Mark's version of the baptism [of Christ] draws attention to the fact that as Jesus arose from the waters "the heavens were opened (schizomenous)" (Mk. 1:10). This language of the ripping open (schizo) of the heavens echoes that of the prophet Isaiah, who cried out to God: "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down" (Isa. 64:1 //LXX 63:10). Kelly Kapic. Faithful Worship.
It reminds me of another time my mind was blown in just this way. The last verses of Malachi say...
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, let I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. Malachi 4:5-6.
400 years of silence follows. And then...the first chapter of Mark, the first gospel to be written, begins...
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,' " John appeared. Mark 1:1-4a.
Elijah had come and gone so Malachi speaks of a
new Elijah. Then John appears...the answer to a four hundred year old promise.
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