Mark 1:2-3
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’”
As we’ll see throughout this gospel, Mark is very influenced by the prophet Isaiah, and so it’s worth spending a moment or two on Isaiah and his message. Prophets came in almost all shapes and sizes. Some were rich, some poor. Some were known in the courts of power, while others were complete outsiders. Some had the ear of the king (whether or not the king listened); some had the ear of the people.
Isaiah was a court prophet who served under several kings, stretching from the time of Uzziah, Jothan, Ahaz, through the reign of Hezekiah and perhaps into the reign of Manasseh. The book that bears his name contains his prophecies in chapters 1-39. It also contains the prophecies of two later prophets who, because they wrote in the style and tradition of Isaiah, were collected together. The writings of “Second Isaiah” are in chapters 40-55 and those of “Third Isaiah” in chapters 56-66. Mark is particularly influenced by the prophecies of Second Isaiah.
But what is biblical prophecy? While we tend to think of prophecy along the lines of fortunetelling, it was rather most often 1) a warning or indictment of present behaviors (whether of the king or people or both) with a strong admonition of the Lord’s response to unfaithfulness or, somewhat less frequently, 2) a promise of comfort and consolation that might take place in the immediate future through, for instance, the birth of a new king or in the distant and unnamed future by the arrival of God’s presence and/or Messiah. Prophets, as it turns out, were generally more concerned with the present than they were with predictions about the future.
Few prophets, it seems, sought out their office and several of them gave testimony to their often painful experience. Perhaps the best way to describe their condition is to imagine being seized by a vision of something you can’t block out, or being arrested by a voice that you simply can’t refuse to hear. In either case, whether via sight or sound, you are caught up in a three-dimensional experience of God’s good desire for God’s people and a keen awareness of the disparity between this grand design and your people’s immediate actions. All you can do is cry out, or prophesy, about the painful breach between God’s desire and our actions.
Interestingly, once the consequences for bad faith and judgment had fallen, the prophets turned immediately to words of comfort. And that’s where we pick up the words of Second Isaiah that Mark quotes:
A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (40:3-5)
After years of suffering desolation and conquest, the people hear that God is moving to their aid and redemption. Isaiah therefore declares to them that a messenger is coming to bring good news – euangelion – in the classic sense: tidings of a decisive political victory and reversal of fortunes. Except that it is no mere military victory that the messenger heralds, but rather that God will be coming to Israel’s aid. Therefore they should do all they can to speed the Lord’s coming, in this case metaphorically by filling in all the valleys and leveling out the mountains in order to build a straight and level highway for the Lord to approach.
So there it is: at the start of his gospel, Mark quotes Isaiah to announce the greatest road construction project of all time, as this passage from Isaiah helps him understand just what is happening in Jesus: God is drawing near to save God’s people.
Prayer: Dear God, let us also consider how in our lives we can “make a straight path” by which you can approach us with the good news of what you have accomplished through the life, death, and resurrection of your Son. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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