Sermon for February 18, 2024 - The First Sunday of Lent
Rite of Passage to a New Identity
The first Sunday in Lent is when we traditionally hear the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert. And we do hear that story, but if you look at the reading you will see that Mark offers us just two verses regarding Jesus’s time in the wilderness. Of course, this is typical of Mark who offers us just the important details. Over the course of the year, we will see that the one of the major focal points of Mark’s Gospel is on identity. It is clear that the identity of Jesus, who he was, was an important concept that Mark needed to address in conveying the story of Jesus, not the gritty details like Luke or Matthew, but broad stories that are meant to give us insight into the identity of Jesus.
Our reading is not just the story of Jesus in the wilderness, instead it’s three shorter stories forming a scripture sandwich, if you will. We begin with Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. We heard that “the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” It is at this moment an unknown Jesus becomes differentiated from everyone else. In this vignette we get our very first glimpse into his identity. He is anything but average, someone special.
From this first section we get a clear statement of who Jesus is, he is the Son of God, the one whom God loves and in whom God’s will for us will be carried out. This could not be a clearer statement of identity. However, if the people who witnessed this event had told this story to their friends and others, they would most likely have been dismissed and called crazy for hearing voices of someone not physically there.
That leads us to the next section, the meat of the sandwich, with Jesus in the wilderness. The Spirit led him to the wilderness where he was tested by Satan and sin. If the spirit led him then we can reasonably infer that it was God who wanted Jesus to go and be tested. Again, we don’t get any of the details of his time with Satan in the wilderness. No conversations with Satan are told for us to hear. No indication of Jesus’ emotional state at that time, but we do know that after forty days in the wilderness he emerges victorious and changed.
This then leads us to our final section where, after John’s arrest, Jesus begins his public ministry of proclaiming the good news of God all around Galilee.
Jesus was identified. Jesus was tested. And as a result, Jesus was changed; our understanding of Jesus has changed. After these events we can see that Jesus is not like any prophet or messiah that had come before; he is not Moses, or Isaiah, or even John the Baptist, he is all of them as we see that he is indeed the Son of God. Jesus underwent a rite of passage. Through this rite of passage Jesus was singled out and identified, he was tested and emerged victorious, and as a result he was changed. He was able to claim the authority that God had bestowed upon him. Others could take his presence among them as being in the very presence of God and that his words are indeed the words of God.
I often say that there were two main streams of formation that helped me to be the person I am today, the church and the Scouts. In the thirteen plus years in which I was active as a scout I was changed and formed into a new person. The program itself is a rite of passage as children are formed into young adults. I was identified, I was tested, and I emerged changed, different from who I was when I started. The Scouting program is made up of many smaller rites as I transitioned from rank to rank, from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, and always going deeper into what the programs stands for and values.
One such experience I will never forget. There is a sub-organization within the Boy Scouts that identifies Scouts who best exemplify the Scouting ideals, their version of a national honour society if you will. And within that organization there are three honours and to achieve each level one must go through an ordeal. It is intentionally called that because it is meant to challenge the participants, by enduring through hours of service projects, eating minimal amounts of food, and all done cheerfully and for the sake of others. Over time, I was selected to receive the highest level and in order to receive that honour I had one last ordeal to endure; to spend the night out in the woods, alone, while keeping a fire going. That was it. If I kept the fire going all night, then I passed their test. It was the longest night of my life and one of the hardest things I have ever done. In the darkness, in the silence, I doubted myself. I asked questions of my ability, of my worthiness. It was in the long hours of the night that I wondered if Jesus felt this way while in the wilderness. Did he doubt his calling? Did doubt his strength to endure the trials? But in the end, I trusted in myself, trusted in my training, and trusted in the light of God in the fire before me and I preserved. Because of that experience I was forever changed.
We too must make our way through this crazy world. We too will be formed by the choices we make and the people we meet. We will be tested, and we will come through those experiences as a different person. Before Jesus walked through the waters of the Jordan no one knew who he was, but when we returned from the wilderness, he was a different person. He was ready to undertake the task he was given and live out the will of God to the very end, even death on a cross. He was ready to be the savior and redeemer of the world. He was tested, measured, and not found wanting.
As we embark on this holy season of Lent let us take time to examine ourselves, to examine our consciences, to examine our hearts and not be afraid of what we will find. We will see the scars from the trials and tribulations of our lives. We will also see the imprints of those moments of joy and happiness. Let us take this season to look deeper into our identity to see the person God made us to be. And with God’s help, take the risk to live into that identity. Amen.
