Today is the first Sunday in Lent, and we are hearing the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. The Bible has several different accounts of this story. We are probably most familiar with the temptation story that includes the dialog between Jesus and Satan.
In Mark, we don’t get that conversation. Here we are told that Jesus is in the wilderness forty days and, depending on the choices the translator makes, Jesus was tempted, or maybe tested, or maybe even his measure was being taken, by Satan. Jesus was with the wild beasts, or maybe dangerous beasts, or possibly even the devouring beasts; and the angels served him, or ministered to him, or became followers of him.
There is some debate as to how to translate these two short verses in Mark, and how one thinks about the nuances of these words in these verses influences the way that one thinks about the rest of the book of Mark. Today I want to look at the part where Jesus is being measured or tested to see whether he is able to withstand the rest of his ministry.
Is Jesus able to be the one who will save the world from itself and the powers of the world that would defy God? Although we see Jesus in the wilderness for forty days in the book of Mark, the temptations don’t stop there. Throughout all the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is tempted to withhold God’s forgiveness relationship from those he meets.
Each miracle story is a temptation to not heal. Each time Jesus teaches, he is tempted to let the people continue in their old ways. Indeed, at one point, Jesus says, “How long must I be with this adulterous generation?” Throughout it all, Jesus continues to be faithful to God’s own creation and continues to bring wholeness wherever he goes.
In the three texts we have before us today—the rainbow covenant with Noah and his family; Peter’s claim of Christ dying and rising for the sake of the world; and the baptism of Jesus followed by the wilderness time of temptations, wild beasts, and angels of serving—we encounter some of the most powerful images of our faith.
These images from today’s texts are beautiful, but they are also deadly. They are challenging, and they are life giving. They are death producing, and they are death defying. In the midst of it all, there is a promise of new life and hope for the future.
God makes a covenant with Noah and his family after the flood. This covenant, this agreement between God and Noah, this contract that is struck, is not written on paper, but it is sealed in the heavens for all to see. Whenever the people of God see the rainbow in the sky, they breathe easier; and God is reminded of the covenant that is made with Noah and all of creation.
We see this sign in the heavens, but we do not always embrace the meaning. We need to understand that a bow is not just an arched prismatic light display. It is a bow, like a bow and arrow. This bow is hung in the sky pointing the direction the arrow will go.
Notice the bow does not point toward earth. It points toward God. In this covenant relationship we have with God, God says, “I will never again destroy the world with the waters of the flood. Should I ever break my promise, you, creation, have the right to draw the bow and kill me.”
How often have we paused to look at a rainbow and marveled at it? I remember a time just after I got my sight back. We were on a train in Germany, and outside the window were these two perfect rainbows. It was not just one rainbow; there were two of them, each pointing into the heavens. It was amazing. In the context of this first covenant story, it was almost like: “No matter which way you go, God, we have got you covered.”
As we enter into these days of Lent, we are reminded that God’s promises are everlasting, but humanity’s faith wavers. In just a few weeks, we will hear the story of how humankind decides to draw the bow and kill God. Even then Christ will die on the cross only to rise and give humanity another chance to be in relationship with God.
This relationship we have with God is based not on the death-producing, destructive waters of judgment, but on the waters of baptism in which we are raised up into everlasting life through the grace of Jesus Christ. God’s promise is magnified. What was once death-producing now is the source of what defies death and gives the promise of an everlasting relationship with God that cannot be broken.
Yes, the rainbow is beautiful, but it is potentially divinely deadly, and the waters of the flood are terrifying. Neither the waters of the world nor the rainbow is as placid and passive as either seems. Still we marvel at the rainbow and wonder at God’s saving actions.
This is not the only time that God’s people will face drowning waters. They will confront those drowning waters when they flee Egypt and enter into the wilderness. And again, the Israelites will face those waters of death when they leave the wilderness and cross the river to enter the promised land.
We too pass through waters that would destroy us. Those drowning waters of the flood, they continue to be deadly. That flood continues to drown and destroy sin, but in Christ, we receive the gift of the life-giving water in baptism. Through these waters of death and life, we receive the death-defying eternal life we have in Christ.
Through Christ, we see God’s full intention for the world, that the world might be saved through Christ, that the world might pass in faith through the drowning waters with Christ and rise from those waters into new life. The way of everlasting life is paved for us through Christ’s death and resurrection, through what Martin Luther calls the Great Exchange: “the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous,” the divine for the human family that cannot save itself.
In this new relationship with God, we read that the heavens are torn open. This word in Greek is schizomeno. It is the basis of the words schizophrenia and schism. The Greek word also used to describe giving birth. It implies the womb is torn apart so that new life might enter the world.
Today we also read that the Spirit throws or drives Jesus out into the wilderness. In Greek the word is ekballo which also describes how a baby is pushed or cast out of the womb into the world. So, in the midst of this tearing open of the heavens and Jesus being cast out, we witness the beginnings of the new-life relationship Jesus brings.
More than this new life, when Jesus comes out of the wilderness, after John is arrested, Jesus proclaims that the time is fulfilled. This word in Greek, pléroó, does not just mean filled or fulfilled. It corresponds to a Hebrew word that means filled like a womb is filled with a child.
This filling is not something that can be contained by the world. This fulfillment is going to expand until it gives birth to something new again. Our lives in Christ will continue to be influenced by the new life Christ brings and the new life we receive.
In the midst of the waters of the flood, under the rainbow hung in the sky, when the heavens are being torn apart, when doves fall from the sky, when God’s voice is heard claiming Jesus as his beloved son, as the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness, in the midst of all of this death and new-life craziness, comes the cry of new hope and new life with new ways of living, with a new order for the world. Indeed, the time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand.
The boundaries between heaven and earth have been broken down. God’s kingdom is no longer separate from us; it is with us here and now. This is the good news. God will not abandon us. Indeed, God has come to be with us, God our Immanuel, here on earth for the sake of the world. And we get to be the ones who let the rest of the world know about this amazing thing that God is doing in our midst through the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
Although in the midst of the wilderness chaos time we live in today; in the midst of senseless shootings in our clubs, at concerts we attend, in our schools; in those public places where we gather where trucks and vans run people down; when we feel lost and cast adrift, we are tempted—tempted to say nothing, to curl up in a ball, and to pray that the world will just go away and leave us alone, it is in this time that we see Jesus coming out of the wilderness saying, “The kingdom of God has drawn near. Hear the good news.”
God’s kingdom is engaged; it is slap up against the world that we live in. Indeed, the two have become one. Don’t be afraid. Be bold and live!
The story is told that Moses spent forty years in the wilderness because he wouldn’t ask for directions. Jesus only had to spend forty days in the wilderness, not because he asked for directions, but because the Spirit drove him through it. This story is even funnier if you know that in Hebrew and Greek the Spirit is feminine.
We come to our wilderness time needing to ask for direction. With our questions, our concerns, our hopes and our dreams, we look forward to our ministry with Jesus who brings healing and wholeness. We are called to work with Jesus in the world like midwives aiding new birth relationships with new ways of living together seeking the Spirit’s leading.
I cannot know what it feels like to experience the schizomeno-ing of new birth, but I am told by women who have given birth, that not only their bodies, but the fabric of their lives is torn open; and, with the new life they have brought into the world, their world is forever changed; they cannot think of the world in the same way again.
Today, in the midst of the heavens being torn open, we have been given new life in our midst, and we are charged with caring for that new life, entrusted to tell the generations to come of the mighty acts of God. “The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is engaged. Hear the good news of God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment