LENT 1

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: LENT 1
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 12, 2000


TEXT: Mark 1:9-13 - Jesus’ Baptism & Wilderness
He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with wild beasts; and angels waited on him.


ISSUE: The story of Jesus’ baptism and his time is the wilderness marks the beginning of the Lenten Season. The Lenten journey is about new beginnings as baptism implies. It is also about being in the wilderness which was (and is) a place of many evil spirits. Wild beasts enhance that image. But Jesus remains faithful to God and is ministered to during his ordeal. He provides for us our hope and the accomplishments that we cannot. He has been in our wilderness, and leads us in hope to renewal and resurrection.
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Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of the Lenten Season, as does this first Sunday in Lent. It is a season for some personal reflection and a matter of making an effort to be closer to God, and to keep focused on the one to whom we really belong. Through some exercises of self-denial, fasting, giving, and praying, along with some disciplined exercise of scripture reading, or spiritual reading, we are helped to discipline and focus our attention on our relationship with God. Essentially that is what the Lenten Exercise is al about. The Lenten discipline is a matter of being born again and ready to have a new life in the Spirit of God, as its revealed in Jesus Christ. It is a matter of moving from death into new life. Dying to the old, and then leaving the tomb with Christ at Easter.
Notice that the Hebrew Scripture reading this morning is by no stretch of the imagination a dismal story. It’s one of the great stories of hope. Noah has been in the ever famous Ark for the forty day and forty night period, and then finally survives with his family to come back to dry land. It is the age old and wonderful story of a new creation. The old the dirty, the polluted, the evil of the past is washed away, and a new era begins as Noah, his family, and the animals on the Ark begin again. It’s a new creation.
The Gospel selection appointed for this day from Mark, this year, is also the story of a very unique new beginning. In the story Jesus comes to John the Baptist who has been calling for a baptism of repentance. Repentance speaks of the need for change. Jesus comes to John and is baptized. He is immersed into the water, and raised up. Remember that in the Gospel of Mark there is not account of who Jesus belongs to. There is no mention of Joseph, the Virgin Mary, no genealogical list. The birth story of Mark is the baptism. When Jesus comes up out of the water, there is the voice of God: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well please.” (Interestingly enough that voice is the same words of Isaiah 42:1, where the prophet refers to The Lord’s Servant as a beloved son, with whom the Lord is pleased.) Mark is saying that the Paternity of Jesus is God, and Jesus is the servant son. It is a story of good news and hopefulness.
Immediately following the Baptismal birth of Jesus and his paternal identification is the sending of Jesus to the wilderness where he is to prove himself. To have the great honor of being a Son of God, a child of God you had to prove you were worthy. This proving yourself and maintaining you honor was an and is an expectation in the middle eastern culture. So Jesus is sent into the wilderness. Now Mark’s Gospel account gives no explicit temptation events as does Matthew and Luke who embellish the story. Jesus in Mark’s account is not tempted to turn stones to bread, or jump from the Temple pinnacle, or bow down to Satan to receive glory. Mark only indicates that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and was being tempted by Satan. The forty days is simply an indication that Jesus was tempted for an extended period of time.
It is important to understand that the wilderness of area was considered to be a place of evil spirits. Jesus was in a place surrounded by the evil spirits that were to tempt him, and to displace or to dishonor him as The Beloved Son, the honorable one, with whom God is well pleased. But the scene is also tempered by the presence of both the animals and the angels or messengers. The presence of animals may be a remembrance of the age to come when the lamb and the lion would lie down together in peace. The presence of Jesus in the wilderness of evil spirits is also indicative of a messianic age of a blessed peace. And angels or messengers of God are with him to assist in his struggle against the evil spirits. The Son is not turned out defenseless. He is tempted by the grace and help of God is still with him.
The temptation scene is really something of a prelude to the entire ministry of Jesus. Throughout his entire ministry, Jesus faces significant temptations. There is always the temptation to give up the cause, to remain as a carpenter. There is the temptation to avoid the cross and crucifixion. There is always the temptation to sell out to his teachings for the need of change. There was the temptation to become a military leader, to raise an army, and take on the Romans. There is some thinking that Jesus really had the crowds to attempt an assault on the Romans, which would have been foolhardy, but others did try and failed. But what you have throughout the story of Jesus is faithfulness to be true to healing, restoring out cast people, to the pursuit of wisdom, and a constant expression of sacrificial love. He remained true to his calling, and faithfully committed to his Lord throughout the ministry.
Now the theology of the church teaches that Jesus was without sin. One of the proper prefaces for Lent reminds us that Jesus was “tempted as we are, yet he did not sin.” (P.B. p. 346) The meaning of this statement is simply that there was never a time when Jesus denied God. There was never a time when Jesus was separated from his allegiance to God as his Father, Creator. He was tempted as we are, yet did not sin. He remained in an ever faithful relationship. Thus, he gives the world, and us, to new life. Like Noah starting a new creation through his faithful obedience, Jesus Christ’s faithful obedience gives new hope and meaning to new life. He is the new creation, the new Adam returned to the Garden of Eternal Life.
So my friends, we begin Lent. We are reminded this morning of our baptism. We have been called the children of God with whom God is pleased. We also live in a world that is a lot like the wilderness of evil spirits and many temptations. Now my good people, temptation and sin is not merely a trivial matter of “drinkin’ and smokin’ and stayin’ out carousing late at night.” In the modern affluent world, we are tempted to forget that we are God’s beloved and we are to love God, that is, to keep attached to God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Baptized into Christ we are called to be a people who serve people, family, friends, the weak, the sick, the lost, the least. Americans are great on usurping all the resources of the world. We can be a very violent people. We can hold onto our prejudices like they were something precious. These are our sins as individuals, and also a nation. We share in a corporate guilt as well as our individual guilt and shame.
So, you see this season is the time for getting back into focus as to who we are, and to whom we belong. It’s our time to reclaim who our real father, Creator is. It’s time to get back into spiritual shape. It’s a time for rebirth, renewal, reflection on the past and walking with the assistance of Jesus Christ who ministers to us, angels ministered to him, into the future. It’s our time to get ready to stand under the rainbow of hope, and to return to the Garden of Eden.
In our pessimism and cynicism we may think that can never happen. We in our fallen state, and the world being what it is we’ll never find the Kingdom of God, nor be able to fully step into the Reign of God. Let me close with a story, a true one. When I was a student in Seminary at the University of the South, which was located in the Tennessee Mountains, a group of us would go spelunking on Saturdays. The mountains were riddled with caverns of various sizes. On one occasion one other friend of mine and myself set out to explore a new cave. At the entrance there was a rope, and you had to descend into the cave by rappelling down the rope. That I could do. Jim and I entered the cave. But when it was time to leave the cave, I knew I was in big trouble. I’d never been able to climb a rope, and that was the only way out. I felt foolish and in trouble. But Jim who had been in the cave with me took my pack and equipment on his back and climbed out of the cave. Then looking back down in the cave he gave explicit directions to help me climb out and back into the light. I suppose you get the point. We can get into big trouble, but it is Christ who has entered the wilderness, like I entered the cave. He led the world back into light of God through his faithful obedience. He did simply what you and I cannot do. He leads us, and does for us what we cannot do by ourselves. In Christ we find our hope, we find our way out of the cave, out of the tomb into new life.
There are things to inspire and assist us in our journeys in life: prayer, Scripture, sacraments, our relationship with the church and its community. These are the messengers and angels of our lives. But we also have Christ, who tempted as we are, did not sin, but by his grace bears our burdens and leads us back to God.