I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit

 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the Prophets:

"Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
Who will prepare Your way before You."
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make His paths straight.'"

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.  Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.  Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.  I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.  And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

- Mark 1:1-13

 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As it is written in the Prophets:  "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You."  "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  'Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.'"  We've just celebrated Christ's Nativity, or the holiday of Christmas.  But here in Mark we're called to take note:  this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We don't start here with His birth, but rather with the birth of Christ's ministry.  Our great central figure is John the Baptist, also called the Forerunner, for his role in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Gospel (Greek εὐαγγέλιον/evangelion -- literally "good news" or "good message") refers not to Mark's writings per se, says my study bible, but rather to the story of Jesus Christ:  His life, death, and Resurrection -- but especially it is the good news of our salvation.  This beginning is comprised of the opening events of Christ's ministry, namely the preparation by His forerunner, St. John the Baptist, and Christ's encounter with him.  The story begins with the earlier good messages of the Prophets Malachi and Isaiah (Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3), whose prophesies are filled in John the Baptist.  John the Baptist - as characterized by Jesus - is the last and the greatest in the lineage of the Old Testament prophets.

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.  Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.  Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  And he preached, saying, "There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.  I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."  Here is more crucial information about John and His importance to the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  His clothing is suggestive of the Prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8).  It was prophesied that Elijah would return before the Messiah; Jesus Himself will characterize John as coming "in the spirit of Elijah" (see Matthew 17:11-13).

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.  Then a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  In the Eastern Churches, the event of Epiphany is this one recorded in these verses, and refers to the revelation here of the Holy Trinity (also called Theophany, a revelation of God).  Here appears Father (a voice from heaven), Son (in the message declared to John by the voice), and Holy Spirit (which descends "like a dove"). 

Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.  And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.  Driven into the wilderness by the Spirit, Jesus is in some way exposed (that is, without even the protection of the social and religious establishments) as the frail human being He is, to be tempted by Satan.  The language implies a person being driven out or cast out.  In this we can be sure that He faces the deepest challenges and temptations that we do, as a human being.  As human being, He is prepared for ministry, later ministered to by the angels, and often, we can be sure, deep in prayer.

The great news in this first chapter and beginning of Mark is this tremendous revelation that happens.  We not only have Jesus revealed as the Anointed One (as He is anointed by the Holy Spirit), but also the relation of the Holy Trinity, and Jesus' place as Son.  This has been revealed to the great prophet John the Forerunner, or the Baptist.  To fully understand the greatness of this moment, we have envision what exactly baptism is, and also what it becomes with this action, this story of today's event.  Baptism is a symbolic death and rebirth, the waters covering a person symbolic of burial.  In John's practice, it is a repentance, a symbolic washing clean of sins.  Most importantly it is done as preparation for the coming of the Messiah -- and this was the great message of John, that the peoples must prepare for His appearance, and "make His paths straight," according to Isaiah's prophecy.  Often in icons of the Eastern Church, John the Baptist is portrayed with wings, signifying His role as messenger (as in the prophecy of Malachi:  "I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way for You").  That is because the word angel comes from this word  for "message" in Greek:  angelon (pronounced with a hard g).  The angels are the messengers of God.  And the Gospel, or good news, is the ev-angelion, with "ev" (or "ευ" in the Greek) meaning "good."   It is from this word, of course, that we get the title Evangelist.  So the good news, or the Gospel, isn't just a written book, it is truly the good message we're given.  During the Christmas holidays, I departed from my commentary following the lectionary, and instead blogged on the various readings giving us in the story surrounding the birth of Jesus.  (See readings beginning Saturday, December 20th through Tuesday, December 30th.)   In those readings, we observed this great interworking of all things that brought about the story of the birth of the Jesus, the angels who brought their messages to Zechariah and to Joseph, the prophesy and songs of Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon, and Anna, the angels who appeared to the shepherds in the field with the "good news," even the star by which the wise men came from the East to worship the King -- so that even all of nature somehow cooperated in this birth as human being of the Lord of the cosmos.  Here in this beginning of the story of His ministry, we have so many elements that cooperate:  we hear the words of the Prophets of Israel (major and minor), the "appearance" in John of Elijah who did not die, the vision of the light of the Spirit descending like a dove, the voice of the Father - and the elements of the earth in the water of the Jordan.  All are cooperating in this moment, this great revelation of the greatest news.  Many people ask why Jesus would need to be baptized; He is sinless.  But Matthew reports to us that Jesus said it was "to fulfill all righteousness."   He sets the great example.  And more:  Jesus, as Son, and as anointed by the Spirit, blesses the waters of the world for baptism for the rest of us who follow -- a baptism, as John pointed the way toward, not simply of water but also of the Spirit.  Let us remember this revelation of the Trinity, of the world and all in it (Jesus would go to be with the "wild beasts" in the wilderness) and God born as a human being, signifying what all the world - and we who are in it - are capable of being and merging into.  Thereby we know we may be children of God by adoption, and the world and all in it is made to be filled and blessed by the energy or grace of God.  With God all things are possible, and this is the day that God is revealed among us.