Mark's Gospel opens with the story of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Then it quickly covers Jesus's temptations in the wilderness, and His calling of the first disciples by the sea of Galilee. Then Jesus preaches in Capernaum's synagogue, casts out demons, and heals people, including a man afflicted with leprosy. It's quite a chapter!
As the chapter begins, Mark cites the prophecy from Isaiah 40:3, identifying John as the messenger who prepared the way for Jesus.
In verses 3-4, the references to the wilderness are important, because the Jewish Church at that time was in a state of vastation, or a spiritual emptying out. The official church was hostile to both John and Jesus, but there were still many people who were spiritually hungry and thirsty in that spiritual wilderness, and they flocked to the Jordan to receive this new message, as described in verse 5.
John instructed them, from the Word, to shun all evils as sins against God, and to believe in the Lord's Divine Human.
In Verse 6, John's clothing of camel's hair, and his simple food of locusts and wild honey, symbolize the outer truths of the Word. And the Jordan River signifies the beginning of a state of rebirth, or regeneration.
In Verses 7-8, John's prophecy of the Lord, who will be mightier than he, and who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, means that the outer truths of the Word can only bring about external purification, while the Word itself, via its internal sense, can drive internal purification (regeneration) by Divine Truth and Good.
In Verse 9, Jesus comes to John to be baptized. Here, the LORD - as to His Human - was initiated into the external truths of the Word. Jehovah God was already the Word in its first principles. As God incarnate, He now became united with the Word in its external, earthly, form.
When, in Verses 10-11, Jesus comes up out of the water and the heavens open, it symbolizes His ascent from external truths into the interior truths and goods of the Word, even to the Divine Truth and Good in Himself.
After this dramatic baptism, Jesus enters a state of temptation (in verses 12-13). But these hellish assaults by evil spirits end in the Lord's victory, and He is attended with divine peace and consolation.
In verses 14-15, John is imprisoned, but Jesus starts to preach. Where John was in effect saying "On your marks, get set", Jesus is now saying "Go!". The time is fulfilled. Jesus, filled with Divine power, announces the descent and reality of Divine Truth and Good, and calls people to repent of their evils, and to believe in this new gospel.
In verses 16-20, Jesus finds his first disciples. They're fishermen, symbolizing people who learn and then teach natural truths, and, afterwards, spiritual truths. The Sea of Galilee signifies the knowledges of truth and good as a whole complex. (Arcana Coelestia 40, Apocalypse Explained 514)
Next, in verses 21-27, Jesus preaches in the synagogue in Capernaum, astonishing his listeners. He taught pure truths which were based on Divine Good, which stems from Divine Love.
Divine Truth has a cleansing power. People's minds are affected by spiritual influences - good ones from angels in heaven, and bad ones from evil spirits in hell. Evil spirits don't want us to experience the disinfecting power of truth; they'd rather be "let alone" to keep us locked into false ideas and evil ways, and in unexamined lives.
In verses 26-32, we see Jesus healing Simon's wife's mother, and "all that were diseased", and casting out devils. The Lord, in his Divine Human, has the power to use our affection for truth to fight evil, and lead us to good.
In verses 35-40, we get a glimpse of a recurring theme in the life of the Lord. The Lord was working through the process of redemption during his whole ministry. He had taken on a human body and a human mind, and he needed to gradually unite it to his Divine essence. The Lord's human created an interface through which the hells could attack him, and through which he could battle them and win. Those states of prayer, temptation, and doubt that the Lord went through were part of the process. After winning through those states, the Lord was ever closer to making his human fully Divine, with greater power to teach and heal.
Leprosy in the Word symbolizes a state of profanation, i.e. when a person has been initiated into the knowledge of what's true, and into the love of what's good, but then afterwards acts contrary to such knowledge and love.
When the leper kneels before Jesus, seeking his help, he's acknowledging the he needs the Lord's power to cleanse his life. He can't do it by himself. The Lord can work with him, because of that humility.
In verses 43-45, the Lord tells the healed leper to "say nothing to any man", to show himself to the priest, and to make the offerings that Moses commanded. Why? Because this miracle of being able to cleanse our lives isn't just a work that affects ous understanding; we need to work through it over time so that our loves actually change. We need to live it, to practice it: "Go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them."
The leper doesn't do as he was asked. He "got" the truth, but it wasn't really conjoined to good yet. The united good and truth remained "outside the city", and people had to leave their comfortable cities to seek it.
When we think about how this chapter applies to our lives, it might be something like this: We should go to John, in the wilderness, and get baptized in the Jordan - that is, we should start taking some action - stopping doing bad things, and going to God's Word for some guidance and help. We should listen to the teachings of Jesus, and learn truths. We should humble ourselves, and ask the Lord's healing. And then we should practice doing good, giving the Lord a chance to nurture truths and goods in us, first externally, (we know we should) and then internally (we love to).
