Mark 1(4): 1:14-20
The Kingdom Announced Now John got himself into trouble with authorities. Mark tells us more about that later. He stopped preaching and went too meddling and fell afoul of political intrigue. His arrest was the green light for Jesus’ to go public. John’s work as forerunner and preparer of the people for God’s New Exodus was complete and the time was right for main event. So Jesus enters Galilee and announces “good news” that God was beginning the great and greatly-longed for New Exodus whereby he would rescue his people from their exile, return to them, rout their oppressors, rebuild the temple, and restore Israel to world leadership. And God would do this through Jesus of Nazareth, an unknown Galilean peasant. He was hardly the only claimant to lead messianic revolts at this time in Palestine and he vied with four other major groups to define the nature and mission of God’s Abrahamic people, the people through whom God intended to bless the world (Gen.12:3). - Saddu...