedee in the ship”: fathers should never keep back their sons from Christ’s service.
21. And they went into Capernaum: and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
22. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
(1) Men will teach well only as they teach under Christ (2) Authority is impossible apart from association with the Master.
(3) Authority of tone must come from intensity of conviction.
(4) Hearers know the voice of authority. (5) The Christian teacher is to show his supremacy over all other teachers.
23. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24. Saying Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
25. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
26. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
27. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
28. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
(1) Wickedness always afraid of purity. (2) Wickedness having no favour to ask of purity, except to be let alone. (3) Wickedness can always identify the presence of the spirit of Jesus Christ. (4) For this reason, the Church is a constant judgment upon all unclean spirits. (5) The completeness of Jesus Christ’s authority his authority in doctrine, and his authority in work. (6) Fulness of spiritual life is the guarantee of fulness of spiritual power. Jesus Christ came to this work after the most complete and severe preparation. He had received the Holy Ghost; he had undergone special and long-continued temptation in the wilderness, and had returned to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of God; and after all this he encountered with perfect power the unclean spirits that were in men. This opens the whole subject of Spiritual Preparation. Christians have also to meet unclean spirits in society. What if these unclean spirits should baffle the imperfect strength of Jesus Christ’s followers? Christians are not at liberty to let unclean spirits alone; they are called to a life-long contention; their preparation must be intensely and increasingly spiritual. (7) That is the highest fame which is associated with beneficent deeds. Jesus Christ became famous because he had destroyed the dominion of a wicked spirit. The fame of evil is infamous; the fame of selfish cunning is mere notoriety; the fame of good doing is immortal and blessed renown.
This paragraph may be used as the basis of a discourse upon First Efforts in Christian service. (1) Those efforts are often forced upon Christians it was so in this case; the wicked spirit challenged the attention of Christ. (2) Christians are to seek opportunities of putting forth such efforts; they are not to wait for the challenge, they have also to give it.
29. And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30. But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
31. And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
Jesus Christ exercised both a public and a private ministry; he worked in the synagogue, he worked also in the domestic circle. Here is Simon’s wife’s mother sick of the fever, and instantly Jesus Christ addressed himself to the difficulty, showing that the Christian ministry may be exercised with great advantage alike in public and in private. Learn from it: (1) That the individual case, as well as the case of the multitude, should be regarded as worthy of attention. (2) That bodily diseases as well as spiritual ailments are within the sphere of our solicitude; we are to be philanthropic as well as spiritually-minded. (3) We are to put ourselves in personal contact with those who suffer. “Jesus took her by the hand, and lifted her up.” We can do little by proxy. We must work with our own hand, as though everything depended on it. It is true that what is distinctly known as miraculous power has ceased in the Church, yet there is a higher power than that which works physical miracles. It is still possible for the entrance of a good man into any house to be as the coming in of the light and life of heaven. Christians have it in their power to do a great work in the sick chamber. The raising of the man towards heaven is a greater work than healing him of mere bodily disease. We should never leave a home without blessing it When Jesus Christ entered into a house it was known that he was there; his were not mere visits of courtesy, or attention to the claims of routine; wherever he went he took with him healing and manifold spiritual blessings. We are to do the same thing according to our capacity. In this case we see the servants standing behind the Master; Simon and Andrew and James and John were all there, but Jesus alone did the work. In our case, if we are the public figures in any work of mercy, it is only because our Master is concealed from the common vision. He is still there, still first; and it is only as we realise his presence and position that we can bless men.
The immediateness of Christ’s cures ought to have some moral suggestion in it. Simon’s wife’s mother did not gradually recover from her affliction; she was cured instantly, and showed the extent of her recovery by immediately ministering to those who were in her house. In the spiritual world, why should not Jesus Christ heal men as suddenly as in the physical world? When men are spiritually healed, how long should they be before they make an attempt to serve others? It is quite true that there may be precipitancy in this matter of spiritual ministry; at the same time it should be remembered that every healed soul should prove its life by seeking to do some good thing for those who are round about. Here, as in everything else, the law holds good By their fruits ye shall know them. Jesus Christ did not require that any body of men should examine the case to which he had just devoted himself, in order to procure a testimonial of efficiency; the service which the healed sufferer rendered was itself testimonial enough. We know that men have been with Christ when they are doing Christ’s work: all other signs are inadequate; this is the absolute standard.
32. And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
33. And all the city was gathered together at the door.
34. And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
The natural sun set, but the Sun of righteousness arose upon all those people with healing in his wings. In the evening, as well as in the morning, Jesus Christ was at work. Men come to Jesus Christ according to the urgency of their want These people felt that urgency in their physical nature rather than in their souls, consequently they approached Christ with a request that they might be healed. It is well if men can feel their want of Christ at any point. If men did but know it, they would find in their hunger and thirst, in their suffering and loss, grounds of appeal to Jesus Christ. It is not easy to work from the highest point of nature: men may not be conscious of great spiritual necessities, yet may feel wants of a lower kind; they begin with the lower and ascend to the higher; they who eat of the loaves and fishes should not leave Christ until they have eaten of the bread from heaven.
We are not to consider all this pressure upon Jesus Christ as an illustration of mere selfishness on the part of the sufferers and their friends. That would entirely depend upon their spirit; in the act of their coming to Christ there was nothing necessarily selfish. Men may come to Christ for spiritual advantages, and yet may charge themselves with selfish motives; at all events, the devil will not be slow to suggest that in coming to Christ for salvation men merely act upon a selfish instinct. Such an unclean spirit is to be resisted, and to bring down upon itself the admonition of holy anger. The selfishness will be seen afterwards if it really exists; to go to Christ that we should be healed ourselves, and then to say nothing about his gracious power to others, is to exhibit the intensest selfishness; but to go ourselves, and then make our own healing testimony in his favour, is to preach the Gospel, is to approach the benevolence of God himself.
By so much then may men test their own spirit; if they are content to enjoy what they term spiritual advantages without publishing the Saviour to others, they are justly chargeable with the most criminal selfishness. Gratitude will always make eloquent preachers.
The fact that Jesus Christ did not suffer the devils to speak shows his perfect dominion over the spiritual region. All devils are weak in the presence of the Saviour. They are mighty and terrible to us, because of our many infirmities; but in the presence of the bold man who is clothed with perfect holiness, all devils are infinitely weak. The lesson is evident: we are mighty only as we are in Christ.
35. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
There is something very touchingly illustrative of our Saviour’s humanity in this verse: he could have prayed upon his couch; none might have known how close was his intercourse with God as he continued in the house; yet as he worked after the sun was set, so he departed to pray before the sun had risen! If the Master required to pray, can the servants live without communion with God? The subject suggested by this verse may be called Morning Devotion. To begin the day with God is the only method of setting one’s self above all its events, and triumphing over them with perfect mastery. Our life will be poor if there be in it no solitary places where we pray. True life can never be developed among throngs and noises; we must betake ourselves into desert places; in a word, we must get away from men, and view life from such a distance as may be realised by intimate divine fellowship. As it is necessary for the artist to stand back from his work in order that he may see how it is shaping itself, so it is often necessary for us who are doing Christ’s work to retire into solitary places that we may look at it from the altar of worship or perhaps from the valley of humiliation. How rapidly Christ lived! How he consumed himself in his ministry! This should be an appeal to Christians, calling them to enthusiasm and to vehemence in work. Jesus Christ did not remain in solitary places; he went to the sacred fountain that he might prepare himself to return to society, and do the work of the common day. A discourse might be founded upon these words, showing the religious uses of time. (1) Social service such as we have seen in the life of Christ. (2) Public ministry, in which crowds might enjoy our Christian teaching. (3) Sacred devotion, in which the soul will hold close intercourse with God.
These uses should not be separated one from the other; the teacher should show that all these uses really make up one true ministry. The incident may also be used to show the place of prayer in the earnest life. There is a sentimentalism which says work is prayer; so it is; and yet if we work without praying, our work will be powerless. Work is only prayer in so far as it is done in a prayerful spirit. He who works must pray, and he who truly prays must also work. In this verse the narrator uses a summary expression; he could only say that Jesus Christ prayed: what he says in his prayers, what entreaties he breathed on behalf of himself and his work, never can be known. There are also passages in our own life which can never be written; we ourselves have offered prayers which it is impossible to recall, so intense was their agony, so comprehensive their desire; yet, though unable to recall the intercession in detail, yet are strong in the memory that they were offered: the individual petitions have been forgotten, but the great exercise has strengthened, and the great answer nourished, the soul.
36. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.
37. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.
38. And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also; for therefore came I forth.
39. And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.
The true disciple always knows where to find the Master: the disciples knew the habits of their Lord: they knew that in some hidden place he could be found in the early hours of the day; at all events they knew that Jesus Christ would be found in the path of usefulness or preparation for usefulness. Do men know where they can find us? Are our Christian habits so distinct and unchangeable that our friends can with certainty explain our position?
The picture in the 37th verse is most impressive; viz., the picture of all men seeking for Jesus. What the disciples said in their wondering delight shall one day be literally true all men will be in search of the Saviour of the world. In the first instance the Saviour sought all men, and in the second all men will seek the Saviour. “We love him because he first loved us.” Instant response to the desire of the world, as shown in Christ’s readiness still further to preach the Gospel. His object in life was undivided, and its unity was its omnipotence. We are only strong in proportion to the concentration of our powers. Wherever we are we ought to be within the sphere of our ministry; and it ought to be an easy transition from one department of duty to another: Jesus Christ knew wherefore he had come forth, and it is incumbent upon us that we too should know our mission in life. No man can work mightily and constantly except in so far as he has a distinct and worthy object before him: the object must stir his whole nature, and move him by an importunate compulsion amounting in fact to inspiration. When a man begins to question the utility or practicability of his object in life, he enfeebles himself. There are many questionable objects which men set before themselves; and it is our delight as Christian observers to mark how they break down, and how those who were pursuing them abandon them with sorrow and disgust. We have to set before all men an object sufficiently simple to engage the affections of the feeblest, and sufficiently sublime to absorb the energies of the strongest. Jesus Christ preached, and he called his servants to the same work. Preaching can never fail to be one of the mightiest instruments in stirring the human mind, and in moulding human society. Individual preachers may become feeble; even distinguished ministers may cool in the enthusiasm with which they undertook their great work; but preaching, as instituted by Jesus Christ, and exemplified in his own ministry, can never cease to be one of the most effective agencies in human education and progress. Preaching will be powerless except in proportion as it relates to Christ. We have a distinct Gospel to unfold; and if we are faithful to our calling, that Gospel will be found more than sufficient to supply our own want as preachers, and to meet all the necessities of the world. Jesus Christ preached and cast out devils, and we have to do the same thing. We may not meet the devil in the same form as that in which he presented himself during the personal ministry of Jesus Christ, but we have to meet him in all the subtlety, the insidiousness, and the terribleness of his unchanging and unchangeable nature. The preacher must make up his mind that there are still devils to be cast out; every man carries within him his own devil, some indeed carry legion. The only exorcist is the Saviour, and we are called to tell this fact, and to persuade men to avail themselves of his delivering power.
Under these verses might be shown the positive and the negative work of the Christian ministry; the positive work being to preach the Gospel, the negative to cast out devils. Great service would be done to humanity by fully developing the idea that all evil purposes and dispositions are to be associated distinctly with the name of the devil. We are to tell men, not merely that we seek to make them better by conducting them into the knowledge of new doctrines, but we are to take our stand before them as men who have come to deliver them from the personal power of the devil. There is hope of a man when he realises that he has actually been under Satanic dominion. So long as he looks upon his life as being blemished here and there, it is possible that he may have most inadequate ideas of the mission of Jesus Christ; but when he realises that he has actually been the habitation of the very devil, he may be led to cry out for the deliverance which the Gospel has come to effect. The realisation on the part of the minister that he has to counteract and destroy the devil will stimulate him to use his utmost endeavours to make full proof of his ministry. He has not only to cope with wrong notions, but with a diabolic personality; and if this conviction thoroughly possess him, he will of necessity cultivate ever-deepening fellowship with Jesus Christ, who alone has the power to break up the kingdom of Satan.
40. And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
41. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and said unto him, I will; be thou clean.
42. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
43. And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away;
44. And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
45. But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but as without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.
In the 27th verse we found men putting questions regarding Jesus Christ’s power; in the 40th verse we find a poor sufferer seeking to avail himself of Jesus Christ’s curative energy. This marks the great difference between various classes of society in relation to the work of the Saviour. One class is content with looking, wondering, and perhaps admiring; another class may test his power in direct personal experience. Let it be distinctly pointed out that it is not sufficient to wonder at the ministry of Jesus Christ. In this chapter we have seen some who were brought to the Saviour; in the 40th verse we find a man who came to Jesus. Point out the blessedness of those who have others to conduct them to Jesus Christ; also point out the opportunity which each man has of making his own case known to Jesus Christ. This incident shows the trust which the ministry of the Saviour had inspired in the minds of sufferers, especially so in the case of the leper; the leper lived under the most terrible restrictions, yet his heart rose to the point of trust and love when he heard of the wonderful works of this new man. Others would have turned him away or would have run eagerly beyond his reach; but Jesus Christ, the undefiled and undefiling Man, touched him, and recovered him of his leprosy. Regarding this incident as illustrative of the method of spiritual salvation, it should be distinctly shown that the leper put himself unreservedly, without any suggestion or wishes of his own, into the hands of the Healer. He did not wish to be a party to the active work of healing himself; he was content to be passive, to wait his Lord’s will. It should also be shown that Jesus Christ instantly gave practical expression to his own deep pity and mercy; he delights in immediately answering prayer. When we appeal to his justice, his righteousness, his sovereignty, we may be held a long time waiting, that we may know more fully what is meant by these high terms; but when we come in weakness and poverty, crying to his compassion, his heart instantly moves towards us. The humble desire of suffering soon moves the heart of Jesus Christ. The third point that may be dwelt upon is the completeness of Christ’s cure: immediately the leprosy departed from the man, and he was cleansed. Is our Christian state one of complete pardon and hope? It is not asked whether it is one of complete sanctification, that is a progressive work; but the work of pardon will bring with it an instantaneous assurance that the burden of guilt has been removed. The impossibility of silence under the influence of great blessing is here most vividly illustrated. The joy of thankfulness cannot always be controlled. Christians must speak. The explanation of a true ministry is found in this incident. When we have received the highest blessings from the hands of Christ, we feel an insatiable desire to tell others of the great results of our having met the Saviour. The 45th verse shows how much can be done by the energy of one man. So much did the recovered leper publish his restoration, that Jesus Christ could no more openly enter into the city by reason of the multitude that thronged upon him, and by reason of the sensation which so great a miracle had created. Is there not in this incident an illustration of what we may do by being faithful to our convictions and impulses regarding the Son of God? Have we been healed without publishing the fact? Have we mentioned the fact of our conversion even to our dearest friend? Learn from the leper the possibility of so exciting a whole neighbourhood about personal recovery as to extend the name and bring blessings upon the gracious power of Jesus Christ.
The 44th verse may be used for the purpose of showing how Jesus Christ brings men into the established laws and relations of his own government, even under circumstances which might seem to justify an exception to the usual course of things. In our highest moments of inspiration and delight we ought to be controlled by law. Even our ecstasy should be regulated where it might endanger the constancy and faithfulness of our life. Jesus Christ never dissociates the ministry from the preceding dispensations; he always heightens and consummates, he never destroys except by fulfilment, as the fruit destroys the blossom. The whole chapter might be used for the purpose of showing how possible it is for our Christian life to be sublime from the very beginning. This is the very first chapter in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet it is full of light; it might have been the last chapter, so crowded is it with incidents and good works. There are Christian people who are afraid of doing too much at the beginning; such people cannot have entered very deeply into the spirit of their Lord’s enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. Youthful Christians should be encouraged to work from the very moment of the beginning of their new life. The earnest man does not care about the artistic graduation of his services, he does not even consider such a possibility; instantly that Jesus Christ takes possession of his heart his whole life becomes consecrated to the service of true doctrine and practical philanthropy. This chapter gives a most terrible rebuke to the notion that men should come only gradually into high Christian engagements; no renewed heart can too soon begin to do the good works and bear the blessed fruits of Christian regeneration. On the other hand, it should be pointed out for the encouragement of such as have few opportunities for the development of Christian vocation, that they will be judged not by the more public services which their brethren may render, but by the position in life which they have been called providentially to occupy.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
Ver. 9. In those days ] When the people flocked so fast to John, that they might not mistake him for the Messiah, and that his baptism might be the more famous.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9 11. ] JESUS IS BAPTIZED BY HIM. Mat 3:13-17 . Luk 3:21-22 .
. is contained here only. The words with which this account is introduced, express indefiniteness as to time. It was ( Luk 3:21 ) after all the people were baptized : see note there.
The commencement of this Gospel has no marks of an eye-witness: it is the compendium of generally current accounts .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mar 1:9-11 . The baptism of Jesus (Mat 3:13-17 ; Luk 3:21-22 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mar 1:9 . . . = in those days; an indefinite note of time = while John was carrying on his ministry of preaching and baptising. , came Jesus, with what feelings, as compared with Pharisees and Sadducees, vide notes on Mt. . . ., from Nazareth , presumably His home; of Galilee , to define the part of the country for outsiders; only Galilee mentioned in Mt. .: with dative in Mar 1:5 . The expression is pregnant, the idea of descending into the river being latent in . ., by John; no hesitation indicated; cf. remarks on three synoptical narratives on this point in Mt. It does not even appear whether John had any suspicion that the visitor from Nazareth was , of whom he had spoken. The manner in which the baptism of Jesus is reported is the first instance of the realism of this Gospel, facts about Jesus stated in a naked manner as compared, e.g. , with Lk., who is influenced by religious decorum.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mar 1:9-11
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”
Mar 1:9 “Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee” Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, lived a few years in Egypt, and then settled in Nazareth, the hometown of Joseph and Mary, which was a small, new settlement of Judeans in the north. Jesus’ early ministry was in this northern area around the Sea of Galilee, which fulfills the prophecy of Isa 9:1.
“Jesus. . .was baptized” The Gospels differ in their early chronologies of Jesus’ ministries in Galilee and Judea. It seems that there was an early Judean ministry and a later one, but all four Gospels’ chronologies must be harmonized in order to see this early Judean visit (i.e., Joh 2:13 to Joh 4:3).
Why Jesus was baptized has always been a concern for believers because John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Jesus did not need forgiveness for He was sinless (cf. 2Co 5:21; Heb 4:15; Heb 7:26; 1Pe 2:22; 1Jn 3:5).
The theories have been:
1. it was an example for believers to follow
2. it was His identification with believers’ need
3. it was His ordination and equipping for ministry
4. it was a symbol of His redemptive task
5. it was His approval of the ministry and message of John the Baptist
6. it was a prophetic foreshadowing of His death, burial, and resurrection (cf. Rom 6:4; Col 2:12).
Whatever the reason, this was a defining moment in Jesus’ life. Although it does not imply that Jesus became the Messiah at this point, which is the early heresy of adoptionism (cf. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by Bart D. Ehrman, pp. 47-118), it held great significance for Him.
Mar 1:10
NASB, NKJV”immediately”
NRSV”just as”
TEV”as soon as”
NJB”at once”
This is a very common term in Mark. It characterizes his Gospel. Here euthus is translated “immediately” or “straightway” (cf. Mar 1:10; Mar 1:12; Mar 1:18; Mar 1:20-21; Mar 1:20; Mar 1:28; Mar 1:42; Mar 2:2; Mar 2:8; Mar 2:12; Mar 3:6; Mar 4:5; Mar 4:15-17; Mar 4:29; Mar 5:5; Mar 5:29; Mar 5:42; Mar 6:25; Mar 6:27; Mar 6:45; Mar 6:50; Mar 6:54; Mar 7:35; Mar 8:10; Mar 9:15; Mar 9:20; Mar 9:24; Mar 10:52; Mar 11:3; Mar 14:43; Mar 14:45; Mar 15:1).
This is the term that gives the Gospel of Mark its fast-paced, action-oriented feel, which would have appealed to Romans. This word group is used about 47 times in Mark (cf. A Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of Mark by Robert Bratcher and Eugene Nida, p. 29).
“coming up out of the water” This may be an allusion to Isa 63:11, where it originally would have referred to the Red Sea (i.e., a new exodus in Jesus, who would soon be tempted for forty days as Israel was for forty years). This verse cannot be used as a proof-text for immersion. In context it may imply coming out of the river, not coming from under the water.
“He saw” This may imply that only Jesus saw and heard this Messianic affirmation. If so, this would fit into the recurrent theme of Mark’s Messianic Secret. However, the other Gospels also record this event in a similar way (cf. Mat 3:13-17; Luk 3:21-22).
“heavens opening” This may be an allusion to Isa 64:1. This term means to rip open, which would have been a metaphor for tearing open the canopy above the earth (cf. Gen 1:6).
“the Spirit like a dove” The origin of this metaphor may be
1. the Spirit brooding over the water in Gen 1:2
2. the birds Noah sent out of the Ark in Gen 8:6-12
3. the rabbis’ use of it as a symbol of the nation of Israel (cf. Psa 68:13; Psa 74:19)
4. a symbol of gentleness and peace (cf. Mat 10:16)
One reason I personally am so committed to the historical-grammatical method of biblical interpretation, which focuses on authorial intent as expressed in the literary context, is the tricky or clever way ancient interpreters (as well as modern ones) manipulated the text to fit their preset theological structure. By adding the numerical value of the letters of the Greek word “dove” (peristera), which equals 801, one gets the same numerical value of the Greek words alpha (equals 1) and omega (equals 800), so the dove equals the eternal Christ Spirit. This is so clever, but it is isogetic, not exegetic!
“upon Him” This is the preposition eis which means “into.” It is not meant to imply that Jesus did not already have the Holy Spirit, but this was a special visible sign of the Spirit’s empowerment for His assigned Messianic task. This may also be an allusion to fulfilled prophecy (cf. Isa 63:11).
Mark uses the preposition “into” (eis), but Matthew and Luke use “upon” (epi). This is because Mark’s Gospel, which has none of the birth narratives or visitations, begins Jesus’ ministry with the baptismal event. This brevity was used by the heretical groups, Adoptionists and Gnostics, to assert that Jesus, a normal human, was supernaturally empowered with “the Christ Spirit” at this juncture and thereafter was able to do the miraculous. Later scribes, therefore, changed the preposition to “to” (pros).
SPECIAL TOPIC: ADOPTIONISM
SPECIAL TOPIC: GNOSTICISM
Mar 1:11 “a voice came out of the heavens” The rabbis called the heavenly voice a Bath Kol (cf. Mar 9:7), which was the method of affirming God’s will during the interbiblical period when there was no prophet. This would have been a powerful divine affirmation to those familiar with rabbinical Judaism.
“‘You are My beloved Son'” These two titles unite the royal aspect of the Messiah (Psa 2:7) to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (Isa 42:1). The term “son” in the OT could refer to (1) the nation of Israel; (2) the King of Israel; or (3) the coming Davidic Messianic King. See Special Topic at Mar 3:16.
Notice the three persons of the Trinity in Mar 1:11 : the Spirit, the voice from heaven, and the Son, the recipient of both.
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY
“My beloved” This phrase is either (1) a title for the Messiah as in the NRSV, NJB, and Williams translations or (2) a descriptive phrase as in the NASB, NKJV, and TEV. In the Greek translation of the OT, the Septuagint, this would be understood as “favorite” or even “only,” similar to Joh 3:16.
“‘in You I am well-pleased'” This descriptive phrase is paralleled in Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5 (the Transfiguration). However, the descriptive phrase is missing in Mar 9:7 and Luk 9:35.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
it Came to pass. A pure Hebraism.
Jesus. App-98.
from. Greek apo. App-104. Not the same as in Mar 1:11.
Nazareth. See App-94., and App-169.
in = into. Greek. eis. App-104. Not the same as in verses: Mar 1:2, Mar 1:3, Mar 1:4, Mar 2:0, Mar 2:11, Mar 2:13, Mar 2:19, Mar 2:20, Mar 2:23, Mar 2:39, Mar 2:45
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9-11.] JESUS IS BAPTIZED BY HIM. Mat 3:13-17. Luk 3:21-22.
. is contained here only. The words with which this account is introduced, express indefiniteness as to time. It was (Luk 3:21) after all the people were baptized: see note there.
The commencement of this Gospel has no marks of an eye-witness: it is the compendium of generally current accounts.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mar 1:9. ) in the river.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Mar 1:9-11
2. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Mar 1:9-11
(Mat 3:13-17; Luk 3:21-23)
9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee,–[John was baptizing in Jordan; Nazareth was sixty miles or more from where John was baptizing. Jesus doubtless walked the distance, that he might be baptized of John. This was his emergence into history from the obscurity of his village life in Nazareth since his visit to Jerusalem at twelve years of age. He could go to John by way of the plain of the Jordan without passing through Jerusalem, and probably did so. During this interval of about eighteen years he seems to have been working at the carpenter’s bench (Mar 6:3; Mat 13:55) with Joseph. He came, therefore, from obscurity to publicity, from manual labor to spiritual teaching.]
and was baptized of John in the Jordan.–Immersed. [Matthew and Luke give more of the incidents connected with the baptism of Jesus than Mark. Matthew (Mat 3:13-17) says “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John would have hindered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffereth him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Luke (Luk 3:21-22) gives this account of it: “Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” John (Joh 1:31-34) says: “And I knew him not , but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon him. And I knew him not but he that sent me to baptize in water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”] From obscurity Jesus went to widespread fame, through duty performed. Do your duty , the rest will take care of itself.
10 And straightway coming up out of the water,–How needless, if baptism was sprinkling or pouring! (See verse 9. )
he saw the heavens rent asunder,–The sky seemed to have parted to allow the emergence of the beautiful vision: the heavens were opened to show that which had been closed against us on account of our sins. The first Adam shut us out of heaven, but the second Adam opened, and will now let us into it.
and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him:–The Spirit’s connection with Jesus was made unmistakable. This was necessary for the reason it was the sign given by God to John, by which he was to recognize the Son of God. (Joh 1:33.)
11 and a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son,–God spake from heaven and sanctioned the acts of both John and Jesus. Expressing the relationship between the two. Son, not by adoption, but by eternal existence.
in thee I am well pleased.–The Father was pleased when at twelve years of age he manifested anxiety to be about his life-work; he was pleased when he quietly submitted in hard-working obscurity to wait his time; he was pleased by his daily life; and he was pleased when he came to John to be baptized by him. [From Luke (Luk 3:23) we learn he was thirty years old. From Matthew (Mat 3:14), that when he came to John to be baptized of him, John objected. As the wed he felt he had need to be baptized of Jesus. He was preaching that they should repent, and baptizing for the remission of sins. Jesus had no sin to repent of or to be remitted. Why should he baptize him then? Jesus said: “Suffer it now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Righteousness means the provisions of God for making men righteous. It becomes us to, or we ought to, fulfill all the will of God for making men righteous. He then baptized him, and as he came up out of the water, he prayed (Luk 3:21), and the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit in the likeness of the dove descended, lighted upon him, and abode with him, and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Both Jesus and John saw the Spirit descending, and heard the voice. We are not told that others saw or heard these.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
CHAPTER 3
Our Saviors Baptism, His Temptation, and His First Disciples
And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. (18) And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.
Mar 1:9-20
These few verses are typical of Marks writing. They cover a great amount of matter in a very brief amount of space. Within the scope of these twelve verses, Mark relates a brief account of the baptism of our Lord, his temptation in the wilderness, his earliest preaching, and the calling of his first disciples. We will look at each of these things in the order in which they are given.
Our Lords Baptism
This paragraph opens with a brief record of our Lords baptism. And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mar 1:9-11).
Our Lords public, earthly ministry began with him submitting to baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, that he might symbolically fulfill all righteousness and justify God. Baptism was not considered a light, insignificant thing by the Son of God. He walked all the way from Nazareth of Galilee to Jerusalem to be baptized by John. Why? I can give one very good reason, and only one. He knew it was his Fathers will. It was not convenient; but it was his Fathers will. It might not be understood by his family and friends; but it was his Fathers will. He might be ridiculed as a fanatic; but none of that mattered to him. It was his Fathers will for him to be baptized by John. So he came to John at Jerusalem to be baptized. There is much to be learned from our Masters baptism. Let me direct your attention to just four things concerning it.
1.His baptism was an act of humility.
Remember, this is the Son of God, the Lord of glory. He came to be baptized in that same river that Naaman despised. Not only did he submit to the ordinance; but he came to John to observe it. He did not call for John to come to him. He came to John.
2.Our Saviors baptism was an act of obedience.
He had come into this world to do his Fathers will; and part of that will was this act by which, at the very outset of his public ministry, he identified himself with Gods prophet, his message, and his people.
There are many reasons for the practice of believers baptism. It is the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is a picture of the gospel. It identifies us with Christ, his people, and the gospel of his grace. But there is no reason more noble than this: The Lord commands it. Baptism is the believers first act of obedience to Christ as his Lord. And nothing is nobler in a servant than implicit obedience to his master.
3.Our Lords baptism was a very meaningful, very significant act.
Baptism is not an empty, meaningless religious ritual. It is now and has been from its inception a highly symbolic act. Though Mark does not give the details, both Matthew and Luke tell us the meaning and significance of baptism. Our Masters baptism meant exactly the same thing that our baptism means.
Matthew tells us that our Savior insisted on being baptized to fulfil all righteousness (Mat 3:13-15). Obviously, baptism did not make the Son of God righteous. But it did signify the means by which he must establish and bring in righteousness for his people. As our Substitute, the Lord Jesus brought in and fulfilled all righteousness as Man by his perfect obedience unto death (Php 2:5-11; Heb 10:5-14).
Having perfectly obeyed the law of God, he was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. When he was made sin for us, he was slaughtered under the fury of Gods unmitigated wrath. When he was slain as our Substitute, he was buried in the earth. After he had been in the earth for three days, to prove that he had indeed fulfilled all righteousness and had put away our sins, he was raised from the dead. That is exactly what was pictured in his baptism; and that is exactly what is pictured in believers baptism today (Rom 6:3-6).
Then Luke records our Lords later explanation of his baptism by John to have been an act by which he justified God (Luk 7:29-30). We know that baptism does nothing to make God just; but it is the symbolic confession that our God is and must be just. His justice must be satisfied; and our Savior, by his baptism, confessed that he would satisfy the justice of God by dying under the wrath of God as our Substitute.
We come to the waters of baptism for exactly the same reason: To confess our sins and to confess our faith in him by whose blood God can be both a just God and a Savior.
4.Our Lords baptism was also an extraordinarily honorable act.
It was an act by which he was publicly owned to be the Son of God, in whom God the Father is well pleased. At his baptism, God the Father publicly announced his full, complete acceptance of Christs sacrifice as our Mediator, Surety, and Substitute.
There is a great wealth of spiritual instruction in these words: Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The text does not say, with whom, but in whom I am well pleased. That means that the Father is well pleased with all his people in his Son, by virtue of his obedience unto death, by virtue of his sin atoning sacrifice.
With His spotless garments on,
I am as holy as Gods Son!
Let every believer find comfort and assurance here. God looks on us in Christ. Looking on us in Christ, he sees no spot in us (Son 4:7). He beholds us in Christ as being clothed from head to foot with the garments of salvation, his robe of perfect righteousness, invested with his perfect merit, accepted in the Beloved, and a people with whom he is well pleased
It is at our baptism that believers are honored and publicly owned as the sons of God. Baptism does not make us the sons of God. But in the watery grave of baptism, as we there own our God when we are buried with Christ, so we are owned of God as his sons and daughters in Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27).
Our Saviors Temptation
Second, Mark gives us a brief description of our Saviors temptation n the wilderness. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him (Mar 1:12-13).
When trials, troubles, and temptations come upon you, do not imagine that some strange thing has happened to you. The Son of God was also tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin (1Co 10:13; Heb 2:17-18; Heb 4:15-16). Here are four things in Mar 1:12-13 that are of tremendous importance. As they were true concerning our Lord, so they are true concerning every child of God. May God be pleased to inscribe these four things upon every believing heart. You may not need them now, but as sure as you belong to and follow Christ, you will soon need to know these things.
1.Though he was tempted of the devil, he was still the Son of God and the Spirit of God was with him.
2.Though he was the Son of God, his temptations were many, they were real, and they lasted a long time.
3.Though he was among wild beasts in the wilderness of temptation, he was under special divine protection, and the angels of God ministered to him.
4.Though he was tempted for forty days, tempted in all points of human weakness, and tempted among wild beasts, his temptations did come to an end.
When trials, temptations, or sorrows come to us, rather than asking, Why do Gods people suffer?, we should be asking, Why shouldnt we suffer? After all, we are sinners, like all other people. Our Lord Jesus suffered as no man ever suffered, in order to redeem and save us. If he who knew no sin was in this world a man of sorrows, why shouldnt we have sorrows to endure? Yet, it is not altogether wrong for us to ask, Why?, when sorrows come to us, as long as our questions arise from submissive, believing hearts.
When believers suffer, it is because it is the will of God, our heavenly Father. Satan could not touch Job, but by the will of God. And sorrow does not come to your house or mine, in any form, but by the will of God. It is written, All things are of God. Nothing happens by chance in a world controlled by God (Rom 11:36).
Sorrow is intended to wean us of this world. God says to his saints, Give me thine heart. And he graciously sees to it that we give him our hearts. He will never allow his own to be completely content with life in this world.
God visits his saints with affliction to correct us for sin and cause us to call upon him. Read Psalms 107 and learn the mystery of providence. Blessed is that sorrow that turns our hearts to Christ in firmer faith, greater gratitude, and more loyal love.
Who knoweth what is good for a mans life? (Ecc 6:12). Is it better for me to be wealthy or poor? Is it better for me to be healthy or sick? Is it better for me to be strong or weak? The fact is, only God knows. Wealth, health, and strength of life may be a great blessing or a great curse. Poverty, sickness, and weakness, the things all men seek to avoid, may be tremendous blessings from God. All these things come from him (Isa 45:7; Rom 11:36).
This much I know: Whatever it takes for God to get my attention is good for me. Whatever makes me wake up and think upon my sin, my immortal soul, the brevity of life, the certainty of Gods judgment, and the eternality of heaven and hell; whatever God uses to drive me to my knees, to force me to call upon him for mercy is good for me. Whatever it takes to reconcile this rebels heart to God and bring me to Jesus Christ in faith, to wean me from this world and keep me looking to Christ is good for me. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Christs Preaching
In Mar 1:14-15 Mark describes the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
After John the Baptist was cast into prison for his bold preaching, the Lord Jesus came into Galilee preaching the very same thing that John had preached before him and his apostles preached after him. It is the message every gospel preacher is commanded of God to preach.
Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. The long and short of that is this: Our Lord came pressing upon men the claims of God as their rightful sovereign, as their Lord and King, demanding that all who heard him submit and surrender to his dominion over them (Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25; Mar 8:35; Luk 9:24; Luk 17:33; Joh 12:25).
Our Savior proclaimed, The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. The fullness of time had now come (Rom 5:6-8; Gal 4:4-5). The King of grace had now come and the Kingdom of God was at hand. The kingdom of God is that spiritual kingdom which is the church of God, the kingdom in which God rules by his Son through his Word.
The Lord Jesus commanded all who heard him, saying, Repent ye, and believe the gospel. This is what God requires of all: repentance and faith. The two always go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. This is what Noah preached in his generation, and what Paul preached in his (Act 20:21). Repentance and faith were the foundation stones of Christs ministry. J. C. Ryle wrote, Repentance and faith must always be the main subjects of every faithful ministers instruction.
We must repent. We must believe the gospel. It is only by repentance toward God and faith in Christ that we obtain peace. Church membership will not bring us to God. Baptism will not bring us to God. The priestly pronouncement of some man that our sins are absolved will not give us peace. The only way to peace is repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. These things are not one time acts, but a continual way of life. Believers turn to God with willing hearts, surrendering themselves to him in all things, looking to Christ alone for acceptance with him.
The First Disciples
The last thing to which Mark directs our attention in this passage is the calling of our Lords first disciples.
Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little farther thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him (Mar 1:16-20).
Mark does not describe the salvation of these men. Our text is not talking about the effectual call of grace, but about the call of believing men to the work of the ministry. Let me point out three things in these verses about our Lords first disciples.
1.Our Lord Jesus did not choose the great, the mighty, and the noble to be his disciples.
The church of God began with a few, simple fishermen, not with rich, well-educated, influential men (Zec 4:6; 1Co 1:26-29). There is an abhorrent notion among men that there is something noble about being rich and something shameful about being poor. We must never subscribe to that folly. Plain, ordinary, blue collar, working men were the men chosen of God to turn the world upside down. It is a disgrace to be proud, to be covetous, to be a drunk, a cheat, or a thief; but it is no disgrace to be poor.
2.Those who were called to the work of the ministry were occupied with and were faithfully pursuing honorable careers when the Lord called them.
The trend in religion is for a man to announce his call to preach and then go about figuring out a way to put himself in the ministry. That is totally wrong. God finds his preachers in the field tending sheep like Moses, or plowing corn like Elisha, or thrashing wheat like Gideon, or by the seaside mending nets. He never finds them sitting in a pew or Bible college waiting for a church to open up!
3.Those who are called by Christ to be his servants are called to be fishers of men, men who fish for the souls of men.
Fishermen have a purpose. They go out to catch fish. Fishermen must be very diligent. And fishermen must be very patient. I ask all who read these lines to pray for me and for every faithful, gospel preacher you are privileged to know. Who is sufficient for these things? Yet, we know that Our sufficiency is of God. Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you (2Th 3:1).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
that: Mat 3:13-15, Luk 3:21
Reciprocal: 2Ki 5:12 – better Mat 3:6 – were
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTS BAPTISM AND ITS RESULTS
Jesus came from Nazareth, of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
Mar 1:9-11
The first public act of a man is often a sample of the whole. Within the space of these few verses we have an epitome of Christs life. The first act of His ministerial life was a veritable surprise, and all future unfoldings were surprises also. The Baptist had scarcely ceased to speak of Him as One having the prerogative to baptize with the Holy Ghost, when, lo! He comes to ask for baptism at Johns hands. The Baptist had described himself as unworthy to be His menial slave; lo! he is required to render Him official consecration.
I. Christs baptism.The Baptist had well spoken of the incomparable greatness of his successor, but little did he imagine how that greatness would at first display itself. The Blessed Master was content to be the lowliest of all. This is true noblenessnever to think of self-superiority. But why should our Lord ask for baptism? That He might lend the sanction of His authority to Johns ministry? No. I have need, said the Baptist, to be baptized of Thee; and in our Lords reply we find the secret of this act of His. Suffer it to be so now, said He, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousnessevery duty.
II. And its results.Can we question that such an act was a crisis in the life of our Lord? Holy and pure before sinking under the waters, He must yet have risen from them with the light of a higher glory in His countenance. His past life was closed; a new era had opened. Hitherto the humble villager, veiled from the world, He was henceforth the Messiah openly working amongst men. Past years had been buried in the waters of Jordan. He rose from them the Christ of God.
(a) Fresh revelations gained. The heavens were opened. Straightway, writes the historian. It followed as a matter of course. Given this sublime consecration, there follows sublime manifestation of heaven. The nearness of the spirit-land was revealed. Earthly scenes were flooded with radiant light and beauty. There was new disclosure of truth; especially there was the enlargement of vision. The glory to be gained by self-sacrifice was more clearly beheld. Vast expanses of glorious possibility burst upon the view.
(b) New gift imparted. The Spirit like a dove descended upon Him. He Who had been begotten of the Holy Ghost now obtains a fresh communication. The baptism of water is instantly followed by the baptism of the Spirit. As water cleanses the body, promotes its health, prolongs its life, so the grace of Gods Spirit purifies the soul; gives it true life and health. The intellect, the emotions, the will, the active powers are all now possessed and energised by Him. There was some phenomenon visible to the human eye, yet the similitude must be taken as pertaining to the descending motion, rather than the object. The Divine Spirit is incapable of representation by any living creature. This was an accommodation for the instruction and comfort of the Baptist. Henceforth he could point Him out as the Son of God and the Paschal Lamb.
(c) New witness enjoyed. There came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. This act of self-dedication to the redeeming work obtained the instant recognition of God. This consecration was Godlike, was the outcome of the filial nature. Jesus had said, Lo! I come to do Thy will, O God. And the response was prompt: Thou art My beloved Son. From a past eternity the Son had been the object of immeasurable love; now the Father feels the thrill of a new delight; now the Son becomes the recipient of new grace. Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life for the sheep.
The miraculous element in this incident offers no difficulty to childlike faith. He Who formed the eye, can He not see? He Who fashioned in man the organ of speech, is He incapable of articulate utterance? If honest-minded men are staggered here, they need to enlarge their conception of God. Omnipotence is the key to miracle.
Illustrations
(1) The life of Jesus Christ comprised all the extremes of circumstance. He was hooted at as a felon; He was acclaimed as a King. His first resting-place was the asses manger, yet a choir of angels descended to chant His natal song. There was no room for Him in the inn, yet His birth shook the throne of Herod. All the accessories of majesty and of meanness clustered round His path. His chosen companions were fishermen and tax-gatherers, yet Moses and Elias left their celestial seats to converse with Him. He raised others from their graves, and then slept in a borrowed tomb Himself. He was with the wild beasts in the desert, yet angels came down and made it Paradise. He received baptism, as if He had been a sinner; but lo! the heavens open, and the Eternal God stooped to applaud the deed. This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
(2) Jesus had been waiting for the fit moment for leaving His thirty years obscurity in Nazareth, and presenting Himself before the herald who had been unconsciously proclaiming Him. Though cousins, the Baptist and the Son of Mary had never seen each other. But the Baptist must have been daily expecting Him to put in His claims. His appearance, wholly different from that of those who had thronged to his ministry, at once arrested the prophets eye. The light, as of other worlds, shining from the depths of those calm eyes; the radiance of a soul free from all stain of sin, transfiguring the pale facefull, at once, of highest beauty, tenderest love, and deepest sadness, was hereafter, even when dimly seen by the light of midnight torches and lanterns, to make the accusers shrink backwards and fall, overcome, to the ground. The soul has an instinctive recognition of goodness, and feels its awfulness. Spiritual greatness wears a kingly crown which compels instant reverence. John, for the first and last time drew back.
(3) Christs baptism is the example of a perfect consecration and of its effect. Not always, by any means, does the guidance come so immediately as it did in Christs case. Not always does the power for work come down so soon. But come they do. The Fathers voice speaks: the Holy Spirit is poured forth; the consecration is accepted; the life work shown. What does it all point to in our own case? The personal consecration of ourselves for His work, how He will, when He will; only this consecration must be a real and a present thing. It is not enough for us to have been offered at baptism or at confirmation. Such times are only types and patterns of what ought to be done now. After all, some years have probably gone by since the latest of these. The question is, What is our present state? For pardon is free, but consecration ought to be its result; and such consecration as this will be accepted, and the Fathers call for work will come, at the time He will, and of the character He will. It is not for us to dictate to God how we shall serve Him, or when we shall enter on the work He gives. Our duty is to consecrate ourselves to Him, leaving to Him the how of our life, leaving to Him the choice of when He shall definitely bid us take up the special work He has for us to do. Let us consecrate ourselves, and eventually the heavens shall be opened, the Spirit poured out, the Fathers voice recognised.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Chapter 3.
The Baptism
“And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him: And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”-Mar 1:9-11.
A Great Event simply told.
How plain and simple and matter-of-fact the language of Mar 1:9 is 1 And yet what a stupendous and altogether amazing event it chronicles! “And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptised of John in Jordan” (Mar 1:9). For what kind of a baptism was John’s baptism? It was a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. It was a baptism in which men made public confession of their sin, and cried to God to purge it away. But Jesus was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb 7:26). He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1Pe 2:22).
What did Jesus want at a baptism of repentance? According to Matthew’s account, John himself made protest against baptising Jesus. We do not read that he hesitated to baptise anyone else. But when Jesus presented Himself he shrank from his office. His baptism was for the sinful, not for the sinless; for the vile, not for the holy. “I have need to be baptised of Thee,” he cried, “and comest Thou to me?” (Mat 3:14). But Jesus gently put John’s objection aside, and the holy Lamb of God went down into the water and shared in the baptism of publicans and sinners.
The Meaning of Christ’s Baptism.
What is the meaning of our Lord’s baptism? Perhaps the best commentary upon it is that deep word of St Paul, “Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co 5:21, R.V.). For Jesus, as for all the rest, it was a “baptism of repentance.”
But whose sin could He repent of? For He had no sin. No! He had no sin of His own, but He had ours. He made confession in Jordan of your sin, my reader, and mine. For when Jesus entered our humanity, He so utterly and entirely identified Himself with us that He made our very sin His own. “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Mat 8:17). He who knew no sin gathered upon His head and His heart all the sin and shame of His brothers and sisters; “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows…. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:4, Isa 53:6).
-An Anticipation of Calvary.
If we want to understand the full meaning of the baptism, we must see in it an anticipation of Calvary. The same boundless love which on the cross made our Lord offer sacrifice for sin, at the Jordan constrained Him to make confession of the sin of the race He had come to redeem. That was the central meaning of the baptism for Jesus.
The Descent of the Spirit.
Mark proceeds to mention two significant events that accompanied it, viz., the descent of the Spirit and the Heavenly Voice.
“Straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him” (Mar 1:10, R.V.). The baptism marks our Lord’s definite entrance upon His Messianic work; in the gift of the Spirit God furnishes Him with the equipment He needed for His high task. God never summons to a duty without supplying the necessary power.
It was so even with His Beloved Son. Up to now Jesus had lived a quiet, normal life at Nazareth; but after the baptism a change is to be noticed. He is equipped with the power of the Spirit. It was in the power of the Spirit He went into the wilderness to battle with Satan; it was in the power of the Spirit He came teaching and preaching in Galilee; it was in the power of the Spirit He healed the sick and cast out devils and did His many mighty works. God summoned Him to a stupendous task. But He also equipped Him for it; “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (Joh 3:34).
-“Like a Dove.”
“Like a dove”; what an exquisite symbol! The action of the Spirit is compared in the Scriptures sometimes to the action of purifying and cleansing fire, sometimes to that of the mighty wind, blowing the chaff away. These are figures of violence. But the Spirit descended on Jesus “like a dove.” What infinite gentleness and tenderness it suggests! Fit emblem for the Spirit of Him who never broke the bruised reed or quenched the smoking flax, and who was the “friend of publicans and sinners.”
The Heavenly Voice.
“And a voice came out of the heavens, Thou art my beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased” (Mar 1:11, R.V.). What was it evoked this expression of the Divine pleasure? The voluntary humiliation of our Lord. We sometimes make foolish antagonisms between God and Christ, as if wrath characterised the One and love the Other. But God and Christ are one in their passion for the redemption of men. And when Christ at the baptism stooped to bear human sin, God was well pleased.
“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luk 14:11), and it is then we are most truly God’s sons, when we share in our Lord’s baptism, and take upon our own hearts the burden and shame of human sin.
Fuente: The Gospel According to St. Mark: A Devotional Commentary
9
The preceding eight verses (Mar 1:1-8) concludes the introduction referred to in Mar 1:1. This and the next verse includes both John and Jesus, which will be all that Mark will record directly of the work of John, and any reference that may be made to him will be as a matter of history. In those days denotes that while John was to come before Jesus, yet their introduction to the world was to be virtually at the same time. Jesus came from Nazareth where he had lived since the return of his parents with him from Egypt (Mat 2:23). The reason for his baptism is explained in Mat 3:13-15.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THIS passage is singularly full of matter. It is a striking instance of that brevity of style, which is the peculiar characteristic of Mark’s Gospel. The baptism of our Lord, His temptation in the wilderness, the commencement of his preaching, and the calling of His first disciples are related here in eleven verses.
Let us notice, in the first place, the voice from heaven which was heard at our Lord’s baptism. We read, “There came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
That voice was the voice of God the Father. It declared the wondrous and ineffable love which has existed between the Father and the Son from all eternity. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.” (Joh 3:35.) It proclaimed the Father’s full and complete approbation of Christ’s mission to seek and save the lost. It announced the Father’s acceptance of the Son as the Mediator, Substitute, and Surety of the new covenant.
There is a rich mine of comfort, in these words, for all Christ’s believing members. In themselves, and in their own doings, they see nothing to please God. They are daily sensible of weakness, shortcoming, and imperfection in all their ways. But let them recollect that the Father regards them as members of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. He sees no spot in them. (Song of Son 4:7.) He beholds them as “in Christ,” clothed in His righteousness, and invested with His merit. They are “accepted in the Beloved,” and when the holy eye of God looks at them, He is “well pleased.”
Let us notice, in the second place, the nature of Christ’s preaching. We read that he came saying, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.”
This is that old sermon which all the faithful witnesses of God have continually preached, from the very beginning of the world. From Noah down to the present day the burden of their address has been always the same-“Repent and believe.”
The apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders, when he left them for the last time, that the substance of his teaching among them had been “repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Act 20:21.) He had the best of precedents for such teaching. The Great Head of the Church had given him a pattern. Repentance and faith were the foundation stones of Christ’s ministry.-Repentance and faith must always be the main subjects of every faithful minister’s instruction.
We need not wonder at this, if we consider the necessities of human nature. All of us are by nature born in sin and children of wrath, and all need to repent, be converted, and born again, if we would see the kingdom of God.-All of us are by nature guilty and condemned before God, and all must flee to the hope set before us in the Gospel, and believe in it, if we would be saved. All of us, once penitent, need daily stirring up to deeper repentance. All of us, though believing, need constant exhortation to increased faith.
Let us ask ourselves what we know of this repentance and faith. Have we felt our sins, and forsaken them? Have we laid hold on Christ, and believed? We may reach heaven without learning, or riches, or health, or worldly greatness. But we shall never reach heaven, if we die impenitent and unbelieving. A new heart, and a lively faith in a Redeemer, are absolutely needful to salvation. May we never rest till we know them by experience, and can call them our own! With them all true Christianity begins in the soul. In the exercise of them consists the life of religion. It is only through the possession of them that men have peace at the last. Church-membership and priestly absolution alone save no one. They only die in the Lord who “repent and believe.”
Let us notice, in the third place, the occupation of those who were first called to be Christ’s disciples. We read that our Lord called Simon and Andrew, when they were “casting a net into the sea,” and James and John while they were “mending their nets.”
It is clear, from these words, that the first followers of our Lord were not the great of this world. They were men who had neither riches, nor rank, nor power. But the kingdom of Christ is not dependent on such things as these. His cause advances in the world, “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zec 4:6.) The words of Paul will always be found true: “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (1Co 1:26-27.) The church which began with a few fishermen, and yet overspread half the world, must have been founded by God.
We must beware of giving way to the common notion, that there is anything disgraceful in being poor, and in working with our own hands. The Bible contains many instances of special privileges conferred on working men. Moses was keeping sheep when God appeared to him in the burning bush. Gideon was thrashing wheat, when the angel brought him a message from heaven. Elisha was ploughing, when Elijah called him to be prophet in his stead. The apostles were fishing, when Jesus called them to follow Him. It is disgraceful to be covetous, or proud, or a cheat, or a gambler, or a drunkard, or a glutton, or unclean. But it is no disgrace to be poor. The laborer who serves Christ faithfully is far more honorable in God’s eyes, than the nobleman who serves sin.
Let us notice, in the last place, the office to which our Lord called His first disciples. We read that He said, “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.”
The meaning of this expression is clear and unmistakable. The disciples were to become fishers for souls. They were to labor to draw men out of darkness into light, and from the power of Satan to God. They were to strive to bring men into the net of Christ’s church, that so they might be saved alive, and not perish everlastingly.
We ought to mark this expression well. It is full of instruction. It is the oldest name by which the ministerial office is described in the New Testament. It lies deeper down than the name of bishop, elder, or deacon. It is the first idea which should be before a minister’s mind. He is not to be a mere reader of forms, or administrator of ordinances. He is to be a “fisher” of souls. The minister who does not strive to live up to this name has mistaken his calling.
Does the fisherman strive to catch fish? Does he use all means, and grieve if unsuccessful? The minister ought to do the same.-Does the fisherman have patience? Does he toil on day after day, and wait, and work on in hope? Let the minister do the same.-Happy is that man, in whom the fisher’s skill, and diligence, and patience, are all combined!
Let us resolve to pray much for ministers. Their office is no light one if they do their duty. They need the help of many intercessions from all praying people. They have not only their own souls to care for, but the souls of others. No wonder that Paul cries, “Who is sufficient for these things?” (2Co 2:16.) If we never prayed for ministers before, let us begin to do it this day.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Mar 1:9. From Nazareth. Peculiar to Mark.
In Jordan, lit., into the Jordan. Comp. out of the water (Mar 1:10).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See the note on Mat 3:13.
Observe here, 1. The great condescension of Christ, in seeking and submitting to the baptism of John: Christ, though he was John’s Lord and Master, yea, Lord of heaven and earth, yet cometh to hear John preach, and will be baptized of his messenger.
Thence learn, That the greatest persons should neither think themselves too great, nor too good, to come unto the ministers of God, to hear the word from their mouth, or to receive the sacrament at their hand. Christ the Son of God was content to be baptized of John, a mean person in comparsion of himself. How dare then the greatest upon earth despise the ministry of man, being appointed by God?
Observe, 2. The solemn investing of Christ with the office of Mediator, by a threefold miracle; namely, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Holy Ghost, and God the Father’s voice or testimony concerning his Son; the heavens were opened, to show, that heaven, which was closed and shut against us for our sins, is now opened to us by Christ’s undertaking for us. As Christ opened heaven by his meritorious passion, so he keeps it open by his prevailing intercession.
Next, the Holy Ghost descends like a dove upon our Saviour. Here we have a proof and evidence of the Blessed Trinity. The Father speaks from heaven, the Son comes out of the water, and the Holy Ghost descends in the likeness of a dove. But why did the Holy Ghost now descend upon Christ?
First, for the designation of his person, to show that he was the Person set apart for his word and office of a mediator.
Secondly, for the sanctification of his person for the performance of that office. This was Christ’s unction, the day on which he was anointed above his fellows to be the King, Priest, and Prophet, of his church: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he hath anointed me, Isa 61:1, &c.
Observe, 3. the voice of God the Father pronounced,
(1.) The nearness of Christ’s relation to himself: This is my Son.
(2.) The endearedness of his person: This is my beloved Son.
(3.) The fruit and benefit of his near and dear relation unto us: In whom I am well pleased.
Hence learn, That there is no possibility for a person to please God out of Christ; neither our persons nor our performances can find acceptance but through him, and for his sake;–that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Ground and Cause of all that love which God the Father showeth to the sons of men. In Christ, God is well pleased with us, as a reconciled Father; out of him, a consuming Fire.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mar 1:9-11. It came to pass in those days Of Johns baptism at the river Jordan; that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee Where he lived for many years in a retired manner, with his parents; and was baptized of John in Jordan Near Bethabara. Joh 1:28. See on Mat 3:13-17.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
P A R T T H I R D.
BEGINNING OF OUR LORD’S MINISTRY.
XVIII.
JESUS BAPTIZED BY JOHN IN THE JORDAN.
(Jordan east of Jericho, Spring of A. D. 27.)
aMATT. III. 13-17; bMARK I. 9-11; cLUKE III. 21-23.
b9 And {a13 Then} bit came to pass in those days, that Jesus came {acometh} bfrom Nazareth of Galilee, ato the Jordan [Tradition fixes upon a ford of Jordan east of Jericho as the place where Jesus was baptized. It is the same section of the river which opened for the passage of Israel under Joshua, and later for Elijah and Elisha. This ford is seventy or eighty miles from Nazareth] unto John, to be baptized of him [He set out from Nazareth, intending to be baptized. Such was his intention before he heard John preach, and he was therefore not persuaded to do it by the preaching. His righteousness was not the result of human persuasion.] band was baptized of John in [Greek “into.” The body of Jesus was immersed or plunged into the river] 14; aBut John would have hindered him [It seemed to John too great an honor for him to baptize Jesus, and too great a humiliation for Jesus to be baptized. There is some dispute as to how John came to know this righteousness of Christ, which prompted his protest. The one natural explanation is, that the intimacy of the two families indicated at the beginning of Luke’s account had been kept up, and John knew the history of his kinsman], saying, I have need to be baptized of thee [those are most fit to administer an ordinance who have themselves deeply experienced the need [82] of it], and comest thou to me? [John felt that he needed Jesus’ baptism, but could not think that Jesus needed his. The words “I,” “thee,” “thou,” and “me,” show that John contrasted the baptizers as well as the baptisms. As a human being he marveled that the Son of God should come to him to be immersed. The comings of Jesus and the purposes for which he comes are still the greatest marvels which confront the minds of men. Moreover, it should be noted that this protest of John’s needed to be made, for it saved Jesus from being baptized without explanation, as if he were a sinner. Baptism without such explanation might have compromised our Lord’s claim as the sinless one.] 15 But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now [Permit me for this moment to appear as your inferior. The future will make plain and clear the difference between us, both as to our missions and our natures. The words show a Messianic consciousness on the part of Jesus]: for thus it becometh us [Some take the word “us” as referring to Jesus and John, but the clause “to fulfil all righteousness” shows that “us” refers to Jesus, and he uses the plural to show that it also becometh all of us] to fulfil all righteousness [Jesus came not only to fulfill all the requirements of the law, but also all that wider range of righteousness of which the law was only a part. 1. Though John’s baptism was no part of the Mosaic ritual, it was, nevertheless, a precept of God, given by his prophet ( Joh 1:33). Had Jesus neglected or refused to obey this precept he would have lacked a portion of the full armor of righteousness, and the Pharisees would have hastened to strike him at this loose joint of his harness ( Mat 21:23-27). 2. It was the divinely appointed method by which the Messiahship of Jesus was to be revealed to the witness John ( Joh 1:33, Joh 1:34). We should note here that those who fail to obey God’s ordinance of baptism fail (1) to follow the example of Jesus in fulfilling the divine will and precepts; (2) to obey one of the positive commands of almighty God spoken by his own Son.] Then he suffereth him. [John’s humility [83] caused him to shrink from this duty, but did not make him willfully persist in declining it. Humility ceases to be a virtue when it keeps us from performing our allotted tasks.] c21 Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized [This may mean that, on the day of his baptism, Jesus was the last candidate, and hence his baptism was the most conspicuous of all; but it more probably means that Jesus was baptized in the midst of John’s work–at the period when his baptism was in greatest favor], that, Jesus also having been {a16 And Jesus, when he was} cbaptized, and praying [All divine ordinances should be accompanied with prayer. Luke frequently notes the times when Jesus prayed. Here, at the entrance of his ministry, he prayed, and at the last moment of it he also prayed ( Luk 23:46). In his highest exultation at the transfiguration ( Luk 9:29), and in the lowest depths of humiliation in Gethsemane ( Luk 22:41), he prayed. He prayed for his apostles whom he chose ( Luk 6:12), and for his murderers by whom he was rejected ( Luk 23:34). He prayed before Peter confessed him ( Luk 9:18), and also before Peter denied him– Luk 22:32], b10 And straightway coming up out of {awent up straightway from} bthe water [the two prepositions, “out of” and “from,” show that Jesus was not yet fully out of the river, and that the vision and the voice were immediately associated with his baptism], aand lo, bhe saw [The statement that he saw the Spirit descending, which is also the language of Matthew, has been taken by some as implying that the Spirit was invisible to the multitude. But we know from John’s narrative that it was also seen by John the Baptist ( Joh 1:33, Joh 1:34), and if it was visible to him and to Jesus, and it descended, as Luke affirms, in a bodily shape like a dove ( Luk 3:22), it would have required a miracle to hide it from the multitude. Moreover, the object of the Spirit’s visible appearance was to point Jesus out, not to himself, but to others; and to point him out as the person concerning whom the voice from heaven was uttered. No doubt, then, the Spirit was visible and audible to all who [84] were present Luk 4:14] as a dove [That is, like a dove. All four evangelists are careful to inform us that it was not an actual dove], and coming upon him; c22 and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form [Lightfoot suggests that the Spirit thus descended that he might be revealed to be a personal substance and not merely an operation of the Godhead, and might thus make a sensible demonstration as to his proper place in the Trinity], as a dove [The descent of the Spirit upon Jesus was in accordance with prophecy ( Isa 11:2, Isa 41:1). The dove shape suggests purity, gentleness, peace, etc. Jesus makes the dove a symbol of harmlessness ( Mat 10:15). In fact, the nature of this bird makes it a fit emblem of the Spirit, for it comports well with the fruits of the Spirit ( Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23). The nations of the earth emblazon eagles upon their banners and lions upon their shields, but He who shall gather all nations into his kingdom, appeared as a Lamb, and his Spirit appeared under the symbol of a dove. Verily his kingdom is not of this world. It [85] is a kingdom of peace and love, not of bloodshed and ambition. Noah’s dove bore the olive branch, the symbol of peace, and the Holy Spirit manifested Jesus, God’s olive branch of peace sent into this world– Psa 72:7, Luk 2:14, Joh 14:27, Eph 2:11-18], upon him, a17 and lo, a voice ccame aout of the heavens, {cheaven} [Voices from heaven acknowledged the person of Christ at his birth, his baptism, his transfiguration and during the concluding days of his ministry. At his baptism Jesus was honored by the attestation of both the Spirit and the Father. But the ordinance itself was honored by the sensible manifestation of each several personality of the Deity–that the three into whose name we ourselves are also baptized], asaying, This is {bthou art} [The “this is,” etc. of Matthew are probably the words as John the Baptist reported them; the “thou art,” etc., of Mark and Luke are the words as Jesus actually heard them. The testimony of the Father is in unreserved support of the fundamental proposition of Christianity on which the church of Christ is founded ( Mat 16:15-18). On this point no witness in the universe was so well qualified to speak as the Father, and no other fact was so well worthy the honor of being sanctioned by his audible utterance as this. The testimony of Christ’s life, of his works, of the Baptist, and of the Scriptures might have been sufficient; but when the Father himself speaks, who shall doubt the adequacy of the proof?] amy beloved Son [See also Mat 17:5. The Father himself states that relationship of which the apostle John so often spoke ( Joh 1:1). Adam was made ( Gen 1:26), but Jesus was begotten ( Psa 2:7). Both were sons of God, but in far different senses. The baptism of Jesus bears many marked relationships to our own: 1. At his baptism Jesus was manifested as the Son of God. At our baptism we are likewise manifested as God’s children, for we are baptized into the name of the Father, and are thereby permitted to take upon ourselves his name. 2. At his baptism Jesus was fully commissioned as the Christ. Not anointed with material oil, but divinely consecrated and qualified by the Spirit and accredited by the Father. At baptism we also [86] received the Spirit ( Joh 3:5, Act 2:38, Act 19:1-6), who commissions and empowers us to Christian ministry– Act 1:8, 1Jo 3:24], in whom {cin thee} [Some make the phrases “in whom” and “in thee” to mean more than simply a declaration that God is pleased with Jesus. They see in it also the statement that the Father will be pleased with all who are “in Christ Jesus”– Eph 1:6] aI am well pleased [It is no slight condemnation to be well pleasing to God ( Job 4:18). It is the Christian’s joy that his Saviour had this commendation of the Father at the entrance upon his ministry.] c23 And Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age. [The age when a Levite entered upon God’s service ( Num 4:3, Num 4:47); at which Joseph stood before Pharaoh ( Gen 41:46); at which David began to reign ( 2Sa 5:4). Canon Cook fixes the date of Christ’s baptism in the spring A.U.C. 780. Wiseler in the summer of that year, and Ellicott in the winter of that year.]
* Recognizing the weight of Bro. McGarvey’s argument, I nevertheless contend that the multitude only shared partially in such a vision, if they shared it at all; for 1. There is no Scripture which even hints that the vision was seen by more than the two “inspired” parties, Jesus and John; and, on the contrary, the words of Jesus at Joh 5:37, though not addressed to the specific audience present at his baptism, were addressed to the Jews generally. 2. Jesus was to be manifested by his character and teaching rather than by heavenly sights and sounds ( Mat 12:39), and the mysteries of the kingdom ( Mat 13:11), and the opened heavens ( Joh 1:50, Joh 1:51), with many other manifestations, were reserved for believers ( Joh 12:28-30, Mat 17:1, Mat 17:2, Mat 17:9, Act 1:9, Act 7:55, Act 7:59, Act 10:40, Act 10:41), and are still so reserved ( 1Co 2:14). As to the arguments given above, we suggest that “bodily shape” does not insure universal sight. Baalam did not see what the ass saw ( Num 22:21-31). Again, it may be true that Jesus did not need to see the vision to “point him out to himself,” but he must have needed it for some purpose, for it is twice asserted that he saw it, and the temptations which immediately follow show that assurances of his divinity at this particular time were by no means misplaced.
[FFG 82-87]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Mat 3:13-17; Mar 1:9-11; Luk 3:21-23. Then Jesus comes from Galilee unto Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. Our Lord was six months younger than John, and hence He awaits the arrival of His majority thirty years before He will enter upon His official Messiahship. As John was sent from God to introduce Him to the world he is the man to inaugurate Him into His ministry. John continued to decline Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou unto me? John was no exception to the human race, born with a depraved heart, which must be sanctified with a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Of course, I am satisfied that John already enjoyed the sanctified experience, like his prophetical predecessors, in advance of his dispensation. We are to understand this, as a statement of a great generic truth, that not only John, but every other human being, needs the baptism of Jesus to sanctify him for heaven. And Jesus responding, said, Permit it now; for thus it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness; then he permits Him. Our Savior is Prophet, Priest, and King. The Levitical law positively required the high priest to have the anointing oil poured on his head, as Moses in the case of Aaron, before he is permitted to enter upon the duties and privileges of his office. This is the righteousness here pertinent; as our Savior never needed righteousness in the sense of justification, we are only permitted to give the word a ceremonial signification, complying with Old Testament law. And Jesus, having been baptized, came up immediately from the water; E.V., out of the water,
is corrected in R.V., rendering it from the water, as apo does not mean out of, but only from. And, behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him. The Holy Ghost here assumes His symbolic form of a dove, becoming visible to mortal eyes. The cooing of the dove thrills the heart with melancholy, reminding us of the Holy Spirit, grieved over the wickedness of the world, and bewailing the hardness of the human heart. It is a significant fact, as is positively affirmed, that you can not make the dove angry; but you can grieve him so he will leave you and never return. Behold, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am delighted. O what a popular sensation is aroused when John, on tiptoe, cries aloud, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! thus boldly notifying the multitude that the wonderful Shiloh of prophecy, Redeemer of Israel, whom he has all the time been preaching to them, is already on the ground. All eyes are turned in utter bewilderment, looking about, and many shouting, Where is He? The multitude spontaneously crowd together, as if moved by sacred awe, forming a long aisle, through which the Prince of glory, walking down, meets their preacher, demanding baptism at his hands. Ten thousand eyes are now centered on this wonderful scene, the Prince of glory meeting the prophet of the wilderness at the baptismal waters. Luke says, Jesus, having been baptized, and while praying, the heaven is opened; simultaneously the Divine voice roaring out from the blue dome of heaven, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased! O what a stir throughout the multitude! Some say, It is thunder, ringing down from a cloudless sky. Others say, That is impossible; but an angel spoke to Him. Now, all eyes are strained and looking after Him. But He is gone, led by the Spirit away into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 9
Nazareth; a village situated back among the hills, at a distance from the lake. It was the place where his parents resided. It would seem that he remained at home with them until this time.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
Here we have the simple statement that Christ came for baptism. This would make most wonder about the present “cometh” used in the previous text. Was John looking upon the scene around him and did he see Christ coming, or were the two passages removed from one another more than that?
The phrase “And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.” would indicate that this was a different time than the passage relating to Christ coming. The synoptics do not shed any further light on this either.
Only Matthew records the hesitation of John to baptize the Lord. Mat 3:14 mentions “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”If our assumption is correct that John knew a lot more than others about the baptism of the Spirit then this passage would only add further weight to our thinking. He states that he needs Christ’s baptism rather than Christ needing his. John knew that his baptism was for one purpose, while Christ’s baptism was for another purpose.
It is always rather strange to me that those that trace baptism back to the New Testament time go clear back to John the one that had an inferior baptism to the Lord’s or believer’s baptism. Indeed in Acts the baptism of John was shown to be inferior to church age baptism or believer’s baptism. Why would you trace your “spiritual lineage” to an inferior baptism?
Those that believe that the local church is the only church often hold to what is called apostolic succession which goes back to John. Their doctrine is really named incorrectly since John was not an apostle in the sense of the twelve. Indeed if they held to their name they would be more correct – holding to succession back to believer’s baptism. They believe that if you are not baptized by one that was baptized by one that was baptized by one that was baptized — back to John that you have not been properly baptized.
The question should arise, if you trace your authority and purpose back to a man who offered an inferior/different baptism, is your baptism then not inferior also?
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
1:9 {4} And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
(4) Christ consecrates our baptism in himself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The baptism of Jesus 1:9-11 (cf. Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-23)
Mark next recorded two events that immediately preceded the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, His baptism and His temptation. The first of these events signaled His appearing as Messiah and His induction into that office. Mark simply recorded the fact of Jesus’ baptism and two attendant events that confirmed that He was the Messiah.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The fact that Mark identified Jesus simply as Jesus may show that he wrote his Gospel to people familiar with Jesus. Jesus did not come to John from Judea or Jerusalem (cf. Mar 1:5) but from Nazareth in Galilee where He had grown up and was living. [Note: See the map "Places Mentioned in Mark’s Gospel" at the end of these notes.] The obscurity of this little town is clear from the fact that not the Old Testament, Josephus, or the Talmud ever mentioned it.
Jesus underwent John’s baptism to identify with man and man’s sin (cf. 2Co 5:21). He did not do so because He needed to repent. He did not. He also submitted to baptism because by doing so He identified with the particular group of people that John was baptizing, namely, the Israelites. Jesus associated His baptism with His death (Mar 10:38; Luk 12:50). Consequently it is probably proper to conclude that He viewed His baptism as a public acceptance of His role as Israel’s Suffering Servant, Messiah. Jesus was about 30 years old then (Luk 3:23).