Mark next recorded two events that immediately preceded the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, His baptism and His temptation. The first of these events signaled His appearing as Messiah and His induction into that office. Mark simply recorded the fact of Jesus' baptism and two attendant events that confirmed that He was the Messiah.
1:9 The fact that Mark identified Jesus simply as Jesus may show that he wrote his Gospel to people familiar with Jesus. Jesus did not come to John from Judea or Jerusalem (cf. v. 5) but from Nazareth in Galilee where He had grown up and was living.28The obscurity of this little town is clear from the fact that neither the Old Testament, Josephus, nor the Talmud ever mentioned it.
Jesus underwent John's baptism to identify with man and man's sin (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). He did not do so because He needed to repent. He did not. He also submitted to baptism because by doing so He identified with the particular group of people that John was baptizing, namely the Israelites. Jesus associated His baptism with His death (10:38; Luke 12:50). Consequently it is probably proper to conclude that He viewed His baptism as a public acceptance of His role as Israel's Suffering Servant, Messiah. Jesus was about 30 years old then (Luke 3:23).
1:10 This is the first of Mark's 42 uses of the Greek adverb euthys("immediately") that give his narrative a feeling of rapidly moving action. Mark used this word more than the other three evangelists combined.
"As the story progresses, the frequency of the word immediately' drops off, but reappears later to reinforce how quickly the arrest and trial of Jesus take place. And the tempo varies. Whereas early in the narrative the action shifts rapidly from one location to another, the end of the journey slows to a day-by-day description of what happens in a single location, Jerusalem, and then an hour-by-hour depiction of the crucifixion. Because the whole narrative moves toward Jerusalem and toward crucifixion, the slowing of the tempo greatly intensifies the experience of this event for the reader."29
Mark described Jesus seeing the heavens opened, though John at least saw this too (John 1:32-34). He used the vivid word schizomenous, meaning tearing or rending. This word recalls Isaiah 64:1 where the prophet called on God to rend the heavens and come down (cf. Ps. 18:9, 16-19; 144:5-8). God now answered Isaiah's prayer. The descent of the Spirit on Jesus constituted His anointing for ministry (cf. Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38).
The dove is a bird that symbolizes the humble self-sacrifice that characterizes it. It was a bird that poor Israelites' offered in sacrifice to the Lord. The same spirit of humble self-sacrifice indwelt Jesus.
The Spirit's coming on Jesus here does not imply that Jesus had lacked Holy Spirit empowering previously. Here the Spirit came to empower Jesus specifically for His messianic ministry.
1:11 The Father's voice from heaven expressed approval of Jesus and His mission in words recalling Genesis 22:2. What the voice said identified the speaker. God's words from heaven fused the concepts of King (Ps. 2:7) and Servant (Isa. 42:1). This combination constituted the unique sonship of Jesus.
"The first clause of the [Father's] declaration (with the verb in the present tense of the indicative mood) expresses an eternal and essential relationship. The second clause (the verb is in the aorist indicative) implies a past choice for the performance of a particular function in history."30
From this point on, the reader of Mark's Gospel knows God's authoritative evaluation of Jesus. This evaluation becomes the norm by which we judge the correctness or incorrectness of every other character's understanding of Him.
"If Mark refuses knowledge of Jesus' identity to human characters in the beginning and middle of his story, who, then, knows of his identity? The answer is Mark himself as narrator, the reader, and such supernatural beings as God, Satan, and demons."31
Jesus began His official role as the Messiah at His baptism (cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-16; Ps. 89:26; Heb. 1:5). He also began His official role as the Suffering Servant of the Lord then (cf. 8:31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34, 45; 15:33-39).
"Jesus' baptism did not change His divine status. He did not becomethe Son of God at His baptism (or at the transfiguration, 9:7). Rather, His baptism showed the far-reaching significance of His acceptance of His messianic vocation as the suffering Servant of the Lord as well as the Davidic Messiah. Because He is the Son of God, the One approved by the Father and empowered by the Spirit, He is the Messiah (not vice versa)."32
