Mark 1:2-8-- The Baptist Confession

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'" John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And he was preaching, and saying, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

John the Baptist was appointed by God to prepare his people for his kingdom, which was coming soon (more about that below). Mark sees John as fulfilling the verse in Isaiah 40:3. Although Isaiah was speaking of himself in the prophecy, it applies clearly to John and his calling, thus he “fulfilled” the prophecy—not in being a one time fulfillment, but in repeating a previous calling correctly. He baptized people to repent from their sins and to be forgiven—so they could be accepted by God and so accepted in the new kingdom that was coming. But he did not focus on himself, but he focused on the one who was to come. Even so, in our lives, we should not focus on ourselves or our desires so much as on the One who called us and uses us to call others to him.

John was an amazing man. He sacrificed much for his message. He saw the people of God as ultimately straying from where God had called them. Not just that they were imperfect, but that as a society they were far from the basic standard of what could be called the "kingdom of God". They were not ruled by God, nor were they living according to God's justice, which included equity for the poor and opportunity for the sinner to come to God. John rejected all the leadership of the people of God, from the council to the kings to the scribes.

The church is in a similar state. The church has rejected the justice and economic system of Jesus, which is based on meeting the needs of those at the bottom of society. The church's leadership is as much about hierarchy and prestige and monetary gains as it is about "ministry". It is time for a complete change, a new opportunity to be in God's kingdom. It is time to know what our goals really are, to establish real justice, instead of relying on the false justice that exists in our society.

Perhaps we all need to be rebaptized into a church that focuses on mercy and justice and the needs of the poor. Perhaps we need to be rejoined to Jesus in a new way. We need to be joined to a community that will do what the world does not, in order to replace it, not just to supplement it. It is time for a new revolution to make a new society.

At the same time, John was a humble man. He knew that he couldn't bring the revival that God demanded. Rather, he was only the one to point the way. He pointed the way starkly, dramatically, but it was up to Jesus alone to start the kingdom that John could only see from afar. Would that we had such humility.