Mark 1:9-13
About that time, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. While he was coming up out of the water, Jesus saw heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I am well pleased”
At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him.
In Christmas season we greeted the infant Jesus, and in Epiphany season we were introduced to the adult Jesus, beginning with his baptism in the Jordan and proceeding through the calling of his disciples and his first public teachings and healings. But for some reason, the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is skipped over in Epiphany, even though chronologically it comes immediately after his baptism, and then we circle back to it for this First Sunday in Lent.
This story is told in all three Synoptic gospels. Both Matthew and Luke give us basically the same story of the temptation in the wilderness, (because Luke borrowed heavily from Matthew), but both versions are expansive, filling in all the details of Jesus’ interactions with the Tempter, while Mark gives us only the scant two verses I just read.
I extended Mark’s reading today to include the baptism scene, not because it hasn’t already been covered, but to give the last two verses—those ones about the temptation in the desert—a chronological setting. It’s those two verses I want to focus on today.
We are still at the barest beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. There have been no healings, no public sermons or teachings as of yet.
Though Matthew's and Luke’s versions of the time in the desert give us much more detail, Mark’s is the more evocative version because it is such a blank slate. His spare text forces us to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations and places us more firmly into the story. UCC pastor Martha Spong, in her meditation piece for today, emphasizes the emptiness of this picture — the nothingness, the waiting — the aloneness that we have all known at some point or another—that aloneness that can force us into finally recognizing that God is very much with us even in the seeming emptiness.
I said last week that we would be sticking with the lectionary readings for our Sundays in Lent--which we are doing--and that besides the obvious lessons to come from the readings, we would be looking for where and how love is to be found in each story.
Here, Jesus has gone into the desert to be alone, to spend time with the One he called Father, to reckon with what had just happened to him at his baptism and to figure out what it all means for the rest of his life. He is most likely hot and parched and hungry, and he is perhaps more alone than he has ever been in his life — and then Satan, the Tempter, comes along to harass and tempt him. We would most of us see this as an extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant time — so where in all this is there love to be found?
The story tells us that, uncomfortable as it undoubtedly was, Jesus came out of that wilderness knowing for certain who he was—the Son, the beloved—and knowing who he was called to be—the one who would teach the world to live in God’s kingdom ... and knowing the One who called him. Not only knowing, but trusting his Father-God enough to set the rest of his time here to doing his will.
Is there any one among us who has not at some time felt alone and abandoned, unloved, and bereft of all comfort — and feeling that no one anywhere cares? We can feel this story of Jesus because we have all lived this story in some way or another – at least parts of it. And apparently love did eventually find us—lost as we may have felt then--because we are, hopefully, not still wandering lost in that wilderness. Even if we occasionally feel we are still there, we are still trusting that God is around somewhere, else why are we here, listening for God’s word?
The same love that was with Jesus in those 40 days was also with each of us when we faced our own time in the desert. And if we ever face such times again, that love will still be with—holding us through our desert times. This I believe. We are never truly alone no matter how barren the world around us may look.
We are loved and we are never separate from the love of God. Thanks be to God.
This story is told in all three Synoptic gospels. Both Matthew and Luke give us basically the same story of the temptation in the wilderness, (because Luke borrowed heavily from Matthew), but both versions are expansive, filling in all the details of Jesus’ interactions with the Tempter, while Mark gives us only the scant two verses I just read.
I extended Mark’s reading today to include the baptism scene, not because it hasn’t already been covered, but to give the last two verses—those ones about the temptation in the desert—a chronological setting. It’s those two verses I want to focus on today.
We are still at the barest beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. There have been no healings, no public sermons or teachings as of yet.
Though Matthew's and Luke’s versions of the time in the desert give us much more detail, Mark’s is the more evocative version because it is such a blank slate. His spare text forces us to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations and places us more firmly into the story. UCC pastor Martha Spong, in her meditation piece for today, emphasizes the emptiness of this picture — the nothingness, the waiting — the aloneness that we have all known at some point or another—that aloneness that can force us into finally recognizing that God is very much with us even in the seeming emptiness.
I said last week that we would be sticking with the lectionary readings for our Sundays in Lent--which we are doing--and that besides the obvious lessons to come from the readings, we would be looking for where and how love is to be found in each story.
Here, Jesus has gone into the desert to be alone, to spend time with the One he called Father, to reckon with what had just happened to him at his baptism and to figure out what it all means for the rest of his life. He is most likely hot and parched and hungry, and he is perhaps more alone than he has ever been in his life — and then Satan, the Tempter, comes along to harass and tempt him. We would most of us see this as an extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant time — so where in all this is there love to be found?
The story tells us that, uncomfortable as it undoubtedly was, Jesus came out of that wilderness knowing for certain who he was—the Son, the beloved—and knowing who he was called to be—the one who would teach the world to live in God’s kingdom ... and knowing the One who called him. Not only knowing, but trusting his Father-God enough to set the rest of his time here to doing his will.
Is there any one among us who has not at some time felt alone and abandoned, unloved, and bereft of all comfort — and feeling that no one anywhere cares? We can feel this story of Jesus because we have all lived this story in some way or another – at least parts of it. And apparently love did eventually find us—lost as we may have felt then--because we are, hopefully, not still wandering lost in that wilderness. Even if we occasionally feel we are still there, we are still trusting that God is around somewhere, else why are we here, listening for God’s word?
The same love that was with Jesus in those 40 days was also with each of us when we faced our own time in the desert. And if we ever face such times again, that love will still be with—holding us through our desert times. This I believe. We are never truly alone no matter how barren the world around us may look.
We are loved and we are never separate from the love of God. Thanks be to God.
RSS Feed