This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Advent in Lectionary Cycle B. As noted in a previous commentary, the gospels of the Season of Advent follow a particular pattern.  For the Second Sunday of Advent the Gospel readings focus on the preaching and ministry of John the Baptist as the precursor or forerunner of Jesus, the one who came to “Prepare the Way of the Lord,” by calling the people to turn back to God. The readings often include passages from the Old Testament, particularly from the book of Isaiah. This Sunday the first reading is taken from Isaiah 40 and succinctly proclaims: “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” All of these first reading OT prophecies are associated with John the Baptist, and his role as the one who fulfills these prophecies is emphasized. Like Isaiah, John the Baptist’s message was one of repentance and conversion, a fitting Advent theme.

Mark 1:1-13 is generally considered the “prologue” for this oldest of the gospels. The reason for this designation is that these verses supply the key to the entire Gospel by introducing the central figure of the account. In accordance with the prophetic word, Jesus appears in the wilderness of Judea, summoned by the call of John the Baptist. His baptism and sojourn there constitute his first public acts and provide the foundation for his subsequent ministry. The Gospel of Mark will be the account of Jesus’ encounter with evil in the world. Throughout Jesus decisively encounters Satan and receives help from God. This is what it means for Jesus to go out to the wilderness.

The motif of the wilderness dominates the prologue. The prophetic note of the voice of one crying in the wilderness (v.3) serves to introduce John the Baptist, whose ministry in the Jordan valley attracts Jesus of Nazareth (vv.4–8). Situating John “in the wilderness” (v.4) binds the account of his ministry to Isaiah’s prophetic announcement of Mark 1:2–3, which quotes the Isaiah 40 verse mentioned above.

The lower Jordan valley where the baptisms are taking place is part of the wilderness scene and was called “desert” in both the Old and New Testament periods. After the baptism of Jesus, he remains in the wilderness where he was tempted (vv.12–13). Thus in vv. 1–13 the wilderness is the location common to the several events related, and serves to underline the unity of the initial section. In v. 14 the locale changes: Jesus leaves the wilderness and returns to Galilee to begin his ministry following the imprisonment of John.

In the prologue, the principal unifying term is “wilderness.” But there is also repeated reference to the person of the Spirit within this section (vv. 8, 10, 12). The allusion to the one who baptizes with the Spirit in the summary of John’s message (v. 8) prepares for the reference to the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, vv. 9–11, while the role of the Spirit in the temptation (vv. 12–13) associates this unit with the previous ones. The fact that the Spirit is introduced into the record only rarely beyond the prologue suggests that Mark has consciously unified his opening statement by a threefold reference to the Spirit.

The most striking characteristics of the Marcan prologue are its abruptness and its silences. This is surprising because the one introduced is not an ordinary person but the Son of God, acknowledged by the heavenly voice, who in the initial phases of his public ministry provokes wonder and astonishment by the authority of his teaching and the power of his mighty acts. The evangelist makes no attempt to provide an historical explanation for John’s presence in the wilderness or for Jesus’ appearance before John. The prophetic voice and the Son of God appear, veiled in mystery from the very beginning.

Yet their appearance in the wilderness is full of meaning precisely because the veil has been removed and the significance which it has in the divine plan of redemption has been disclosed. Mark openly declares this in the initial verse of his account. Accordingly, with a few broad strokes the prologue discloses Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God; Jesus is joined to the people of Israel in the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit confirms his divine mission, and quickly, Jesus is engaged with the forces of evil. All of this in the wilderness.

Perhaps reading too much into the stark opening prologue, it is interesting that the OT scroll we know as the Book of Numbers, is not its name in the original Hebrew. There its name is Bemidbar, “In the Wilderness.” It is a book that moves the people from God’s covenant at Sinai, through the wilderness and all its encounters with evil, up to the banks of the Jordan and the Promised Land. In this gospel, St. Mark moves from the promise of covenant’s fulfillment, there in the wilderness at the banks of the Jordan River, not to the Promised Land, but to the Promised Redeemer.

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