Daily Devotional for June 24-30
Sunday (Birth of John the Baptist)
Luke 25: So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. 60 His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62 So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, “His name is John.” So they all marveled. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, praising God. 65 Then fear came on all who dwelt around them; and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66 And all those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What kind of child will this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him….So the child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his manifestation to Israel.
The Gospel According to St. Mark was written ten years after the Ascension of Christ. This Mark was a disciple of Peter, whom Peter calls his son, that is, his spiritual son. He was also called John,’ and the nephew of Barnabas,1 2 and the companion of Paul.3 But eventually he accompanied Peter the most, and was with him in Rome. The believers in Rome begged Mark not only to preach orally, but also to give them a written account of Christ’s life. He agreed, and composed it immediately. God revealed to Peter that Mark had written tins Gospel, and when he saw it, Peter confirmed its truth, and sent Mark as bishop to Egypt. There Mark preached and established the Church in Alexandria, enlightening all those in that sunny land to the south. The character of this Gospel, therefore, is unclouded and clear, containing nothing that is hidden. Mark’s Gospel agrees with Matthew’s in every respect, except that Matthew goes into greater detail. And while Matthew begins with the Nativity of the Lord according to the flesh, Mark begins with the prophet and forerunner John. Therefore, though it may appear incomprehensible, some have given this understanding of the four evangelists: God, Who sits upon the four-faced Cherubim, as Scripture says,4 gave us the Gospel which likewise appears in four forms, but is held together by one Spirit. Just as one of the Cherubim had the face of a lion, and another the face of a man, and another the face of an eagle, and another the face of a bullock, so it is with the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel of John has the face of a lion, for the Lion is royal and princely; and John began his Gospel with the royal and lordly dignity of the divine Word, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” But the Gospel of Matthew is in the likeness of a man, for it begins with the Nativity according to the flesh and the incarnation of the Word. The Gospel of Mark is likened to an eagle, for it begins with the prophet and forerunner John. And the prophetic gift, by which one can foresee and keenly perceive things that are a great way off, is like an eagle. For it is said that the eagle is the most keen sighted of all the animals, and can even gaze at the sun without shutting its eyes. The Gospel of Luke is like the (ox) bullock, because it begins with the priestly service of Zacharias, in the course of which he made sacrifice for the sins of the people, sacrificing a bullock. But Mark begins his Gospel by describing the way of life of the Forerunner.
Tuesday
Mark 1The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God: as it is written in the prophets, Behold, 1 send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
The evangelist calls John, who was the last of the prophets, the beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God. For the end of the Old is the beginning of the New Testament. The testimony concerning the Forerunner is taken from two prophets: “Behold, I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee” is from Malachi.1 “The voice of one crying in the wilderness…” is from Isaiah.2 Here God the Father is speaking to God the Son, calling the Forerunner an “angel” [angelos] because of John’s angelic and all but immaterial way of life, and also because he comes to announce [angellein] and to proclaim the coming of the Christ. John prepared the way of the Lord by preparing the souls of the Jews to accept Christ. He did this by baptizing, that is, immersing them in water. “Before Thy face” means “Thy messenger3 will be close to Thee”, showing the kinship of the Forerunner to Christ, just as those who go directly before a king in a procession are of the king’s own household. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” refers, perhaps, not only to the Jordan desert but also to the desolate synagogue of the Jews. “The way” is the New Testament; the “paths” are the Old Testament which was well trodden. The Jews needed to be prepared for the way, that is, for the New Testament, and they also needed to make straight the Old Testament paths which they had once followed but from which they had turned and become wayward.
Wednesday
Mark 4–5. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins; and there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. The baptism of John did not bestow the forgiveness of sins but instead only led mankind to repentance. Why then does Mark say here “unto” the remission of sins? We answer that John preached the baptism of repentance. Where did this preaching lead? Unto the remission of sins, that is, to the baptism of Christ, which bestows the remission of sins.’* Likewise it might be said that a soldier arrives before the king to summon people to prepare the king’s meal, assuring them that it will be for their own good to do so. But that does not mean that the soldier himself will be the benefactor of those who prepare the king’s meal. Rather, that the soldier has only commanded the preparation of the meal, and it will be the king who will reward those who have prepared the meal and received him. In like manner, the Fore limner proclaimed the baptism of repentance so that those who repent and receive Christ would have the forgiveness of sins.
Thursday
Mark 6. And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey. John’s clothing was a symbol of mourning, for the prophet is showing that he who repents must mourn for his sins. The hair-shirt indicates mourning; the belt of dead animal flesh signifies the deadness of the fleshly Jews. The Lord Himself says that John’s clothing indicates mourning, when He says, “We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented,” where “mourning” refers to the Forerunner’s way of life. For He says, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and you say, he hath a demon.” The food that John ate certainly showed his self- control, but it may also be seen as a symbol of the spiritual fare of the people at that time. For they did not eat any of the birds of the heavens, which they were allowed to eat, nor did they apprehend the lofty, but instead fed on that which seemed to leap heavenward, but which always fell back to earth again. Such is the nature of the locust, which leaps upwards as if to the heights only to fall back down again. And John’s fare of wild honey may also show that the people were eating honey produced by bees, that is, by the prophets, but the honey was not being cultivated and domesticated, meaning, that the words of the prophets were not being well understood, and searched, and comprehended. For the Hebrews had the Scriptures which were sweet as honey, but they were neither tending nor searching them.
Friday
Mark 7-8. And preached, saying, There cometh One mightier than I after me, the thong of Whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you in water, but He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit John is saying, “I, the least of His servants, am not worthy to unloose the tied thong of His sandal.” It may also be understood as follows. All those who came and were baptized by John, by their repentance were loosed from the bond of their sins when they later believed in Christ. Of all these John loosed the thongs and the bonds of their sins. But he was not able to loose the thong of Jesus, because he found no thong, that is, no sin in Him.
Saturday
Mark 9-11. And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and w’as baptized by John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him. And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. Jesus does not come to baptism to be forgiven of sins, for He committed no sin. Nor does He come to receive a share of the Holy Spirit. For if the baptism of John does not take avay sin, as I have already said, how could it bestow the Spirit? But neither does Jesus come to John to be baptized in order to repent; for He was greater by far than the Baptist. Why then does He come? For no other reason than for John to reveal Him to the people. Since a large crowd had gathered, Jesus chooses to come so that all might witness Who He is. At the same time, He comes to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness, that is, all the commandments of the law. Since it was considered a commandment to obey a prophet as one sent by God, Jesus fulfilled the commandment by heeding this prophet who was calling all to baptism. The Spirit did not come down because Christ was in need of the Spirit…The descent of the Spirit also accomplished another purpose; when the Father had spoken from above, “This is My Son,” the Spirit descended upon Jesus, showing that those words were spoken concerning Christ. Thus the people who heard the voice would not think that it referred to John. The heavens were opened that we might learn that when we are baptized, the heavens are also opened for us