This is Just the Beginning (Second Sunday of Advent)

Mark 1:1-8

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,' " 4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He 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. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Beginnings: every story has to have one, but every good story has a good one. Sure some are a bit cliché: “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a beautiful princess…” When you hear a beginning like that, you know that you’re about to hear a fairy tale, perhaps one involving a princess, her prince charming, dragons, fairy godmothers, and the whole nine yards. That sort of beginning prepares you for the story you’re about to hear. Of course there are different kinds of beginning: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” Perhaps when some of you hear that sort of beginning your mind drifts back to high school English class and those long novels you had to read even though you hated them. No matter what kind of story it is, every story has to have a beginning, and every beginning prepares us in some way for what we are about to hear.

Stories of faith are no different. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” What do you think that beginning is preparing you for? You know, when it comes right down to it, the four gospels of the New Testament are some pretty good stories, but it seems like when it came to good beginnings, there were only three to go around. Think about it: Matthew and Luke have great beginnings—we know theirs probably best of all. Matthew has a full forensic list of Jesus’ ancestors, tying him to the line of David. He has Magi who come from far away to visit Jesus when he was a boy, bringing him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew tells us that Jesus’ family had to take a detour through Egypt because of a baby-murdering tantrum from King Herod, letting us in on Matthew’s attempt to connect Jesus with the prophetic role of Moses. Now that’s a pretty good beginning to one of the greatest stories ever told.

Personally, I like Luke a little better. Luke’s beginning reads like something out of Shakespeare (especially when read in the King James Version). Luke’s beginning, with the use of songs and moments of character reflection, attempts to show us the more psychological sides of the characters of the nativity as he describes shepherds who were “sore afraid” and the new mother Mary “pondering these things in her heart.” In his beginning, Luke gives us some background on John the Baptizer, has angels appearing left and right to herald the good news to the unsuspecting, and then, there at the cradle of the baby Jesus, Luke even includes the everyday, working man—the shepherds. Now that too is a pretty good way to begin one of the greatest stories in human history.

But let’s not forget about the fourth gospel, the Gospel according to John. Sure, John doesn’t have a beginning that folks have written Christmas carols about, but that doesn’t make it any less amazing. In fact, theologically speaking, John seems to be trying to trump both Luke and Matthew: while they have stories about the earthly birth of Jesus, John tells us about the eternally divine nature of the Christ, existing as the eternal logos, which “was with God…and is God.” John’s beginning prepares us for the great theological revelation that is about to unfold in front of us in his gospel. Jesus is revealed as the “Light of the World,” and the rest of the gospel sets out to drive that point home.

Matthew and Luke both have great narrative beginnings that fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of Christmas and the joyous occasion of the Advent of Jesus, and John’s beginning is pregnant with the theological language of a doctoral dissertation, preparing us to meet the divine logos that is Jesus the Christ…but what about Mark? I mean, let’s be honest, as the beginning to what is supposed to be the greatest story ever told, it falls pretty flat. There are no Magi, no angels, no shepherds, and no heaven-bound language describing some eternal mystery—there’s nothing like that at all! You almost get the feeling that maybe Mark didn’t try, or maybe he wasn’t that creative; after all, if you read the rest of his gospel, Mark seems to be writing in a hurry, skipping important events or details the other gospels fill us in on later. There just doesn’t seem to be any pop or zing to Mark’s beginning, so how are we to know exactly what it’s preparing us for?

Take the text before us this morning. This is Mark’s beginning…THIS is Mark’s beginning? Don’t you feel a little bit like you may have walked in the living room hoping to catch the very beginning of your favorite show, but instead a severe weather report has thrown off the schedule, so now you have to pick up in the middle of a different show with no idea what’s going on because you were just sort of dropped in? Mark doesn’t take any time to prime the pump—he just starts at the Jordan River, with that camel-hair diaper-wearing wild man John. Who is John in the first place? If you’re only reading Mark (and for the first time), you don’t know! He just shows up! Furthermore, what’s he doing there anyhow? What is it that John is doing that may help Mark’s beginning prepare us for what’s to come?

Well, it just so happens that Mark actually tells us what John is doing there in the Jordan valley in verse 4: “John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” So that’s what he was up to: proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But what exactly does that mean as a beginning? Is this supposed to be a story about John the Baptizer? Is this a story about his preaching, his ministry? Well, no in fact, because Mark tells us what John says while standing in the cool, muddy waters of that Ancient Near Eastern creek in verses 7 and 8: “He 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.’” It turns out that John himself is actually a beginning—a beginning that prepares the way for another. He is there preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…but that’s only the beginning! John’s message is only a beginning, a beginning for something, or someone, else.

Then, Mark, in an amalgamation of prophetic quotations in verses 2 and 3 tells us about this sort of preparation: As it is written in the prophet 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.'” We’ve already seen that John has claimed to be the beginning, the one preparing the way for another, and now we see Mark quoting Scripture about one who is paving the way of the Lord.

John prepared us for the one who was to come, and this one who is coming is coming by the way of the Lord. But who is it? Of course, you and I know the answer. We do not prepare for Advent unaware of the identity of the One who was, is, and is to come. We’ve heard the story before, or at least we live in a context where the story is somewhat familiar to us. But that wasn’t necessarily the case for Mark’s first audience: for them Mark’s gospel new. It was for many of them the first time they heard the Good News, the first time they heard about John and the beginning of the gospel. John was preparing the way. John was the beginning, the beginning for Jesus, and Jesus was bringing with him the way of the Lord.

But remember, this is the beginning, the beginning of Mark’s gospel. This isn’t the whole story. There has to be more to this, more than just a wild-looking, baptizing, hype man. There has to be more to this “way of the Lord” he was preparing. In fact, the Greek word for “way” (hodos) is all over Mark’s gospel; you could even say it’s a key word in understanding Mark’s gospel, because anywhere you see the word hodos (or in English: way, road, path, etc.) there’s a pretty good chance something important is going on, something kingdom-oriented is taking place, and Jesus is there in the midst of it.   

So John is prepared the way for Jesus, and here’s what we see throughout Mark’s gospel: Jesus is always preparing the way for us. You see, this isn’t the whole story; Mark’s gospel isn’t the whole story. He didn’t sit down to write a complete summation of THE WAY just so others could read it and say to themselves, “that was a good story with a mediocre beginning.” After all, look at verse 1 again. Mark says this is “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That phrase stands alone. Mark isn’t saying that this little story about a crazy baptizer and his antics in the Jordan River are the beginning of a good story. No. In fact, what Mark seems to be saying is that his entire gospel is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Mark’s gospel is preparing us for the WAY OF THE LORD! This entire gospel is the beginning of the good news!

And the way starts here, in the muddy water of the Jordan, listening to John crying out in preparation for Jesus, who prepares the way for you and me. He prepares our way for deeper relationships with one another as he calls us to love our neighbors; he prepares our way as we follow his example in the words of Mark’s gospel; he prepares our way as he willing lays down his life on the cruel cross of Calvary and as he leaves behind an empty tomb on Sunday morning, so that you and I may have a real, loving relationship with the God of creation. Mark begins with John, who prepared the way for Jesus, and now, Jesus has prepared the way for you. Will you follow him on THE WAY? Will today be the day you begin following Jesus on THE WAY OF THE LORD? Will this day, this second Sunday of Advent, be the day you mark as a beginning, a beginning when you let go of more of yourself and took hold of more of who Christ is and who Christ is calling you to be? May today be a beginning for you in your relationship with the Prince of Peace, the coming Christ. Amen.