Mark 1v9

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

In this next verse recorded by Mark, we see Jesus coming to be baptized. Jesus went out of His way to be baptized by John (the Baptist) – Jesus came to John, and not the other way around. The Jordan river, always significant in Biblical history, was also important in the baptism of Jesus. One can perhaps imagine that the place was the same place where the Jews crossed over into the promised land, or maybe where Naaman was cleansed of his leprosy (2^nd Kings 5v1-14), but in the end it was at least the same river if not the same place.

At this pointing Mark’s gospel, this is now the fourth verse that mentions baptism by our criteria of selecting verses to study for this book. Mark puts baptism right up there at “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (v1).

See also Matthew 3v13 {5 } for further discussion of this event in the life of John the Baptist.