Sermon for Lent 1 – 2.18.24
+ Lent 1 – February 18th, 2024 +
Series B: Genesis 22:1-18; James 1:12-28; Mark 1:9-15
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
“With the Wild Animals”
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Imagine you’re at a painting class about to illustrate a famous Bible story. With brush in hand and colors on your palette, your instructor gives you a few details of the story to include: paint a place with a man, a place of wild animals, a place of temptation, and a place where that man is thrown out into the wilderness. After some Bob Ross painting magic – some happy little trees, some happy little animals – and your illustration is done. What Bible story have you painted?
Your first sketch in mind is probably Genesis, the Garden of Eden, Adam , animals, and Satan as the serpent. And that certainly fits the details. Eden was the place of Adam (for a while, anyhow), a place of animals brought to Adam to be named, a place of temptation by Satan in the form of a serpent, and a place where Adam was thrown out into the wilderness.
But there is another Biblical story you could paint with those same details. It’s the story Mark paints for us in this morning’s Gospel reading. There’s a certain man in a certain place, a place of wild animals, a place of temptation, and a place where the man is thrown out into the wilderness.
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Compared to Matthew and Luke, Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is short. Just two verses. And while Mark doesn’t have the detail the other gospels have, he does have a couple curious details Matthew and Luke don’t have.
Here in Mark, the Spirit doesn’t lead Jesus into the wilderness. He throws him out. He casts him out (think a fishing rod and line). The Spirit chucks Jesus out. Like the fish at Pike’s Place market, the Spirit yeets Jesus out into the wilderness.
And there in the wilderness Jesus is tempted for 40 days by Satan. 40 days takes us back to Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Back to the wilderness testing. In that wilderness, Israel failed, fell into temptation, and was faithless. In this wilderness in Mark 1, Jesus succeeds where Israel failed. Jesus overcomes where Israel was overcome by temptation. Jesus is faithful where Israel was faithless.
But Mark goes further back than Israel in the wilderness. Mark goes all the way back to Genesis. And he was with the wild animals.
This is Mark’s way of telling us that the Creator is here in the flesh. The healing of all creation has come at last in Jesus the redeemer. There is a new creation beginning already in Jesus – as he overcomes temptation, as he makes all things new by his death, and as he rises again from the dead. The redemption that creation, and we along with it, have been waiting for, has arrived already in Jesus. Heaven and earth are together again in peace in Jesus. Jesus goes where the wild things are: to tame a fallen creation by rescuing, redeeming, and restoring you, and creation as well.
This is not the first time we hear about the work of Jesus, the Messiah, surrounded by animals. We hear this at Christmas too. Isaiah foretells the ministry of the Messiah this way:
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain
When Mark says that Jesus was with the wild animals…after his baptism…after his temptation. Jesus goes into the wilderness as a second Adam to undo everything that the first Adam, and we, have done
Jesus in the wilderness is a cover song of Genesis 2-3. Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is a reboot of the temptation in the Garden. Jesus is Adam 2.0. He is the man in the wilderness. a place of temptation. A place of where the animals are. A place where he is thrown out. Only this time it’s different.
Adam was cast out of the Garden of Eden because he fell into temptation, gave into sin. Jesus is cast out into the wilderness to stand firm against temptation and overcome sin – and Satan. Adam was overcome by Satan’s lies in the garden. Jesus overcomes Satan’s lies in the wilderness. Adam was thrown out of Eden and the world – and we along with it – are thrown into a world of pain, sorrow, despair, guilt, shame, chaos, disorder, death. Jesus is thrown out into the wilderness…not cuddle with the woodland creatures like Snow White. Jesus goes into the wilderness as a second Adam to undo everything that the first Adam, and we, have done and fallen into. He goes into the wilderness to triumph over Satan (whose name and actions mean the adversary), for all the times sin, death, and Satan have triumphed over us.
Where sin, death, and the devil brought disorder and death and despair, Jesus brings order, a new creation, rescue, redemption, and restoration.
For all the times we have been like Israel and Adam…faithless, fallen, failures…Jesus succeeds where we don’t. For all the times you feel alone in your sin, alone battling temptation, alone in despair or hopelessness, without strength, comfort, or lost…for you Jesus went into the wilderness. Jesus went into the wilderness for you. To find you in your lostness, your despair, at the bottom of your rope. He went out into the wilderness to join you in all the suffering that you go through. To be your strength when you are weak. Your hope when you despair. Your comfort when you grieve. Your innocence when you are guilty. Your honor when shame weighs you down. Your forgiveness when you fall into temptation.
But the wilderness isn’t the only place Jesus goes for you, nor is it the last place he fights and defeats Satan. After three years of teaching and preaching, healing and casting out demons…he finds his way once again to a garden. Not Eden. Gethsemane. He prays. Salty, sweaty drops of blood drip from his forehead. And then he goes out into the wilderness again. Cast outside the city. Up a hill. To the hang on a tree for you. To bear the curse for you. To overcome Satan and death for you. To crush the serpent. To defeat our ancient foe, the dragon. To take a twisted, mangled bunch of thorns from Adam’s scorched earth upon his head to crown you with glory. To bring a new creation and overcome Satan by his death on a tree so that he who by a tree had overcome Adam and all of us, would finally be crushed underfoot.
The church fathers were on to something when they said that the cross of Christ is the key to paradise. Jesus was surrounded by wild animals at the cross: yelling out crucify him. Tempting him to come down. But he stayed there for you. All our failures…all the times we’ve fallen…all our faithlessness…it’s all undone.
And from the tree of his cross, feeds you. He sets a table for you in the presence of your enemies. He gives you food of the new creation in the wilderness. He forgives you all the times you’ve fallen into temptation here at his table. Here is Manna from heaven. The Bread of life. His body. His flesh. His blood. Shed for you. Poured out into the cup for you. For the forgiveness of sins. Adam ate the fruit of the tree and died. Here, you eat the fruit of Jesus’ tree and live.
And here, once again, on this table made of wood from a tree, the gifts of Jesus from his tree are taken and eaten. And death is undone.
The healing of all creation has come at last in Jesus the redeemer. In his body given for you. In his blood shed for you. Here you are delivered from evil and temptation. Here all things are made new for you died and rose again
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.