Daily Mass Gospel Reflection-Step Aside Caesar

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 12.10.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Mark 1:1-8

Friends, today we hear the opening line of Mark’s Gospel:
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.”
This can sound anodyne and harmlessly pious to us,
but in the first century,
those were fighting words.

Mark’s Greek term euangelion, which we render as “good news,”
was a word that was typically used to describe an imperial victory.
When the emperor won a battle or quelled a rebellion,
he sent evangelists ahead with the good news.

Do you see now how subversive Mark’s words were?
He was writing from Rome, from the belly of the beast,
from the heart of the empire whose leaders had killed his friends
Peter and Paul just a few years before,
and he was declaring that the true victory didn’t have a thing to do with Caesar,
but rather with someone whom Caesar had put to death and whom God raised up.

And just to rub it in,
he refers to this resurrected Lord as “Son of God.”
Ever since the time of Augustus,
“Son of God” was a title claimed by the Roman emperor.

Not so, says Mark.
The authentic Son of God is the one who is more powerful than Caesar.
The opening line of the Gospel of Mark is a direct challenge to Rome:
Jesus Christ, not Caesar nor any of his descendants, is Lord.

[MurphsLaw]

+++The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:

“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”+++