Uninhabited Spaces: Mark 1:4-5
Space is more necessary than we realize. Yesterday, we were invited to prepare the way. We were invited to think about God’s call to change as we walk with Jesus. Today we meet John the Baptizer. John the Baptizer preached in the uninhabited places. John understood the need for space.
John knew a fundamental truth about how our normal day-to-day civilized life impacts our ability to hear and implement God’s call to change. Sometimes, our day-to-day civilized self is too focused on other things and unwilling to hear God’s call to change. Sometimes, our day-to-day civilized self has aspects that interfere with accepting, understanding, and implementing God’s call to change. Sometimes, our day-to-day civilized self is too involved with the busyness of life to even have time to think about God’s call to change.
Look at John. He knew that space is often the cure for what ails us. When we are too busy, we need to get away from the busyness. When our worldliness makes us unwilling, we need to remove ourselves from worldly influence. When love of stuff make us pursue other things than God, we need to remove ourselves from the influence of our stuff.
What is the payoff for removing ourselves and getting some space? John proclaimed a baptism of the forgiveness of sins. In this passage, the Greek word used for forgiveness is aphesis, which literally means to let go. There is something cool about how this word has made its way into the English language. In English, an aphesis occurs when an unstressed sound – typically at the beginning of a word – is lost. For example, take the word lone, which is an aphesis of alone. Or the word Merica, which is an aphesis of America.
How does this fit in with creating space for God’s change? An aphesis occurs in English because what remains once the aphesis happens is fully capable of carrying the meaning of the word regardless of the lost syllable. The rest of the word literally lets go of the unnecessary syllable. In the same way, we are sinful beings undergoing a change through Christ into something new. We are forgiven – literally an aphesis happens and God lets go of our sin – because what we become after forgiveness is fully capable of carrying God’s identity for us.
Let that sink in. As God forgives your sin, He knows the person you become once the sin is let go carries the full identity through which He sees you. Is that not worth the time and effort involved in implementing God’s call to change?
By proclaiming in the uninhabited places, people came to John and gave themselves space. In that space, people experienced change. In that space, people experienced a letting go of the things that held them back. In that space, people prepared the way for their walk with Jesus. Space is more important than we realize.
