Subject:  SJ: Mark 1:12-13 |
Author:
Eugene
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Date Posted: 19:29:05 01/27/03 Mon
Mark 1:12-13
At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Mark talked rather little about the temptation of Christ, but the language of His being led to the testing ground of desert was strong -- it's almost if the Spirit dragged Christ into the wilderness. What a strong contrast with a warm, loving scene during the baptism!
Let's assume that God is not a liar, then when the Father revealed his love for the Son, He meant it. There was, then, no reason to believe that He unnecessarily sent His beloved into a desolated place to starve and to be tempted by Satan. In this case, why was Christ driven into such deprivations?
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." - Hebrews 2:14-18
So Christ suffered the temptation for our sake. This fact is revealed to us, not so that we can all feel guilty and indebted to God, but so that we may know our true worth - not in the things we may achieve, but in our being God's beloved. In becoming one of us, Christ allied Himself to us in every possible way and we would never more wonder if God could really relate to our meekness. And by the same token, where ever we are tempted and left alone amongst the wild animals, there we are in a "with Christ" moment and attended to by God's angels.
Mark did not go into the details of Christ's temptation, but we can find at least the three temptations in Matthew and Luke's accounts. Some preachers seem to teach that the whole point of this account is to memorize the Scripture well, so that when we are engaging in a debate with Satan, we would have some good "come backs" at him. I thought there is a deeper meaning to this.
From a ministry point of view, Nouwen (in his book "In the Name of Jesus") proposed that the three temptations may be defined as:
1. The temptation to be relevant. He points out that just as Jesus is tempted to merely try to focus on relevancy, on meeting needs by doing things such as turning stones to bread, ministers can very easily be caught up in the desire to be seen and recognized as someone who is competent, efficient and a problem-solver.
2. The temptation to be spectacular and seek after popularity from the crowd. He connects this with the Devil's call for Christ to prove his authenticity by jumping from the temple. He says that similarly we can be tempted to turn our ministries into means merely of performing in such a way as to seek applause.
3. The temptation to be a minister who acts as a ruler. This temptation is the final temptation which the Devil throws out at Christ. For minister, it often appears as the temptation to use power-whether intellectual, emotional, ecclesiastical, or spiritual power-to force others to serve your agendas.
In response to the mesmerizing array of Satan's persuasions about how impressive Christ, by Himself, may be. Christ's answer is the simple truth, "But without being able to love and to be loved by God, there is no point in living!"
That, is how important an intimacy with God really is.
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