The idea of Jesus as simply a good teacher is not an option given to us by Mark, or any of the other gospel writers. They clearly record that the eyewitnesses—those who personally knew Jesus—believed that he was God, who entered the world through human flesh. That may or may not be true, but this claim does not give us the option of thinking he was just a human being who was killed for being too nice.

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MARK 1:1-11

Many people claim that Jesus was simply a good man and a brilliant teacher who was killed for his honesty and compassion. They would say that Jesus never claimed to be God, and that later Christians made up this claim later on. The gospel of Mark obliterates these ideas. Most scholars believe that Mark was killed for his faith in about 68 AD, so he must have written his gospel earlier than that. It couldn’t have been much more than thirty years after Jesus walked the earth, and there probably were at least a few hundred people still living who had heard him teach. In other words, there were people alive who could have said, “Mark was wrong. I was there, and this isn’t what Jesus said or did.” But there are no records of eye-witnesses disputing what Jesus said. Some of the hostile eye-witnesses, like the Jewish elite leaders, and the Romans, agreed that Jesus claimed to be God. They thought he was wrong, but they didn’t dispute that Jesus did in fact claim it.

Paul says, in about AD 56, that there were five hundred witnesses to the resurrected Jesus, most of whom were still alive at that point. So the gospel of Mark does not represent some later, altered Christian teaching. Most scholars agree that it was very early on. And the gospel begins with three clear statements of the God-nature of Jesus.

If you missed last time, the gospel of Mark is really a record of the teachings of the apostle Peter. So Mark and Peter begin their teaching with a clear statement:

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the very first sentence, Mark is claiming that Jesus is the Christ (which is the Greek word for Messiah), and that he is “the son of God.” In ancient times, a firstborn son was considered, for all legal and practical purposes, to represent the father. If you needed to talk to a ruler, and you were able to talk to the ruler’s son, rather than the ruler himself, you would take that conversation as if it were with the ruler himself. The firstborn son bore the family name, and acted on behalf of his father. A legal contract that the son entered into was treated as if the father himself had made the contract. In the culture of that time, the firstborn son and his father were counted as essentially the same. So when Mark calls Jesus the “son of God,” he is saying “this is God in essence. If you interact with Jesus, you are interacting with God. It’s the same thing.”

This is a huge, bold claim about Jesus. It sounds typical of Peter, doesn’t it? Go big or go home. Launch right into it. Mark captures Peter’s teaching very well.

But Peter and Mark aren’t done yet. The second way they claim Jesus was God starts in the next verse, with a quote from the book of Isaiah, chapter 40:

² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
³ A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight!
⁴ John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. ⁶ John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.
⁷ He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. ⁸ I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Mark makes it clear that John the baptizer was the one “preparing the way of the Lord.” But here again is a bold claim about Jesus. In the Hebrew Bible, whenever God’s personal name “Yahweh” appears, Jews replaced it with “the Lord,” because they were afraid of taking the name of the Lord—which is Yahweh—in  vain. So, in Isaiah 40:3 (which Mark quotes) it actually says, in Hebrew: “Prepare the way for Yahweh.” Mark is clearly saying that John the baptizer was preparing the way for Yahweh. Who was the human-flesh Yahweh that John prepared for? We know it was Jesus, because John said so. So, Mark is claiming here that Jesus is Yahweh, the God of the people of Israel, the creator of the world.

Finally, Mark shows the divinity of Jesus through his baptism.

⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. ¹⁰ As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” (Mark 1:1-11, CSB)

Peter, in his second letter writes this:

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased! ” (2 Peter 1:16-17, CSB)

So, it seems likely to me that Peter was there, and heard the voice. There was a second occasion on which Peter heard a voice from heaven saying the same thing, and that was during the transfiguration, but I lean toward the idea that Peter was present at Jesus’ baptism, also. John (the apostle) records that Peter and a few others followed John the Baptist until John pointed them toward Jesus. Mark has heard Peter say it, and so he writes. It doesn’t get a lot clearer than that. John the Baptizer, and everyone else who was there at the time (including, probably, Peter), witnessed the voice from heaven telling everyone who Jesus is.

By the way, I like how Mark, probably quoting Peter exactly, says that the heavens were “torn open.” Again, this sounds like impulsive, action-oriented Peter. Matthew, Luke and John simply say that the heavens “opened,” but, to dramatic Peter, they were “torn open.”

So Mark says Jesus is the son of God. He says that John was preparing the way for Jesus, who is Yahweh himself. And then, he ends his opening with the testimony from Heaven that Jesus is indeed the beloved, righteous son of God. This bam-bam-bam opening reminds me of Peter’s style. Hit it hard and fast. Get to the point. Say the big thing right out loud.

In Jewish law, testimony had to be confirmed by more than one witness:

¹⁵ “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done. A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 19:15, CSB)

The Jews amplified this not only to criminal cases, but to the law in general. A fact had to be established by two or three witnesses. Peter and Mark here give us three (or, perhaps, four) witnesses to establish that Jesus was the son of God, which is to say, God himself, in human flesh. First there is the bald statement in the very first sentence that Jesus is the son of God. That is Peter’s testimony as an apostle. Next, there is the statement of the scripture from Isaiah, combined with the statement of John the Baptizer (this could be considered one witness, or two). Finally, a voice from heaven, from God himself, tells us, once more, who Jesus is.

So, Mark’s first readers would have been confronted with the identity of Jesus as the son of God, of the same essence as God, right away. It’s a claim with witnesses that can’t be easily dismissed.

Sometimes, I think we in 21^st Century America breeze over this too quickly. We know Jesus was supposed to be God in the flesh. But think about this. Mark is saying that in a particular point in time, at a particular place, God entered the world in human flesh. He is confronting us with that fact. Try to hear it as if for the first time.

We’ve heard it over and over again. We often sort of put it into the box of “beliefs that Christians have.” But Mark is not primarily trying to confront us with a doctrine. He is putting the focus, front and center, on a person: Jesus Christ.

I think many modern-day Christians in places like America think of Jesus as “an important part” of their lives. They have work, which takes up a bunch of time, and they have family, and maybe children’s sports, and a lot of other stuff going on. Jesus is important, but so are other things, and so, maybe, they make time for Jesus on Sunday mornings, and maybe Wednesday night, and possibly prayer a few days a week.

But if Jesus is who Peter and Mark say he is, he ought to be the One Thing. If he’s God, our entire lives should be oriented around him. We work because Jesus leads us to be responsible, and take care of ourselves and our loved ones. But even more, we work because Jesus wants us to be a witness to him in our work place. He wants to lead and bless others through us, where and when we work. So it should be with all of life. If we are involved with others in any way, it should be because we belong to Jesus, and he is leading us to that activity either to bless us, or to bless others through us, or both. If Jesus is God, and we trust him, that means that we belong not to ourselves, but to him.

¹⁹ Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, CSB)

If Jesus is who Mark and Peter claim he is, then we are not our own. We belong to him twice over: first, because he created all things, including us, and second, because he redeemed us through his death and resurrection.

The idea of Jesus as simply a good teacher is not an option given to us by Mark, or any of the other gospel writers. They clearly record that the eyewitnesses—those who personally knew Jesus—believed that he was God, who entered the world through human flesh. That may or may not be true, but this claim does not give us the option of thinking he was just a human being who was killed for being too nice.

Do you recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Yahweh himself come to earth? Do you live like that is true?

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you now.