Mark 1:4-6 - John the Baptist. . .Jesus' Weird Homeschool Cousin

(Continuing my Bible Journaling of Mark. . .)

The Verses: 

Mark 1:4-6 - 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 

My Paraphrase:

4 - Following the Spirit, John lived in the desert, baptizing and calling people to repent.
5 - This attracted everyone from the surrounding areas and they obeyed this calling.

My Thoughts:

John obeyed God's calling on his life. I think we take for granted the obedience we see in Biblical characters. Did John struggle with his calling? Did he have a wayward adolescence? Or did he readily embrace the poverty and humility of his prophesied profession?

Whatever the case, because of his obedience, an entire city and countryside were attracted to his message--and an unlikely message to be so attracted to! Think about it, people turned from sin and selfishness, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and agreed to be dunked underwater by a bug-eating nutcase in the desert! This shows me that the power of God--and specifically the power of obedience--is not something to take lightly. He is not impressed with showmanship or Pharisitical propriety AT ALL. If He can get people to listen to His message in such an unlikely way, none of us should ever feel prideful if people happen to turn their hearts to Him because of some "amazing" thing we did.



My Paraphrase:

6 - John dressed like a dirty hippy and ate bugs and honey.

My Thoughts:

Okay, so my paraphrase was kind of to make you laugh. . .but honestly. . .read how Mark himself writes it! Verse 6 is TOTALLY out-of-the-blue, non sequitur. It's almost like each verse builds on itself to make this crazy picture complete. First of all, John--as fulfillment of Scripture--is in the desert, baptizing, and calling people to repentance. Okay, great. . .Then--get this, guys--this message actually ATTRACTS tons of people from the main city and they actually OBEY this crazy message!. . .And then finally. . .wait for it. . .the climax: On top of it all, John has very questionable eating habits and dresses like a caveman! 

Seriously, read those verses again and see if that thought doesn't pop out at you as very odd. See, Mark is not the most detail-oriented writer (his gospel is the shortest, his statements are matter-of-fact, he lacks sentimental embellishment, etc.), and yet he bothers to tell us these strange details about how John is dressed and what he eats. I mean, do you just go around defining people like that normally? Is there ANYONE else in the Bible, for instance, who is described by dress code and diet? No. So obviously, Mark thought it was weird too!

I do think this description is to help us remember that God isn't interested in pride. . .However, did John really have to dress like a Jedi Knight? Or was he just having fun? Or was he just embracing the whole "prophet look" (apparently, Elijah and other prophets wore camel hair clothes)? After researching it a bit, I learned that it was actually a normal diet to eat bugs if one lived in the desert, and apparently locusts were on the list of "clean" things to eat. However, it does give one pause to think, 'Did John have to go to such lengths to prove his prophethood?' and 'Why did Mark bother to tell us these details if they were at all considered normal?' I guess we are to assume that even his appearance was an act of obedience since Jesus later calls him the greatest prophet ever to have lived.

Still. . .I can't help but love Ps. Mark Driscoll's assessment of John as "Jesus' weird home-school cousin"!!