“Into the Wilderness”

March 1, 2009

Genesis 9:8-17

Mark 1: 9-15

The story of the temptation of Jesus and his forty days in the wilderness is traditionally read on this, the first Sunday in Lent. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke each have long versions of those days, dramatic stories in which the devil presents Jesus with specific temptations: turn stones into bread, seize political power, show yourself as invincible.

The genius of the Gospel of Mark is in its brevity. With just one sentence we are told: “Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” Mark isn’t concerned with the details. Yet those broad brush strokes tell us much about Jesus and about ourselves.

And we will understand Jesus and our own lives better if we get a better understanding of the other character in this story—Satan.

The Hebrew word, satan, is not a name but a word that simply means “adversary.” Throughout the Hebrew Bible the word appears several times, referring to ordinary human beings. If you had an opponent, you had a satan.

Over time, the word took on the sense of “one who pleads a case against another person.” In a court, you would be faced with a satan—and I’ll leave it to you to come up with the lawyer jokes from that. You might remember that the Book of Job begins in the heavenly courts where Satan, the accuser, the adversary has been patrolling the earth, and brings Job’s case before God.

Our word “devil” comes from the Greek word diablos, which means, literally, a slanderer. Now the adversary has become the one who distorts the accusation and twists the evidence. Slowly, this one who was seen as opponent of human beings became the ultimate adversary, the one opposed even to God.

Set aside those images of pitchforks, horns, and pointed tails. Satan becomes the “essence of everything that is against God.”[1] This is what Jesus is up against in the wilderness.

The wilderness is that place of testing, a place where we become something new.

In her book Mutant Message Down Under, Marlo Morgan chronicles her experiences with an Australian tribe. Believing she had been invited to meet with their elders so that they could officially thank her for the work that she had done on behalf of poor Aboriginal youth, she was astounded when instead of handing her a plaque they asked her to forfeit her jewelry, burn her clothes, and head barefoot into the wilderness with them.

She emerged from the journey not only with tribal secrets but, more importantly, with an understanding of herself—and a deep sense of how harmonious relationships become a life-or-death matter out in the bush.

Just after his baptism, Jesus is sent into the unknown of the wilderness. Life as he knows it is changing. No more carpentry. No more living at home. Mark expresses the harsh and stark nature of this experience: “Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness.”

The story of Jesus, and Marlo Morgan’s Australian adventure speak to the situation of many today. Believing that the company or spouse or job or cause they’ve served faithfully all these years is about to reward us, many are instead be confronted with a strange-faced, naked reality that tells us to forfeit our jewels, burn our former wardrobe, and head barefoot into the wilderness.[2]

We call this the “temptation,” but the word might better be translated “trial” or “testing.” Remember that “Satan” is not a proper noun, but a Hebrew word meaning “accuser” or “adversary.” In the wilderness, among wild beasts and angels Jesus is tested. He begins to discover who he is and what his life will be about.

To be alive is to face times of trial.

Connecticut businessman Walter Levine was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and given three days to live. Through self-determination, the support and love of his family and friends, and through prayer, he fought the cancer and won. That, of course, is not the outcome that everyone has, even with love and prayer and the best medical care.

Reflecting on his experience, Levine says, “God is a forgiving merciful God, but life isn’t merciful. In life you’re put through tests.”

Not one of us is exempt from times of trial. You know that. You know people who seek to live lives of faith who face chronic pain, family problems, unemployment.  You've experienced these or other problems yourself.

When we are hit with difficult times it's easy to ask “What's wrong with me?” “What have I done wrong to deserve this?” These are old questions, as old as the friends of Job, who were certain that he had sinned terribly and so evoked the wrath of God upon him.

When facing difficult times, maybe we should ask instead: “What am I doing that is right?”

Temptation/trial/testing. We often think of them as negative. Instead, they are the events that help us to grow up. They are the experiences that offer us a deeper maturity—regardless of our age.  Through times of trial we give shape to people we are.

We all encounter opposition in our lives. Call it what you will: tendencies within ourselves, a "devil", organized forces against the will of God for the world. In us and among us there is a strong opposition to love, health, wholeness, and peace. There is much that accuses.

Each encounter with this opposition will be a test, a trial.

The season of Lent reminds us that such testing happens in our own lives. And it can happen at any time in our lives. Our human hope is that our friendships will sustain and support us through such times. The hope we have as Christians, of course, is that in such times of trial we are not left to ourselves. We move through such wilderness testing with the God made known to us in Jesus Christ.

This then, is the good news. We are never alone when we face times of trial. We are never alone when we face temptation, when we feel tested. In Jesus Christ, God knows the testing we encounter and has already walked where we walk. And this God is ready to offer forgiveness even when we give in, even when we choose—as we do—evil over good, the ways of death over the ways of life.

Through testing, trials and temptations, we always have the opportunity to renew our weary and weak spirits.

Through testing, trials, and temptation we are alive to God—and God is made known to us.

When we are stripped of all that we have, may we discover that we have each other.

And may we learn that at all times we are kept in the great love of God.