Last week, Jesus foretold the fall of the biggest idol standing in Jerusalem, the Temple. He spoke of it being torn down, not one stone would remain on top of each other. And today the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, still stands; this was a support wall for the Temple Mount. Indeed, every stone the constructed the Temple was torn down above.
Note from Pastor Chad- It may help you to know that the Gospel of Mark was written in the year 70 AD. While we record the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the same year, that destruction actually began in the year 63 AD with the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem. In 66 AD, a group of Zealots attempted a coup d’état and the Caesar Nero sent Vespasian and he pushed the Jewish army into Jerusalem and Vespasian was then proclaimed emperor in 69 AD. In April of 70 AD, Roman general Titus besieged Jerusalem during Passover. What Titus did was allow pilgrims in to celebrate Passover but didn’t let them leave, depleting the food and water that the Jewish army of Zealots needed and basically starved them out.
Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
Water baptism is an awesome experience that reveals a family and a church’s responsibilities to guide and nurture people in their walk in Christ. It is a fundamental experience that should not be neglected, as we speak about water baptism. But I would like to point out the “whole” of the passage and take it further.
Paul gives conditions on what we are baptized into:
After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”*
When did baptism even become a thing? According to Jewish practice, the idea of a “mikveh” was developed in the mid-500’s B.C.E. during the time of captivity in Babylon. That means that these ideas were developed by those like Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Malachi. Then, it was a process of conversion, a pagan becoming a Jew. Thus, the question posed to John the Baptist then makes more sense. John was baptizing Jews, which made no sense to the Jewish leaders.