The Holy Gospel for this First Sunday in Lent is the evangelist Mark's very brief account of the temptation of Christ. The temptation account may bring to your mind the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ. That movie gained much attention, because many people protested the substance of what was purported to be a possible last temptation of our Lord. The suggested temptation was that on the cross Jesus thought about what life would have been or might have been like had he loved a woman and married. Many Christians found it impossible to believe that Jesus would be open to the consideration of such notions. In reality, we do not know precisely how all the temptations did come to our Lord. However, we do know that our Lord "in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:11). Therefore, he had to be tempted in regard to his sexuality also. Thus the movie achieved a notoriety it never should have and was not all that good for other reasons. All of that has been much discussed before.

What is important for us to understand is that Jesus was tempted all through his life, every day of his life. Of all of those temptations, the most troublesome ones had to be the kind of temptation he experienced in the very beginning of his ministry. Those temptations had to do with the use of power, and they were repeated in a variety of ways throughout his ministry. Though the Markan account of our Lord's temptation appears very brief, it does include important observations which are most important for us to note.

Spirit-driven

The very first thing Mark records is that our Lord was involved in this encounter with Satan, because he was Spirit-driven. Mark relates his accounts in reportorial style. That style reveals a genuine sense of urgency, which is obvious in the temptation account. Jesus, according to Mark, had appeared on the scene when he came to be baptized by John. At his baptism Jesus had been anointed with the Spirit of God. Mark notes that was such a powerful experience, and the Spirit came upon Jesus with such force, that Jesus was immediately driven into the wilderness.

When Jesus uses the powers of his spirit to drive out demons from people, the same word is used that is employed by Mark to suggest that this was an irresistible power. This was no natural compulsion which people develop out of habit. This was the same dynamic influence as had been noted in the lives of God's people throughout their history. This Spirit was the force of God's presence in the lives of heroic people. It was the same Spirit God had conferred upon his creatures at the creation. In the life of Jesus, the Spirit of God was operating with full force and with its pristine power as God had intended God's Spirit should have been operative in people.

The Wilderness

The second observation Mark mentions is that "the Spirit immediately drove him (Jesus) out into the wilderness." The wilderness recalls that the Children of Israel were in the wilderness. However, that suggests two different kinds of experiences. On the one hand, the wilderness was the scene of God's revelation to his people. In the wilderness God had made a covenant with his people at Sinai. The wilderness was the place where God cared for and fed his people with manna. The wilderness was the land where God forged his people into a strong nation who could go up and take the Promised Land. At the same time, the wilderness was the scene of many open rebellions against God.

If the wilderness was thought of as a place to evoke faith and piety, it also brought out the worst in people and caused them to lose faith. For that reason alone the wilderness could be regarded as a place to be feared. If God was there, so were the wild beasts and all sorts of demons. The wilderness was the arena where one could sense dramatically the presence of both. The wilderness was a huge set where the desert storm of the battle of the godly and the demonic could take place. That is precisely why Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. The battle lines had to be drawn between the one who thought he was holding sway in the world, the pretender to the throne of God, the Evil One, and the One who had come not only to challenge him but to empty him of his false powers.

The Forty Days

Mark cites the fact that Jesus was in the wilderness "forty days." More than likely, what comes to your mind is the fact that the Children of Israel were in the wilderness forty years. The forty days could, therefore, be reminiscent of those forty years and symbolic of that era of God's grace for God's people. However, what is probably more significant is the fact that Moses had been in Mount Sinai for forty days. Likewise, Elijah's flight from Jezebel lasted forty days when he went to Mount Horeb. In each of these cases these men of God emerged from their experience of solitude as greatly strengthened. Both Elijah and Moses came away with a clearer understanding of themselves and of what they were called to be and to do. The forty days were not simply a rounded number made to conform to the number of years the Children of Israel had been in the making. The span of time mentioned is the time that it took God to prepare his holy men for the kind of mission God wanted them to perform. Jesus stood in their tradition. He was the young rabbi who had come to perform a prophetic role on behalf of God for the sake of God's people. Jesus had to know full well that when the Spirit drove him into the wilderness that he was stepping into the mediating roles of a Moses and the prophetic role of an Elijah. Jesus neither shirked these roles or protested them. It was the very nature of his Spirit to look at the experience as something that would help to prepare and mature him for what would follow.

Tempted

Mark reports quite simply, Jesus "was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan." From the other evangelists we know that there were three major temptations. Mark's announcement is not just matter-of-fact stuff. The language he uses indicates the gravity of the situation. Also, its position in Mark's gospel makes it clear that all of this was a prelude to a ministry that actively countermanded the activities of the demonic. Nor should we assume that Mark knew of only one temptation. Rather, the reporting here is because he knows of only one, the struggle of our Lord for forty days. Having been commissioned by the Heavenly Father for his ministry, Jesus had to determine in what form he would carry out this ministry. Having received the approval of his Father, "This is my beloved Son," Jesus had to contemplate how he could best continue to please his Heavenly Father. It took the full forty days to think through and envision what kind of entanglements he was likely to face.

What would be the best way to show the understanding Jesus had of power? If he was the Son of God, would it not be appropriate for him to reverse what happened in the Garden of Eden by showing how he could make bread for the world? The first Adam had brought hardship to the world for the earning of one's bread, why not turn it all around by proving his sonship in making bread out of stones. Moses also fed the people in the wilderness. Why not prove your claim to being the second Moses? In the light of the best traditions in the Hebrew community, all of that sounded logical and beautiful. One can imagine how those thoughts tumbled over and over again in the mind of Jesus during those forty days. Everyone would know that Jesus of Nazareth was the greatest prophet there ever was.

Tempted More

The idea of being a great prophet had its appeal. Equally tempting had to be the idea that he was to be a priestly figure. The Temple of Jerusalem, Herod's temple, represented the shrine where the people of God knew they could meet their God. That temple also represented the centuries of tradition, worship and culture of this people who knew their lives were uniquely bound up in a special pact between God and them. The sacrificial system of the ages had assured them of God's grace and love. Was it not for that reason the promised messianic figure should suddenly appear in the Temple? Would it not make good sense to drop into that scene like a bolt out of the blue so that the people could know that their great high priest had come? That certainly had to be an especially attractive scheme. That suggestion certainly had to twirl around in that great mind with great persistence.

Ah, but the most striking of all had to be the establishing a claim to David's throne! That would enable him to reinstate a reign more glorious, powerful, and victorious than Israel had ever known. With his know-how and abilities he could claim a place among the nations of the earth that would enable him to rule the world.

Our Temptations

If we can envision our Lord in the wilderness struggling with these immensely attractive ideas of the use of power in establishing himself as prophet, priest, and king, we will have some inkling as to how strikingly fascinating these notions were. In contrast, Jesus would have to think of being humiliated by the heartless people who would put him to death. If you understand that, you will also recognize the similarity to our own temptations. Temptations to the worst evils are charming and promising. A good businessman may have no problem resisting the temptation to embezzle, but if he ever had the opportunity to walk off with a million dollars, that might be difficult. People do tend to have their own price, one way or another.

All of us have to face the fact that temptations usually come tailored to fit our situations. They normally come on the heels of perfect rationalizations of why we should and could get away with something. We are willing to set aside what we know, our morals, and our best behavior to take up what we are sure will be for our benefit. Flip Wilson's famous line in The Devil Made Me Do It is to the lady contemplating the purchase of a dress she does not need is, "You owe yourself a try-on." That is where most temptation begins, "You owe yourself!" Then, of course, what follows is the "try-on" or "there's no harm in trying."

Beasts And Angels

Certainly as Jesus was bombarded with thoughts of glory and power, he had to wonder over and over again why the Heavenly Father would prefer him to go the way of suffering, pain, and the cross. If at the baptism God had claimed him as God's Son, why could he not think he could walk into the wild blue yonder with the world at his feet? Each one of us daily confronts the same kind of question one way or another. We lay claim to being God's children, and we are tempted to think that affords us special privileges, immunities, and rights. However, it does not work that way.

Mark says that while Jesus was in the wilderness "he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him." In the Scriptures wild animals are sometimes described as a part of the kingdom of evil. What this suggests to us is that Jesus was hounded by temptation. At the same time the "angels waited on him." Those conditions were to be the same all the way to the cross. Jesus would be tempted on all sides, but God also sent his ministering angels to support him in resisting the evil. That is our comfort also. We would still have to be in doubt as to what the outcome would be, were it not for the fact that our Lord was victorious. For our sake he was victorious in the wilderness, all the way to the garden and on the cross itself. The Father awakened him from the grave as fully victorious. Now we can know that not only do angels attend us in our struggles in the wilderness of this world with the wild beasts, but we are already victorious in Christ and can resist temptation at every turn.