NOTES for Mar 1:1-13
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; |
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. |
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. |
4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. |
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. |
6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; |
7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. |
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. |
9 And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. |
10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: |
11 And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. |
12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. |
13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. |
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We are used to the idea of holiness. People are very fond of praying to saints, and then, when zeal becomes excessive, they turn into a kind of pantheon of lesser gods. But faith does not tolerate anything done out of habit. Such a crystallized image of holiness must be mercilessly broken apart. We can remember that we are all saints at the moment when we receive Communion, for it is said, "Holy things for the holy."
But we can also remember the image of John the Baptist. He is first among the saints, greater among those born of women (Matt. 11:11), the limit of human holiness; in him holiness abides in the fullest way. And yet "the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he" (Matt. 11:11). Why does the Lord say this? Precisely in order to warn us against creating pantheons. It is precisely for this reason that the image of John helps overcome the tendency described above toward deifying what is not divine, since prayers to him are not nearly as widespread as, say, Marian prayers.
And if we think about it, what two special human beings stand, as it were, above the human race? The Theotokos and John the Forerunner. The Deesis row of the iconostasis in any Orthodox church says the same thing. But we are not used to praying to the Baptist. Maybe it is worth beginning sometime, with God's help, and asking him to teach us not to make an idol for ourselves (Ex. 20:4)?
Readings for 1 January 2026
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