First Sunday of Lent
Mark 1:9-15
The first Sunday in Lent is traditionally marked by the story of Jesus' temptation
in the wilderness. In both the gospels of Matthew and Luke we see, and if we
are paying attention, we feel with Jesus the challenge of Satan. There’s
Jesus famished in the midst of his forty day fast encountering the devil's enticement
to turn stones into bread. There’s Jesus on the mountain, surveying the
nations of the world and being offered their kingship. There’s Jesus perched
on the pinnacle of the temple, the devil breathing in his ear to put God to
the test and throw himself off.
It is interesting that what Matthew and Luke record
in extensive detail Mark chooses to record in two short verses.
“and the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in
the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts,
and the angels waited on him.”
Fifteen years ago that was the only verses for
this first Sunday in Lent but since we have come to use the common lectionary,
that is the lessons used by all the major Christian denominations, the text
gets expanded to include Jesus Baptism and the beginning of his ministry as
well. This is a wonderful addition because, like using a wide-angle lens it
allows us to see Jesus temptation in context. In these seven short verses three
distinct actions take place, three psychological moves are developed that give
us a clue to Jesus life of faith and, if we are attentive, our lives of faith
as well.
Baptism, Temptation, Vocation. Baptism, Temptation,
Vocation.
Baptism: As is typical Mark just gives
us the facts. Jesus came from Nazareth. He was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And then, and then we are privy to the slightest bit of personal knowledge.
As Jesus was coming out of the water he sees the heavens torn apart and the
Spirit descending like a dove. Jesus hears the voice from heaven, “You
are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus sees and hears.
This is not an affirmation for the crowds to see and acknowledge. This affirmation
is meant for Jesus himself. Jesus, not the crowds, needs to know whose he is
and who loves him. That need to be known and approved of is no small thing.
Psychologically it is major.
I think of that great movie that we play in my
house at the beginning of baseball season every year. Field of Dreams. The main
character Ray Kinsella builds a baseball field in the middle of Iowa (complete
with lights), he truck off to New York city to pick up an old writer, stops
by a small town in Minn. to be thought by everyone to be totally crazy; all
this just to get to throw the baseball around with his father who has died years
before. All just to know that he is loved and is considered acceptable.
There is strength in that affirmation. How powerful are the words from a parent
to a child, “I’m proud of you.” How much strength those words
can give in the face of all kinds of hassles and adversities.
And that’s exactly where we’re going
with this. The gospel writer Mark says “And the Spirit immediately drove
him out into the wilderness.” Mark has a unique way of putting things,
don’t you think. Matthew and Luke both say that Jesus was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness. Not Mark, for Mark the Spirit drove him. And immediately
too. No time to catch his breath, bask in the joy of the moment—no , immediately
the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Strikes me that there isn’t much
of a choice about this for Jesus. You’re going to the wilderness or else,
no ifs ands or buts….it will be good for you. This wilderness is all part
of the preparation—it’s part of getting ready for the next step. Nobody
wants to be in the wilderness but clearly we need to go through this wilderness.
What do we know about this wilderness? Well we know four things, Jesus was there
forty days, he was tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts and the
angels waited on him.
The wilderness is real life. Jesus does this to
prepare himself for all the rest of the tribulations and trials that will come.
One commentator I read called it Jesus’ boot camp. The image that I kept
coming back to was Junior High and High School. I don’t know why I kept
thinking that—Maybe because it’s good for you, but it’s full
of temptation and there are wild beasts? Seriously though, I don’t know
if you jr highers and high schoolers know that your parents do know how tough
it can be. They truly do know the stress of grades, the challenge of tough teachers,
the acceptance or rejection of friends, the temptations to experiment with risky
behavior and on and on and on. Many, many parents have confessed to me that
they would not like to go through those years again.
The Affirmation and acceptance of parents goes
a long way to getting us through those difficult challenging times.
Jesus in the midst of the wilderness could cling to the memory of the heavens
torn open and the words of God “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I
am well pleased,” and so can we. We are united with Christ in that baptism.
Nothing, nothing can separate us from God’s love, not Satan or wild beasts,
not fears or failures, not isolation or temptation.
There’s a very human story that I read a number of years ago written by
Walter Wangerin about his son, Matthew. Now Matthew was one of those young people
who, as soon as he learned to read fell in love with comic books. And being
good well-meaning parents, Matthew’s parents limited his comic book intake.
He could only have so many comic books per year, so he would read something
of quality besides the comic books. But one day Matthew’s parents discovered---hidden
away in Matthew’s room stacks and stacks of contraband comic books. As
they examined this find, they learned that they were all from the public library.
They weren’t checked out they were stolen. So Matthew’s parents gave
him a lecture about honesty and stealing. Then they made him gather up all the
comics and return them to the library and confess what he had done. They hoped
and prayed that that was the end of the story.
But a year later they again discovered comics
in young Matthew’s room. This time they learned the books had been pilfered
during a family vacation, at a convenience store down the road from their cabin.
It wasn’t realistic for Matthew to return them from where he had stolen
them, so they gave him a lecture and made him put all his comic books in a fire,
one by one. Again the parents hoped and prayed that he had learned his lesson.
But before too long they again found stolen comics in Matthew’s room.
His parents were desperate to find some way to get their message across. How
could they stop his stealing. They chose a method many might disagree with.
Dad took Matthew to his study, giving him both a lecture and a spanking. Afterwards
the father said: “You sit here in my chair in this study and you think
about what you have done and what will happen if you do not overcome this.”
Then he went outside, closed the door of his study, leaned against the wall
in the hallway and he wept. He wept because of what his son had done. He wept
because of what he had done. He wept out of fear for the what the future might
hold for this child of his.
Years later, when Matthew was an adult, he returned
home and he and his mother were reminiscing about his childhood. Somehow or
another, the story of the comic books came up. Matthew had grown up to be a
normal person, he wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t a thief. In the course
of their conversation, Matthew’s mother asked him about this and he said,
“Well, you know after that time when Dad spanked me I never stole again.”
She asked, “Was that because he spanked you?” And Matthew replied,
“No, it was because after he left the room I heard him crying and I could
never take anything again.”
The knowledge of the Father’s love and desire
for approval makes us better than we are. It helps us to navigate our way through
the wilderness and temptations of life.
Jesus comes out of the wilderness and begins his ministry, his work. Note that
Jesus hears of Johns arrest and begins to proclaim the good news. John’s
arrest was shocking and devastating. How then could it lead Jesus to proclaim
the good news? Jesus had been through the wilderness. He now knew that God’s
approval did not mean that all would be well, that God’s acceptance did
not mean a life of ease but rather one of commitment, of purpose and meaning.
So often we think we know what we need to serve=-what qualities we need to be
proclaimers of the good news. Time in the wilderness helps us to see that sometimes
it is the difficult, hurtful, troubling times in our lives that educate us to
be able to be better witnesses to the “good news”. Perhaps you remember
hearing this testimony of a Confederate Soldier:
I asked God for strength,
that I might achieve,
I was made weak,
that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health,
that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity,
that I might do better things.
I asked for riches,
that I might be happy,
I was given poverty,
that I might be wise.
I asked for power,
that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness,
that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things,
that I might enjoy life,
I was given life,
that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for -
but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself,
my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men,
most richly blessed.
(An Unknown Confederate Soldier)
More prosaically, James E. Dittes of Yale Divinity
School makes the point this way:
"The meaning of goals we aspire to but seem to find thwarted, is far more
than we can imagine until after we go through our own testing in the wilderness
they bring. The unexpected and unwanted difficulties of adjusting to marriage,
career, political action, child raising, schooling, whatever, may be gifts of
the Spirit. They enrich our understanding of our own aspirations and our capacity
to make the most of them."
.
Jesus was able to withstand the devilment and the harassment (and ultimately,
awful pain and horrible death) because he knew that the Spirit who came to him
in love and in power at his baptism was in him and with him during his wilderness
times as well.
If you know that you belong to a loving, patient
and powerful God, you can make it, scarred perhaps but intact. If the baptism
of a baby or the knowledge that you yourself have been baptized can move you
to open your heart to the loving Spirit of God who is always with you, you can
keep on working at your job even when the promotion does not come or the new
opportunity does not open up or the loose ends in your area of responsibility
never get gathered up. If you know that you have been baptized into God, who
is working out his reconciling purposes in the world, you can walk without anger
and without discouragement (or at least without despair) through a desert in
which your own political and moral views may not be widely shared. If you know
that yours is the head upon which life-giving water is continually being poured
(even though you cannot see it) and in whose heart a spring of water is always
welling up (even though you are sometimes thirsty), you will have the courage
and stamina and hope which you need for the forty days or forty years of wilderness
which may stand between you and the Promised Land.
And having been through the wilderness you’ll
be strengthened to proclaim the good news.
Amen.