Mark 1:1-3 - Who Can Endure the Day of His Coming?

“The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, [the Son of God], as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way’ –  ‘a voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.”’” (Mark 1:1-3)

In this surprising introduction to Mark’s Gospel, the writer begins by establishing that this work is about Jesus. The phrase “the Son of God” is here placed in brackets because the oldest and best manuscripts do not contain it. This phrase was some many centuries later by some scribe who correctly understood one of Mark’s primary themes: Jesus is the Son of God (1:11; 3:11; 5:7; 9:7; 12:6; 12:37; 13:32; 14:61; 15:39).

Mark launches his Gospel with two Old Testament quotes, one from Malachi 3:1 and another Isaiah 40:3, though oddly attributing both of them to Isaiah.

Both of these verses concern the coming of Yahweh back to his people after the long spiritual exile that began with the Babylonian Captivity of 588 BCE. Following the destruction of the Temple of Yahweh built by Solomon in Jerusalem, Yahweh was seen to have departed from it and abandoned his people to their sins. Even when the physical exile was over and the construction of a lesser, second Temple in Jerusalem began in 538 BCE, the Jewish people still believed that Yahweh had not properly returned to his Temple and had yet to properly forgive the sins of the people. They knew that Yahweh had saved them from the physical exile but that a further step was needed. In the first century CE, the Jews were still eagerly waiting for Yahweh to return and doing so under the rule of the conquering Roman Empire. When Mark cites these two verses he is specifically stating that Yahweh is returning in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

Ominously, the verse in Malachi is followed with the warning “But who can endure the day of his coming?” (3:2). The rest of the book of Malachi deals with the eventual return of Yahweh to his people … but states that this might not be a good thing for everyone, particularly for those who rob and thieve from God (vv. 8-9).

The second part of Malachi 3:1, notes that “Yahweh will suddenly come to his Temple.” This particular verse finds its fulfillment in Mark 11:15-17 when Jesus “cleanses” the Temple and cites Jeremiah 7:11 about the Temple becoming a “den of robbers”. In Jeremiah, this is a warning that if the people do not change their ways, exile is coming. Both the Greek version of Jeremiah 7:11 and in Mark 11:17, the word used for robbers is lestes (λῃστής).

This all comes together in Mark with the realization that Yahweh has returned to his people and to his Temple in the person and work of Jesus. However, though Jesus is offering the end of exile through repentance and the forgiveness of sins, he is also warning everyone that failure to follow his way would lead to another, permanent exile. Who can endure the day of his coming?

Now if we want to go even further down the rabbit hole, we have to ask what this exile was going to look like. What form was it going to take?

For the entirety of his ministry, Jesus had been enacting a grand prophetic parable of what it meant for Yahweh to return to his people, the “Cleansing” of the Temple being only a part. As he closes his so-called “earthly” ministry, Jesus has one more prophetic parable to enact.

In Mark 14:48, when the crowds come to arrest Jesus and take him to be crucified, Jesus says, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me, as you would against a robber (lestes)?”

In Mark 15:27, it is recorded that “They crucified two robbers (lestes) with him, one on his right and one on his left.”

The Romans put Jesus to death between two robbers or brigands, all deemed revolutionary by Roman authorities and deserving of a death reserved for those who went up against the Empire and were to be made an example to everyone else (Mark 15:7). This was the same death that Roman meted out to the Jews who revolted during the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE) when Roman soldiers were crucifying upwards of 500 Jews a day and when the Temple was permanently destroyed. It was general and future Caesar, Titus, who refused to accept the wreath of victory for winning the war, saying, “There is no merit in vanquishing a people forsaken by their own God."

In Jesus’ final parable, he showed what the final exile would look like. It was Rome destroying the Temple and the Jewish people as a nation and crucifying them like revolutionary robbers (lestes). It was Yahweh forsaking his people to their own devices. The people were waiting to be saved from the spiritual Exile but were making the same mistakes that caused the original physical exile. Yahweh was returning to his people and while some would be released from exile, others would find punishment via crucifixion by Rome. Yahweh is coming, who can endure the day of his coming?

It is interesting that it is one of the Roman soldiers crucifying Jesus that sees his death and remarks that “Truly this was a son of a god” (Mark 15:39).