Three accounts of the beginning days of Jesus’ ministry. Let’s compare a few things, and see what we can find.
Jumping ahead in the text to Lukes recording of the lineage of Jesus we find 77 generations recorded. Now, this list differs slightly from Matthew’s list. Remember how Matthew had offered three sets of 14 generations? Well there were about 4 people he left out…all of them very evil kings. We don’t know why he left them out…maybe to make 3 lists of 14…but it doesn’t matter really. Jesus is established as being from the line of David, which is the promise that God offered to Abraham and David…that there would always be someone from his line to sit on the throne.
What really amazes me is that we know the names of every generation from Adam to Jesus! Sure, there could be a name missing in there…but the idea that there were millions of years of cave men wandering around on earth is completely discounted by this text. The evolution of man is an enticing story, and we have grown up with it…but it’s absolutely false according to the Bible.
Most of what we hear today is repeated often: John came to announce Jesus, and he wore camel hair clothing with a leather belt and ate locusts and honey. I mean, why would that be so important that everyone had to mention it? It’s because that is one way of saying that John “was a prophet”. The prophets wore that type of clothing, and ate that sort of food. The discussion of his clothing would tell the people of his day “pay attention to the message, because this is how God speaks to his people”. How interesting that God spoke both through the desert wanderer and also through the rabbi, dressed in much nicer clothing.
John’s message is simple: “Repent and be baptized”. People of John’s day weren’t baptized as a point of tradition, this was an uncommon teaching, a new way of demonstrating repentance. It was so new and “exciting” that people from town came out to see what all the fuss was about. People who didn’t have any interest in being forgiven for sins were there, “just checking it out”. John calls them out and repeats forcefully his message about repenting. There is a second part of John’s message, and that is judgment. God will gather the wheat after He has threshed it out and toss the chaff into the fire. The way they separated wheat from the stalk was to pile it on a large flat rock “threshing floor” and then drive a threshing sledge over it…a heavy wooden object pulled by horses that crushed the pile down…and apparently knocked the grain loose from the stalk. Then they would toss the pile with a pitchfork style tool up into the air, and the grain (being heavier) would fall close by, and the chaff would be blown a little ways away. (You needed a breeze). Then you cleaned up by gathering the grain pile and burning the chaff. Jesus uses the same image to talk about the day of Judgment. He says He will separate His people like grain from chaff. It think “winnow” is the term He uses. (Isaiah 41, Jeremiah 15, Matthew 3)
Notice that Mark is covering the life of Christ much more quickly, with fewer details. His Gospel is generally accepted as the first one to be written. It is the shortest as well. The other authors probably read Mark’s account and then were reminded of the other things that Jesus did, so they added more content to their work.
I notice today the humility of John, what a great example of boldness (speaking to Herod Antipas) while remaining humble before God. Speaking of Herod Antipas, he wasn’t the same Herod that built up Jerusalem, Caesarea and other places. That was Herod the Great, who tried to kill Jesus. This was his progeny, who was just as wicked, but not as powerful. Herod Antipas received a portion of the kingdom, but he found a way to weasel himself into greater power, accumulating enough to take over his brother Philip’s territory, and marry his wife.
I also notice in Mark’s writing that the tax collectors weren’t told to stop collecting taxes for the Romans, and that the soldiers weren’t told to be discharged from the military. What do you make of that?
Also, John went to both sides of the Jordan river…meaning that he baptized people in what is the country of Jordan today. In his day I think that was either “the Decapolis” (area of 10 cities) or very near to it. People on that side of the Jordan didn’t follow the same dietary rules or Jewish law. That’s interesting as well. I wonder if John’s willingness to speak “on both sides of the Jordan” was a veiled precursor to the fact that Jesus would be a sacrifice for all people?
Faithfully,
PR