Sunday
02/22/15 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s
Sermon Title: “In the wilderness
for forty-days”
Old Testament Lesson:
Psalm 25:1-10
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 1:9-15
Welcome once
again, my friends, my brothers and sisters, to this our First Sunday in this
season of Lent. While this season started this past Wednesday, on Ash
Wednesday, we will continue in this season until the day before Easter Sunday,
which this year, is Saturday April 4th.
From Ash Wednesday to the Saturday that is the day before
Easter Sunday then, we have 46-days of Lent. Yet traditionally speaking, we
don’t count Sundays as part of this number, as Christ rose from the dead on
Sunday. This makes every Sunday then, a “mini-Easter,” as we celebrate the
resurrection of Christ every Sunday when we gather for church.
Since Sundays don’t traditionally count as part of the
Lenten Season, this leaves us with 40-days of Lent. During these 40-days of
Lent, some of us give up things like chocolate, coffee, or the internet, and
some of us don’t give up anything.
We have traditionally chosen 40-days to observe Lent, due
to Christ being tempted in the wilderness for 40-days, and due to Moses leading
the Israelites through the desert for 40-years. In this way, Lent becomes an
opportunity for us repent, for us to pursue holiness, and for us to reconnect
to Jesus Christ. As Christ suffered and was tempted, we are called to repent,
to be generous, to be loving, and to be forgiving.
This year, I myself, have decided to give up pride for Lent,
although a few people that I know have told me that I am not a particularly
prideful person. This Lent though, I want to continue to be more giving and
loving to others, and a prideful person often does not do either of these
things. To grow closer to Christ, to become holier and more repentant in this
season of Lent, I want to root out of myself all pride. This might sound like a
big task, yet this is child’s play compared to what Jesus will go through in
our reading from the gospel of Mark from this morning.
This morning in our reading
from the gospel of Mark, Christ is going to go through something that none of
us here have the power to go through on our own. For this morning, Christ will
go into the wilderness for forty-days, during which, he will resist Satan. For
40-days he will pray and fast, meaning not eat anything really for 40-days. Or
eating just enough to keep himself alive.
This
temptation and resistance from Satan, could have been Jesus seeing a literal
person or entity of the devil. It could have been Jesus seeing something evil
or sinful, or perhaps Jesus heard a voice? Or perhaps it was something in his mind
that nagged at him? You see the gospels that discuss the temptation of Christ
in the wilderness, are Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and they all have different
accounts of Christ being tempted by the devil. Yet, it is us, it is Hollywood
that added a definitive figure of the devil that we see in many historical
paintings and works of art. So, did Jesus see a real visible entity of Satan,
or was it something that he heard or felt?
I
know many people that have told me that they have had experiences in their
lives, where they felt like that they were in the presence of evil. Has anyone
here ever felt like they were in the presence of evil?
I
remember the former President Bill Clinton talking about his struggles with sin
and potential infidelity. I remember him saying on television that “he was wrestling
with some of his old demons,” or something like that. We all get tempted by
things then, we all “wrestle with our demons,” whether we claim to see them
visibly or whether they tug at us in some other way.
The
reality though, is that none of us, without God, has the power to resist an
evil force as great as the devil. Yet God, Jesus Christ, is more powerful than
any and all evils. You see, if God created everything, then God created the
devil. As the devil is traditionally seen as a rebellious and fallen angel. Yet
we as mere mortals cannot take on such a power as the devil on our own.
The
devil to me then, is the one who is in the fullest state of rebellion from God.
The one overcome with such anger and sin. This intensity of sin, of evil, is
something that would knock most of us right off of our feet if we tried to
oppose it. This evil is what the gospels say infiltrated the body of Judas Iscariot
at the last supper, causing him to betray Jesus Christ for 30-pieces of silver.
We
all as people then, within us have the ability to pursue love and goodness, or
to pursue evil and darkness. I also realize that there are a variety of issues
around these things, like economics, the environment of a person, mental
health, warfare, and etc. Yet within all us, is the ability to do great things,
and the ability to do awful things. The great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther
said that as Christian, we are "simultaneously
saint and sinner." That until we die on this earth, we will have the seeds of
goodness and evil in our hearts.
For
with God, with Jesus Christ though, nothing is impossible. As the founder of
the Methodist movement John Wesley said, “Give
me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God; such
alone will shake the gates of hell.” Although Brother John
Wesley would never have claimed to be able to stand up to all of the evils of
this world on his own, except through Christ.
This morning though, Jesus Christ goes toe to toe with the
greatest force of evil this world has ever seen, and he will resist and defeat this
evil foe, fully and completely. He will send Satan, the evil one away, as he with
his own strength, will overcome evil and sin.
In being a fan of the Star Wars movies, I have often joked
that becoming a more devout Christian, is like the Jedi training that Luke
Skywalker underwent in the Star Wars movies. That before he faced the evil Darth
Vader, who was his father, he needed deep enough training, and he needed to be
strongly connected to the light side of the force, not the dark side of the
force.
In this way, I often joke and call my current ministry
mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was one the Jedi masters that trained Luke Skywalker.
By the way, Luke Skywalker, brought his father Darth Vader over to the light
side, over to the side of love and compassion, just before Darth Vader died. As
even Darth Vader had the seeds of goodness deep within him.
How
can we have faith as deep as that though? The best way to begin this process,
is to be totally surrendered to God, to Jesus Christ. As it says in Psalm
25:1-2 from this morning, “I offer my life to you LORD. My God, I trust you.
Please don’t let me be put to shame! Don’t let my enemies rejoice over me!”
As I asked earlier, how many of us have been in the
presence of evil? For those of us who have said that we have been in the presence
of evil, it is a rather unnerving thing. Perhaps the hair on the back of necks stood
up. Perhaps we get a cold chill. Perhaps it was a Green Bay Packers fan. Whatever
it was, some of us have felt presences like this before. The times that I have
been in these situations, I found myself saying the Lord’s Prayer, or praying
for the protection of Jesus Christ.
The crucifixion of Christ that we are going to remember in
early April on God Friday then, is no small thing. For as it says in 1 Peter
3:18 from this morning, “Christ himself suffered on account of sins, once for
all, the righteous one on behalf of the unrighteous. He did this in order to
bring you into the presence of God. Christ was put to death as a human, but made
alive by the Spirit.” In this reading it then sites Noah, who in the Bible
story was on the ark for 40-days, by the way.
Looking more closely at our gospel reading from the gospel
of Mark for this morning, Jesus is first baptized by John the Baptist. This is
certainly very important in the gospels, yet last month we had the holiday of
Baptism of the Lord Sunday, so I chose then to focus on the temptation of Satan
part of this scripture, not the Baptism of the Lord.
In this gospel reading though, Jesus is now about 30-years
old, and he has left the town he was raised in, Nazareth, to venture to
Jerusalem. Since John the Baptist is baptizing in the Jordan River about
8-miles from Jerusalem, Jesus heads out there to meet John the Baptist.
When he arrived, Jesus asked John, to baptize him. He asked
John to do this, not because he had sin, but rather to show his humility and to
become among the people. When this occurred, the gospel says that, “Jesus saw
heaven splitting open and the Spirit, like a dove, coming down on him.” Then
God’s voice from heaven said, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I
find happiness.”
After this, Jesus is driven to wilderness and tempted by Satan
for 40-days. When this 40-day period has concluded, Jesus finds out that John
the Baptist has been arrested, as Jesus begins his three years of public
ministry on earth. Jesus comes to Galilee after his 40-days in the wilderness,
proclaiming the “Good News,” of God’s Kingdom.
In
focusing more specifically on the temptation of Christ for 40-days in the
wilderness though, Mark’s gospel tells us nothing really about how Jesus was
tempted in the wilderness for 40-days, other than he was among wild animals,
and that angels took care of him. In Matthew and Luke’s gospel though, we get
the three great temptations. These three
great temptations are first, as Jesus was fasting and was hungry, the devil
tempted him to make stones into bread. Jesus then said in Matthew 4:4, “But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
The second great temptation, was
when the devil then took Jesus to the top of the great temple in Jerusalem and
quoting Psalm 91:11-12,
the devil commanded Jesus to jump, saying God’s Angels would catch him, and protect
him. Jesus then quoted the book of Deuteronomy 6:16 and says, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested
him at Massah.”
Lastly, the devil takes Jesus up a mountain or a high place,
and tells Christ that he will give him all of the kingdoms of the world to
rule, if he would just bow to him. Jesus then replies to Satan in Luke 4:8 “Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship
the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then after this intense 40-days of
temptation, Jesus returns from the desert ready to preach, teach, and heal for
the next three years, as his friend and relative John the Baptist has now been
arrested.
I wonder, how long would we make it
in the wilderness like this? A day? Five days? 10-days? And etc.
Yet in own ways, some of us have
been in or are in wildernesses in our lives right now. Some of us right now are
spiritually hungry, some of us feel like God is a far away presence, and some
of us feel great temptation. Perhaps we feel like the forces of evil are trying
to destroy us right now.
Brothers and sisters, I want us all
to realize though, that no one stays in the wilderness forever, and that God
will never abandon us. Through God, and through God’s people, we can overcome
all things. I don’t know about you then, but if I were in a wilderness in my
life, I wouldn’t want to go it alone, the way Christ did, because I can never
be as strong as Christ. Due to this, together, as God’s people, through the
power of Jesus Christ, we are strong. This is why we must be a family, this is
why must welcome all people, as the next visitor who comes through our doors
might be in a wilderness in their life, that we can never imagine. Yet as God’s
people, we can walk with that person while they are in the wilderness, and Lord
willing, we can walk with that person out of that wilderness together. This is
power of God, and the power of God working through his people.
I would like to tell you a story
called “Hitler the Artist,” reported in The Sydney Morning Herald’s
Good Weekend magazine June 1, 2002. Here is how it goes: “Held
in the United States Army of Military History are four watercolors by a
soldier-artist of the early twentieth century. In the opinion of most art
critics these wartime scenes are unexceptional. Historian William Shirer
described them as “crude, stilted and lifeless”. Their value lies in the name
of the artist in the bottom left hand corner: “A Hitler.”
“Adolf Hitler’s name is synonymous
with evil and brutality. Yet most people are unaware that before he became a
dictator who menaced the world, Adolf Hitler made his living selling his own
paintings. When he was 18 years old Hitler even applied for admission to the
Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He dreamed of becoming a great painter, but
despite a flair for drawing, failed the entry tests.”
“Marylou Gjernes is the former
curator of the US Army Art Collection. Reflecting on Hitler’s artworks she
says, “It’s a side of him that no-one expects. You don’t expect to see an
artist. It’s very incongruous and, in a way, it’s frightening. If someone who
can perpetrate such evil can also have this softer side, then who’s to say that
possibly isn’t in all of us?”
So brothers and sisters, we all have
been in the wildernesses in our lives. Some of us are still in wildernesses
still, yet how do we respond to the temptations of the devil? How do we get
through out wilderness? How do we stand up to the forces of evil and darkness?
Through God’s love and power we can
make it through all of the wildernesses of our lives, through God’s people we
can grow stronger, and together we can transform the world in Jesus’ image.
Amen.
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