The Book of Mark
Chapter 1 (NIV)
7And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
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2 comments:
Wow! I thought the Holy Spirit wasn't mentioned in the Bible until after Jesus' resurrection, but John spoke of it here. I love the image of being bathed by the Holy Spirit - made clean, refreshed, awash with life. We are only baptised once, but the Holy Spirit bathes us again and again. I pray that the spirit continues to water the seed that is in me - the desire to truly love and follow God.
By the way, I really loved the comments from the last post. You guys made me see things I had missed before. Thank you.
Jesus is referred to and described in the Bible in a variety of modest ways but "one more powerful than I" has got to be a candidate for understatement-of-the-year.
Also interesting to note in verse 7 is John's "After me will come..." assertion. I was under the impression that John and Jesus were contemporaries, practically the same age. If so, then what John is not really referring to someone in the distant future. Perhaps his timing reference serves to clarify his role as the messenger (as prophesied in the OT) rather as the Messiah himself .
Verse 8 makes a stunning reference to the Holy Trinity and the incredible importance of being touched by the Holy Spirit. Finding salvation no longer involves just following a set of rules. God is now offering man the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Him. This revelation seems quite revelatory, if not downright revolutionary, yet the masses were still attracted to John and his message. Where was the "tipping point" -- the point where people became more threatened than comforted by what John was saying?
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