Mark 1:9-15
February 18, 2024
Many, many years ago I went on a
white-water rafting trip to West Virginia with a youth group that I worked with
as a leader. I don’t remember where we went in the state or which river we
rafted, but I know that our youth group was large enough that we had to be
split into several rafts. Each raft had youth, a leader, and a rafting guide.
Our guide was 18 years old. He told
us that he was only recently certified to guide a group by himself, but that
he’d been rafting since he was a little kid. So, he knew the river and he knew
rafting. Before we started on our journey down the river, he went
through all the rules for our ride. He explained everything that we would need
to know to stay safe in and out of the raft. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember
most of what he told us, but I do remember this one pithy piece of advice that
he shared. He looked around at our group, made up of teenagers and adults,
males and females, and said,
“The
best way to keep from falling out of the raft is to keep paddling no matter
what. You keep that paddle going in the water, you’ll do just fine. I’ll tell
you right now. The only ones who ever fall out of the raft and have to be
rescued are the ladies. Y’all scream and panic and you stop paddling, so you
fall out.”
I don’t know how the other “ladies”
felt about our guide’s pronouncement on women being able to stay in a raft. But
for me it was a gauntlet. I thought, “Okay, you cocky little twerp. We’ll see
who falls out of this raft and who doesn’t.”
Our guide said that the trick to
staying in the raft was to keep paddling, so I paddled like my life depended on
it. On some of the bigger rapids when our raft shot up and hovered above the
water for a second or two, I paddled air. No way was I going to fall out of
that raft! I’m happy to say that I did not fall out of that raft, not once. Staying
out of the wild water was hard work. I came close to pitching overboard once or
twice, but I didn’t because I just kept paddling. In fact, none of us “ladies” fell out of our
raft. The only ones who did go overboard were two middle high boys, and they
were thrilled. Staying in that raft was like passing an unexpected test. It was
hard as heck, but I did it.
One
definition of the word test in
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is something that “reveals the strength or
capabilities of (someone or something) by putting them under strain.” That
white water rafting ride was not the most serious or important test that I’ve
ever had to endure, but I do think it revealed something about me. There are
plenty of times I’ve been told I can’t do something, and I’ve believed it,
right or wrong. But never, ever tell me I cannot do something simply because of
my gender. When it comes to that I am stubborn, and I will do everything in my
power to prove you wrong.
Even
though my test on the rapids took place in what is considered a wild place, I
can’t go so far as to call it a wilderness test; not in the sense of the
wilderness test that Jesus endured. Today is the first Sunday of Lent, which
means that regardless of which gospel we’re reading, we hear that gospel’s
version of Jesus’ time in the wilderness. The challenge today is that in Mark’s
gospel is that there is not much to tell. It is only two 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.”
That’s it. That’s all the
information Mark gives us. As is typical
for Mark, and unlike Matthew and Luke, the details are sparse. Mark just tells
us it happened. But even though Mark’s telling is lean on specifics, there is
still much to discover in these two verses.
One aspect to note is the verb that
is translated “drove out.” That verb, ekballo,
is also used by Mark to describe Jesus’ exorcism of demons. The Spirit drove
Jesus out to the wilderness just as Jesus drove out the many demons who
confronted him. This suggests that Jesus did not volunteer for this time in the
wilderness. Maybe he would have preferred not to go at all. Jesus was filled
with the Spirit after his baptism, which happened only moments before, and then
the same Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And it sounds as though the
Spirit didn’t just give Jesus a gentle nudge. It sounds more like the Spirit
almost hurled Jesus into the wild. Nothing about this was tame or gentle.
Although the common understanding of
these accounts of Jesus’ time in the wilderness is an emphasis on him being
tempted, the scholarship that I’ve read suggests that these 40 days were as
much about testing Jesus as they were about tempting him. Certainly, Mark
states that Jesus was tempted by Satan. But wasn’t Jesus tested as well?
What is the difference between test
and temptation? In each of the
wilderness accounts, temptation and
testing walk hand-in-hand. Yet there is a difference between them. Mark may not
give us the specifics of how Satan tempted Jesus, but we do know that Jesus was
able to resist. He withstood the
temptations. He withstood Satan. That is both good news and bad news. It’s good
news that Jesus was human just like us. He was tempted just as we are. We are
not alone in being tempted. But it can also be bad news – or at least
frustrating news – because while Jesus resisted temptation, I have not always
been so strong. If Jesus’ resistance set a standard for resisting temptation,
then I never have and never will live up to it.
But
if this is a story that is also about testing, then how was Jesus tested?
Thinking about the definition of testing that I shared earlier, what is
revealed about Jesus? Forty days of fasting and temptation and keeping company
with wild beasts would put anyone under strain. What did that strain reveal
about Jesus? What was revealed about his humanity as well as his divinity?
Here’s
the thing, when we profess that Jesus was truly human, we’re supposed to mean
it. The story of Jesus in the wilderness is not the story of a superhero who
possessed powers that helped him resist what we mere mortals cannot. Jesus was
human. That is what incarnation is all about. God did not just put on the
likeness of humanity. God became human. So I have no doubt that the temptations
Jesus faced were real and painful. I have no doubt that he was vulnerable, both
physically and emotionally. But if the testing that he endured revealed
anything about Jesus, it revealed that he was faithful to his call, faithful to
what he came to do, faithful to who he was. He was not only obedient to the point of death
on the cross, but he was also faithful to that point as well. The testing Jesus
endured and the strain he was put under, revealed his faithfulness.
What
kept Jesus faithful? Was it just the fact that he knew who he was? I’m sure
that helped. But when you are in a sparse and hostile land for 40 days and
nights, when you are surrounded by wild beasts, who probably don’t care that
you are the Son of God, then how do you remain faithful? Maybe one way that
Jesus kept going was that he remembered God’s promise, God’s promise to the
world, God’s promise to him.
Our
first lesson this morning was the end of the story of Noah and the flood. We
read about the moment when God promised never to despair of God’s creation
again, never to flood the whole world again, and that promised was marked by a
rainbow in the clouds.
But
there is another promise that we read about today. As soon as Jesus came out of
the waters of baptism, he saw the heavens torn apart and he saw the Spirit like
a dove descend on him, and he heard a voice. He heard God’s voice telling him,
“You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
You
are my Son, the Beloved. There is promise in those words, the words that in
Mark’s gospel, only Jesus can hear. God not only loves Jesus, not only calls
him beloved and that he is pleased in him, but God is with him. That is the
unspoken promise in those spoken words. God is with him. God is there. God will
abandon or forsake him. God will not leave him alone – in the wilderness, in
his ministry, even on the cross.
Jesus
must have trusted in that promise. Jesus must have trusted that the wilderness
would test and tempt him, but that it would not overcome him. Jesus must have
trusted that he was not left alone to Satan and the wild beasts, but that
angels would be there too. And they were.
And doesn’t that promise extend to
us as well? No, we are not Jesus, but Jesus was like us. Jesus was truly
tempted, and Jesus was truly tested in that wilderness. And we are too. We all
have our times in the wilderness, we all face our own temptations and tests.
But even when we fail., even when we fall, we are not alone in those times and
places. God is with us, even if we don’t always know. Angels minister to us,
even if we don’t recognize them right away. God is with us, so we must cling to
our faith, as hard as it is to do so at times. We must cling to our faith, even
when it wavers, cling to our faith and trust in God’s unfailing, unwavering
promise. We are loved. We are not alone even in the wildest of wilderness
places. God is with us. God promised.
Let all of God’s children say,
“Amen.”
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