It’s always exciting when my physical birth date falls on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) as it did this year. In Sunday’s post I looked at the birth narratives in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and how they revealed Jesus as God. In this morning’s post I will look at this “birth” motif from the perspective of the Gospels of John and Mark.
The Gospel of John begins immediately with the Word (logos gk.). The closest hint to the physical birth of Christ comes in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” The opening setting of John is in Bethany across the Jordan. John the Baptist is preparing the way of the Lord with his baptism of repentance. John explained his reason for baptism, “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And Jesus came and was revealed as God in Baptism. This revelation of Jesus as God, theophany is celebrated during the season of Epiphany (I wrote a post about theophany a few weeks ago).
The narrative of Mark also starts with, “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ.” Like John it goes right into the ministry of John the Baptist as the path by which Jesus’ earthly ministry enters. John proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” And just like that, “Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” Just like the baptism account in Mark, Jesus is revealed as God in his baptism.
Both John and Mark as opposed to Luke and Matthew stress the adult ministry of Jesus that begins with his baptism. They include no genealogies, birth narratives, or childhood accounts of Jesus. The emphasis of the beginning of Mark and John appear to be on John the Baptist’s ministry, Jesus’ baptism, and subsequent ministry. John Stott says, “Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience.” If the labor of our physical birth is the human rite by which we all must become part of a human community, then water baptism is the Christian rite by which Christians are imparted with the Holy Spirit that cries out in our hearts as adopted Children to God, ”ABBA FATHER.”
