Second Sunday in Advent: Gospel, Mark 1:1-8                         

Mark 1:1-8

Mark’s gospel, the primary gospel considered through this church year does not begin with the birth narrative of Jesus. Rather, Mark begins with the preaching ministry of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. May I make a couple “below the surface” observations? First, Mark’s gospel historically has been credited to the apostle Peter. In other words, Mark is a secretary for the fiery and sometimes none-too-careful Peter. And Peter, the great preacher of Pentecost begins his meditations on the Son of God by pointing to His original herald, a man of words, if you will. 

The next observation is that preachers are men of words. Nothing negative was inferred there. Just facts. Men who preach/teach find their craft focused on choosing the right words to communicate. And just as the source of this gospel used his best choices to spread the message, so does the “wild man in the Jordan.” Focus with me on a statement of description:

“And he [John] preached, saying,’ After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’”

Mark 1:7

Think of all the ways John could have described both the greatness of Jesus and his own place before Him. So John chooses words about sandals, feet, and the implication that dirt would have covered them both. John describes the greatness of the Savior in terms of his own recognized unworthiness. John is admitting from the outset that he has no place in speaking on behalf of this cousin of his. But John is compelled beyond his own status, and perhaps by it, to point others to the One, the only worthy One. “I shouldn’t even be able to unlace his shoes,” John might say today. But oh how we must be glad, rejoice, and thank John’s Lord and ours, that He used that locust muncher (cf. verse 6) to make introductions at the Jordan that day.

In part we know Jesus, because John did. Later, Jesus would say of John that no greater man had ever been born of woman. Astounding. And Peter, the very one letting us in on this holy scene would write decades later, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6). Perhaps Peter learned that lesson in part by watching and listening to the voice crying in the wilderness. Regardless, the lesson taught is good for us to hear and heed. May we see our Lord in the same way as did his rough-and-tumble cousin. And God be praised this day for dusty feet.