NOTES for Mar 1:7-8
Speaking of the coming Messiah, Mark mentions washing "with the Holy Spirit." What does he have in mind? And why was such washing impossible in pre-Christian times? Did God's breath not fill the world then as it does now? It did, of course. All the prophets of Israel spoke of the breath of Yahweh, of the Spirit of the Lord, and the blowing of this breath was undoubtedly familiar to them. And yet in the washing with God's breath of which John speaks, there is something special. What were purifying washings in pre-Christian times?
They were part of a purification ritual, and the ritual began with them. It was assumed that impurity soils a person both from outside and from within, and that one had to be cleansed from it both outwardly and inwardly. Ritual washings were used for outward cleansing: water, as people thought, carried away with it everything from which a person wanted to cleanse himself, his body, and his life. But this was not enough: a special purifying sacrifice always followed the purifying washing, and here, through sprinkling with sacrificial blood consecrated by God, a person was cleansed already from within.
God's presence, of course, also sanctified the body already washed with water, but above all it sanctified the soul and heart, freeing them from the consequences of committed sin or contact with impurity. But such cleansing, alas, did not guarantee against sin in the future. Meanwhile, in the Messiah's Kingdom there can be no place for sin. To become its resident, one must change completely, become so alien to sin that it will never again enter the life of the one seeking the Kingdom.
Fallen humanity, of course, has no strength for this. But what is impossible for humanity is possible for God and for the Messiah sent by Him. He can wash a person not with water and not with sacrificial blood, but with that divine breath which can not only cleanse a person but completely transform him. This transformation becomes for the one seeking the Kingdom the last purifying washing and the last sanctification. A washing and sanctification after which there will no longer be a place for sin in his life, at least insofar as that life belongs to the Kingdom.