The baptism of Jesus

After an introduction in which Mark has been describing the preparatory ministry that John the Baptist made before the imminent coming of the promised Messiah, now he is finally going to present us to Jesus, the central character of the whole gospel. From here he wants our eyes to focus only on him and the purpose of his coming.

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The humility of the "Servant"

Perhaps we would expect that the Messiah, the Son of God, would be someone with an imposing bearing, a man who would immediately call the attention of the multitudes. But Jesus did not present himself as a powerful and triumphant Messiah, with an irresistible force, but submissive, surrendering in obedience to the will of God as a servant (nothing to do with the gods of Greek mythology, or with the great emperors of the Empire Roman).
There are several details in this portion that highlight this humility of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark tells us that "Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Christ did not ask John to go to where he was to be baptized there on the Sea of ​​Galilee. How humble was the King of glory during his incarnation! "He did not come to be served, but to serve" (Mr 10:45).
Its place of origin is also significant: "Nazareth of Galilee". As we know, Galilee was in the northern part of the country, very close to the Gentiles, which is why the Jews of the south despised it. Remember the disdain with which some members of the Sanhedrin treated Jesus to come from Galilee: "They answered and said to Nicodemus," Are you also a Galilean? Search and see that a prophet has never risen from Galilee "(Jn 7:52) . But if this were not enough, the Lord also spent his youth in Nazareth, a town so insignificant that it did not even deserve a mention throughout the Old Testament. In fact, its inhabitants were not well considered even among the Galileans themselves. As Natanael once said: "Can something good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn 1:46)

And then, when he was going to be baptized, he placed himself among the sinners who were baptized by John. He, who was completely free from sin, stood in the midst of that company of sinners.
All these details show us the absolute humility of the Lord Jesus Christ and his spirit of service.
Why did Jesus go to John the Baptist to be baptized?
The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance and was intended for sinners who wanted a change of life. So, what did such a baptism have to do with Jesus? Was not he without sin? In fact, as the Gospel of Matthew tells us, even John himself opposed the principle when Jesus asked him to baptize him (Mt 3:14). Why was Jesus baptized then?
As we have already said, here begins the public ministry of Jesus, so the fact that he did not address the religious leaders in the temple, but went to John the Baptist to be baptized by him, fully confirmed John as God's prophet and also marked from the beginning his estrangement from the official religion of his time.

But without a doubt, the most important reason why he came down to the waters together with the sinful people, was in order to identify with him. In the same way that Moses had abandoned his royal position centuries before to identify with his people and free him from slavery, so Christ had temporarily left his throne in the Majesty on high to come to save sinners.

Thus, his baptism showed his identification with sinners and anticipated the time when he was to be "made an offering for sin".
Jesus, the only holy and innocent man, presented himself as the representative of all sinners, as the prophet Isaiah had announced.
(Is 53: 6) "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned in his way, but the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all."
We can say that this was the first step of a path that would lead you to the Cross.

Jesus is "anointed" by the Spirit

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The fact that during his baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon him, does not imply that Jesus did not have the Holy Spirit before that moment. If John the Baptist had been filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb of his mother (Luke 1:15), how much more the Lord Jesus, who was begotten by the Holy Spirit, would be full of him! (Lk 1:35) (Mt 1:20).

What happened on this occasion is that the Holy Spirit came upon him to anoint him for the mission he had come to carry out. Remember that in the Old Testament times kings and priests were anointed pouring oil on their heads, entrusting them with the function and ministry they would serve. And we can say that when he was anointed, Jesus began to publicly exercise as the Messiah promised by the Scriptures. This is the interpretation that the Apostle Peter also makes:

(Acts 10: 37-38) "You know what was spread throughout Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power ..."

The heavens opened

Mark does not use the term "open", as some translations do, but he says that the heavens "ripped". The difference is significant; what opens can also be closed; however, what is torn can not easily return to its original state.
What was the meaning of these details?
For the first time since Adam's innocence, there was a Man without sin on earth and therefore there was no obstacle between him and heaven. It was the fulfillment of the prayer and supplication of the prophet Isaiah. (Is 64: 1) "Oh, if you broke the heavens, and you descended ...". Isaiah's request was based on the fact that the "closed heaven" was a sign of God's wrath against sinful humanity (Deut 11:17) (1 Kings 8:35) (2 Cr 6:26) (2 Cr. 7:13) (Lk 4:25). But with Christ, the blessing of God returned to this poor world.
On the other hand, the evangelist tells us that the events were taking place in the Jordan River and we must not forget that for any Jew the Jordan was much more than a river. For them it represented the border between the desert and the promised land. In ancient times, in the time of Joshua, God opened the waters of the Jordan River so that his people could enter the promised land (Jos 3: 7-17). However, now in the presence of the Messiah, what opens is not the waters of the Jordan, but the heavens themselves, showing us that he had come to introduce us to our true heavenly inheritance.

Therefore, the heavens were opened in two directions: on the one hand the heavens opened for the Son of God to descend into this world to save mankind, but as a result of his Work, he would also get the skies to open up for may men who trust in him may reach the very presence of God in his glory.
The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove
Why was the third person of the Trinity represented in the form of a dove? Perhaps in order to convey the characteristic purity, goodness, serenity and grace that identify the Holy Spirit. Both popular opinion and the Scriptures associate these qualities with the dove (Ps 68:13) (Cnt 6: 9) (Mt 10:16).
In the Old Testament God presented himself as an "eagle" (Ex 19: 4) (Deut 32:11), a bird of prey and great power, which protected his people from their enemies, but in the Gospel takes the form of the meek dove and the protective hen of her chicks (Mt 23:37).
So the Holy Spirit appears as a soft dove suspended in the air. It was the same Spirit of God who at the moment of creation "moved on the face of the waters" (Gen 1: 2). Now he presents himself again to start a new creation. But this time it descends on a Man, not on the amorphous emptiness, suggesting that God intended to transform, to do something new with humanity.

The voice of the Father: "You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased"

As we have seen, Jesus was presented together with the sinners to be baptized, however, he was not a sinner, and this is what the Father came to confirm from heaven through this statement.
It also served to proclaim the ineffable and wonderful love that had existed between the Father and the Son for all eternity.

In addition, the language of Mark reminds us of other portions of the Old Testament:

In (Is 42: 1) we see the Messiah as a servant upon whom God has placed his Spirit and in whom he has his contentment. This would be responsible for bringing justice to the nations:
(Is 42: 1) "Behold my servant, I will sustain him, my chosen one, in whom my soul rejoiceth: I have put my spirit upon him: he will bring justice to the nations."

In (Gen 22: 2) a similar language is used when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved, in sacrifice. And in the same way, God was giving his own Son to die for sinners and wants to help us understand to some extent what he felt doing it.

(Gen 22: 2) "And he said, Take now your son, your only one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you."
In (Ps 2: 7-8) the Messiah is presented as the "Son of God" appointed to rule the world after being despised by the rulers and the people.

(Ps 2: 7-8) "I will publish the decree: the Lord has said to me: You are my son, I begot you today, ask of me, and I will give you the nations as an inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession."
Although the text does not explain to us why God takes pleasure in his beloved Son, we can deduce that it is due to the fact that Jesus presented himself humbly to be the savior of men. This pleased the Father, who in turn announced his full approval of the Son's mission to seek and save those who were lost, and accepted him as the Mediator, the Substitute and the Surety of the new covenant.

Conclusion

The Work of redemption is that of the Triune God:
The Father ordered and approved.
The Son carried out the Work.
The Holy Spirit invested or anointed the Servant.
Christ offered himself as the Servant and was accepted by the Father. Christ is an example of personal consecration:
Obedience to the Father.
Commitment to the Kingdom of God.
Personal Humiliation
Life in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.