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Mark 1:9-20







Lesson Focus

Jesus calls us to join him in the cosmic struggle between good and evil. 


Lesson Outcomes

Through this lesson, students should: 


  • Understand that Jesus has picked us to play on his team. 

  • Understand that playing for Team Jesus means we must live and act as Jesus did. 

  • Be encouraged to fully embrace playing for Team Jesus. 


Catching up on the Story

We’re just eight verses into Mark’s gospel, which moves at a significant pace.  Mark hopes his narrative will help us anticipate God’s work through Jesus.  At the same time, Mark firmly believes that the work God is doing through Jesus is solidly situated within the history of God’s people.  Jesus isn’t something entirely new. 


The first character we meet is John the Baptizer.  He comes from the wilderness and is dressed like a prophet.  John’s job is to prepare the way for Jesus.  God’s work is always a process, and God always prepares the way for what God is about to do.  Part of that process and preparation is baptism with water.  But John knows that he’s not the main character in the story, for there is one who is more powerful on his way.  


This week, we meet that more powerful one, and Jesus is his name. 


Choosing Sides

There’s a good chance that you’ve been a part of the ritual of choosing teams at some time in your childhood or even perhaps into your early adulthood. It could have been as an elementary child on the school playground or in gym class.  It might have been dodgeball, kickball, or baseball. It doesn’t really matter. In sixth grade, we played capture the flag every chance we could.  In college, it was either ultimate frisbee or basketball.   


Two team captains were chosen from among your peers, who would alternate picking their team. It always seems to be a mark of honor to be a team captain who gets to choose who will be on his or her team.  


If the pool of people to choose from was familiar, you knew the skills of each person and how they could contribute to or hinder your team.  Even if you weren’t the captain, you know the skills of each player, and you know them in relation to your own skill set. 


Choosing sides not only functioned to establish who your teammates were, but in a way, it also indicated your status among your peers.  Popular kids were picked first, even if they weren’t particularly gifted in the sport of the day.  


To be picked last was to be perceived as having very little skill, of minimal social standing, or perhaps both. At some point, I got very comfortable being picked close to last.  I was just happy to be included.  I knew I wasn’t the best, and that was ok; most of the time, but not always, I wasn’t the worst! 


The choosing of sides ritual was important, it seems, to the social fabric of groups of children.  For some, it defined who they were; an athlete. For others, it was a sign of power or acceptance.  As we get older, choosing sides gets more complicated, and perhaps, we have more control over what side we settle with.  


In a way, today’s three vignettes are all about choosing sides.  In a subtle yet clear manner, Mark delineates two sides of a great cosmic confrontation.  In a way, we have a playground choosing of sides scene, while at the same time, we have an invitation to join one side or the other.   


The Good Side

The first vignette depicts Jesus’ baptism.  For the first time in the story, we meet its star, Jesus.  Mark’s narrative is relatively sparse, so we don’t get much detail, only that Jesus comes from the small and insignificant town of Nazareth in Galilee. There’s a good chance that many in Jesus’ day, especially in and around the area that John was baptizing, would never have heard of Nazareth.  Their thoughts toward Jesus’ hometown would not have been positive if they had.  


Mark assumes we already know a bit about Jesus as he leaves out the entire birth narrative.  Mark will tell us all we need to know about Jesus in these short verses.  


First, Jesus is the one about whom John the Baptizer spoke at the end of verse eight.  He is the “one who is more powerful.” Even though John declares that he is unworthy to untie the thongs of Jesus’ sandals, he consents to baptize Jesus.  


Down Jesus goes into the water.  As Jesus’s face breaks the surface of the water on his way back up, Mark clarifies to us who the players are on the good side of this cosmic matchup.  At that moment, Jesus sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove.  The imagery here is rather violent; the heavens are torn apart, ripped open. Mark doesn’t let us know if anyone else is seeing or hearing what’s happening, only that Jesus is fully aware.  It would have been a sight to behold.  


From the gap in the fabric that separates God’s home and ours, the Holy Spirit descends and rests on Jesus. Actually, the grammar of the passage depicts the Spirit going into Jesus. For Mark’s readers, this distinction is important.  In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God rested on people so they might do God’s will in the world, but this gift of the Spirit was temporary.  The internalizing of the Spirit is permanent.  There will never be a time when Jesus will not be doing God’s work in the world.  


A quick doctrinal note is essential here.  That the Spirit descends to Jesus does not mean that Jesus was not God or one with God before this moment.  This isn’t God adopting Jesus; rather, it is a display of God’s unity of purpose and mission with Jesus the Son.  It is a declaration of which side Jesus is on in this cosmic struggle, and Jesus is firmly on God’s side.  


The Spirit isn’t the only sign we get, however, as the voice of God comes from heaven, making explicit what was implicit in the Spirit’s descent, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  In other words, God is saying, “You, Jesus, our team captain, begin assembling your team.” 


The First Matchup

The scene suddenly shifts, and we find Jesus, driven by the Spirit, into the wilderness.  


The wilderness has significant and historical meaning for Israel.  It was in the wilderness that God called Moses.  It was in the wilderness that Israel learned hard lessons as they journeyed toward the Promised Land.  Israel’s greatest prophets came from or spent significant time in the wilderness.  The wilderness is a place of testing and preparation.  


Mark tells us that Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness, and during that time, Satan tempts him.  


Keeping with Mark’s sparse description, we don’t get a detailed account of what happens.  We get a sense of two sides, two teams assembled and ready to square off for the first time.  


On one side, you have Jesus, team captain for the good guys. On the other, you have Satan, who exemplifies the opposite of who Jesus is.  He is the captain of the bad guys.  


Satan’s troops are represented by the “wild beasts” of verse 13.  These beasts represent the chaotic resistance to the good, ordered, and peaceful world that God created.  


As Jesus rebuffs the first advance by Team Satan, we discover that Jesus is not alone.  Satan may have wild beasts, but Jesus has angels who wait on him after his time of fasting is over.  So, on one side, we have Team Satan, who is marshaling the forces of chaos and death.  On the other side of this cosmic struggle is Team Jesus, fully God, fully man, filled with the Spirit of God and accompanied by the angels, and round one belongs to Team Jesus. 


Jesus Recruits a Team

With the first skirmish over, Jesus begins his career as captain for Team Jesus.  The setting has changed.  We are no longer beside the Jordan River or in the wilderness. Jesus is back in his home area of Galilee.  


The first words out of Jesus’ mouth in the gospel of Mark are, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” This is Jesus’ recruitment speech.  Jesus tells us what we need to know in this short, to-the-point deceleration and invitation. 


First, the time is fulfilled.  This isn’t ordinary time, as the time is up on what you’re cooking in the oven, so you better take it out.  The time to which Jesus refers is God’s time. It is the time when things are beginning to happen.  The beginning is over, and it is time to move toward the end, the fullness of God’s vision for the world.  


Second, Jesus declares that “the kingdom of God has come near.” Jesus isn’t talking about a physical kingdom with a palace. Jesus’ notion of the kingdom has more to do with a way of being, a form of belonging to a specific king, which contrasts with the current way of being. Things are changing.  


Third, we find Jesus’ invitation to join the winning side, to join Team Jesus, “repent, and believe in the good news.” Today, our notion of “believe” has much to do with a mental ascent to something.  To believe in God is often only to say, “Why yes, there is a divine figure out there who, in some way, is in charge.”  Or, it is to say, “Yes, I think Jesus is the savior of the world.”  Affirming those two things is easy to do.