Building on Bedrock - The Ministry of Messiah Begins - Response to Chapter 5
The Ministry of Messiah Begins
The beginning of Our Lord’s public ministry is one of the most thrilling moments in all salvation history. The baptism in the Jordan, the gathering of the first disciples, the signs and wonders worked in Galilee; here, the long-awaited Messiah steps out from the obscurity of Nazareth and declares the Kingdom of God is at hand. Mark’s retelling of these events in The Ministry of Messiah Begins is careful, reverent, and biblically rooted. He is right to emphasize the Jewish context of Christ’s life, the significance of John the Baptist, and the divine approval that inaugurates Jesus’ public mission.
Yet, Mark’s approach, like much of his tradition, remains preoccupied with law-keeping, historical detail, and a faint suspicion of “grace” as the Catholic Church teaches it. The impression given is that the Lord Jesus came to reinforce a more exacting observance of the Law, rather than to bring a radically new life through grace, the Spirit, and the Church. Let us examine this pivotal moment, and clarify what it means for the Messiah to “begin His ministry,” not only as a devout Jew, but as the Savior of all mankind.
1. John the Baptist: The Bridge From Law to Grace
Mark faithfully highlights the profound importance of John the Baptist’s ministry in preparing the way for the Lord. John’s baptism is one of repentance, a return to faithfulness under the Law, a final call to the people of Israel to ready themselves for the promised Messiah. Yet John himself, with all his asceticism and zeal, insists: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The Baptist’s entire purpose is not to lead men back to Moses, but to point to Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The coming of Christ marks not simply a stricter law, but an outpouring of grace. As St. John the Evangelist writes: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The Law convicts; Christ redeems. This is why, as St. Thomas Aquinas insists, “Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it” - and the Law finds its perfection not in stricter observance, but in the transforming love of Christ poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
2. The Baptism of Jesus: A New Exodus
When Jesus is baptized, He is not repenting for His own sins (He is the sinless One), but is instead identifying Himself with sinful humanity, making Himself the head of a new and redeemed people. The heavens open, the Spirit descends, and the Father proclaims, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).
This is not merely a symbolic gesture or an act of “legal fulfillment.” It is the public beginning of a new creation, the “new exodus” in which Christ will lead the people of God out of bondage; not simply to Pharaoh or to Rome, but to sin and death itself. The Catechism teaches: “His baptism is the acceptance and inauguration of his mission as God's suffering Servant. He allows himself to be numbered among sinners; he is already ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’” (CCC 536).
In this event, we see the priority of grace: God acts first. Christ enters our brokenness and opens a new way, not by making us more perfect law-keepers, but by uniting us to Himself.
3. The Call of the Disciples: Grace, Not Self-Perfection
Mark describes the gathering of the first disciples as a calling of the “most spiritual young men in the nation.” Yet, what is most striking in the Gospels is not the human qualification of those Jesus calls, but His own sovereign initiative. Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John: none of them were renowned rabbis or spiritual athletes; they were ordinary men, made extraordinary by the grace and call of Christ. “It is not you who have chosen me, but I have chosen you,” Jesus will later say as recorded in John 15:16.
This is a striking truth... we do not earn our way to Christ; we are drawn, chosen, and transformed by His free gift. St. Augustine, combating the heresy that humans could save themselves by their own will, thunders: “Without God’s grace we can do nothing good, whether in thought, will, or action.” The disciples respond in obedience, yes, but it is God who makes the first move.
4. Jesus: More Than a “Law-Abiding Jew”
Mark goes to great lengths to show that Jesus was “law-abiding,” never transgressing the Mosaic code. Certainly, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, and in His humanity was perfectly obedient to the Father. But Mark’s reading risks reducing Our Lord to a mere model of legal observance, when in truth, the Gospels show us something far greater.
Jesus does not come to reinforce the status quo. He declares, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He brings a new teaching, “with authority, not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22). He claims to be “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28), to forgive sins, to re-interpret the Law in the Sermon on the Mount (“But I say to you…”), to set aside the old ritual purity codes (Mark 7:19), and to institute a New Covenant in His own blood (Luke 22:20).
As St. Thomas Aquinas explains, the law of Christ “does not consist chiefly in external actions, but in the inward grace of the Holy Ghost” (Summa Theologica, I-II, q.106, a.1). This is why the Catholic Church refuses to reduce the Gospel to mere law or moral improvement, but insists on the primacy of interior transformation by grace.
5. Grace and the Wedding at Cana: The New Wine
Mark spends some time discussing Jesus’ first public miracle at Cana, asking whether this “justifies” alcoholic beverages. But to dwell on such peripheral questions is to miss the real lesson: At Cana, Jesus transforms water into wine, inaugurating the new messianic age foretold by the prophets (Isaiah 25:6). The “good wine” is a sign of the superabundance of grace that Christ brings. Mary, by her intercession, is present at the threshold of Christ’s signs, reminding us that the New Covenant is not law alone, but a wedding feast of grace, joy, and supernatural life.
6. Did Jesus “Endorse Sin” By Eating With Sinners?
Mark seems anxious to defend Jesus against the charge that He “endorsed” sinful lifestyles by eating with sinners. Of course, the Gospels are clear: Jesus never condones sin. But He also does not keep sinners at arm’s length; He seeks them, dines with them, and offers them the transforming power of His presence. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick… I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
The difference between Pharisaic law-keeping and Christ’s approach is not that Jesus was “less strict,” but that He brings a divine medicine: grace, forgiveness, and a call to holiness. The Church, following Christ, always welcomes the sinner: not to confirm them in sin, but to call them to new life.
7. The True Launch of the Messiah’s Ministry: Grace Upon Grace
What marks the true beginning of the Messiah’s ministry? Not a new legal code, nor the recruitment of the already “spiritual,” but the eruption of grace into the world. “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16). Jesus inaugurates a new era, not of law alone, but of the Spirit: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
To miss this is to miss the heart of the Gospel.
From Law to Grace - The True Beginning of the Messiah’s Work
Mark’s account of the opening of Christ’s ministry is rich in biblical detail and reverence for Jesus’ Jewishness. But the true beginning of the Messiah’s work is not found in a stricter law or “better” observance, but in the superabundant grace of God now poured out upon all flesh through Christ.
“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
The Catholic Church, founded by Christ, continues this ministry of grace, calling all people not merely to do better, but to be made new by the Spirit of God.
If you seek not just a new law, but new life, come to the Church where the fullness of the Messiah’s ministry still changes hearts and raises up saints.
