You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased

 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 beats; and the angels ministered to Him.

- Mark 1:1-13

 In our previous readings, we were in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John.  Over the course of the past three readings, as we enter into Lent, Jesus gave us what is known as His High Priestly Prayer, which He prayed at the end of the Last Supper.   See the first and second parts of the prayer here and here.  On Saturday, we read that Jesus prayed, "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one; I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father!  The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.  And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

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.'"  Gospel, according to my study bible, literally means "good news" or "good tidings."  (In the Greek this word is εὐαγγέλιον/Evangelion.  Another straightforward meaning is "good message.")   My study bible adds that this refers not to Mark's writings per se, but to the story of the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the good news of our salvation.  If we consider it, what it implies is the message of the whole of Scripture and the spiritual history preparing us for Christ.  The beginning, however, refers to these opening events of Christ's public ministry -- specifically, the preparation by the one known as the Forerunner, St. John the Baptist, and Christ's encounter with John.   The good news begins with the prophets, two of whom are quoted here, Malachi and Isaiah (Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 40:3).  John is thereby immediately linked with the long line of prophets of the Old Testament, of whom he is considered by the Church to be the final and greatest.  Malachi and Isaiah, and all the prophets altogether, prepare us for this salvation message, the coming of the Christ.  John the Baptist's ministry was all about the preparation spoken of by the 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."  John's preparation for the Messiah is one of repentance.  In the Greek repentance is metanoia, which literally means "change of mind."  More generally, it is to turn around, so to speak.  His baptism is one of repentance, but it is not Christian baptism which includes chrismation.  We're given the details of John's dress to further identify him as in the long line of the prophets of Israel.  HE is dressed similarly to that of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8).  Jesus will say that John fulfills the prophecy of Elijah's return (Matthew 11:14).  John pronounces the tremendous news, that the One is coming who will baptize 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 beats; and the angels ministered to Him.   Jesus' baptism is what is known as a Theophany, a revelation of God.  This event is also called Epiphany (meaning something like "shining forth" or "manifestation" which gives depth and meaning to circumstances).  It is the appearance of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit.  Manifesting the love Jesus explicitly prayed about in the High Priestly Prayer in Saturday's reading from John's Gospel, above, this shining forth gives us the nature of all:  the love expressed by the Father, the true nature of God and the communion into which we are invited (1 John 4:7-8).  In another manifestation of that love, the Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days, which is the foundation of our period of Lent we've just begun. 

John the Baptist was a figure of great influence in his time, and remained so for centuries afterward.  As an ascetic, he was the figure whom the earliest monks sought to emulate.  John, as we can see from his prophet's dress and lifestyle, lived purely focused on the kingdom of God, and the Messiah whose coming he heralded.   John is not at all a "worldly" figure, he is rather the one who loves God as fully as possible.  Many Christian saints have modeled their lives in similar fashion.   For those of us used to thinking of modern life as having all kinds of conveniences and luxuries as a key to good living, it may seem utterly paradoxical to think of a loving God that might ask us to deprive ourselves of these good things.  But what is missing from that question is the power in the love of God, and what that does for our lives.  If we are to put that first, and to put away all the things that take us away from the experience of that love, there is a fullness that we simply discount otherwise or fail to understand at all.  We all know the paradox that the more we have of some seemingly very good thing, the more we want.  Knowing and understanding what we truly need and how we need it becomes key to knowing ourselves as human beings.  We were created by a loving God for love and to be communing within that love; all the things of this world may be used to distract us from that very foundation to the fullness of our lives.  This is why Jesus teaches us to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).  Epiphany is the manifestation of a greater reality behind all the things we think we see.  It is the shining forth of truth and depth that we might be missing when we only know the surface of things; the showing forth of true nature -- and thereby our true nature.  We are meant for something more than the material; on this our joy and salvation depend.  The Holy Spirit immediately acts to drive Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.  We're told that He was with the wild beasts, and that the angels ministered to Him.  How is this a part of God's love?  How is it that One who is without sin needs to be tempted?  But Jesus sets the tone for all of us:  if even He is tempted, so shall we all be.  His temptations are material:  to power, to control, to security, to wealth, to fame.  But the exchange means He would be absent from the love of God, without which all the meanings of life become empty and dissolve into nothingness, a blind search for what we have lost.  The depth of love is lost. And this is salvation:  He brings that love to us in the good news of the Gospel.  Changing our minds is the way, turning around to understand the foundation we need for all else, that which builds up true meaning and depth and value, worth the sacrifice He will make -- worthy of whatever sacrifice is asked of us.  As we begin Lent, let us consider what all this means for who we are and may become.