the baptism performs a function important for the entire Gospel: It establishes the identity and authority of the story’s central character, Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus is radically different. John the baptizer continues the line of prophets in the pattern of Elijah, but Jesus is of another order of greatness.

“Why does baptism matter?” It matters because we are who God says we are.

Commissioning means conflict; sonship means struggle.

The present passage is about a test of strength between Jesus and Satan.

Satan’s power is real but limited

we are children of God, so with him we may expect to be driven into the wilderness, caught up in the cosmic battle between God and Satan. The text contains for us, as it does for Jesus, warning (“forty days tempted by Satan”) and promise (“the angels were ministering to him”).

In Mark 1:14, however, “gospel” is what Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God.

A.

Announcement

1. The time is fulfilled.

2. The Kingdom of God is at hand.

B.

Appeal

1. Repent.

2. Believe in the gospel.

The time of John the prophet is over; the time of Jesus and fulfillment has come. A different era begins in God’s dispensation: It is the gospel time.

When the good news of God is preached, it is decision time: The time is fulfilled.

Calvin points to the two dimensions of repentance as changing our lives for the better (“turn away from your sins,” TEV) and as conversion and newness of life (Harmony, I, 145). The latter, deeper dimension of the term is the primary meaning of “repent” in this verse. Jesus calls his hearers to turn around, to shift the direction of their lives, to look, listen, and give their full attention to the kingdom which is arriving.

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God and today’s heralds preach Jesus, but the essential dynamic is the same. Confronted by the message, we are confronted by the Kingdom of God. The appropriate response is also the same: Repent, and believe the good news.

Matthew and Luke use the term “the devil”—diabolos, “slanderer,” or “false accuser”—which Mark never uses. Instead he has Satan, which means “adversary

Mark uses the Greek schizō to describe what took place in the heavens. This is a graphic word, which speaks of “tearing asunder.” Mark uses this word only once more, in the account of the tearing of the Temple veil

Galilee was known for its farming and fishing, both industries sustained through the labor of a predominantly peasant population. It was a largely rural area surrounded by foreign nations whose inhabitants would later be strongly resistant to the Romans during the war (66‒70 CE). They reaped none of the benefits Rome bestowed on the Jewish political and religious elites in the south. Instead, their labor fueled an economy that kept them at the lowest economic and social strata of ancient Palestinian society. It is here that Jesus proclaims the impending arrival of God’s kingdom.

Many children grow up in our world who have never had a father say to them (either in words, in looks, or in hugs), ‘You are my dear child’, let alone, ‘I’m pleased with you.’

The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. He sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ.

It is true for one simple but very profound reason: Jesus is the Messiah, and the Messiah represents his people. What is true of him is true of them.

A good deal of Christian faith is a matter of learning to live by this different reality even when we can’t see it.

Any early Christian reading this passage would also, of course, believe that their own baptism into Jesus the Messiah was the moment when, for them, the curtain had been drawn back and these words had been spoken to them. We need to find ways, in today’s church, of bringing this to life with our own practice of baptism and teaching about it.

When we do this, we will be equipped, as Jesus was, to be sent out into the desert.

Jesus went the way that all his people must go; and he could do it because he had heard the words of love, the words of life.

Repentance is a turning away from sin, faith a turning toward grace

“righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”