“Lights, Camera, Action”–A Pastor’s thoughts on Mark (Mathew Claridge)

[Editor’s note: To read previous articles in this series on the gospel of Mark, click here.]

Act 2: Redemption

The baptism and testing of Jesus not only draws on the creation account, but also on the Exodus account. Again, various features of the text direct our attention to Israel’s experience. First, the reference to Jesus “coming up out of the water” reminds us of Israel’s journey through the Red Sea (Isa. 63.11). The “heavens were rent asunder” is also an allusion to the Exodus events pointing to God’s apocalyptic revelation on Mt. Sinai (Isa. 64.1). “The Spirit as a dove descending” is suggestive of Exodus events. The Spirit was active and present with Israel during their wanderings (Isa. 63.11), inspiring the construction of the cultic objects (Ex. 35:30ff). Indeed, avian imagery is used in the Exodus account to describe the compassionate and powerful deliverance God wrought for his people (Ex. 19.4). In fact, the term “hovering” found in Gen. 1.2 describing the Spirit’s work in the creation is used in that same form in only one other place, Deut. 32.11, to describe God’s salvation of his people Israel.

The declaration of the Father to the Son, “you are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” alludes suggestively to God’s relationship with Israel (Ex. 4.22; 19.5; Isa. 63.8-9; Hos. 11.1) and more pointedly to the Israel-David-Servant motif (Isa. 42.1; Ps. 2.7). Jesus is “cast out into the wilderness” by the Spirit which corresponds clearly with Israel’s own trek through the desert wastes where they too were tested and, unfortunately, often put God to the test (David undergoes a similar test). The fact that Jesus endured this test for forty days and nights recalls the trial of Noah through the flood and the forty years Israel spent wandering about due to their rebellion.

What becomes immediately clear from all these connections is that the creation story and God’s redemptive story through Israel are built on the same plot development. The events surrounding Jesus baptism and testing recall both the story of creation and the story of redemption. They are being superimposed on each other which suggests that the story of Israel is really just a retelling of Adam’s story: Israel as Adam, Canaan as Eden. The whole drama of the OT, and indeed the whole Bible, is how to undo the Fall. Everything is tied back organically and thematically to Gen. 1-3.

Jesus’ role in integrating these two stories is the crux of the whole passage. In its most basic form, the subtext of Jesus’ baptism is this: Israel failed to undo what Adam did; Jesus has come to succeed where both Adam and Israel failed. The text points to three ways in which Jesus will successfully accomplish this primeval mission.

First, Jesus arrives as the True Man and True Son who will live under the Lordship of God the Father unlike the wannabe sons, Adam and Israel. The desire to distrust, disobey, and deny the love and lordship of God tempted Adam in the garden and Israel in the wilderness (Deut. 1.27; Ps. 78.21-22). Jesus, however, will break this pattern. Unlike Adam and Israel, he will live in “active obedience” to his Father’s will throughout his probationary period leading to a final reckoning with the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e., the Cross). That Jesus’ entire earthly life represents a “test” of his obedience is clearly seen as he is thrust out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

This mission to trust and depend on God stands at the heart of the Trinitarian life. There is eternal communion between the Persons of the Godhead who hide nothing and share everything. This was the same pattern God expected of his creation, man, who decided to leave that fellowship. When we do not totally trust that God has our best in mind, we turn to something else. For Adam and Eve it was the promise of the forbidden fruit; for Israel the power and strength of the surrounding nations (Golden Calf and Egypt); for us it is the bottle, various stimulants, our families, our homes, our careers, etc. Jesus comes and reveals the true nature of God and the true life that is found in fellowship with Him.

The second mark of Jesus’ mission to undo the Fall is closely built on the first, but with an added twist. Jesus would pass the trial of demonstrating love for God in a hostile word where the first Adam failed in a perfect world. Jesus is tested just like Adam, but he is tested in the worst of circumstances. Adam was tested in Paradise; Jesus is “cast out” by the Spirit into the howling wastes to be tested. We know from the other Gospel accounts that Jesus also fasted this whole time. Thus he was spiritually, physically, and psychologically at a disadvantage. Mark’s odd and unique reference to Jesus “being with the beasts,” is also suggestive. Mark likely adds it not only to allude to Adam’s residence with the animals but particularly as a contrast to Jesus’ experience with the wild, ferocious beasts of the wilderness. Creation was entirely hostile to the Creator (Jn. 1)

We can assume, though it is not stated explicitly in Mark, that Jesus passed this initial test with Satan. This initial period of testing then becomes a parable for Jesus’ entire sojourn in which joy, success, stability, and peace alluded him at every turn. Frustration, set-backs, poverty, total rejection, and eventual crucifixion lie in his way.

What is the significance of this life of hardship? Simply this, it displays beyond a shadow of a doubt that for Jesus God was not a means to an end but an end in Himself. After all, this is the heart of the Trinitarian life in which each member loves and enjoys the other from all eternity. There could be nothing better than that. Jesus, experiencing that love from all eternity, could live a life of total failure from our perspective and it would still be worthwhile for the love of God. Jesus is saying God is worth all the hardship in the world; many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in foreign lands facing martyrdom and deprivation can say the same thing.

So far, we see Jesus acting as God’s true image-bearer on his own account. This doesn’t translate into benefits for anyone else besides himself. But Jesus came as the Final Adam not to reboot and restart the Creation, but to redeem what was already there. Thirdly, then, Jesus demonstrates that he will be the True Adam who fights for his people.

The Spirit “casts out” Jesus into the wilderness there to do battle with Satan. Once Jesus comes through this time of testing unscathed, he will proceed to “cast out” Satan from the midst of his people. The same word used in v. 12 will be the standard word for Jesus’ exorcisms of the demons. We will begin to see as we move ahead in Mark’s story, that Jesus is envisioned as the Divine Warrior who wages battle with his people’s enemies and frees them just as he did in the Exodus (Isa. 42.13-15; Ex 15.3). But of course, this battle started much further back. Adam should have cast the serpent out, but instead he allowed it to slither its way into God’s place and into the hearts of God’s people. By doing so, the Serpent turned Eden into a wilderness and Adam’s sons into slaves.

By fighting for us, Jesus identified with us. He has taken on our cause. This is why Jesus submitted to John’s Baptism. He did so in order to identify with and represent his people. And this is where we fit into this story. While this scene does seem to focus on everyone else except us—the Trinity, supernatural forces, even the animal kingdom—yet, that is the whole point. Our absence is filled with his presence. Christ is representing us, he will trust in God when we could not; He will fight Satan when we could not; He will lay down his life, so that we would not.

Sometimes it is difficult for us to get our minds around this “representative” role Jesus assumes for our sake. Despite our “representative” form of government, American individualism resists the notion that personal blame or merit can be earned on behalf of another. However, there is still a context in which such a notion still has currency, namely, a military command structure. Donovan Campbell, who served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom, illustrates this well in his war memoir Joker One. Reflecting on a particular episode when one of his men disobeyed orders and got into hot water with his superiors, Campbell struggled with how he should handle the situation:

 “If I abided solely by the letter of the law, I worried that I might come across as an automaton in my men’s eyes.  But it was important not to signal a willingness to defer justice on a regular basis; though this might make the Marines like me more, I needed to be their leader, not their friend, and maintaining this boundary at all times is crucial. What then, should a young officer do to navigate the delicate tension between justice and fear, between mercy and love?  I certainly don’t have all the answers to this age-old question, but I have found one way that a lieutenant can resolve this tension … The way to satisfy both justice and mercy is, quite simply, to take the hit for your men, to divert whatever punishment they may rate onto your own head if you believe that mercy is warranted.  This trade-off is just because as the lieutenant, you are held accountable for everything that your men achieve or fail to achieve, for everything that they do or that is done to them…This concept of an acceptable proxy goes much further than merely the dispensation of justice and mercy—ultimately it translates into the lieutenant’s greatest and sometimes final responsibility: to lay down his life for his Marines in combat.” (34)

This military hierarchy of authority and responsibility bears some analogy to Jesus’ role in redemptive history. By his incarnation, his baptism, and active obedience, Jesus is designated as our Captain who will “take the hit” for his company of wounded, broken, AWOL saints. He will fight this battle alone for us; He will obey a new order from his commanding officer, “taste the bitter cup and die in place of your company.” Across the bridge of this representative authority, Christ will ushers us up the chain of command into the fellowship of the Trinity.

Matthew Claridge is an editor for Credo Magazine and is Senior Pastor of Mt. Idaho Baptist Church in Grangeville, ID. He has earned degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Cassandra and has three children: Alec, Nora, and Grace.