In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Mark 1.1-8
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ John was baptizing in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
There is something startlingly different about the way St Mark begins his Gospel to that of the other Evangelists. St Matthew and St Luke both have long genealogies, as well as accounts of the birth of our Lord. St John gives us his famous prologue, in which he tells us that our Lord is the Word of God through Whom all things were created and that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And what does St Mark have? A single verse, which says ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ No shepherd’s, no angels, no stars, no wise men, no murderous kings, no fleeing to Egypt; and not even a mention of Bethlehem, an inn with no room, or a manger.
Why? Does St Mark think these things are not important? Not at all. Remember that only St Luke tells us of the Visitation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Holy Theotokos; only St Matthew gives us an account of the journey of the Magi; and only St John tells us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was made flesh.
This doesn’t mean that that they think that the details they leave out are unimportant, but rather that each writer is an individual and each is telling the story his own way. You will recall how St John tells us that if everything about the life of Jesus were written down the world could not contain all the books that would be written. Therefore, each of the four Gospel writers had to be selective, with each choosing what to include according to the way in which he wanted to present his account; with each, it must be remembered, being inspired in his work by Holy Spirit.
This means that we should ponder what St Mark did include rather than fret over what he did not. And he packs some very important pieces of information in this one short verse.
Let us us look at the first few words, ‘the beginning of the Gospel’. He is telling us right from the start that this is no ordinary piece of writing. It is the Gospel, a word which the Fathers tell us again and again means ‘good news’. It is not a history, which might inform us about the past. It is not a drama, which might entertain us. It is a Gospel, it is good news which will benefit us.
Why? Because it is the good news of Jesus Christ. This is more than just a name. The word Christ means something. It means the Anointed One, the Messiah, the One promised by God who would save His people, the One spoken of by the prophets.
And then St Mark says something unexpected, something new about this long-awaited Messiah. Not only is he a man called Jesus, he is also the Son of God. Not, as the Fathers remind us just a son of God in the way all men are sons of God, but the Son of God. God has sent as the Messiah who will save not merely a man as a teacher or a leader, but His own Son Who has come into the world as the man Jesus.
What a powerful, indeed explosive, opening verse. It is a line that demands we read further, so that we may hear this good news, learn of this Messiah, and discover how it is that He is the Son of God. It is as if St Mark says to us, as St Andrew says to St Nathaniel in St John’s Gospel, ‘come and see’. Come and hear this good news so badly needed by this broken, damaged, fallen world. Good news that was heard and shared and lived by the Christians of St Mark’s day and by Christians in the ages since. Good news that must be heard and shared by us today, so that all men may know the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Amen.
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