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 beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.

- Mark 1:1-13

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The beginning of the gospel does not mean the beginning of Mark's writings per se, but rather the beginning of the "good news" or "good tidings" -- as the Greek word (εὐαγγέλιον/evangelion) from which we derive the English gospel means.  This extraordinary good news for the world is that 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.  This beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begins not with John the Baptist, per se, as we might assume.  But it begins long before, with the prophets of Israel.  The Gospel echoes Malachi and Isaiah in two quotations, who foretold the mission of John the Baptist (Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 40:3).  This gives us an idea of the essential importance of John's mission to the advent of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  As we can read here, John was a towering figure in his time, widely revered as a holy man by the people.  The earliest disciples of Christ came to Him from the Baptist (John 1:35-51). 

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 dress indicates some very important things about him.  He is clothed in a way similar to that of Elijah (2 Kings 1:8).  This gives us another hint about the Baptist's role:  his dress gives us signs that he fulfills the prophecy of Elijah's return before the Messiah (Malachi 4:5-6), as stated also by Jesus (see Matthew 11:11-15).  His dress also tells us about his radical humility, and why John the Baptist would be a model for all Christian monastics to come, an image of one whose entire life was given over to service of the Lord.  John's words here express that depth of humility and service.

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."    This event is known in the Eastern Churches as Epiphany (Greek "revelation") or Theophany (Greek "revelation of God").  In the most ancient Church, it was celebrated on January 6th together with Nativity, before Nativity was separated and became celebrated on December 25th.  It is the beginning or the birth of Jesus' public ministry.  As we read from Mark's simple and clear text, it is a revelation of the Trinity:  the Father's voice, the declaration that Jesus is the Father's beloved Son, and the Spirit descending upon Him 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.  Immediately the Spirit acts as Christ's worldly ministry begins; the English text tells us that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.  In the Greek, this word translated as drove means something akin to being thrown, cast, or driven out.  To be tempted, my study bible explains, is to be tested in fundamental areas of faith.  In the wilderness, far away from the structures of religion and society, Jesus is tempted as in a battleground.  It is an image of the world, both a dwelling place of demons and also a source of divine tranquility and victory.  See also Matthew 4:1-10; Luke 4:1-13.

What does it mean to be tempted?  After His Baptism, at which Jesus is revealed to the the divine Son of God, why is He immediately driven out into the wilderness by the Spirit?  He's not crowned king of Israel, He is not immediately heralded by the entire world as One who should be worshiped.  But this is how His ministry begins, in the wilderness, facing hardship and temptations by the devil.  Mark does not give us all the detail of that time of temptation in the wilderness, but he does make it quite clear that this is the immediate effect of the revelation of just who Jesus is.  At least, there is one very important person, a figure central to the time in Israel -- John the Baptist -- who has clearly understood this truth.  So why is it not declared, proclaimed from the rooftops?  This great "good news" remains something hidden, which must spread and become open in a particular way, through particular people and particular means.  But first, Jesus must struggle with temptation in the wilderness.  Our worldly sense of how things can unfold in a social media-saturated world does not lend itself easily to the ways in which God works in the world.  This revelation of the Trinity is essentially a very private event, given perhaps only to two people at the time.  But the internal worlds that connect us to the reality of spirit and soul also take time to manifest in a worldly sense and in "particular" ways, and God uses time also for particular purposes.  We may find in our own lives that while we set specific goals, or get a glimpse of some understanding of our faith, that we are given "time outs" to face particular internal struggles that demand a reconciliation within us.  We are tested in certain areas of faith, as was Jesus, regarding our capacity for humility, for service to God, and struggling with our own specific temptations from what is purely worldly.  Do we choose goals in order to be praised by others, or to receive a kind of worldly fame?  Are our lives governed by how many followers we have in social media?  What is a true goal and purpose of a well-lived life?  What are the true hallmarks of humility and maturity for a human being?  More importantly, how do we serve the greater goals that a love of God asks of us, and how do these conflict with what it seems the world might clamor for?  These questions remain with us as they were temptations for power, acclaim, wealth, and satisfaction of every impulse or human need in Christ's time.  As we can read in Matthew's and Luke's versions of that time of temptation, questions of security, faith, and worldly power have always been with us, and Jesus experienced it first-hand so that we may follow Him.  It may seem strange to say so, but in John the Baptist's radical image of humility and service we find the answers and key to Christ's handling of such temptations and our own.  There is no greater key to "success" in terms of Christian virtue than humility, no deeper way to face temptation of the world and the traps of easy success.  Christ Himself, even as Lord, sets the example for humility.  In our modern world, there are many who understand gratitude as a way to beat anxiety and depression, the ailments of a world that lives so much through image in the eyes of others.  But if we understand the roots of the practice of gratitude on a deeper basis, then we get to the heart of what sets us in a right place.  We are grateful to Someone, we are humble in the face of the One who is so much greater than we are.  In a relationship of love to God, we are set in a right place with a right relatedness to the world and all that is in it.  Let us remember this greatest of virtues -- humility -- in its historical image given to us in the person of John the Baptist.  Because here is the key to the center of this spiritual story, the intersection of history and God's grace, and the great good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.