Dear Friends
Mark I: 11, 13
11And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
In verse 11 Jesus has just been baptised. Immediately after the ‘full stop’ at the end of the verse, he starts his 40 days of Lent and is driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. There seems something specifically Christian Mark (and the other Gospel writers) are trying to say about this. It’s as if the natural consequence of becoming one with Christ through baptism; the natural consequence of being affirmed by our loving Father (‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’), is temptation and barrenness.
Or is the natural consequence more that we are brought face to face with the human condition? Life is the same for everyone, its just that so many just don’t seem to notice the conflict! But maybe it isn’t a conflict for everyone? Jesus is calling us to live for him, rather than for ourselves, in order to appreciate the promise of the Kingdom of God today. You’re hungry, and those stones look startlingly tempting to turn into bread. It’s just that they’ve been flown all the way from South America and you suspect might have been collected by an under age worker being paid peanuts (possibly literally). Do you buy them or choose the organic option at three times the price? Or buy potatoes instead? And if you’ve managed to resist the temptation, does the Kingdom seems startlingly clear? Are angels coming to wait on you?
Or to use a particularly current example. Nine months ago, many people (including many of you reading this) were saying that the first lockdown (remember those halcyon days!) was a chance to reevaluate. You didn’t want to go back to how things were. When ‘life gets back to some sort of normality’ you wanted to be able to live a more wholesome, more coherent life. You wanted your values to be different! Was that you? … (You may not need me to continue, but I will anyway!) … How is it going to be different? Are you going to succumb to the temptation of doing nothing because, after all, life wasn’t so bad pre-pandemic? And change is disruptive! And often expensive!
How are you going to use the desert experience of Covid 19 to be more aware of the temptations which face every human being today in 2021? Because remember you are not on your own. You are following Jesus. And as he said 2 verses later on, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’
A prayer
Inscribed upon our heart,
the maker’s mark,
indelible,
the Word of God,
‘Love’
beautifully written,
heartfelt,
that all God’s people
might know
that we are precious,
children
of a heavenly Father
becoming family together,
and may eyes lift upward
as we listen together
to hear angels worship.
the maker’s mark,
indelible,
the Word of God,
‘Love’
beautifully written,
heartfelt,
that all God’s people
might know
that we are precious,
children
of a heavenly Father
becoming family together,
and may eyes lift upward
as we listen together
to hear angels worship.
See what you think of this:
Every blessing
Andrew