Today’s Gospel reading is the opening verses of the Gospel of Mark. Mark by the way is the oldest of the four gospels of the New Testament, and is the basis for the writers who wrote the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. The writer of Mark gets straight to the point as he starts his book with none of the embellishments which the other gospel writers later include --Luke’s birth stories introducing Jesus, or Matthew’s lengthy genealogical lineages. Mark takes a very factual approach: “This is the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God (and) it began just as God had said in the book written by Isaiah the prophet.” (Mk 1.1 CEV)
And then he paraphrases from the book of Isaiah, the very verses we read as our Old Testament scripture today. Why did Mark choose these particular verses from Isaiah as way of introducing Jesus the Christ, the Son of God? Well, we need a bit of a history lesson to understand today what the primarily Jewish audience of Mark would have already known from their knowledge of the times of Isaiah. The part of Isaiah from which this excerpt is taken, sometimes called Second Isaiah, is written in the time after the conquest of the Hebrews by the Babylonians, and of their return some 50 years or so later or back to Judah after the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians. If you were here last week, I briefly touched on this, but today it’s worth going into a bit more detail to fully appreciate this. It’s hard to over-emphasize the importance of this part of history’s impact on the Jewish people, and hence the importance of it to our understanding of the role of Jesus as Messiah, the Saviour. So today, a bit of a history lesson!
The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, and the beautiful temple of King Solomon in 587 BCE, and they enslaved many Hebrews and took them to Babylon, and according to the writings of early Isaiah, this was perceived to be a punishment from God, because the people had become greedy, selfish, no longer following the ways of the covenant that they had with the God of their ancestors, and they were no longer worshiping God. They had abandoned their sacred trust, to care for the poor and marginalized—people who could not care for themselves. The writings later in the book of Isaiah deal primarily with the prophet's message from God to a people returning to their homeland, after enduring the trials and difficulties of being an enslaved people -- exiled from their homeland, their faith, and their God. Remember these were people who were exiled from their promised land, the homeland that God had led them to. They were unable to worship in a foreign land that had no Temple, because for Jews, the Temple was God’s House. If there was no Temple, then where was God? And now they were again enslaved, like they had been enslaved before by the Egyptians, and this time by the Babylonians, who were brutal, and their living conditions were horrid. They felt like God had abandoned them and was punishing them, and using the Babylonians to do that. But now it seemed God had used the Persians to release them from that punishment, they could go home! The journey from Judah to Babylon was a rough and long winding route—on foot, through desert terrain, winding, so as to avoid the worst hazards in that Arabian desert. And the journey back home would be just as long, rough, winding and difficult!
The message from second Isaiah? Words of comfort to the exiled people, the voice of God is calling them back, commanding them back. I have not abandoned you, God tells them through the prophet. God wants them back, doesn’t matter that their ways had caused the Babylonian conquest, doesn’t matter what caused the brokenness, the reason they were exiled from God. God says through Isaiah. “Comfort my people … Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. A voice cries out: “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!” (Isa 40: 1-3 GN) Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level. I imagine it somewhat like the building of the first roadways through pioneering countryside, horse drawn graders leveling off the hills, bringing that soil and gravel into the low spots, shifting the big rocks out of the way, smoothing the trails first created by the pioneers in ox carts trying to find their homesteads in the forest lands of Huron County. It was like God saying to the Hebrew people through God’s prophet Isaiah: Whatever it takes to bring them back to me, it will be straighten it out, I’ll make the way easier.
And this is the memory Mark is giving to his listeners, this is what Mark is evoking to the people of his times, the message of Isaiah “See I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness; Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1: 2 NRSV)
Who is this messenger that’s going to create this straight way to God, this direct line to God? Who this voice crying out of the wilderness that Mark’s talking about? Yes, of course, John the Baptist—a prophet for his times, yet he too evoked a familiar figure from the Jewish past. John’s sporting a camel hair outfit, complete with leather belt--just like Elijah—one of the major prophets of the past. And John’s a true and proper hermit prophet; living in the desert on locusts and wild honey. John cum Elijah, will pave the way for One so powerful, so special, that he doesn’t feel he’s even good enough to be the most lowly of slaves to this one to come from God, John feels unworthy to even untie his sandals. This is how Mark introduces Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God.
John baptized the people with water. Washing away their sins, making themselves clean as it were. And the people were coming from all corners to hear John’s message of repentance and forgiveness of sins. They were indeed lining up for John’s baptism, so as to prepare their hearts and souls to receive this special and powerful man of God, the one who would bring the people the Holy Spirit; indeed he would baptize them the creative redeeming spirit of God! Clearly the message here is God is the destination and the most direct way to God is through Jesus, the Christ. And it is through Christ that the power of the Holy Spirit will come upon the people. And John the Baptist’s job was to proclaim this message to the people.
John was telling the people to repent and prepare for the coming of God’s Son. Well, if you were ever wondering where the early church leaders got the idea for a time of penitence before celebrating the anniversary of Christ’ birth, I bet this was the inspiration for the original Advent period!
For us today, advent has a double meaning, preparing for the anniversary of Christ’s birth while we await his coming again. And our scripture from 2nd Peter’s was addressing this—so just when is this second coming anyway question. “This letter was probably written in Peter’s name a generation or two after his death. … written by a theological follower of a great apostle, using the apostle’s name to give authority to ideas that needed appropriate weight.”[1] Using the name of well respected or great people was a common practice which we see in other biblical writings and in ancient literature as well.
So, this letter was written in the late first or early to mid- second century, a time when the early church was coalescing into a new identity--separate from the Jewish synagogue and of course the other Gentile society around them. The expectation was that Jesus was returning any time now—the early Christians had been waiting for that since, well, his resurrection. And still Jesus hadn’t returned, the new heaven and new earth still hadn’t come. The faithful of the early church were becoming impatient, and maybe even being scoffed at by other non-believers for holding onto this idea of Christ’s’ coming again. After all, they’d been waiting for decades, and still no Jesus! You can imagine the taunts from Jewish and other non-Christian neighbours, I’m sure! The writer of this letter is reminding his church community that the Lord hadn’t forgotten or abandoned them. He too harkened them back to earlier scriptures, from Psalm 90 in fact. God’s timeline is not the same as human time, it’s like one of our years is like a thousand of God’s, metaphorically speaking. Actually, he says, God’s being very patient, waiting for humanity to come to its own senses, to repent and turn to God and truly begin to live God’s ways, as Jesus had taught them. One commentator I read this week puts it like this: “What looks like delay (to us) looks to God like patience. And God has all the time in the world.”[2]
The day of the Lord will come, Peter’s letter says—like a thief—in other words when least expected. And we get more of that apocalyptic end of the world writing coming through here—the heavens and earth will destruct in fire, and with loud noise. So, God’s will will be done, how and when God chooses, and all in God’s good time. We are the impatient ones, wanting God to do what we want when we want and become annoyed and maybe even unbelieving when God seems not to be responding to our perceived needs and wants within our timelines.
This scripture tells us so much about God—and humanity. We’re an impatient and self-centered bunch. Yet, God is patient, God is merciful, God puts up with so much from humanity just waiting for humanity to turn itself around and come back to God. So what to do while we await Jesus coming again, while we wait for a new heaven and a new earth? Do we just keep on keeping on?
Well, in essence, I think yes. Keep on living faithful lives based on Jesus’ teaching doing God’s work, living in the knowledge that Christ is with us in the here and now. We keep living faithfully to help bring about the kingdom of God, in our own immediate lives and in our little corner of the world. Knowing God is there, still in charge of the world, ever merciful, ever loving, ever patient, strengthening us with the power of the Holy Spirit; still intervening, responding to our needs, as God, the Creator best knows how to.
So, we will keep on living in hope for the peace that Christ will bring when he comes again, while living in the joy of Christ’s amazing love. Amen
[1] Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition. Commentary for 2nd Letter of Peter NT p. 401
[2] William Brosend: “Theological Perspective for 2Peter 3: 8 – 5a” in Feasting on the Word Year B Vol. 1 (WJK Press: Louisville KY 2008) 42