When
Jesus was baptized, the heavens were torn open,the Spirit descended
like a dove,
and the voice of God cried out,
“You are my son the beloved – with you I am well pleased”
An amazing moment...An affirmation of his calling, in preparation for all that was to come.
and the voice of God cried out,
“You are my son the beloved – with you I am well pleased”
An amazing moment...An affirmation of his calling, in preparation for all that was to come.
A
snap shot, too, of the life of the Trinity...Father, Son and Spirit,
Love, Beloved and Lover...Jesus dripping from the water, immersed in
heavenly Love and overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
A
moment to treasure.
When
I am baptising, I often use this reading and point out to the
congregation that this is the first time Jesus appears on the scene
in Mark’s gospel...He has DONE nothing extraordinary and yet, God
looks at him and loves him because of who he is.
And
I remind them that it is exactly the same for us.
There
is nothing in the world that we can do to make God love us – and
more or any less. God loves us because of who GOD is...and that is
the best beginning that any of us could have.
For
Jesus though, that moment of affirmation is short-lived.
“And
the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness”
That
gentle dove transformed into an irresistible force, sending Jesus out
beyond the bounds of civilisation, into the most hostile landscape
imaginable.
“Sunbeams
scorching all the day, chilly dewdrops nightly shed
Not
an inviting prospect
Nobody
goes into the wilderness unless they have to.
You
can die there, or, almost worse, you can lose yourself, your sense of
who you are...
So
why does the Spirit drive Jesus to spend time there, in that place
where everything is stripped away, where the voice of affirmation
gives way to the whispers of doubt?
Mark
gives us none of the temptation stories we find elsewhere – just
that brief summary
He
was tempted by Satan...
But
in those 5 words we find hope for our own wilderness times....for the
place is surely not unfamiliar to us.
We
may not know how we arrive there but inevitably at some point in our
lives we will find ourselves there, - perhaps repeatedly.
And
by God's grace we will not just survive but grow in those
experiences.
You
see, the wilderness is a place where everything external is stripped
away, where we have nothing but ourselves and God rely on, where we
have to confront the reality of who we are – and come to terms with
it.
That
won't be an easy process....but we know that in our wilderness we are
not alone...Jesus has been here, as he has been through every other
experience of human life.
Our
collect today emphasises that it was here that Jesus was tempted, as
we are...and of course that matters hugely.
But
we need to reflect too on the pattern of moving from spiritual highs,
from the joyous security of knowing ourselves beloved of God, to the
times of isolation, the times when we feel that we have been DESERT
ed...cast into the desert.
Perhaps
if we remember that Jesus has been HERE before us too, it may give us
strength to survive our own times of isolation, confusion and doubt.
Jesus
was in training, whether he knew it or not....in training for the
time when, though he was drawing all people to himself he would cry
out “Eloi, eloi lama sabacthani”...believing himself to be
abandoned by God.
And
his time of trial sets a pattern for our own...for wherever we walk
in the wilderness, it will not be untrodden ground for us.
Jesus
has been here first......has explored the depths of his
being....perhaps has even wondered, for an instant, if the Love he
experienced at the Jordan was but a transient illusion...
but
Jesus has kept faith with himself, and in so doing has kept faith
with his heavenly Father.
And
so, even as he faced temptation, help was at hand
“Angels
ministered to him”
There
will always be wilderness experiences...and we will not always be
able to embrace them....for it's human to prefer the way of green
pastures and still waters.
But
during Lent we can model wilderness, can choose to strip away
distractions, choose to go deep into ourselves to explore who we are,
and who God is in our lives.
And
if we dare that inner journey, then we will find that God is the one
who makes the desert blossom like the rose, that it is in the
wilderness that we find grace, and the heavenly manna that will feed
us til we are safely home.
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