Funny things sometimes happen in church, especially surrounding special ceremonies like baptism. When I baptize young people or adults, I usually like to use a lot of water because it is supposed to be a visible sign of invisible grace. I remember one time when I was baptizing a group of four siblings. When I came to the youngest, whose name was Ryan (meaning “little king”), he had already seen how much water I could hold in my hand and pour over the heads of his brothers and sister. Therefore, when I scooped a big handful of water out of the baptismal font and poured it on his head, he quickly moved his tie to one side so that it would not get wet as the water descended. He was smiling as he did this, and it brought a big smile to everyone in the congregation. Baptisms are joyous times. I think Jesus’ baptism also must have been a joyous time. Let us see what Mark has to say about it in Mark 1:9-13…. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jor...
Today we are beginning a journey through the earliest Gospel written about Jesus, the Gospel of Mark. That title is not part of the original text. But this book came to be called the Gospel of Mark because the early church believed it was written by John Mark, a traveling companion of Paul who was also related to the Apostle Peter. If John Mark was the nephew of Peter, he may also have met Jesus as a young boy. We will consider this further when we get to the end of this Gospel. Scholars date Mark to a time shortly before, or possibly just after AD 70. Mark is a fast-paced narrative, full of action and intrigue. One almost gets the sense in reading this Gospel that the author barely had time to write down these events because there were still so many exciting things happening in the early church. So, let’s dive into the reading of this Gospel for ourselves. Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 1:1-8… The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, a...