As soon as Jesus was told that He was the Son of God at His baptism, Mark says that “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.” (1:12-13) A strange and rather inauspicious way to begin one’s ministry! And what about this “Satan” business? Dr. David Read of New York tells of the old Scottish lady who remarked about her minister: “It’s such a comfort to have a preacher who believes in a personal devil.” But I thought that our salvation depended upon our faith in Christ, not our faith in the Devil. What about this Satan business, anyway?
I. HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. I DO NOT KNOW AS MUCH ABOUT SATAN AS SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO. A popular paperback says that “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth” (Hal Lindsey and C.C. Carlson, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1972)...in spite of the fact that Jesus said precisely the opposite.(See Luke 10:18) The Ayatollah Khomeini refers to America as “The Great Satan” and then does things that seem to earn the title for himself. HE CALLS US “Satan,” and we are quick to return the compliment. Everybody seems to know more about Satan than I do. I once heard of a minister in Chicago who preached three sermons on the Devil. His titles were: “Who the Devil he is; What the Devil he does, and how the Devil he does it.”
Actually, the development of the concept of Satan is interesting. The word in Hebrew means, simply, “adversary.” In the Old Testament it is used for ordinary human beings who are opponents or adversaries. The word began by meaning “adversary” in the widest sense of the term. But it gradually evolved into something more sinister. It began to mean “one who pleads a case against a person: i.e, a Prosecuting Attorney.” It is in this sense that it is used in the first chapter of Job. In that chapter, the Satan is no less than one of the sons of God! (Job 1:6) Satan was the accuser. (The late Clarence Jordan, author of the “Cotton Patch Version” of the Gospels, called Satan the “Confuser.”) The task of Satan was to say everything that could be said against a person. The other title for Satan is the Devil. The word comes from the Greek diabolos, which literally means a slanderer. It is but a short step from the thought of one who searches for everything wrong about a person to one who deliberately and maliciously slanders. But in the Old Testament the Satan is still an emissary of God and not the malignant enemy of God. Satan is the adversary of God, but still operates under God’s dominion. Then the concept of Satan took one more evolution: During their captivity in Babylon, the Jews learned something of Persian thought. Persian thought was dualistic, based on the concept that there are TWO POWERS in the world which are doing battle: the power of light and the power of darkness. The whole world is a battleground between them, and people in this world must choose which side they are on in this cosmic conflict. We find echoes of this in the writings found at Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which contain a book entitled: “The War of the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness.” When you visit the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, the repository for the Dead Sea Scrolls, you will see a large black monolith standing there, symbolizing that war. And, of course, the Gospel of John makes a great deal of the war between Light and Darkness. Scholars speculate that perhaps there is some Persian or Essene influence in John’s Gospel, but more probably, all of these groups were reflecting some common thoughts of the time.
Whatever the source for the idea, it does reflect our experience, doesn’t it? We seem to be involved in some sort of cosmic conflict. There does seem to be some Adversary working against God in the world. A residue of evil which is more than the sum total of its parts, more than merely the evil which individuals do. “Satan” is the word for all that is against God. As a theology professor of mine used to say: “If there isn’t a devil, there’s sure somebody getting his work done for him!” Yes, that’s all too true. But usually, it is people who do the Devil’s work. Sartre said that “Hell is other people.” I would hasten to add that Heaven is other people, too, but I am continually amazed at the evil that human beings are capable of doing. As well as the good. The whole world waited with baited breath while rescuers dug a tunnel last month to rescue little Jessica McClure, the 18 month old little girl rescued from a well in Midland Texas; but at the same time we build up weapons systems capable of destroying millions of men, women, and little children halfway around the world...children just like little Jessica.And we go to sleep at night with clear consciences. It is insanity! Surely , Pogo was right: “We have met the enemy and he is us.” (One small child asks another: “Do you believe in the devil?” “No,” says the second, “It’s just like Santa Claus. It’s your old man!”) Jesus called Peter “the Satan” after Peter’s glorious confession of Him as the Christ, because he (at that moment) was not on God’s side, but an adversary. Interestingly, Mark, who usually protects his source (Peter) does not omit Jesus’ words. But, back to our story. No sooner was Jesus’ hour of glory over than the battle with the Devil began. It was the Spirit who drove Jesus out into the wilderness. The very Spirit that came upon Him at His baptism now pushed Him into the wilderness for His testing time. Next winter I have plans to study for ten days in the Wilderness of Judea. I am looking forward to it in one sense, and dreading it in another. It is a bleak place...the place where Bishop Pike got lost and died, the place where it took the Israeli Army a week to find him! I’m going to stay close to my teacher, believe me! Jesus, says Mark, was “driven out into the wilderness.” (1:12)
There He was “tempted by Satan.” That word “tempted” is misleading. It means, literally “to test.” In our Lord’s Prayer we are often puzzled by the traditional words: “Lead us not into temptation.” How can this be? The Letter of James says that “God tempts no one.” (James 1:13) Many of us much prefer the more modern ecumenical version of the Lord’s Prayer which we have been using for the past several weeks. I’d like to know what you think. Do you find it helpful to understand the words, or would you rather use the more traditional, familiar phrasing? You all know, of course, that even in the traditional form of the prayer there are differences. Methodists ask to have their “trespasses” forgiven, while Presbyterians pray about their “debts.” Someone once said that the Presbyterians, being Scots, would rather have their debts forgiven than their trespasses any day! Be that as it may, the Greek word actually means “sins”. That is what we are praying about. To have our sins forgiven to the same extent that we are willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. Pretty strong stuff, huh! “Save us in time of trial,” says the Ecumenical Version. Testing times are not intended to make us fall; they are sent to strengthen us. And God is there to help.
Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, says Mark. Now, that need not be taken literally. It is the regular Hebrew phrase for a considerable time. (Barclay, Daily Study Bible. p. 12) So Moses was said to be on the mountain with God for forty days (Exodus 24:18) It was for forty days that Elijah went in the strength of the meal the angel gave him (I Kings 19:8) That was some meal! I think I had a meal like last Thanksgiving! Mark tells us that Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. I have confessed that I really donUt know much about Satan. Now I have another confession to make.
II. I AM NOT AT ALL SURE WHAT “ANGELS” ARE, EITHER. Some people seem to be a lot more certain about them than I am. Billy Graham even wrote a whole book about them. I doubt whether I could fill a paragraph. I am not sure what the Bible means by “angels.” Sometimes they seem to be special messengers of God, a special order of being. In the time between the testaments, the idea of “angels” as intermediaries between God and the world gained ascendancy, as people came to believe that God was remote and aloof from the world. With the coming of Jesus Christ, (who is “Emmanuel,” “God with us,”) it seems to me that the need for angels is superfluous. There is nothing that angels do that Jesus does not. To my way of thinking, angels are now unemployed. Nevertheless, the Bible does seem to refer in some places to angels as special creations of God, created for special purposes. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, you and I do not become angels when we die. That’s a relief! In a famous little book entitled “He Sent Leanness,” Englishman David Head gives us the prayer of a “natural man” who says, “...I am not the least bit cheered by the thought of harps. My dear Matilda, who rejected my suit in 1900 for the sake of a common actor, was a competent harpist. To hear the plucking of the strings again can only bring regret and melancholy. ...Lord, I am quite convinced that I shall not be at home in heaven. Is this all You have to offer?” And then the man concludes, “Lord, the thought of being a ghost haunts me!” (London: Epworth Press, 1959, pp. 46-47)
No, I do not think that we “become angels” when we die. That is a bit of popular folklore without Biblical foundation. We do not have to worry about the aerodynamic problem of flying about with gossamer wings, or the musical problem of trying to play a harp with a tin ear! I do not know what angels are, but I am intrigued by the fact that the Greek word in the New Testament for angels means simply “messenger.” Angels are “Messengers of God,” who bring God’s strength to people. To Elijah, whimpering under a juniper tree, a broken, beaten, man, there came a message from God which gave him strength to rise up and face life once again. To St. Paul who thought that he could not function with his handicap (whatever it was,) there came a message of God: “My strength is sufficient for you.” (II Corinthians 12:9) And it is something like that, the Gospels tell us. that happened to our Lord Himself. During Jesus’time of testing in the wilderness, when He was buffeted by Satan and wild beasts, we read that “the angels ministered to him.” (1:12) Imagine that! angels in the wilderness! the last place youUd expect to find them! I am not at all sure what “angels” are, but I do know this:
III. GOD HAS MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF MESSENGERS. Sometimes they come to us in such commonplace ways that we miss them. In a very real sense, the Bible itself is a “messenger from God.” We call it the “Word of God,” which is slightly incorrect, for the Bible itself tells us that Jesus is the word of God (See John 1) So what does it mean to say this book is “the Word of God?” It does not mean that God sat down at a word processor and knocked it out one day. No, we call this book the “Word of God” because through its pages, God speaks to us. Across the ages men and women have heard God speaking to them in times of crisis, wilderness times. Sometimes this Book is a strengthening angel to us. Sometimes Jesus Christ comes to us as an “angel” that is, as a “Messenger of God.” Indeed, He is the “Word of God.” (See John 1)
Sometimes the strengthening “angel” is a fellow human-being. Indeed, I am constrained to think that that is the form that angels usually take. At least that has been so in my experience. In Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film “The Gospel According to St. Matthew,” which came out a dozen or so years ago, the angels that speak God’s message to Mary and Joseph concerning the heaven-sent child that is to be born, appear to be youngsters playing nearby. You can make up your own mind whether they are meant to be natural or supernatural creatures. That’s much the same way that it is with the resurrection story in Mark. You remember - if you saw Michael Reardon’s presentation of the Gospel, you can never forget - Mark tells us that it is a “young man” dressed in a white robe who meets the women at the tomb and tells them that “You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here...but go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” (16:6-8) Later Gospels tend to embellish the story. Luke says that it was two men who deliver the message to the women. Matthew is the only one who says that it was an angel! And John caps the climax by insisting that it is Jesus Himself!
I have a feeling that most of the “angels” that you and I will ever meet are going to be our fellow human beings. When people looked upon St. Stephen, the first martyr, as he was being stoned to death for his faith in Christ, they said that his face was “like the face of an angel.” (Acts 6:15)You and I have known some people whose lives have affected us that way. They are all too few, but there have been some. And thank God for them. Many times, the “angel” who brings us strength and ministers to us is a fellow human being. And, after all, isn’t that really our job, if we are to be Christians: “Christ’s people?” Not to become “angels” when we die, but to try to be ministering angels while we live. Even in the worst wilderness imaginable. To be persons through whom the light and life and love of God flow into a wilderness world.
The story has been around for awhile now, and I have come across several versions of it; but here is the version I want to use this morning: A man named Wilbur lived in a valley near a river. The river had reached flood stage and everybody was being evacuated to higher ground. But Wilbur stood firm. He was staying at his house and not abandoning it because, said, he, God would take care of him. Soon the water had risen to Wilbur’s porch. His friends paddled by in a canoe and found Wilbur sitting on his windowsill. “Wilbur,” they said, “we have come to save you,” But Wilbur would not budge. “God will save me,” he said. It was not long before the flood waters had risen several feet and Wilbur had retreated to the second floor. A rescue team came by in a row boat. As he waved to the people from the window, they shouted to him, “Wilbur, we’ve come to save you,” whereupon Wilbur said, “Don’t worry about me. God will save me.” Soon the house was totally covered with water and Wilbur was sitting on the peak of the rooftop. Again the rescuers came by, this time in a motor boat. “Wilbur,” they shouted, “this is the last time we can come through these raging waters. Hurry up - get into the boat.” “No,” replied Wilbur, “God will save me.” Finally, Wilbur was sitting on top of his chimney. A helicopter hovered overhead and someone shouted through a megaphone, “Wilbur, grab the rope before it is too late.” But Wilbur would not budge. The waters rose higher and Wilbur drowned. As he entered the gates of heaven the Lord met him. “Lord,” said Wilbur, “I’m glad to meet you, but frankly, I am very disappointed. I counted on you to save me, but you let me drown in those floodwaters.” “Wilbur,” said the Lord, shaking his head and smiling with understanding, “I sent a canoe, a row boat, a motor boat, and even a helicopter to save you. What more did you want me to do?” What more, indeed? There always seems to be “angels in the wilderness...” May God grant us the wisdom to recognize them when they come.