NOTES for Mar 1:7-8

So we begin reading the Gospel according to Mark. Following the evangelist, we will remember and live through the Gospel events we know so well, relate them to our own life experience, and try to change ourselves so that we may become at least a little more like "the pioneer and perfecter of faith, Jesus" (Heb 12:2). How many times have we read this Gospel? Where should we begin this time? Mark begins his account with words about John and the baptism of Jesus. In order to receive the Good News of Jesus, the people had to repent, to recognize that they did not correspond to the coming Kingdom of God. And how are we to apply to ourselves the words of the prophecy: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight"? It is here, at the very beginning of the road, that we face the need to reassess and reconsider our whole life so that we may be able to follow Mark into the later stories, in each of which we can meet the Lord Jesus.

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)?

What can "baptism with the Holy Spirit" mean? We are so used to this expression today that we have, it seems, somewhat forgotten its original meaning. Perhaps the word "baptism" itself is to blame, filled as it is with its own, purely Christian meaning and somewhat obscuring the meaning of its Greek and Aramaic equivalent: a cleansing washing that accompanied the traditional Jewish ritual of purification, which consisted, properly speaking, of this washing and a special kind of cleansing sacrifice. During that sacrifice, as during the washing, the person being cleansed publicly confessed his sin aloud before everyone. Confession of sin and repentance alone were not enough. The washing, like the cleansing sacrifice, was meant to free the sinner from the consequences of the sin he had committed, consequences that were completely real and that, if no measures were taken, would hang over the sinner for the rest of his life as a heavy spiritual burden, interfering with his relationship with God and blocking his road into the Kingdom.

But water and sacrificial blood cleansed only from the consequences of a specific sin, and even then only if it had been committed involuntarily, through ignorance or weakness. To enter the Kingdom, however, one had to be freed from sin completely. And here only God Himself, by His breath, could cleanse a person. No human being has such power. Only the Messiah sent by God can open for those seeking the Kingdom the path to the goal they seek.