Gospel Of Mark Analysis

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Although the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark is an ancient story that was foreseeably written for a largely agrarian society with subjugated people, it has many important messages that are relevant to people in the 21st century. For instance, Mark points out the importance of John the Baptist in the first chapter. John the Baptist is described as “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” (Mk 1:3). Within the first three verses Mark characterizes John the Baptist as God’s “messenger” (Mk 1:2) whose purpose is to prepare people for the arrival of Jesus and to help Jesus figure out his role in God’s plan (Pagola 81). Therefore, the first chapter of Mark is interesting to people…show more content…
Mark states, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan” (Mk 1:9). Pagola claims that being plunged into the river of Jordan by John the Baptist “felt like a gift of God” and that “God himself was offering purification to Israel. John was only the messenger” (Pagola 83). More importantly, John’s baptism was seen as a “sign of commitment to a radical conversion to God” (Pagola 83). I think that Jesus’ baptism is fascinating to people today because it brings about several key questions that are difficult to answer definitively. For example, the power dynamics between John the Baptist and Jesus seem unclear since John the Baptist is the one who baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. At first glance it appears that John the Baptist is more powerful than Jesus since he is the one baptizing Jesus. This observation seems to lack support in other parts of the Gospel of Mark but does bring about an interesting point of contradiction with respect to the power dynamics between John the Baptist and Jesus. Similarly, if Jesus is baptized, then it implies that he was able to commit sin. This leads one to ponder whether Jesus was sinless and what being sinless

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