First Sunday in Lent – Series B (February 22, 2015)
Mark
1:9-15
After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit
drove him out into the wilderness. Threw
him out there. Expelled him. Sounds like something a school principal does
to a habitually naughty student. Not something
the Third Person of the Holy Trinity does to the Second Person. I thought they were supposed to be on the
same team.
Well, they are. The Spirit sent him out there to do battle
with Satan. This was a divine
appointment. Satan’s appearance was no
surprise. God is never caught off
guard. This was all part of the
plan. Jesus was sent to act as faithful
Israel. Israel passed through the waters
of the Red Sea and spent 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus passes through the waters of the Jordan
and spends 40 days in the wilderness.
Whereas Israel was unfaithful, Jesus is faithful. And Jesus came to serve as the substitute not
just of Israel, but of all mankind. He
came to stand up to Satan’s temptations in our place and to prove himself as
the faithful Son and perfect Savior.
Mark’s account is very short. We don’t get the details of the various
temptations that Matthew and Luke give us.
Turn stones into bread. Throw yourself
down from the temple. Bow down and
worship me. In each case, Jesus answers
not with his own divine power, but with the Word of God. He didn’t come to rely on his power as God for
his own purposes, but to rely on his Father in heaven. And so he says, “Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God … You shall not put
the Lord your God to the test … You shall worship the Lord your God and him
only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:7-10).
Those temptations ought to be
familiar to each of us. We are often not
content with the daily bread God has given us.
We often neglect every word that comes from the mouth of God in Holy
Scripture. We put God to the test when
we do stupid, harmful, reckless things. It
might not be like jumping off the high point of the temple and expecting angels to catch you. It’s more like seeing how reckless you can be
by sinning against your conscience, almost daring God to see if he means what
he says about the faith-destroying effects of willful, perpetual, deliberate sin (Heb. 10:26). And we also have
a tendency to put everything else in our life before God, thereby proving that,
like the people of Israel, we also have our own Golden Calves.
Matthew, like Mark, tells us that
after the temptation in the wilderness angels came and were ministering to
Jesus. What does that mean? We’re not really sure. Perhaps they cared for his physical needs
after spending so much time in the wilderness, hungry and exhausted. Certainly, Jesus had also felt the full force
of Satan’s temptations and stood up to each one of them … unlike you and
me. You and I fall so soon, even before
we feel the full brunt of temptation’s force.
Mark adds this interesting detail:
“And he was with the wild animals.” Now
what was that all about? Again, we’re
not really sure. I can’t read Mark’s mind, but just like the
Transfiguration was a preview of Easter and the Resurrection on the Last Day, I
contend that Mark’s description of the aftermath of the temptation of Jesus is
a preview of Paradise restored and the peaceful reign of the Messiah that he
came to bring.
In God’s perfect creation, Adam was
with the wild animals. Lions and tigers and bears (oh, my) were no threat to
him. All was peaceful. Along comes Satan. He tempts Adam and his bride to disobey God’s
command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. Adam falls into sin, bringing death
and disorder into creation. It’s no
longer perfect. It’s broken. Mankind’s perfect relationship with God is
destroyed. Adam’s sin brings separation
from God. And that means death in this
life, including death from wild animals.
Including death at the hands of one’s own brother, as soon occurred east
of Eden. And it means death in the life
to come, that is, eternal separation from God and his love. Adam is expelled from the Garden of Eden, and
God placed the cherubim – angels – with a flaming sword guarding the entrance
to the Garden and the way to the Tree of Life.
Centuries later, the promised Savior
arrives on the scene. He does battle
with Satan, not in a garden, but in the desert.
He is the Second Adam who does not fall into Satan’s trap. He remains faithful and obedient to his
Heavenly Father. Angels appear not as a
threat to keep him away from the Tree of Life, but to serve him. And he is with the wild animals, even as the
First Adam was before the Fall. The
wilderness with Jesus in it becomes a picture of Paradise, the way things were
meant to be. True Man is obedient to his
Heavenly Father. True God is served by
his creation.
This is also a picture of the future
peaceful reign of the Messiah. In Isaiah
43, the Lord describes it this way: “Behold,
I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert. The wild beasts
will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches” (Is. 43:19-20). And in Isaiah 65, he says, “Behold,
I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind … The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall
eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food” (Is. 65:17, 25).
A wild beast was caught in a thicket
and served as a substitute for Isaac. The
Lamb of God was nailed to the Tree of Life on Calvary and served as our
substitute. He goes to death. We go free.
There he trampled upon the wild animals that signify all evil forces, as
we sang earlier, “You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and
the serpent you will trample underfoot” (Introit, Ps. 91:13). Back in the Garden of Eden, God declared that
dust would be the serpent’s food. The
devil would grovel for the rest of his existence until his head would be
crushed at the cross by our victorious Savior.
Yes, the devil still prowls around looking for someone to devour, but he
is a defeated enemy. The serpent has
been defanged. In Christ Jesus, he has
no power to accuse you of your sin or to defeat you. The victory of Jesus belongs to you. Your baptism is the guarantee of that.
On this side of the veil, though, we
still feel the effects of sin. We are
both tempted and tested. How can we tell
the difference? The word for “tempt” and
“test” is the same in the Greek. Take
heart in what the Apostle James writes. He
says, “Blessed is the man who remains
steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown
of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am
being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself
tempts no one. But each person is
tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth
to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15). God gives tests only to
strengthen our faith, never to tear us down.
Temptations never come from God.
They come from Satan, the sinful world around us, and our sinful flesh. Satan wants to use those temptations to drive
us to unbelief and despair. God will
never do this. He will, though, permit trials
in our life to draw us closer to him and strengthen our faith.
But what do we do when real temptation
comes? Draw strength from God’s Word. Run to the Sacrament where Jesus is present
for you with his Body and Blood to “strengthen and preserve you in body and
soul to life everlasting.” Know that you
are not left to fight the battle alone. The
author of Hebrews, in chapter 2, says, “Because he himself has suffered when
tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Heb. 2:18). In chapter 4, he says, “For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in
every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the
throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need” (Heb. 4:15-16). And Hebrews 12 teaches
that a great cloud of witnesses surrounds you, the saints of old, cheering you
on from the sidelines. They fought the
good fight. They finished the race. They know how difficult it was. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which
clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us
, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).
And when that “wild animal” that is
our old sinful nature takes over and we do fall to temptation, this does not
call for perpetual hand-wringing or self-flagellation. Simply listen to Jesus who says, “Repent and
believe in the Gospel.” Turn from your
sin. Trust in Jesus who died for the
ways in which you have fallen to temptation.
Receive forgiveness in his victory in the wilderness and all the way to
the cross and the empty tomb. Come to
the altar to the presence of Jesus. This
is our Paradise in the wilderness.
Amen.
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