Identifying with Humanity - Mark 1:9-13

How can God understand how I feel?
How can God know how hard it is for me in this life?
God is up there in the perfection of heaven, while I have to deal with all the distress on earth!
God is so far removed from my everyday experience!

I’m not sure if you’ve had those thoughts or asked these sort of questions! In any case, these verses in Mark (1:9-13) address some of the issues lurking behind such feelings.

God did not decide to work out his plan of salvation from a distance, from far-off, but rather brought all the love, grace and mercy that existed in God’s own heart directly into the human environment. God was willing to get his hands dirty in bringing about the redemption and liberation of humanity. We have read previously how the Gospel of John expressed this happening: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth" (1:14).

In Mark, we read of two specific incidences, at the beginning of Jesus’ three years of ministry, that illustrate how closely he identified with the human situation. In fact, as Jesus was fully human, born of Mary, raised in human community, he would inevitably be touched by the sorts of tragedies, frustrations, disappointments, isolation, betrayal, rejection and mortality that we experience (and even more so than most of us – he suffered hideous violence). Jesus didn’t come into the world to deny the power of these struggles, but rather to enter into them, and to show us a way through them!

Jesus identified with all humanity in two very specific ways: in “Baptism” and in a “Wilderness” experience.

(1) In Baptism

John the Baptiser’s baptism of repentant sinners in the Jordan River was a sort of transition from the rites of purification often performed in various religious traditions towards the baptism of Jesus, who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist stands as the point between the past promise and the future fulfilment of redemption history, with his own role representing both the accomplishment and anticipation of that history. John the Baptist prepared the way by challenging people concerning their sinful ways and offer baptism as a symbol for those seeking to turn their lives around. This was in preparation for Jesus who would fully offer the means by which lives could truly be resurrected, and lived to the full in harmonious relationship with God. Jesus Christ, Son of God, was, and is, God’s agent of salvation.

Clearly, Jesus’ origin lies with God. The Christ, the Son of God, was an eternally existent member of the Community (Trinity) of God! Why then would he need, consent to or ask for baptism by the very human John??
· As a mark that his ministry had begun, then confirmed with the descending Spirit? But perhaps more than this …
· We are not given any hint of any sin to be repented for, and we would consider this to be in contradiction to Jesus’ divinity anyway. It could only have been as an identification with (the state of) human beings. Jesus’ incarnation was into human form, and the human side of Jesus was here acknowledging the human need to spiritually connect with God. If human beings truly needed an experience of rehabilitation (and they did!) then Jesus would be the first to show the way forward.
· It will just as much be the human environment (as any personal sin) that will tend to separate us from God’s best intentions for our lives. We need to make deliberate and definite decisions to take God’s path, or we will become thoroughly and terribly lost! So it was that Jesus identified with this potential lostness and symbolised the pathway to salvation. In this moment Jesus brought together the fullness of the love of heaven with the vast need of humanity. Despite being God himself, Jesus came to humanity as a servant king to rescue us from destructiveness and despair!
· It makes total sense that the One who would carry all the sinfulness of humanity on his own shoulders on the cross would seek to participate in a baptism of repentance. Jesus’ life, while not personally compromised by sin himself, showed that he was able to completely identify with the sinful human condition.

And so when Jesus came up out of the water, things happened that had never happened after John’s baptism before! We readers are being let in on what was probably a very private encounter. There was a sense that the heavens had been torn apart and that the Holy Spirit had descended from there and touched, blessed and endowed Jesus. This was followed by the unmistakable voice of God, pleased that Jesus would usher in the new age of salvation history.

That this was completely according to God’s will is seen in the descent of the third member of the Community (Trinity) of God – the Holy Spirit – onto the human Jesus, to empower and equip him in a special sense for the task ahead. In a human sense, it would be a very difficult task, carrying the needs, expectations, problems, diseases and opposition that he would encounter. But rest assured Jesus had the total availability of the ‘Great Enabler’ to keep him perfectly in step with God. There was certainly a laying aside of divinity here, that needed to be compensated for by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Here begins the pattern of our absolute reliance on the Holy Spirit as Jesus followers to survive the test of time.

The picture given here (v.10) of the heavens being torn apart shows that God is touching earth as never before since God’s original works of creation. Here was the moment when God was reclaiming his created order for its original purpose – to foster eternal intimate relationships between the created and the Creator. Such relationships will be exampled by Jesus in the way in which he will fulfil the Father’s intentions.

(2) In the Wilderness

A lot of our lives are lived in the wilderness of uncertainty, doubt, difficult circumstances, pain, fear and loneliness. This was never the case for Jesus when he resided in heaven, but he certainly was going to experience these human emotions on earth. People were going to be able to identify with Jesus more so in the integrity of his humanity than in the majesty of his divinity. And so, Jesus, perfectly now under the influence of Holy Spirit, was propelled into an experience of wilderness living.

Our text emphasises the depth of this wilderness experience – as it lasted for forty days, involved being tempted by Satan and the ongoing threat of wild animals, and required the support of an angelic presence to see him through in this inhospitable environment. Whereas Matthew emphasises the temptation, Mark emphasises the general wilderness experience of Jesus that would tend to give one a sense of abandonment. We are left thinking that Jesus would be subject to all the temptations humans would suffer in the face of such solitude and dire circumstances.

Yet we read that Jesus was not really alone, even when he might have felt that way, for angels waited on him (v.13). This meant that all his real needs were being met despite the gravity of the situations he may have encountered. Whereas Matthew gives us a picture of Jesus defeating the devil and temptation and then being waited upon by angels – like the dawn following the night, Mark gives us the impression of more ongoing danger being continually mediated by an assured Godly presence. Both of these images are helpful to an understanding of human wilderness experiences. Sometimes we just can’t seem to find God for a period until circumstances change. Other times, even though things are grave, we know that God is still travelling with us.

The point here is that Jesus understands our deepest longings, real needs and worst failings. He also thoroughly knows and lives the spiritual heights. Jesus came to bring the two of these (the human lows & the spiritual heights) together.

As Hebrews 2:18 puts it: "Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested". And then in 4:15-16 – "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need".

Jesus survived his wilderness experience to emerge back into community life assured of the Holy Spirit’s presence and God’s calling. Some have argued that his ability to live in oneness with the desert environment in all its harshness and danger offers a great picture of hope for us on the long journey today. Jesus was able to live in harmony with the wild beasts as had never been possible since creation and the fall.

So, we have read about John the Baptiser coming out of the wilderness to prepare the way for God’s Anointed One who would begin his ministry by submitting to baptism and enduring the wilderness. God was indeed physically and emotionally entering the complexity and danger of the human environment.