Sometimes, in order to tell a story, another story must be told first. Without the set-up story, the main story won’t have the same weight or meaning. I find myself doing this with my kids on a regular basis. Sometimes, the connections I make between things are admittedly a bit far-fetched, but sometimes they’re right on the money.
From the very start of his telling of the Jesus story, Mark wants to tie it to a previous story. He wants his readers to have that previous story firmly in mind at every step of the way as he tells about Jesus. That previous story being the greatest story in the history of God’s people, the Exodus.
Very quickly, Mark will relay the story of Jesus’s baptism, which will recall the Hebrew people passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan River. Mark will relay the 40 days Jesus spends in the desert, recalling the 40 years the Hebrews spent in the desert. In chapter 5, Mark will tell the story of the pigs drowning in the sea, recalling the Egyptians doing the same. In chapter 6, Mark will tell the story of the feeding of the 5,000, recalling the manna and meat in the wilderness.
Mark wants us to see Jesus as a new Moses, leading God’s people on a new Exodus.
READ
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way” —
“a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him’” (Mark 1:2-3).
As we noted in the previous post, the first part of this mashed-up quote comes from Malachi 3. The second part comes from Isaiah 40:
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Is. 40:1-5).
Mark 1:3 pulls from Is. 40:3, where the prophet looks forward to a new Exodus. This time, the way through the desert will be a straight path, a highway. It won’t ascend over hills, for they will be flattened out like a modern freeway. So, too, the valleys will filled in and the rough places smoothed out. This will be an Exodus on the autobahn.
The event will be so spectacular that all humanity will see it. The glory of Yahweh will be unrestrained, unfiltered. This salvation will erase all of the sorrow God’s people have endured. All that will be left is comfort and glory.
Mark’s readers are being set up for something absolutely amazing. That this amazing new Exodus will be achieved through the cross of Jesus will be the greatest story twist of all times. But by the time Mark is done, it will make complete sense.
But for now, Mark is setting up the Jesus story as the new Exodus and John the Baptizer as the Isaianic messenger who marks the beginning of it all, the starting gun setting it in motion.
ENGAGE
How is the Jesus story a new Exodus?
The Exodus story takes God’s people out of slavery and hard labor. How does Jesus do the same for you, for us?
The Exodus story makes a bunch of nothings into a nation of somethings, loved and cared for by God? How does Jesus do that for you, for us?
PRAY
Jesus, thank you for leading your people on a new Exodus, saving us from not just physical slavery, but from our slavery to sin and death and the evil one. Help me to live into that freedom today. And not just me, help all your people to live into that freedom, inviting all others to join in as well. May all people everywhere see your glory because of it. Amen.
LIVE
St. Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians out of frustration that they had traded their new Exodus freedom in Jesus for a new form of slavery. He wrote,
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. … You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love (Gal. 5:1, 13).
Where are you using for freedom to indulge your desires instead of as a means of humble self-giving service of God and others?
Where are you living a form of slavery?
Choose freedom today. But choose a freedom that isn’t self-indulgent, but self-giving to others. For the greatest freedom we have is the freedom to give ourselves away in love.