Temptation

Mark 1:9-15

February 22, 2015

Lent 1

So Jesus’ baptism was nice.

The heavens were torn apart and the spirit came down

and the voice of God said “you are my beloved. “

It was a beautiful thing I’m sure.

The Temptation
Corwin Knapp Linson

But Jesus had no time for a baptismal party.

No time for punch and sheet cake

and those little corner pimento cheese sandwiches.

because the nice spirit who just descended lightly on Jesus

just picked Jesus up and threw him out into the wilderness.

When we think of the wilderness it’s nice

Usually a weekend getaway, a respite from our normal life.

But in Jesus time, the wilderness was not

a place people ever really wanted to go.

It was desert.

There were no resources, no springs or streams,

no plants for food, no shelter.

Besides the wild beasts mentioned,

There was also the real possibility of wild people

who were out to do others harm.

The Wilderness represented dangerous, unruly, risky places.

Places that most people would be avoiding.

We could consider the wilderness as

the opposite of “normal and respectable”.

Yet this is where the Spirit drives Jesus right after his baptism.

Right after the anointing of him and the beginning of ministry.

The Spirit sends Jesus into a place that people avoid.

And not only is Jesus driven into this uncomfortable place.

But it says he was there to be tempted by Satan.

Notice that in Mark’s gospel –

what most people think was the first gospel written down --

there is no explanation of what that temptation was,

This whole story is just one sentence:

¹³He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts;

and the angels waited on him.

When Christianity has defined Temptation,

we often think of vices:

Dessert, drinking, drugs, sexual temptations,

whatever your particular cup of tea is.

Whatever those temptation are –

they’re seen as a deviation from a “normal and respectable” life.

A normal and respectable life is here -

and temptations are there outside.

But are those things out there really our greatest temptation?

In our Adult Ed class last week,

on Christian practices, our video was from a

man named Shane Claibourne, he’s a very young

and up and coming theologian. He’s kind of hip looking.

He was saying that normally, when we testify to Jesus power

to transform lives, we’re usually talking about Jesus

taking people who are outside of our mainstream -

who are not “normal and respectable” -

and following Jesus helps them become “normal and respectable”.

Like people who were once suffering addictions or in gangs

and now they’re like working, family type people.

And, of course, those are great testimonies of Jesus power to heal.

But he said his story was opposite that.

He had a very normal life,

He was destined for “normal and respectable”.

He was homecoming king, had good grades, he was popular

was going to go to college and would

have had a normal respectable career.

But then Jesus came in and messed everything up for him.

He went to India to help children for a year

he gave up all his stuff,

now he lives in community with other Christians

They make his own clothes, grow their own food,

they work and live in one of the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

He does not have what most people would call

a “normal and respectable life”

God called him outside a normal life to something different.

And I think that maybe Jesus temptation

wasn’t chocolate cake, or drinking, or lust or

anything outside the norm.

Don’t you think that his greatest temptation was

just to live a normal life?

At Jesus baptism, the heavens opened up and God spoke,

claimed Jesus as his own, and right then, he had to make the choice

to either have the wife and the 2.5 kids,

open up his carpentry business,

and go to synagogue on Saturday night.

or to follow God’s particular call for him – savior of the world.

And what if that is really our greatest temptation too?

To always go with the status quo, to follow the way of the world,

to do what is “normal and respectable”

and follow whatever the dominant culture expects.

Now I’m not saying that the spirit is calling each one of us

to leave our jobs and family and drop out and live in

communes in poor neighborhoods.

Maybe some of us, but not all of us.

But I do think that God is calling us to be different.

Different than the dominant culture.

-To trust God above our own abilities,

-To not put our trust in the gods of the market system

or the blind pursuit of wealth and security.

-To trust in God’s abundance. To share what we have.

-To not fall in step with the drums of war and violence.

-To not fear those who are different from us.

-To care for other people’s families as much as our own.

-To love and pray for our enemies, turn the other cheek.

We are called to be different than the world.

And that means we often have to choose what is

not seen as “normal and respectable”.

This Lent we are focusing on “Walking with Jesus.”

Walking with Jesus in his life and ministry and

following his steps to the cross.

In our baptism, God chose us for his ministry in the world.

We are called to Walk with Jesus in our lives.

And sometimes that means making difficult choices

God’s call is not easy.

Jesus road was not smooth.

But just like Jesus, we are promised

that God will be with us in the wilderness

as we stumble and fall

and throughout our journey.