Big Idea: The good news centers on Jesus the Messiah, who shows himself to be the Son of God by inaugurating God’s kingdom age. He is declared as such first by Old Testament prophecy and then by the wilderness voice, his forerunner John the Baptist.

Understanding the Text

This passage is the “prologue” to Mark (cf. John 1:1–18), and the purpose is to inform the reader about the primary truths in the book, especially the identification of Jesus. In the rest of the book we will see the primary groups (disciples, crowds, leaders, demons) wrestle with the truths that we, the readers, know from this prologue: Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God who has come to bring God’s final kingdom to reality and fulfill all the hopes of the Old Testament. By centering the action on John the Baptist as th…