Where the Wild Things Are
March 8, 2009
Mark 1:9-15
9In those days Jesus
came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And
just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn
apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 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 forty days,
tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels
waited on him.
14Now after John was
arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and
saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come
near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Mark 1:9-15
Video Clip from “Walking Across
Egypt” http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16164&substring=swimming
In the book of Hebrews, we are told that Jesus
was not only tempted but that he was tempted in all ways such as we! Well, Jesus must have known the
panic Wesley felt when pushed into the river. After all, no one expects a
powerful moment of closeness with God to be followed by being thrown
by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where all the wild things are!
Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark does not give us
lots of details about the temptation. His
account (like most of his stories) is sparse and simple. After the baptism, Mark says
that the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. But the word translated drove
in this passage is actually more forceful. It is the same word that is
used when Jesus exorcises demons from people and would probably better
be translated expelled. In
other words, just like Mattie pushed Wesley into the water, the Holy
Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wilderness where he faced the wild
beasts.
Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that
Christians are not tempted to do the wrong thing. If you don’t believe
me, look at the Bible. The
Bible contains story after story of people with strong relationships
with God and great faith who are tempted again and again to do the
wrong thing.
Think of David—a man after God’s own
heart—standing on the roof of his palace eying the beautiful wife of
another man. Think of
Peter—the Rock on which the church was built—denying Jesus not
once, not twice, but three times!
Think of Paul—writer of more than half our New
Testament—who wrote, “I do not do the things I want, but do the
very thing I hate.” And
Jesus kneeling in prayer in Gethsemane, “If it be your will, let
this cup pass from me.”
Great faith does not result in an exemption from
temptation. In fact, the
greater the faith, the greater the temptation!
C.S. Lewis once said, “A silly idea is current
that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious
lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is...
A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not
know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad
people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived
a sheltered life by always giving in.”
For those who choose to try and live a holy
Christian life, temptation will be great. Think about it—why would
Satan bother to waste time tempting someone who isn’t even trying to
live a good life?!
In addition, as we grow in our faith, God expects
more and more of us. As we
mature, we are expected to exercise more and more self-control. And with each move toward
greater maturity comes greater temptation.
And the problem with temptation is that it
is—well—tempting.
This past week, I’ve spent a lot of time
thinking about those wild beasts because I believe that our most
vulnerable places for temptation lie in our greatest fears. With the exception of
sociopaths, I believe most people are not tempted by things they know
are bad but by things which ease their fears and which they can
therefore rationalize as being appropriate—even good—actions. We are tempted by those things
which keep the wild beasts at bay. Those things which keep us safe. Those things which help us
sleep easier at night.
Which got me to thinking—what are our wild
beasts? What are the
things we fear the most? What
are the things which lurk behind us waiting to pounce to tempt us into
fear, into resentment, into sin? What
are the wild beasts lurking in our lives that Satan might use to tempt
us to panic, to doubt, and to turn from God toward him?
One such wild beast is the fear of not being
accepted. It sounds benign
enough and yet this beast has the power to tempt us to sin and to
influence great evil.
As a matter of fact, the first mention of sin in
the Bible is not found in the story of Adam and Eve where you probably
expect it, but a few chapters later.
Adam and Eve had been thrown out of Eden and had given birth to
two sons, Cain and Abel. Abel
was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer.
Both brought gifts to God and for some reason, God preferred
Abel’s gift over Cain’s and that made Cain mad. In fact, it made Cain very mad!
God noticed that Cain was angry and asked him
why. And then God said, “If you do well, will you not be
accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its
desire is for you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:7)
Cain’s wild beast was a fear of not being
accepted. And it was his
fear which created the anger that eventually drove him to kill his
brother. This was the same
fear that drove Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery. The very same fear that caused
the disciples to fight over who was the greatest prior to their last
supper with Jesus.
How many of us find ourselves attacked by that
very same wild beast? This
is the beast that whispers in your ear that you will never be good
enough for God so why try!
Then there is the fear of scarcity. This is the beast that is
continually telling us that there isn’t enough! There isn’t enough money,
enough time, or enough love. This
is the beast that causes us to believe that we have to have more than
anyone else to be secure. This
is the beast that causes us to covet the things that others have. This is the beast that causes
us to work harder, worry more, and fear always that there won’t be
enough of whatever we need to ensure a safe, secure life.
Or perhaps you’ve encountered the fear of
failure. This is the beast
that lurks behind you every time God calls you to do something new. This is the beast that
whispers, “You can’t do it. You don’t have the talent or skills.
You aren’t good enough! You’ll
fall flat on your face.”
I suspect that each of us has a different set of
beasts whispering in our ears. What
tempts one will not tempt another. Yet what is common to the human
race—so common that even Jesus had to endure it—was that
temptation would come and resisting it would be a struggle.
Perhaps that is why for 2000 years, the church
has called us to take time each year to reflect on our lives, our
sins, our temptations. Lent
is a time where we are called to spend time in the wilderness so that
we can face the wild things that haunt us because it is only by facing
the beasts that we can grow into the kind of disciples God needs to
proclaim the gospel to a hurting world.
Unfortunately, we often respond to temptation by
panicking. Like Wesley,
when we find ourselves plunged into that which we fear, we flail
around assuming that we have to depend on our own resources.
I’m often told that God doesn’t put anything
on us that we can’t bear. Actually
that is not exactly what the Bible says.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your
strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so
that you may be able to endure.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
We can
endure the testings and temptations not because we are strong but
because God is!
Remember, Mattie tossed Wesley into the water
knowing he could touch the bottom.
The Holy Spirit tossed Jesus into the wilderness knowing that
angels would be there to attend upon him.
God does not leave us alone in our
temptations—even in the wilderness.
So when faced with temptations rather than trying
harder, we simply need to trust more.
Now as I say that, I know that is not an easy
answer. Trust is not
something that can be conjured up by following particular steps. Trust is the result of a
relationship with someone. Trust
comes from watching how someone interacts with others. I’ve always said that one of
the reasons Craig and I trust each other is that we’ve known each
other since we were 13 and we saw how we acted in other relationships. I knew he didn’t cheat
because he never had. And
that is why we study our bible. As
we study the bible and read the stories of God’s steadfast and
unfailing love for others, we learn that we can trust God. When we read about a God who
loves and forgives some pretty awful folks, we come to know that God
can love and forgive us. The
Bible teaches us that God can be trusted!
Trust also comes from knowing and being in
relationship with a person and that is why we must pray. How can we trust someone we
don’t talk to? How can
we say we believe in a God that we have merely heard others talk
about? And we must be
honest in our prayers. We
need to go ahead and let God know all there is to know about us—good
and bad. Not because God
doesn’t know all there is to know about us already but because trust
means that we are able to share all the bits and pieces of ourselves. Think about your closest
friendships. Aren’t they
the ones where you can say what you think and not hide who you really
are? God doesn’t need
more information about us! God
wants relationship with us. And as we build that relationship, we
learn to trust more fully.
This leads to the beauty and the good news of
temptation. As Paul
reminded us,” all things
work together for good for those who love God.” (Romans 8:28) Notice
he doesn’t say all good things happen but all things work for
good—even temptation. And
as we walk through the wilderness, facing the wild beasts with courage
and faith, our faith becomes stronger and our relationship with God
deeper so that like Paul we can say, “Nothing will ever separate us
from the love of God in Christ,” and like Jesus we can say, “Into
your hands we commend our spirits.”
For those who trust in the Lord never need to fear treading
where the wild things are!
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