Marc 1:9-13 (daily bread of 13/10/17)

Key verse: 9

JESUS WAS BAPTIZED AND TEMPTED

Today's story tells the two first works: Jesus's baptism and his temptation. The description of Marc is very short, but it has a great significance.

1. Jesus was baptized (9-11)

Baptism is defined as burying of the old nature and procurement of the new and holy nature (Rm 6:3). It's the result of repentance of a person. Jesus had any reason to be baptized by a man. But Jesus made it, because Jesus did'nt act according to his own desire but according to God the Father's will. God's will was to make God's work take turn from John the Baptist. Here we learn:

1) Our God is a God of history. All persons and things must be included in this history.

2) Many people act according their own way. Behind a mask of Christianity, in reality they act according to their own ideas and intelligence. But look at Jesus. Even if he was the Son, he renounced his self, he curved and lowered his head to be baptized. God the Father fully rejoiced and opened the heaven to send the Holy Spirit and make his voice listen to mankind, not because Jesus was the Son, but because of his obedience. These things was the inaugural ceremony of the ministry of Jesus. 

2. Jesus was tempted (5-8) 

The second inaugural ceremony of the ministry of Jesus was his passing to the desert and his tentation by Satan. According of the others gospels, Jesus was in the desert during 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus came on the earth with a precise goal: to destroy the enemy who in the past seduced all the earth. Therefore Jesus' coming was a divine ultimatum against the evil and tempter spirit. The fight is very hard so Jesus almost succumbed. But during each tentation of Satan about bread, abuse of God's name or vainglory of the world (Mt 4:1-11) Jesus pushed Satan by God's word. The wild beasts accompagnied him and the angels served him, so the fight was very bloody. This fight will be continue when Jesus will be killed, but the final victory is garanteed by his resurrection by which Satan's head will be crushed.