1. Beginning of the Good News

Since last week we are in the period of Advent. During these days we are waiting for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and refreshing in our mind the hope of the second coming of Christ, after the Ascension. Today, the second day of Advent, we read together Gospel according to Mark, which is written before other tree Gospels.

In 64 C.E. the early church was in a turbulence due to martyrdoms of Jesus’ followers of the first generation under Roman persecutions. The Apostles like Peter and Paul were included within victims. The left believers felt lost without leaders and not knowing how to spread teachings given by Jesus and Apostles. Before all, they prayed for God’s supports. At that time Mark, who was close to the Apostles, presumably commenced to write down what he has learned from them, about Jesus and His preach. It is said to be the origin of the Gospel of Mark. Mark understood Jesus’ ministries as Good News and achieved the Gospel as His acting record. Afterwards Matthew and Luke wrote the Gospels referring to Mark’s, by using other sources from Q document.*

Mark’s Gospel opens this way;- The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.(Mark 1:1 NIV)
However Some¡¡versions omit ” the Son of God” because of differences among existing manuscripts.

“The beginning” in Greek original text is “archē -Ἀ¦Ñ¦Öὴ ”, the word which appears at the beginning of the Genesis- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.**”. “archē” here was translated from ”רֵאשִׁית” in Hebrew and Mark used the same term to commence the first phrase. He intended to define the coming of Jesus as the second creation of the world.

So what is about to begin? The Good News, Mark says. Gospel is the translation from ecclesiastical Latin “evangelium”, from Greek ” euangelion - good news”. In matter of fact, in that era the word “evangelion” was used for the inauguration of new Roman emperors. In the Roman Empire roman citizens were taught that Emperors were rulers of the world, who should bring peace on the earth. Mark uses the very word for Jesus’ arrival. Through his Gospel, rather short one, he continues declaring that Jesus is the supreme Ruler and Savior.

“Jesus” is Hellenized pronunciation of “Joshua” and “Christ” means messiah in Grrek. The combination of two words represents the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Savior. And Mark enhances his witness to Jesus’ divinity by referring to Isaiah- It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” — “a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ “(Mark 1:2-3)

The similar expression appears in Malachi too ;- “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.(Malachi 3:1)

In Jesus’ time Israel was dominated by Roman Empire. But Israelites, who considered themselves to be God’s chosen people, thought gentiles’ domination was inadmissible. Thus rebellious movements which sought Jewish independence occurred all over Judea. Rebels aspired to the Messiah who should free them from Romans. In consequence bloody conflicts between Roman armies and Jewish people took place very often. Mark thought the very messenger sent by God was John the Baptist, who should prepare the way before Jesus. Then Jesus’ arrival must be exactly the moment of freedom, Mark wrote the beginning verses by deriving from Isaiah 40:3;- A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

Originally the portion of Isaiah is situated in the context of the event for Jewish people to return back to Israel after the Babylonian captivity.

2. Jesus and John the Baptist

Mark’s description concerning John the Baptist commences. ;- And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.(Mark 1:4-5)

By hearing about John’s activities Jesus decided to set off from Galilee. Luke reports that it was when Jesus was 30 years old. Jesus, a carpenter in home town Nazareth, received the calling from God and went to Judea. He was baptized by John the Baptist and began preaching.

Mark records the spoken testimony of John Baptist “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."(Mark 1:7-8)

The crowed thought it was John himself who was the Messiah because he preached in impressive and convincing tone. But John denied that with the verses above. Other gospel writers Matthew and Luke praise John highly ;- I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.(Matthew 11:11), I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."(Luke 7:28 )

In contrast Mark don’t use such admiring expressions but represent rather humble attitude of John towards Jesus,” the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” Mark might want us to focus only on Jesus, not on any other persons.

Luke recorded John’s very severe words, which compel people to repent- John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire."(Luke 3:7-9)

I want to draw you attention to the tone of Jesus’ preaching at the beginning of his Galilean ministry in Galilee ;- “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"(Mark 1:15)

It is very important to recognize the difference between John’s aggressive evangelic style and Jesus’ more persuasive approach to preaching and mimnistiry Sometimes we have a tendency to spread John’s abrasive “good news” not that of Jesus’ love and optimism. John says “No repentance, be cut down and thrown into the fire ”, like suggesting punishment is only cure for human failure. That is not good news. In contrast, Jesus’ teaching is one of forgiveness. Love is emphasized through the teaching of Jesus. God love comes first. Once we are touched by God’s love, we changed and and become receptive to the good news.

3. Gospel, the Good News

I present you a quote of Hayashi Akira, a Japanese pastor. Preparing today’s sermon I read one of his preaches. The title is “Real and virtual image of Jesus - lecture on the Gospel by Mark- ” *** And I found this remark significant : ” We find the expression < repentance> 3 times in Mark, 7 times in Matthew and 14 times in Luke. Seemingly in Mark’s record Jesus doesn’t talk so often about repentance whereas Matthew and Luke emphasis this theme. Both of the latter might think that Jesus has taken over John the Baptist’s theory which connects closely repentance and redemption.

But Mark didn’t share their point of view, as he wrote “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins (Mark 18:22).” “New wine” signifies there the good news brought by Jesus and “old wineskins” the traditional teachings of Judaism. Hayashi thinks that Jesus’ teaching is based on the good news which focused on forgiveness, not on repentance and judgement. Hayashi’s remark seems very relevant.

I chose Luke 7:22-23 as today’s invocation verses;- So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”

John the Baptist was in a jail at that time due to his accusing the king Herod of his behaviors. When John heard in the jail about Jesus’ preaches and ministries he wondered if the man was the very Messiah. So John sent his disciples to Jesus for asking Him questions. ;- When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ “(Luke 7:20)

John’s expected Messiah was the supreme judge who should condemn and expel unfaithful Israelites, in order to establish a new world. Nonetheless Jesus willingly frequented apparently sinful persons, the miserable and gentiles. Those people should be destroyed the first on the day of the last judgement, John thought. He couldn’t understand that the most important founding element in the kingdom of God is forgiveness, not judgement. This way John fell away on account of Jesus. Today’s invocation verses are Jesus’ answer to that John, drawn from Isaiah 61.

These days certain preachers evangelize through public address system through loud-speakers from their cars : ” Without faith, Receive the judgments” or “No Baptism, Go to hell.” Others distribute pamphlets which show images of Heaven and Hell to show destinations for believers and non-believers. Though they are members of religious groups they are not practicing real Christianity. To some extent they could be followers of any number of sects, but no of Jesus. All messages told in the New Testament are about the love of God, who sent and sacrificed His unique son for our salvation. God compels us to love even our enemies. Unfortunately there will always be those practice aggressive Christianity,conduct abrasive ministries, and preach fire and brimstone. But none are necessarily the teaching from the Gospel of Jesus.

Jesus gave us the good news about God’s love. We must receive them as its written and wisely interpreted. I recognized that again by reading Mark in this period of Advent .

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* Q document - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_document
** http://bibledatabase.net/html/septuagint/index.htm
***Hayashi Akira “Real and virtual image of Jesus - lecture on the Gospel by Mark- ”
ISBN 978-4-400-12764-2 (4-400-12764-8)¡¡C-CODE 1016¡¡NDC 193.62