Mark 1:9-15, “He was tested in the wilderness for forty days”
Today is the first Sunday in Lent this year. The scripture lesson comes from Mark 1:9-15, which is about Jesus, our Lord and Savior, his redemption, and his teaching.
The verses from 9 through 11 in today’s text start with Jesus being baptized, an event in which God confirmed that Jesus was His Son with whom God was well pleased. Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, we notice that the Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness. We might question why Jesus had to be tested in the wilderness for forty days. Do we know that being tested in the wilderness was the first thing he had to pass to be the redeemer of the world?
If we read Romans 5:12, “as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people because all sinned—” We know this “one man” was Adam through whom “sin” and “death” entered. Further down in vs. 15 in Romans 5, it says that Adam is a pattern of the one to come. Here, the “one to come” refers to Jesus. Just as sin entered through one man, Adam, redemption entered the world through one man, Jesus Christ.
In this context, Jesus had to be tempted as Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden. He had to prove that he was sinless to be the redeemer of the fallen humanity because only the “sinless” can redeem sinful humans. In other words, Jesus, as a human, had to go through the temptation that Adam had gone through but should prove himself as sinless, unlike Adam.
Another question might be why Jesus had to be tempted in the wilderness, unlike Adam, who was tempted in the perfect surroundings.
It was because, symbolically, Jesus was a living embodiment of the spiritual reality of human fate, having to live in the wilderness where nothing lives because of human sin. Being tempted after fasting for forty days and nights without food and water symbolizes the tangible reality of humans’ deadly state, living away from God because of human sin.
As we all know, before humans sinned, Adam and Eve were like God because they were created in the image of God; they were sinless, bearing God’s image. Like God, they ruled and subdued all the creatures on earth, sea, and the sky if we read the creation account in Genesis chapter 1. As God ruled the whole universe above and below heaven, we were created to rule the earth and everything in it.
But because humans sinned, humans were kicked out of the paradise, the Garden of Eden, out of the presence of God, and had to live in the wilderness of death away from God. We were hopeless and helpless and were to be doomed forever because of our sins. However, God could not see us burning in hell for eternity. God sent His Son Jesus to be a human to die paying for our sins as sinless. We all know that Jesus did not sin in the wilderness when tempted by Satan. He did not give in to temptation as Adam did.
After he was tempted in the wilderness, vs. 15 of today’s text states that Jesus began to preach, “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” If I paraphrase this, it goes like this: ‘Now that I proved myself worthy to be the redeemer of the world by not giving in to temptation and since I am sinless, I can be your redeemer. Finally, you can live in the kingdom of God if you repent and believe that only through me you can come to God.’
Here comes the important point. We are to note here that we need to repent. Repent from what? What is sin? Why does this pastor keep on preaching about sin? Without a true understanding of the reality of sin and how we are saturated in sin, we cannot relate to Jesus being the redeemer who died for you and me. What is sin? Do we know that not believing or not trusting God is a sin? Not obeying God’s commands is a sin. As I mentioned last Wednesday at our Ash Wednesday service, sin is not just criminal activity. To understand how we live in “sin” every day, we ought to know what it means to eat the fruit of knowing “good and evil,” which was what Adam and Eve did, disobeying God’s command.
Why eating the fruit of knowing good and evil was such a crime deserving of the death penalty? We covered this three years ago. What happens when we know “good” and “evil”? We get to judge ‘this is evil’ or ‘that is good,’ don’t we? What is wrong with that? The Bible says that judging is God’s job. With the knowledge of knowing good and evil, God reigns God’s kingdom. In other words, judging belongs to God’s absolute authority as the one and only Lawgiver in His kingdom. “There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who can save and destroy” (James 4:12). In this context, Satan urged Eve to eat the fruit of knowing “good” and “evil” to become a judge like God away from his absolute ruling; she became a god, rebelling against God who can only judge with His absolute truth and standards. In other words, the first Adam ate the forbidden fruit, declaring his independence from God, knowing good and evil, and judging according to his own standards. He refused to be ruled by God; instead, he became a judge, a ruler away from God. Do we get it? Humans became gods judging based on their own knowledge of “good” and “evil,” distorted and tainted because the knowledge of humans has departed from the absolute truth. What is worse is that everyone has different standards and measurements when it comes to judging what is good and what is evil.
That is why our world is in such chaos. People try to control or rule others based on their own standards, judging others. Each has become the god in their own kingdom. Everyone has their own standard, their own knowledge of what is right and wrong differing from one another. People fight for dominance over one another, trying to keep others -spouses, children, neighbors, friends, or church members- in control. We pass judgment on others in one form or another, openly or covertly. We cannot help ourselves criticizing, judging, looking down upon, and belittling, dismissing others based on our own standards because we all have fallen and declared independence from God’s rule and judgment. We envy, get jealous, and desire to dominate others.
Jesus wants us to return the judging to the One true Judge, which rightly belongs to God since we do not make the rule, but God does. In this context, the least sanctified people are the ones who criticize, pass judgment, try to control others, impose their standards on others, and try to dominate others. We get angry because we do not get our way, don’t we? Having a hot temper, getting angry easily, being jealous, you name it all stem from eating the fruit of knowing “good” and “evil.”
However, we are to differentiate between teaching and judging or criticizing. Of course, we have a responsibility to teach others according to God’s standards from the pulpit or in our homes, teaching our children, but controlling others using the scripture is another thing. I met a depressed transgender person who was denied Holy Communion. Do we know we are all on the journey to Christian perfection to be more like Christ? Some are more mature than others; some are like infants needing to grow further. Some need to correct their way of lifestyles. We all do. We all need God’s grace and mercy. No one has a right to expel anyone from church. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the righteous. Who is righteous enough to be God to judge around us? Our job is to love and pray for those whose faith is still weak or not following Christ’s footsteps or teachings. Those who are opinionated, insisting on our own opinions, let us examine whether we play God trying to control others or whether our burning zeal for certain things came from God.
In the wilderness, Christ retracted what Adam did in the garden of Eden, who declared his independence from God, being the master of his life away from God, which ended up in the wilderness being dead. Satan tempted Jesus, who was the embodiment of human fate, being in the wilderness without food and water, to turn stones into bread, and urged Jesus to survive on his own by eating what is not food, holding on to humans’ independence away from God. To which Jesus responded. No! The only way for me to survive is to live on the word of God, obeying his commandments, “Humans shall live on every word coming from the mouth of God.” In other words, Jesus, the second Adam, restored the absolute authority of God over humanity by giving back humans’ rebellious independence and mastership over to God’s reign. “Humans shall live on every word coming from the mouth of God.” Do we see how Jesus reversed what Adam did against God? Jesus returned our judging and ruling according to our own standards to God and let God be the only Judge and the Ruler in human lives.
Jesus wants us to love instead of judging others, conforming our will, wishes, and desires to God’s will, following his example. Christ died according to God’s will to save you and me. Jesus set the example for us to follow; instead of controlling, judging, and criticizing others, it is time for us to let God be the Judge and us be the doers of love following Christ’s footsteps. Amen!