The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ” (Mark 1:1-3 ESV)
Beginnings
I wonder if Mark quietly grinned as he wrote these opening words. The word “beginning” seems to say, “HERE is where it all started.” Read these words and we will begin to understand, to know, to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even more, it seems that Mark is saying “HERE is where Christ Himself begins.”
But then Mark ties in what for his day, was THE prophet, Isaiah. This Jesus that seemed to begin as later folk counted the years as counting down, to counting up, actually was known centuries before. The gospel began back in the scrolls of God’s Word, not in Bethlehem.
And Mark also notes that Jesus was, is, and will be the Son of God. That was nothing like the Greeks thought about gods having children (like Hercules, Achilles, or Athena). God AND God’s Son are eternal. Jesus Christ… the gospel… began before the beginning found in Genesis 1.
What begins is OUR part. WE get to make Christ’s paths straight be bringing His straightness into our crooked world. John the Baptist did. Mark did. All the players in the Nativity did.
When the eternal, infinite, unchanging God enters our time-world, our physical world, our touchable world, EVERY moment is a beginning.
It is Christmas Eve. Back then, the worlds (both heaven and earth) were poised for a beginning. It was a beginning that changed everything.
And yet that beginning happens again now.
It happens when we realize, admit, and embrace the fact that the beginning of everything is God, not our alarm clocks. It happens when we comprehend, know, and apprehend that the beginning of everything is Jesus, not our calendar. It happens when we notice joy, peace, and love because God is with us, Emmanuel, the King born in a dusty town.
Begin again.