For the first Sunday in Lent, we visit the story of Jesus’ temptation – and the change in his life it marked.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 1:9-15). Each of the three years of the cycle, the Revised Common Lectionary tells the same story using one of those first three gospels. This year, we hear from Mark’s Gospel about Jesus’ temptation after his baptism.
Mark told the story in its briefest, sparest, form. Mark simply wrote that after his baptism, Jesus went out into the wilderness. He was tempted by the devil, and the angels served him. Then after John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and there began to proclaim the message: “The realm of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the good news.”
That baptism changed the course of Jesus’ life. Before the baptism by John, Jesus had not gone around preaching or teaching; after the baptism, he did. But I think there’s something else, maybe a little subtler, that changed during this moment of temptation, these days of temptation.
You see, at the end of each one of Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s accounts, the angels served Jesus. Well, that same word, “served,” comes up a couple of more times over the course of Mark’s Gospel. It was used to describe what Peter’s mother-in-law did after Jesus cured her from an illness. It was used to describe what the women did who accompanied Jesus and his male disciples around Galilee and then further down into Judea. But most of all, it was the word that Jesus used to describe himself: that the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.
At this moment of deprivation and exhaustion, Jesus received the service of the angels, but moving from there Jesus would become an example of service to us and to others. Jesus would accept the aid of those around him, but Jesus would provide far more support and nurture and guidance and growth than I suspect any of them realized even at the time.
Jesus faced his temptations, received the renewal of the angels’ aid, and then let the course of his life be changed. Beginning a new life, if you like, a life of service and of self-giving for those around him, and for you, and for me.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
