A Strange Way to Say, "I Love You"

Mark 1:9-15

It is a strange way to say, “I love you.” Jesus hears God assure him that he is indeed God’s beloved Son, the apple of God’s eye, and a source of joy for God, but no sooner are the words spoken, then God drives Jesus into the wilderness for a forty day ordeal, battling temptation, and passing through some sort of rite of passage. 

We don’t do well when someone professes to love us, then sets all sorts of criteria, qualifications, and demands upon us if we hope to stay in good stead with that love. As a pastor, I have seen several marriages come completely unraveled when one or both partners suddenly realized there were all manner of strings attached to the relationship. No, when it comes to love, we want yes to be yes, and no to be no—clear, direct, and without reservation and test. 

Yet, there is something profound about the practice of rites of passage—they become sure and certain signs that one has grown into an identity, has shouldered the weight of being who one is, and is ready to live in response to the responsibilities and obligations of that identity. 

Maybe if more of our elected officials had to undergo their own wilderness sojourn upon being elected, we might not be in the many predicaments before us? Just a thought…

Fred Craddock, one of the most gifted American preachers of the 20th Century, reflected on this passage with a brilliant insight—the forty days’ trek is not so much God testing Jesus, but Jesus wrestling with himself as he understands who and what he is in his baptism. Now that Jesus wears the mantle of messiah, he has to wrestle with the temptations of how to use that power and purpose. As the beloved of God, how tempting it would be to use that status selfishly to elevate himself, abuse others, and become a demagogue, lording over the people like some teapot potentate. No, Jesus has to work himself into being a true messiah led by other-centeredness and self-emptying compassion if he is to truly live into being whom God named him to be.

That insight is so important for us to hear, particularly in a time and place when so many are skeptical about all things church because the church has taken the role of self-righteous judge of the rest of the world. Too many have taken the wondrous benefits of faith—freedom, sanctification, justification—and turned them into self-serving attributes arrogating all holders to lofty arenas of judgment over the rest of the world. Such a state means only that someone fell to the whispering tantalization of the tempter. Instead, note how Jesus stands down all these temptations. He answers with devotion to God. He empties himself of all self-aggrandizement. He lives into an utterly pure humility. And so, too, should we—as Jesus is, we are to be!

The world does not need any more people convinced of their right to lord over others. The world does not need any more people intent on self-justification and its partner, the denigration of everyone else. The world does not need any more voices of self-righteousness. What the the world does need is people full of nothing but compassion, grace, and mercy. What the world does need is people able to communicate to everyone else that all people—all 7.5 billion of us on the planet—are the beloved children of God. That is living into the mission and ministry of Jesus. That is living into our status as the redeemed. Our redemption is only as real as our work to redeem all others.

Jesus lived into his baptism by becoming the light of God within the world, revealing God’s love for all people; God’s will that they be full, complete, and whole; and emptying himself to make it so. 

That is our call.

We claim the name of Jesus. Do we seriously consider what that claim entails? Do we consider that such a claim is only as real as our ability to embody that claim? Do we understand that such a claim means that our lives should reflect, continue, and deepen the work Jesus started? Jesus’ forty days now stands before each one of us—are we ready to enter the wilderness?

I hope so, for our world is hungry and thirsty for such work.

To help us on our way, we need also remember and note among whom we sit. A congregation is our community. We are all in this together. Note that not even Jesus faced the wilderness alone. Mark assures us that Jesus was with angels and animals. A beautifully poetic interpretation of this detail is that the wild animals were not threats, but rather indications that in Jesus the Prophet Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom was come to pass. Jesus was with angels and animals, carrying him through to the resolution of his commitment to be whom God named him to be. We have one another. We are to help one another, feed one another, and nurture one another into being the people of Jesus as the body of Christ within this church. We are not on our own. We are not left to fend for ourselves.

This past week was touched with unspeakable tragedy—unspeakable tragedy that has become commonplace and routine. The world hurts. The world is hungry for grace. The world is starving for transformation.

God speaks to us—all of us and each of us. You are my beloved children with whom I am well-pleased. If we are to live into being what God names us, we must enter the wilderness. We must engage. We must work the needed redemption of the world.