Sermon. December 6, 2020 

Rev. John Steitz

Last week, with the First Sunday of Advent we began a new church year.  We are at the start of “Year B” in the three-year lectionary cycle.  During Year B we look closely at Mark’s gospel. 

This morning we focus on the first words that Mark writes.  The first eight verses in the first chapter. 

“The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.” The gospel story begins with title that invokes terms the audience would readily understand and would lend authority to the story about to unfold. 

The Gospel of Jesus the Christ, as shared by Mark, is subversive right from the first verse! Politically subversive to Roman power. Spiritually subversive to those who use religion to oppress and exploit others. 

Mark’s title echoes Genesis 1:1. The Gospel of Jesus the Christ renews the story of God’s act of creation.  God’s creative action continues whenever the gospel story is shared and is lived out. 

Gospel – good news, good tidings, was a term of Roman propaganda.  Whenever there was news of a military victory somewhere across the vast Roman Empire word would travel about this “divine good news,” this “gospel.”  The Romans wanted everyone throughout the Empire to know about the victory and to understand Roman power as a divinely sanctioned inevitable reality.  

The Emperor Caesar was trumpeted as a “divine man.” The Roman gospel was proclaimed with the emperor’s figure and name brazened on coins, statues, and temples.  Emperor-cults were created to produce political – religious rituals as propaganda so that the illiterate masses would know of the glory of Rome. 

Mark is telling a story of a non-imperial gospel.  Good news that is centered not in Roman domination, but in the action of God through Jesus of Nazareth.  

On the one side we have Pax Romana, the Roman peace built on military conquest, administrative efficiency, well maintained roads, and the taxes and tribute of the conquered.  

On the other side we have Jesus the Christ, Son of God. And who is this Christ?  Jesus of Nazareth. 

Mark packs a lot of references to Hebrew scripture into these first several verses.  “As it is written in the prophet Isaiah…”  What is about to unfold is a fulfillment of the prophet’s words.   

A messenger is coming to prepare the way.  This in turn brings the listeners attention to the Exodus story of liberation.  “I am sending a messenger before you to guard you on the Way” (Exodus 23:20).  

Mark 1:2 is a paraphrase of Malachi 3:1. God intends that the Temple be a central storehouse for agricultural surplus to be redistributed to those on need.  Instead it becomes a place of oppression and exploitation. The common people of Israel are robbed as the surplus gets redistributed to the wealthy.   

Mark 1:3 cites Isaiah 40:3. There will be a messenger in the wilderness.  This messenger will prepare the way of the Lord.  

Mark has introduced a central theme of the gospel.  A tension between imperial domination and the Way of the Lord. A tension between Temple and wilderness. A tension between center and margin. 

John the baptizer appears in the wilderness preaching repentance. John is wearing clothing that evoke memory of the prophet Elijah who challenged kings (2 Kings 1:1-17). 

Elijah disappeared into heaven at the Jordan (2 Kings 2: 6 – 14).  This meant that his presence might emerge again in history.  Here is John – as Elijah at the Jordan. 

John is calling the people to repent.  To repent means to “turn around.”  You are going in the wrong direction.  You are lost.  You turn around.  You reorient yourself to go in the correct direction. 

John is proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is a spiritual GPS to reorient people away from one direction and toward another Way. 

In Mark 1:5 we hear that “all Judea and Jerusalem” go out into the wilderness to hear, see, and engage with John.  This makes the tension between the center and the margin clear and explicit.  

The religious understanding of the people Israel is that Jerusalem was the center of the world.  This was where all nations would someday come to submit.  

Mark reverses the direction.  Salvation will happen from the margins not the center.   

People need to turn around, repent, because their orientation has been on the center.  The orientation has been on those with wealth, power, and the ability to dominate.  

The Way of Jesus, which is a Way of Love does not come from the place of domination. It emerges from the margins.  

From this place under the radar of the authorities, just beyond their reach and control will come one more powerful than John. 

John baptizes with water. The more powerful one who is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit. 

Mark’s gospel has no nativity. There is no story of Jesus’ birth. No shepherds visited by angels in the fields. No wise men and their gifts. No Christmas pageant.  

Jesus emerges in Mark as an adult.  An obscure person who comes from a marginal place, far from any center of political, economic or religious power.  He emerges as an adult in this remote wilderness place.  And here the divine voice will speak: 

“And there was a voice from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I am well pleased’” Mark 1:11. 

The Gospel of Jesus the Christ, as shared by Mark, is subversive right from the first verse! Politically subversive to Roman power. Spiritually subversive to those who use religion to oppress and exploit others.