How would you feel if a voice from heaven called you its beloved child? When it happened to Jesus, he was completely overwhelmed by it and spent forty days wresting with his calling in the wilderness. Join me, Rev Darcy (she/hers), a Universalist pastor from rural Alabama, on a journey with me through the Gospel of Mark where we’ll dive deep into all of the drama without the spiritual trauma. Come with me to learn about just how much you are loved, just as you are in this moment, as we spend the next eleven minutes in heaven.
Listen to what the Spirit is saying to you through this sacred word from the Gospel of Mark:
John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins. John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.” At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him. (Mark 1:4-13, CEB)
Welcome back to another episode of Eleven Minutes in Heaven where we journey through the Bible together taking note of all the Biblical drama without engaging in spiritual trauma. This week, we are back in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark where we get our first glimpse of Jesus himself in the Gospel narrative. Remember, last week we talked about the big claims the Evangelist makes about Jesus: That he’s the anointed (read king) son of God who comes to show us a new way of living in contrast to the emperor who is a fake son of God who only looks out for himself. Spicy.
Sermon Note: Want to dig deeper and/or check my claims? Here are the books I’m using and recommend to get a deeper understanding of Mark.
Marcus J. Borg’s The Gospel of Mark from Morehouse (ISBN: 978-0-8192--2339-5)
Jerry L. Sumney’s The Bible: An Introduction (3rd ed.) from Fortress Press (ISBN: 978-1506466781).
Ben Witherington III’s The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary from Eerdmans (ISBN: 978-0802845030).
The World Behind the Text
Let’s talk about the world behind the text. In Jesus’ day there were a lot of rabbis who were preaching repentance. Remember, a key question on everyone’s mind during this time of resistance against empire was “what does it mean to be a distinctly Jewish nation in the midst of occupation by this European and pagan empire. Remember also that prophetic witness is a key feature of Jewish life in times of conflict and strife…just look at the last third of the Hebrew Bible. So what John the Baptizer was doing in verses 4-8 of today’s sacred word wasn’t all that strange.
Sermon Note: Jewish ritualistic cleansing with water, as we will go a little deeper into in a minute, pun fully intended, was common.
However, how John conducted his ministry was strange even to his contemporaries. He dressed rough and ate bugs and hung out on the literal edge of Jewish civilization preaching to the margins of society. He also clearly had an impact on Jesus’ life and ministry. Jesus lived in Nazareth, according to Mark and the other Gospels, and Mark says he traveled to where John was baptizing on the banks of the Jordan River from Nazareth. That’s a seven days’ journey of around 100 miles. Jesus had clearly heard about John all the way up in Nazareth and was curious. We have to imagine he stayed with John for a while, having travelled all that way.
Sermon Note: While we know John was a real person because he’s mentioned by the Jewish historian, Josephus, the relationship between Jesus and John, and John’s knowledge of who Jesus was destined to be is more lore than fact. If you’ve been to Sunday School you’ve probably heard John and Jesus were cousins. Luke, and Luke alone, makes that claim. Matthew, Luke, and John also have John the Baptizer affirm Jesus as the son of God and as the one he foretold. However, Mark does not have any of this. He simply presents Jesus as one John baptized. Whatever the true relationship between them was all the Gospels agree that John initiates the ministry of Jesus and that there was a special bond between them for that reason.
The World of the Text
Now onto the world of the text. These nine verses contain some pretty important language and narrative symbolism, knowledge of which will aid in our interpretation. We’ll start with baptism. Baptism, from the Greek verb baptizo, “to immerse,” has three meanings in Greek. The first is “to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge (of vessels sunk).” The second is “to cleanse by dipping or submerging, to wash, to make clean with water, to wash one's self, bathe.” The third is “to overwhelm.” To understand the appropriate meaning to assign here, we need to take a brief side quest back to the world behind the text. In Jewish culture, immersion of people in water was associated with two rituals. The first, was ritual cleansing such as that a woman did after her menstrual cycle. The second, was a ritual cleansing gentiles did when they converted to Judaism. What John is doing here is closer to the second ritual but different in that he was baptizing Jews not gentiles. The second usage of baptizo seems to work with both of these rituals, but I am not so sure they work for what John was doing here in Mark. Okay, on a superficial reading it does, but not so much if you suspend your interpretation until you read what happens next. Hold that thought.
That John baptized in the Jordan River is also significant. The Jordan River is the border of modern-day Israel and Jordan and the West Bank and Jordan. In Exodus, it was the boundary between the “Wilderness” and the “Promised Land.” It was also the line the Jews crossed on the way to exile in Babylon and on their way back home to rebuild. So for Jews, the Jordan River represented the boundary between bondage and liberation, humiliation and glory. John’s baptism, combined with his message of repentance and of a coming “new way” fits nicely into the prophetic witness tradition of say “hey! We’ve been here before, turn around before it’s too late.” But I still don’t think baptizo is talking about cleansing oneself of filth. Keep holding that thought.
Then, we have the narrative symbolism of the vision. Visions in Jewish narratives are important markers of God’s participation in human life. Visions nearly always come before a calling or mission from God, and they nearly always happen to significant figures in the Jewish national story. What makes Jesus’ vision in Mark different than the other Gospels is that he, and he alone, hears the voice of God and sees the Spirit descend like a dove. It’s also important to note that only Jesus is told he is God’s son…no one else hears the voice, and John the Baptizer doesn’t tell the crowd Jesus is God’s son like he does in the other Gospels. The next time Jesus is identified as God’s son is after he is dead. Then, Mark tells us the Spirit immediately drives Jesus out into the wilderness to be tested by Satan.
Sermon Note: Satan in Jewish narratives is not a horned red man who rules hell. Satan is simply an adversary, like a prosecutor, that tempts us. I see the concept of Satan as the antithesis of what we want to be. A literal devil’s advocate we struggle with to come to terms with what we believe, what we want, etc.
Unlike the other Gospels, Mark doesn’t tell us what this involves. Perhaps Jesus spent those forty days wrestling with his calling and trying to understand what it means to be God’s beloved son. This is why I think the third meaning of baptizo is what is applies here. While I acknowledge that, yes John literally immersed people in water, I think the theological meaning is that of being overwhelmed by the presence of God in your life. Of being completely filled with God’s Spirit and dependent upon God for your needs. Of being so overcome by the presence of the Divine that you have to wrestle with it as you come to terms with your new life. Once completed, you enter that new life by crossing the Jordan into the promised land from the wilderness…just like Jesus will do next week in verse 14.
The World in Front of the Text
There is a lot of theology attached to the story of Jesus’ baptism as you’ll see as we examine the world in front of the text. So much so that I’m only going to focus on a few theologies that I’m really interested in. First, these verses from Mark inform our Christology or our beliefs about the nature of Jesus. Trinitarians, that is people who believe God exists in three distinct persons— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— who are somehow one being called God, point to these verses as a proof text. The voice of God as Father “this is my son,” Jesus the half God/half man as the son claimed by God, and the Spirit in her form as a dove descending on Jesus make all three persons present. The problem I have with this interpretation is that it only works if you have the virgin birth story, which Mark doesn’t have and won’t make an appearance in the Gospels for another couple decades. Conversely, Unitarians, that is people who believe God is one being/person made known in the world in Spirit form whom Jesus— a fully human man— called father, say this proves their interpretation. God adopts Jesus, a human man, as God’s son by the indwelling of God’s Spirit in Jesus. The thing I like about this interpretation, and I’m partial because I am a unitarian, is that if Jesus, a fully human person, can be made one with God by allowing himself to be overwhelmed by God’s Spirit, then I, a fully human person, can as well if I do the same. No problematic, spiritually abusive atonement theology required.
Sermon Note: The use of the word baptizo has created a lot of debate on baptismal theology. Is baptism properly administered by full immersion in water, or is it just the application of water that matters and immersion by the Spirit that is important? Does baptism require water at all? Do we even need to be baptized? These are the big questions theologians argue about. Personally, I think we are already God’s beloved children, and baptism is just an outward sign of inward faith. In fact, when I baptize people after applying water to their head or immersing them— their choice— I anoint them with blessed oil and say to them “you are God’s beloved child in whom God delights (Luke 3:22). God has called you by name, you are God’s forever (Isaiah 43:1). Nothing above or below the earth nor any created thing can separate you from God’s love as revealed in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).” This is my baptismal theology derived from my reading of the Gospels, Isaiah 43, and Roman 8.
Theological questions aside, one things Christians can agree on is that we are God’s beloved children. This is an overwhelming theology. What does it mean to be God’s beloved child? What does it mean to be led— immediately— by the Spirit? These are wilderness questions, beloved, and the answers to them will take a lifetime to sort out.
Last Things
Next week on Eleven Minutes in Heaven we will read about the catalyzing event that launches Jesus in to public ministry. We will say goodbye to one friend and meet twelve new ones.
If you are enjoying Eleven Minutes in Heaven I invite you to join me on Zoom on Monday at 7pm central time for guided meditation. This is open to both free and paid subscribers during the month of January, so subscribe to get that link at www.revdarcy.com/subscribe
Beloved, go about your day knowing you are loved more than you could ever ask or imagine. Be kind to yourself and to one another. Have a snack, and take a nap. Above all, dwell in peace. May it be.
This episode of Eleven Minutes in Heaven was written and produced by Rev. Darcy Corbitt and is © Copyright 2025 Darcy Corbitt, LLC, PO Box 23, Camp Hill, AL 36850. All rights reserved.
All scripture quotations come from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE which is © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.CommonEnglishBible.com).
Music included in this podcast is by Julius H used under the Pixabay Content License.
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