The Un-Baptism of Jesus
How Jesus' baptismal blessings flow to us in Mark's Gospel
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. (Mark 15:33–41)
I preached this passage for my church a few months ago. As I was studying it, two details jumped out: two words that only appear here and one other place in Mark’s Gospel. First, the curtain of the temple is torn in two. That word, which is as violent in Greek as it sounds in English, is used to describe “the heavens being torn open” (Mark 1:10) at Jesus’ baptism. Second, Mark names women who had followed Jesus “and ministered to him.” That word is used to describe “angels … ministering to him” (Mark 1:3) … right after his baptism.
Those aren’t coincidental. Mark records three “baptismal blessings” that are given to Jesus at the start of his ministry. At his death, each blessing is “flipped” to a curse on him, and each “flows” from Jesus to humankind. When we look at how those blessings flip and flow, we see that they showcase Jesus’ substitutionary atonement for us: that, as Paul says elsewhere, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us … so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Gal. 3:13–14).
Baptismal blessings in Mark’s Gospel
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. (Mark 1:9–13)
Mark records three blessings given to Jesus at his baptism.
1. The heavens are opened for him.
We don’t know exactly what Jesus saw, but the earthly “heavens” (the sky) are torn open so that Jesus can see into the true heaven. He sees with his human eyes the heavenly home he had enjoyed from eternity past with the Father.
2. The Father and Spirit descend to bless him.
In some mysterious way, the Son remained present with the Father and Spirit through his incarnation. But at his baptism, the Father and Spirit join him in his human nature. The Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father descends by an audible voice from heaven. This is a picture of the intimacy and unity of the triune God; but it was also a tangible sign to Jesus that even in his “humiliation” on earth, the Father and Spirit were with him.
And they aren’t just with him. The Father says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This declaration of love and Fatherly pride at the start of his earthly ministry would have reaffirmed Jesus’ place in God’s heart and God’s mission. He was exactly who and where he needed to be.
3. The Father sends angels to minister to him.
The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to recapitulate Israel’s forty years of wandering and “test” Jesus through suffering and deprivation. But while Mark mentions Jesus’ temptations from Satan, he doesn’t tell that story in full; rather, he closes with “the angels were ministering to him.” We’ll see why this detail is relevant, but God’s provision of heavenly ministers is another sign of his blessing.
Blessings flipped into curses
But in Jesus’ crucifixion–the death that his baptism foreshadowed–each blessing is “flipped” into a curse on Jesus. Each becomes a sign of God’s judgment in a way that shows the depth of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
1. Where the heavens were opened, now they are closed.
“When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land” (Mark 15:33). This is a fulfillment of a prophecy about the day of judgment from the book of Amos:
“And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon [the sixth hour]
and darken the earth in broad daylight.” (Amos 8:9)
On the day of judgment, God would make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth when it should be daylight. Those would be signs of his wrath.
At Jesus’ crucifixion, the heavens that had been torn open to bless him are shut against him in judgment. Rather than the light of heavenly favor, he hangs under the shadow of heavenly wrath.
2. Where the Father and Spirit had blessed the Son, now the Son cries out alone.
Instead of God’s blessing descending on Jesus, a cry of anguish flies against the locked doors of heaven. “Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) In a way we don’t fully understand, Jesus experiences in his human nature what it would mean to be forsaken by God. Psalm 22:1, which is what Jesus quotes here, begins with the anguish of a servant of God who is abandoned by all comforts and surrounded by enemies.
Divine abandonment is one of the curses of hell. C. S. Lewis puts it this way:
We are warned that it may happen to any one of us to appear at last before the face of God and hear only the appalling words: “I never knew you. Depart from Me.” … We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored.1
Somehow, at his crucifixion the divine-human Son of God experiences that forsakenness that is a hallmark of hell.
3. Where God’s “ministers” had strengthened Jesus, now his “ministers” bury him.
Jesus’ crucifixion ends in death. In his human nature, he drinks God’s judgment to the dregs. And the women who had “ministered to him” (Mark 15:41), taking the role that angels had held after his baptism, bury his tortured body.
Blessings flowing to God’s people
Every blessing Jesus received at his baptism is flipped into a curse at his crucifixion. But this wasn’t pointless or arbitrary suffering. Mark gives us clues that there was a purpose to his pain. In Jesus’ crucifixion, the blessings that were withheld from Jesus were redirected to humankind: they flow to us.
1. Where heaven was torn open to Jesus, now it’s torn open to humanity.
When Jesus died, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38). At the center of the Temple was the Most Holy Place, which was the point at which in a sense heaven touched earth. Symbolizing the Garden of Eden, it was the closest that sinful human beings could come to the direct presence of God.
The Most Holy Place was separated from the rest of the Temple by a curtain that the Jewish historian Josephus tells us was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide.2 That curtain symbolically divided heaven from earth: it was a sign that heaven, the place of God’s presence, is so holy that we can’t enter it. The curtain could only be crossed once per year, on the Day of Atonement, by the Jewish high priest, after he had purified and prepared himself for days.
At Jesus’ death, that 60-foot curtain was torn in two. And Mark emphasizes that it was torn from top to bottom: from the side of heaven, not earth.
Just as the sky was torn open so heaven and earth could touch for Jesus’ sake at his baptism, now the barrier between heaven and earth is torn open so we and God can “touch” again. The separation caused by the first Adam’s fall is ended by the second Adam’s death. The paradise we’d lost is open again.
The author of Hebrews says, “We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19). His death tore open the barrier that separated us from heaven, that we might enter God’s presence.
2. Where the Father and Spirit blessed Jesus, now a human worships him.
The Spirit’s presence and the Father’s blessing were signs that they saw Jesus for who he was. A theme Mark hammers over and over is how no human seems to see Jesus clearly. Even his own disciples “miss” him over and over. The closest any of them come is Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29); but he then goes right on to show he doesn’t fully get it.
At Jesus’ crucifixion, a Roman centurion–not just a Gentile, but a Gentile who had just overseen Jesus’ torture and death–sees him and worships him. “[The centurion] said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39) He recognizes Jesus for who he is and responds in praise.
Mark opens his Gospel by calling it “the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God” (1:1). Finally, someone gets it. The fact that the curtain is torn open in the Jewish temple and Jesus is worshipped by a Gentile soldier is a sign of what God makes clear in the book of Acts: both Jews and Gentiles are going to be called into the new people of God.
We were made to worship the glory of God. Our hearts crave it. Paul tells the Corinthians that in his grace, “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). When John Newton wrote, “[I] was blind, but now I see,” he was celebrating this blessing of us being able to see and worship Jesus as our divine Savior.
3. Where angels had ministered to Jesus, now humans minister to him.
Again, Mark only uses the word for “minister” in two places: the work of angels after Jesus’ baptism, and the work of the women who followed him after his death. Angels are sinless, immortal beings who dwell in the Shekinah glory. They perpetually enjoy the presence of God and serve him perfectly. They have such glory that when they appear to people, they usually have to start by saying “Don’t be afraid,” because even their lesser glory terrifies us.
Mark tells us that these women have in a sense joined the ranks of the angels. Their work–serving Jesus, caring for his needs and the needs of his followers–is described in the language used for the sinless spirits who serve God in heaven. Even though the women’s service in this moment is tragic, Mark tells us God has elevated them to glory. Far from the misogynism that’s sometimes slung as an accusation against Christianity, Jesus’ death shows women raised into the ranks of heaven in their service to God the Son.
Cursed that we might be blessed
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us … so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Gal. 3:13–14). Where Paul speaks directly and logically, Mark uses narrative devices and clues to tell the same good news. Jesus willingly let go of the heavenly blessings bestowed on him, signified at the beginning of his ministry.
His work required that they be flipped into curses on him, because otherwise those curses would fall on us who deserve them. And because he did that, suffering the closure of heaven, the abandonment of the Father, and the full punishment of death, our sin could be atoned for, and the blessings of heaven could be poured out on us.
May we give thanks for being welcomed into heaven, worship the Christ and Son as he deserves, and join his angels by ministering to him and his body.
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From “The Weight of Glory,” which I almost quote in most things I write.
Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 5.5.4.
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