Sermon: A Fall, or Failure to Mature?

Lectionary: Lent 1(A)

Texts: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11

From Paradise to Chaos
Herrel, Edie Mae; 1975

A mother bakes a cake for her child’s – let’s call him Greg – birthday party. She tells Greg to leave the cake alone, and not pinch pieces away and eat them. Why? Is it because she doesn’t want him to have the cake? No, it’s for him, after all. But the time is not right. When the party takes place, that is the right time. But Greg is still quite young – let’s say he is 3 years old – and the wait is too much. He doesn’t yet comprehend the value of delayed gratification. His immaturity gets better of him; he tears a piece off the cake and eats it.

The story of The Fall as it is commonly known, at least within Christianity, can be interpreted in many ways. The most common and I would argue, the least interesting goes like this:

Adam and Eve are fresh-off the assembly-line, shiny, new, perfect, first human beings—sort of super humans. God tested these flawless creatures with this command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, just to see if they meant business and would obey God. But they failed the test, rebelled against God, and lost not only their own perfection but that of every other human being since.[1]

This is how most of Western Christianity has read and interpreted the text since at least Augustine (CE 354-430). If you’ve heard of the Doctrine of Original Sin, this is where it originates (pun sort of intended), even though the word sin never occurs in these texts.

Now recall that I said, “Western Christianity.” This is because the other large group of Christians, the Eastern Church, reads it differently.

Another angle, one often taken by Christians in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, is to read the Adam story as being not about a fall down from perfection, but a failure to grow up to godly wisdom and maturity.

Think of Adam and Eve not as perfect super humans but as young, naïve children, who were meant to grow into obedience, but were tricked into following a different path.[2]

Some of the earliest Christians read it quite differently from even these first two that I discussed. Just prior to Augustine, Ambrose taught that eating the “forbidden fruit” was “fortunate guilt.” It was because of this “blessed fault” that Christ was able to enter the world.[3] Now, when this interpretation is analyzed, it doesn’t take long to realize it is based on several pieces of faulty logic.

For the early Jews, the story is not about human disobedience.

The early Jewish focus is rather on the garden itself, the gaining of sexual knowledge (“and they knew they were naked”[4]) and the concurrent loss of immortality, and the regaining of the garden in the future.[5]

For the early Jews, the loss of immortality of a single individual was replaced by immortality of the community through reproduction and descendants.

For the later rabbis, contemporary with the early Christian period,

The idea of an edenic fall is a minority opinion. More popular are countervailing claims suggesting the everything, including death, was part of the divine plan.[6]

Why do I bring up these many interpretive variants? Some not Christian? Because interpretation and development of doctrine don’t happen in a vacuum. Development happens in conversation with the past and with contemporaries who hold divergent views. Sometimes it agrees and at other times it is a reaction against.  Understanding and knowing about them (hopefully) allows us to be better interpreters and more open to listening to other viewpoints, even when we ultimately disagree.

In addition to different theological interpretations, there are also different views about the historicity of these texts in Genesis. One view posits that the stories of the creation, fall, and exile are literal and historical facts. Another view is that while not everything should be viewed literally, it is still a factual accounting of history.

A third view sees these stories as myth. Now “myth” does not mean lies or falsehood. It does mean fiction. But as any good literature professor will tell you, oftentimes, good fiction can communicate truths better than bland facts.

I started in the “literally true” end of the spectrum. But now I read these early chapters of Genesis as mythology. These are texts that preserved early Hebrew traditions where they attempted to make sense out of their world. They were in conversation with other cultures and mythologies around them. They used familiar motifs and archetypes to create their own mythology of how the world began and how it ended up so fractured in so many ways.

The text of Genesis as we have them today wasn’t finalized until well after the return from Babylonian exile. This is important because Genesis 2 and 3, in addition to a mythological tale of Hebrew origins, it is also an allegory of the historical journey that Israel has taken. The creation of man from dust can be seen as paralleling the creation of Israel out of slavery. The first humans were placed into a paradise garden; the Israelites were led to a paradise-like land, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” The first humans were given a command to follow; the Israelites were given commandments to follow. Life and perpetual habitation of the land given to them would follow obedience. Conversely, disobedience led to death and exile for both parties of the allegory. God gives warnings to both the first humans and to Israel the consequences of disobedience.[7] The mythology of Genesis is written by returnees from the Babylonian exile, looking back at their history and diagnosing what went so wrong.

Lending more strength to the argument that Genesis 2 and 3 are stories about Israel is the different word for God used in chapter 1. In Genesis 1, the word for God is Elohim, a general, cosmic deity. But when we get to Genesis 2:8, the words used are Yahweh Elohim, naming a deity who is specific to the Israelites.[8]

This is where we revisit the theological interpretation of naïve children who are faced with a choice to obey God or do their own thing. Did God want them to remain naïve? I don’t think so. Proverbs chapter 1 begins with the following words on the purpose of this collection:

To know wisdom and reproof, to understand discerning maxims.

To accept the reproof of insight, righteousness, justice, and uprightness.

To give shrewdness to the simple, to a lad, knowledge and cunning.

Let the wise man hear and gain learning, and the discerning acquire designs.

To understand proverbs and adages, the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Wisdom and reproof dolts despise.[9]

During the Babylonian exile, the prophet Ezekiel wrote about returning to obedience, not because of commands written in stone, but because they would be internalized. One such text reads:

²⁶ A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. ²⁸ Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. [10]

The writer of Hebrews writes about maturing in faith:

You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.[11]

There is no shortcut to maturity. There is no shortcut to genuine knowledge and wisdom. The problem with Adam and Eve in the garden was not that they desired these things, but they took a supposed shortcut that was offered to them.

And here is where Jesus’ wilderness temptation (our gospel reading) becomes relevant. Jesus too, was offered shortcuts to achieve what he was destined to do. But to take the shortcut would have prevented him from reaching his goals. The journey itself – the learning that happens, the struggles that must be overcome – are just as important, and perhaps even more than the destination. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested,”[12] and “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”[13] The writer also (in chapter 4) describes how Israel failed to grow and mature because of their disobedience.

Shortcuts appeal to our own vanity, comfort, and power. These are the things to avoid and give up (in the spirit of Lent).

Rather, we should not shy away from the hard work necessary to gain Christ’s wisdom and knowledge. Paul writes in Philippians what this means:

³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. ⁵ Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
⁷ but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
⁸ he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
⁹ Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
¹⁰ so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.[14]

Amen.

References

Alter, R. (2019). The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Bartlett, D. L., & Brown Taylor, B. (2010). Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Enns, P., & Byas, J. (2019). Genesis for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Controversial, Misunderstood, and Abused Book of the Bible. The Bible for Normal People.

Hamilton, V. P. (1990). New International Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis 1-17. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Levine, A.-J., & Brettler, M. Z. (2020). The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Van de Laar, J. (2026, February 12). Falling Down, or Growing Up? Retrieved from Sacredise Your LIfe!: https://sacredise.substack.com/p/revolutionary-blessedness

William B. Eerdmans. (2003). Eerdman's Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.

 

 

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[1] Around page 37, Kindle edition. (Enns & Byas, 2019)

[2] Ibid.

[3] Around page 128, Kindle edition. (Levine & Brettler, 2020)

[4] Around page 113. Ibid.

[5] Around page 123. Ibid.

[6] Around page 129, Ibid.

[7] Around page 36, Kindle edition. (Enns & Byas, 2019)

[8] Genesis 1:1-2:7 and Genesis 2:8ff are two separate creation accounts. The first one, the more cosmic one, and the later one, could be read as Jewish reaction to Babylonian creation mythology. The second is based on older Hebrew traditions, still probably influenced by surrounding societies, but more distinctly Israelite.

[9] Proverbs 1:2-7. (Alter, 2019)

[10] Ezekiel 36:26-28. (NRSVue)

[11] Hebrews 5:12b-14. (NRSVue)

[12] Hebrews 2:18. (NRSVue)

[13] Hebrews 5:8. (NRSVue)

[14] Philippians 2:3-11. (NRSVue)

Sermon: Get Behind Me, Satan!

Lectionoary: Lent 2A
Text: Mark 8:27-9:1

Get Thee Behind Me, Satan! (Tissot)

Introduction – the Allure of Power

When we think of power and the powerful, what are the things that come to mind? Billionaires and their influence over the economy? Leaders of nations? The strength of military might? Autocrats and dictators who hold life and death in their hands? Politicians who hold purse strings? Corporate CEOs? Sports figures, entertainers, etc. that command huge followings and associated paydays? Pastors with mega and giga churches? Leaders of influential religious organizations? Love them or hate them, we cannot deny that these things are a large presence in our world and our lives.

The allure of power is strong. Whether in 1^st century Palestine, or in 21^st century America, the temptation to seize upon power or at least to be aligned with the powerful is nearly impossible to escape. Power – through position, wealth and both – is offered and withheld to influence and control outcomes beneficial to the powerful. The less powerful cling to the coattails of those with more power to attempt to ride up the ladder and share the crumbs that fall.

Are any of us completely immune to the attractions of power and what it offers? In the Christian calendar, the seasons of both Advent and Lent are times when the subject matter should lead us away from the pursuit of power. Or at least from the popular, temporal concepts of power.

Even in a common Christian phrase, paraphrased “Jesus will return in glory and power”, the common imaginations of power make its way. When we hear that, the imagination runs to a conquering general or king, slaying his enemies as he leads his victorious army.

That Jesus will return in glory and power could imply that during his time on earth as a human, Jesus didn’t have power…, or at least the kind of power that we think ultimately matters.

How we define power and how we view the power wielded by Jesus matters to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and follow him. To get this wrong is to be on the receiving end of Jesus’ rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan”.

Recap – Gospel Reading

What did you hear when you heard today’s gospel reading? Jesus asked his disciples who others said he was, and then after receiving responses, asked the disciples who they thought he was. Peter responded (speaking for all of them) that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. And then Jesus tells them to not say this to anyone. Immediately afterwards Jesus begins speaking plainly that the Christ must be rejected by those in power and authority, suffer, be killed, and then rise again.

It is at this point that Peter tries to correct Jesus and where Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking God’s thoughts but human thoughts.”

Jesus then gathers the crowd together and speaks about what it means to follow him. It involves denying themselves, taking up the cross, and the following Jesus. These are common phrases that we have heard and so maybe do not resonate very strongly with us. But for those who were hearing it for the first time, it meant identifying with the cruelest, most excruciating, and most humiliating form of torture and execution. Jesus further tells the crowd that those who follow him must be willing to lose their lives, and I don’t think he meant it metaphorically. I believe Jesus meant this quite literally.

Context One – Narrative Setting

There are a couple of contexts that we need to consider. The first is the context of the setting in which this narrative takes place. Jesus and his disciples were in the region of Caesarea Phillipi. We probably gloss over this as just an interesting mention of geography. But this is a key detail vital to interpreting this narrative, a narrative that is a turning point in Mark’s gospel account.

Up to this point, Jesus had been performing miracles and winning arguments with the learned scholars and authorities. He was amazing the people. He was defeating demons and demonstrating victory over religious and political powers. Jesus’ power and influence was rising in the popular minds.

It is then that Mark’s account mentions Caesarea Phillipi. David Jacobsen, in his commentary on Mark writes about the significance of the setting:

We begin by noting the setting in 8:27-30… First, we note that the location of the action is Caesarea Phillipi. The name indicates the city was named after Caesar. However, since another Caesarea nearby shared that name, it is distinguished with the second name Phillipi, referring to Phillip, one of Herod’s nearby ruling sons. Digging deeper, one notices that this region has a symbolic significance for our revelatory interlude at the mountain of transfiguration. The region, as Adela Yarebro Collins points out, was connected not only with Mount Hermon[1], but it was also an important location associated first with ruler cults stretching back to the Ptolemies and as recent as a new Herodian temple “in honor of Augustus.” In short, this revelatory discussion is happening in a region of imperial religious significance. It is no mere bit of local color or backdrop but is central to understanding the give and take that results in Peter’s confession. Second, the narrator goes out of his way to describe Jesus’ initiatory question in the dialogue as happening “on the way” in v. 28. “On the way is” is discipleship language. We are thus engaging the back and forth of question and response, rebuke and rebuke, in the material that follows not as an intellectual exercise, nor even as one about Christological speculation, but as one connected deeply to discipleship and the nature of the gospel itself. (Jacobsen, 2014)

Considering that information, what I see is the Markan gospel informing his readers that yes, Jesus has been demonstrating his power, and one might be tempted to seize upon it to gain religious, political, and military benefits. But that is not the power of Jesus.

A few weeks ago I noted in the sermon that the Markan account of the wilderness test does not include details nor the “Get behind me, Satan” words that are recorded in Matthew, or the “Don’t test the Lord” found in Luke. But we find “Get behind me, Satan” in Mark at this midpoint of his gospel. A plausible interpretation is that this is the point in Mark’s gospel where Jesus is strongly tested to take the easier path, the path of using his miraculous powers and ability to outwit the learned minds to lead the nation, build an empire, and rule the world.

It is at this point where Christians, Christian organizations and churches throughout history have been tempted and often failed. The offer of power often seems innocuous and even beneficial. Who wouldn’t think that a little bit of gaining influence from the power-that-be wouldn’t be beneficial to the proclamation and spread of the gospel? But from gaining a little bit of help from the governing powers, it soon leads to the thought that if a little power is good, more power would be better. Wouldn’t a Christian nation that follows Christian principles be a great idea? And from there the national agenda becomes “what God wants.” (And by the way, who gets to define what is “Christian” and what isn’t?)

If Jesus were to come amongst us today, I suspect there will be a quite a lot of, “Get behind me, Satan,” coming from his mouth.

Context Two – Literary Setting

The second context to consider in reading this text is that setting in which the gospel account was weaved and edited together and the audience to whom it was written. The account was probably written not too long after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Although there are no records of systematic persecution of Christians during the first century, there were sporadic, regional persecutions. The Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE was blamed on Christians.

Christians were still a small sect that was ostensibly Jewish, but the separation had begun. Perhaps some of the Jewish communities and synagogues had already begun to reject the followers of Jesus and deny the religious protections that they had been under as Jews.

In times of suffering, distress, and uncertainty, apocalyptic literature flourishes. We see this in our own history. During uncertain times, arts and entertainment tend to get darker as they utilize the apocalyptic genre to try to explain what happened, what is going on, and to offer a dark hope for the future.

It was no different in ancient times. Daniel is an apocalyptic book written sometime during the second century BCE, where the Jews attempt to explain what has happened with the rise of Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire and his desecration of the Temple.

The book of Revelation is a Christian apocalyptic literature that attempts to explain what has happened from the destruction of the Temple and the seemingly unstoppable power of the Roman Empire against God.

Here are a few features that are common through apocalyptic literature. The first is that they tend to be morally dualistic. A Yale lecture on apocalyptic literature states, “They tend to divide humankind into two mutually exclusive groups; the righteous which is always a tiny minority, and the wicked, which is always the vast majority. There’s going to be some final public judgment and the righteous will be saved and the wicked will be destroyed.” (Yale University, n.d.)

Another feature is that they tend to predict catastrophes, suffering, and persecution. “These are signs of the coming of the end, that final point in the march of history that’s being laid out. You have motifs from ancient myths very often used to describe these catastrophes.” (Yale University, n.d.)

A third feature is that they offer a “behind the scenes” look at what is going on in the supernatural realm, the divine realm, hidden to normal vision.

The last feature I will note here is that,

… Apocalyptic literature can be described as a literature of hope and despair. It’s a literature of despair or pessimism because its basic premise is that this world holds out no promise for the righteous. It’s a literature of hope or optimism because it affirms that God will intervene. He will intervene in human history, he’ll set everything right, he’ll interrupt the natural order, he’s going to destroy this broken world as we know it, and he’ll do so in order to rescue the righteous and humiliate the wicked, and if you’ve already died don’t worry there will be a resurrection, it will all be made right. (Yale University, n.d.)

Hearing an Apocalypse

Although the gospel of Mark is not strictly in the apocalyptic genre, scholars identify apocalyptic themes running through all of it, including the passage we read as our text today. The stark dualism between following Jesus and not following him is presented in the image of carrying a cross. Suffering and death are offered as the norm for following Jesus. In Jesus’ rebuke to Peter, we get the idea that something else is going on “behind the scenes” that is diametrically opposed to what is seen in the world. And finally, Jesus predicts the rescue of his followers who remain faithful to him when he returns.

Writing to a powerless, ostracized, and possibly persecuted people, I see Mark telling his audience to resist the temptation to pursue gaining worldly power to try to improve their conditions.

Jesus said, “³⁶ Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives? ³⁷ What will people give in exchange for their lives? ³⁸ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in the Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:36-38 CEB) In my experience, this statement has often been applied to evangelism and witnessing. But looking at the overall context of this passage, I think a more appropriate application is found in rejecting the temptation to seek to harness powers of this world, even if it might seem to be beneficial in spreading the gospel or improving the general conditions of Christian existence in this world. That said, I don’t think there is a problem with working with modern means of governance to improve the lots of all people. But I do think that privileging Christians over others would still prompt a “Get behind me, Satan,” from Jesus.

The final sentence of today’s reading where Jesus says, “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power,” (Mark 9:1 CEB) has been interpreted many ways. A common one is that it refers to some of his disciples who experience the Transfiguration, the narrative which immediately follows. But many scholars accept this as an unfulfilled prediction, that perhaps Jesus got it wrong (or Mark’s editing got it wrong), or that it remains for when Jesus returns.

Conclusion – Redefining “Power”

And it is here that we see the word “power” identified with God and God’s kingdom. In isolation it is easy to interpret this as the kind of strength and might associated with rulers and armies of this world. But Jesus’ power was in his suffering, in his humiliation, in his death, and in his love for the world. The power of Jesus is to use his story to persuade listeners to follow and imitate him. History is witness to the reality that Jesus’ persuasive power is stronger than the might of armies. The persuasive power of suffering and sacrificing love changed civilization.

During this season of Lent, let us remember the power of Christ’s love for the world, that we would not just be Christians, but disciples and followers of Jesus, carrying the cross and enduring suffering, humiliation, and even loss so that we too, can become agents of divine persuasive love in the world.[2]

References

Bartlett, D. L., & Taylor, B. B. (2008). Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2 (Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Jacobsen, D. S. (2014). Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries: Mark. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

Jarvis, C. A., & Johnson, E. E. (2014). Feasting on the Gospels: Mark (A Feasting on the Word Commentary). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

McLaren, B. (2024, February 22). Life As a Spiritual Journey: Following Jesus is A Journey. Retrieved from Center for Action and Contemplation: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/following-jesus-is-a-journey/

Whitaker, R. J. (2023). Revelation for Normal People: A Guide to the Strangest and Most Dangerous Book in the Bible. Harleysville, PA: The Bible for Normal People.

Yale University. (n.d.). Lecture 23 - Visions of the End: Daniel and Apocalpytic Literature. (Open Yale Courses) Retrieved February 21, 2024, from RLST 145: Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible): https://oyc.yale.edu/religious-studies/rlst-145/lecture-23

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[1] Highest peak in ancient Israel, considered a holy mountain by many peoples, and location of many Roman shrines on its slopes.

[2] “The word Christian is more familiar to us today than the word disciple. These days, Christian often seems to apply more to the kinds of people who would push Jesus off a cliff than it does to his true followers. Perhaps the time has come to rediscover the power and challenge of that earlier, more primary word disciple [which] occurs over 250 times in the New Testament, in contrast to the word Christian, which occurs only three times. Maybe those statistics are trying to tell us something.” (McLaren, 2024)

 

Sermon: Inevitable Wilderness

Christ in the Wilderness

Lectionary: Lent 1(B) 

Text: Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15

Introduction

Who hasn’t gone on a vacation to an exotic or exciting location and wanted to stay there for the rest of their lives? Or perhaps you’ve had a fantastic experience – maybe a social gathering, a spectacular concert, a most exquisite meal – that you didn’t want to leave? Or maybe it was a time when you were given an honor of some kind and you felt that you had significance and made a difference to those around you and the world?

There are moments in our lives that stand out and leave an impression – moments that remain in our memories, times and places that we savor and relive, events and actions that might even define who we are.

Last Sunday was Transfiguration Sunday, where we heard about when God reminded Jesus and the three disciples with him who Jesus was. To help reinforce the importance of that moment, Moses and Elijah accompanied the theophany – reminding those present of their founding narrative and their history as a people, nation, and their belonging to God. It was a high moment, and for the three disciples, based on their reactions, it must have been the most amazing moment they had ever experienced. They wanted to remain there, to continue experiencing that moment, to never leave it.

There are a couple of reasons why we cannot remain in an elevated state for an extended period. The first is that our brains simply don’t work that way. Our brains prefer to be in a state where it isn’t overtaxed by the flooding of neurotransmitters. If we remain in a state of stimulation, eventually that becomes the new normal, our brains regulate the production of chemicals, and what was new and exciting turns to feeling normal and ordinary. We then crave something bigger and more exciting than before. While you might be able to do this a few times, eventually there is a limit.

A second reason is that much of the people of this world live most of their lives in mundane normalcy at best. The ability to choose to go and experience something extraordinary is, in most cases, something afforded because of leisure time and disposable wealth. For many, it may be a once-in-a-lifetime event for which they save their entire lives to make that journey. And there are many others who will never have that opportunity. Plenty more live in privation and suffering their entire lives.

When Jesus and the three disciples accompanying descend from the mountain, they are immediately thrust into the difficulties and sufferings of the human experience. They encounter a father whose son has some sort of problem that prevents him from speaking and causes him to throw himself into harmful environments.

As much as the disciples may have wanted to remain apart from the ordinariness and difficulties of life, Jesus does not share their desires. His place was with those who were suffering and lead his disciples back into the places where people were hurting.

Driven to the Wilderness

With that prologue, we return to the gospel text for today. It begins with Jesus’ baptism and God’s anointing of Jesus and the accompanying declaration affirming Jesus’ relationship to God and God’s love for Jesus. It is a kind of mountaintop experience.

But that is immediately (Mark’s word) followed by the very same Spirit of anointing driving Jesus into the wilderness. Unlike in the gospel account of John, there is no period of time where Jesus remains in the mountaintop. Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness and during that time he is tested and tried. Matthew and Luke’s accounts offer some examples of the tests that Jesus faced, but Mark’s account is brief.

Where Mark records that Jesus was among the wild animals, interpreters take a few different positions. A common one is that he faced natural threats of the wilderness. But an intriguing speculative interpretation is that he was not threatened by them, but instead that they gave him warmth and protection, perhaps as an early sign of recreation that he was ushering in.[1]

Another difference between Mark and the accounts of Matthew/Luke is that in Mark’s account, the plainest interpretation is that the angels took care of Jesus all during the forty days; while in Matthew/Luke, the angels appear only after the trials are won.

It is only after Jesus spends time in the wilderness, and facing trials and tests there, that he re-enters his community to offer good news.

Examples of Wilderness Experiences

Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis and the New Testament reading from 1 Peter imply an interpretive connection with the Flood story. Setting aside some of the problematic questions raised by that story, the interpretive connection made is to the waters, prefiguring baptism, and God’s act of salvation through the waters. Although the readings do not note it, the literary record of the duration of the active flooding was forty days.

Another connection to the Israel story that can be found is with the forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness. After the mountaintop experience of Sinai, where God spoke and established God’s relationship with Israel, Israel spends the next forty years wandering in the wilderness. Setting aside the reason this happened, the thematic elements of trials and testing remain. At the end of the forty years Israel enters Canaan, the promised land where they are finally able to experience good news (although the reality of what they faced in Canaan could be said to have been quite different). The forty years might also be interpreted as preparation time needed for the Israelites to conquer Canaan.

There is a connection, too, with Moses as an individual. After slaying an Egyptian and getting found out, he fled to Midian where he spent forty years tending sheep in the wilderness.[2] At the end of these forty years Moses meets God in a burning bush at a mountain called Horeb. Horeb and Sinai are understood by scholars to be the same geographical feature. The forty years in the wilderness is preparation time before God calls Moses to lead Israel.

Finally, we bring in also Elijah from the mount of transfiguration and a parallel that can be found in his story. After three years of drought, Elijah confronts Ahab and the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. After a resounding victory and the massacre of the prophets of Baal, Jezebel is furious and seeks to kill Elijah. Elijah flees to Mt. Horeb (a parallel with Moses can be found here). He spends forty days there, refreshed by a supernatural messenger from God during that time. At the end of the forty days God speaks to Elijah and gives him new instructions and messages to bring to the people.[3]

Several observations can be made from what has been described thus far.

·        Forty is part of a literary archetype where the person or persons involved undergo some kind of ordeal and/or preparation which is necessary (in the archetype) for the character(s) to make progress in their journey.

·        The Bible is ambiguous about the source and cause of trials and suffering. Is suffering punishment? Are trials something God initiates? Does God simply allow suffering and trials to come upon people? Or are they just part of life which God neither wills or controls?

·        Much of life is lived away from mountaintop experiences, in the ordinary, that includes suffering and trials.

Ancient Historical and Literary Contexts

As is often the case, bringing in historical literary and cultural contexts prove useful in getting better sense of the whys and whats of these stories.

The first point that is relevant to our discussion is that ancient people lived in social and political structures very different from what we know and consider to be the ideal. Those of us here live in a democracy and we assume a great degree of agency and independence for ourselves. Ancient people did not live in a democracy, and they did not have much agency over their lives.[4] They accepted that someone was over them, directing much of what they were allowed to do. They could be commanded to do something and they had no choice but to obey. They believed that gods were all powerful but not necessarily good. Gods could be capricious. If the gods wanted someone to go through periods of trials and sufferings, so be it. It was the gods will.[5] Even when it was accepted that God was loving, it was also fully expected that part of this “love” included God punishing people and making them suffer for their disobedience.[6]

Ancient people also believed everything had to have some kind of intentional cause, and those things that couldn’t be explained, they believed gods were the cause. Most of us don’t believe that way anymore and realize that many things simply happen because of randomness that is a part of our universe and existence.[7]

The stories in our Bible fit with the norms and expectations of the ancient societies which birthed them. But do they codify universal and timeless principles? Answers vary and are based on one’s or a group’s view of God, which frequently come from a reading of scripture. And here it often ends up as a case of circular reasoning.

In Our Time and Place

What then, might be some ways of interpreting and understanding these ancient texts in a 21^st century context during the season of Lent?

I believe that the framework of the literary archetype we encountered today, commonly identified as The Hero’s Journey, is a useful framework which can be used to explain major life seasons. I don’t believe that we are required to experience this journey, or that God causes or brings stages into each person’s life. However, I do think that they are inevitable consequences of having been born into this universe.

I do believe that what the biblical stories offer us is a glimpse into how humans, when they are willing, can use difficult times that inevitably come about as a tool to learn and grow, to become more empathetic and compassionate, to identify with those who are going through difficulties, and to discover God’s faithfulness and care especially during those times.

Times of difficulties, trials, and suffering inevitably will come to us. Our natural inclination might be to try to avoid them or to pretend they aren’t happening. Or perhaps they go on for a long time and we would rather give up.

What today’s gospel reading reveals is that the gospel, the good news, comes from having experienced both the highs and lows of life. The highs offer a vision of what could be. The lows reveal the depths of the brokenness of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers the way out of the lows of life into the lifelong journey toward the kingdom of God.

Lent is a reminder that this journey is not a steady rise nor a journey where troubles cease. But it is a journey with Christ. It is a path that Christ traveled and through it overcame the ultimate obstacle: death. In that sense then, it is a path that anyone who wishes to overcome death must also travel.

The good news of the kingdom is not that joining with Christ will remove problems from our lives. The good news is that Christ suffered and joins in our sufferings. The good news is that Christ overcame and so can we.

Sermon: Letting Go

Lectionary: Lent 1A

Texts: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Psalm 32; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11

Forty Days

The gospel reading for today highlights two of the most common features or practices associated with the season of Lent. The first is the duration – forty days. The second is the practice of fasting. There may be an allusion to a possible third feature, the idea of a test or trial, that may be found in the reading that is also associated with Lent.

Jesus, Moses, Israel

In Matthew’s gospel, the temptation account is placed immediately before the Sermon on the Mount. The forty days and nights parallel the time Moses spent on Mount Sinai.[1] A possible related parallel is that Moses spent time in the wilderness of Midian where he encountered God.[2] As I have discussed before, Matthew portrays Jesus as a new Moses, and therefore it is important to show these parallels between Moses and Jesus.

In addition, however, Jesus is also shown to be the beginning of a new, perfect Israel. The first Israel was forced to spend forty years in the wilderness after failing to trust that God would lead them to possess the land promised to them.[3] These forty years was a period of testing.[4] In fact Jesus’ response to the first test comes directly from a passage in Deuteronomy that describes Israel’s forty years of testing:

² Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. ³ He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, NRSVue)

In spite of the great signs and wonders that God had performed to bring the Israelites out of bondage, once faced with the wilderness the ancient Israelites failed to trust God. They failed to trust that God would sustain them.[5] They are recorded as having “tested the Lord” when they accused God of bringing them into the wilderness to kill them with thirst.[6] And they failed to trust in God when Moses was long on Sinai, and they instead turned to crafting a golden calf to lead them.[7]

Jesus Succeeds Where Others Failed

In Matthew 4, Jesus faces the same types of tests. He is first tested on whether or not he will trust God to provide. He is next tested on whether to test God by presuming on a taken-out-of-context scripture that promises God’s protection. Jesus’ third and final test is who and what will lead his life. Where ancient Israel failed these tests, Jesus succeeds and passes the test. In each case, Jesus chooses to trust in what he knows is true about God. Jesus does not use his own power to provide for himself. Jesus does not needlessly test God’s words through reckless actions. And Jesus rejects the temptation of power and control as a means of achieving his ends, and instead trusts in God’s schedule and arrangements.

Through his success in meeting these trials, Jesus shows that he is a fit representative of a new community that will fulfill the promise and mission that was given to Israel.

I need to clarify here that this is not saying that Israel was replaced. The new community is being formed out of Israel and Israel will always be a fundamental part of the community, but its composition will become global and embrace all of humanity. The Apostle Paul struggles with the question of “what happens with Israel?” in his letter to the Romans.[8] We will not get into that question this time, but we will turn to Paul and his letter to the Romans now.

Jesus as the New Adam

Paul takes the parallel with Jesus all the way back to Adam. Whereas the first representative human failed to trust God and brought death to not just humankind, but to all creation, Jesus’ trust in God, even to the cross, brings redemption to all of creation.[9]

Not surprisingly, Jesus’ wilderness trials parallel what Adam and Eve faced in the Garden of Eden. The trials, the tests, the temptations involve:

1)     Sustenance and food and who controls how it is given. Do I accept what is given and any limits, or do I go beyond what is allowed? Do I seize (or miraculously create) what is normally not available, because I can wield power?

2)     Trusting God’s words or instead test them. Do we doubt the fences and guardrails that God has fashioned? Do we seize upon some of God’s words and try to utilize them for our own benefit or to use against others?

3)     “I know better,” “I’ll do it my way,” vs. “I’ll trust God to do it God’s way in God’s time.”

The Lure of Power Offered as Solution to Life

The common theme across all three temptations is power and control. The temptations attempt to appeal to some of the basic anxieties that arise from the precariousness and uncertainties of life on planet Earth. The temptation offer power and control as the solution to life’s uncertainties.

“Will I have enough?” is a question of basic needs and sustenance. But the history of human civilizations and societies, from ancient times to now, show that for many people, the answer to the question is always, “No.” The fear of losing what one already has, however little or much, leads to ever more amassing of wealth. The desire to have more respects no wealth boundaries. From the destitute to the ultra-wealthy, more is a common refrain. The desire to obtain goods through unethical and even illicit means is a temptation for all, but perhaps even more so for those who have the power and the means to get away with it. One need not look too far from modern businesses to see many who have succumbed to this temptation. And what’s more, unless the offense is egregious, society tacitly gives its approval. The end goal, if it could be achieved, is for a person to be able to be completely self-reliant.

“Will I be safe?” is another question about basic needs. We all long for security, predictability, and comfort in this life. But as natural disasters, wars, gun violence, and so much more take place day after day, there is no such thing as a guarantee of safety in this life. For many people there is little they can do to improve the odds of keeping safe. For others, perhaps many of us here, we do have some means to attempt to improve our security. We might upgrade to better locks. Purchase an alarm system and security cameras. Some may choose to arm themselves. We could include in this arena of security the desire to live forever. The end goal of ultimate security is eternal life that is crafted based on my personal preferences.

“Do I have any significance?” is a question of identity, meaning, and purpose. One way to secure a semblance of identity and purpose is to achieve a degree of power. Those who have power are not ignored. They have the means to get things done, and that means others will come knocking on the door and asking for favors. With enough power, a person can do pretty much anything that they want. So the pursuit of power, much like the pursuit of wealth, becomes an endless one. There is never enough power. One can always have a little bit more. The goal of ultimate power is to answer to no one, to craft a world in which everything and everyone caters to my interests.

Avoiding the Lure

Jesus rejects the offer of each of these temptations. He rejects the temptation to provide for himself. He rejects the temptation to use his position and power to demand security and protection of his life. And finally, Jesus rejects the temptation to fashion his identity, meaning, and purpose based on power over the world. Jesus rejects the identity and purpose of a Messiah formed around the world’s expectations of what a Messiah should be.

The desires for adequate sustenance, reasonable security, and for identity, meaning, and purpose are legitimate. After all, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Give us today our daily bread.”[10] Jesus addresses the problem of worrying by saying, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? … But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”[11] As for identity and purpose, Jesus tells us that we are salt and light representing God to the world.[12]

Letting Go

What if this Lent we really attempt to trust what Jesus has revealed about God and God’s care for us? What if we give up our desire to control our lives (and that often leads to controlling others as well)? What if we let go of the pursuit of material security and prosperity that the world assures us we need? What if we let go of worrying about our safety and future? What if we let go of trying to conform our identity and purpose to the expectations of the world?

Jesus trusted in God to provide for his provisions and his well-being. Jesus had heard God already declare that he was God’s son, and he held on to that identity.

This Lenten season, let us take time to reflect on how we might be pursuing desires that are not of God, and instead redirect our desires to be in alignment with what God wants for us, our families, our churches, and our communities.

Resist the temptations to cling to empty promises of prosperity, security, and power to fulfill our desires. Instead, let them go and find in Christ all that we need for this life and the life to come.

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[1] Exodus 24:18.

[2] Exodus 3.

[3] Numbers 14:33, 34.

[4] Deuteronomy 8:2, 3.

[5] Exodus 16.

[6] Exodus 17.

[7] Exodus 32.

[8] Romans 9-11.

[9] Romans 8:19-23.

[10] Matthew 6:11.

[11] Matthew 6:25, 33.

[12] Matthew 5:13-16.