MK 1: 9-15 

Marginally Mark…The First Sunday in Lent…Revised 2018

Jesus has been out in the margins, unknown, for 30 years or thereabouts. Now He comes to the Baptiser - himself marginalised, as genuine prophets usually are. Immediately - a very Mark-like emphasis - Jesus finds himself emerging into the Divine Limelight. Throughout His ministry, not seeking the limelight is always an issue with Jesus, as MK reports it. Jesus doesn't ever strut the stage as would-be Messiahs do. (How many of them can we list? Selective Bible-bashers, Tele- ‘evangelists’, presidents, …?) In Jesus’ day, only a few faithful, discerning, souls recognise Him as the human face of God. Sometimes, some of them, even, waver. Faith in Jesus the Christ has never been a ‘numbers game’.

There’s a Godly vigour bordering on the violent out there. Steering us away from any idea of Jesus as ‘gentle, meek, or mild’; a later travesty which all too easily flows on into being a travesty of YHWH God. Skies open, God’s Spirit descends, a Voice from heaven speaks, followed immediately - very Marcan - by the Spirit literally driving Jesus out further into the wilderness to be tested. Is this testing so much by Satan, however we understand that term,  so much as by Jesus testing Himself as to His fitness for what YHWH God is calling Him to be & to do? I vote for the latter!

In Jesus’ Baptism & His testing that follows (MK doesn’t go into details as others do) Jesus proves His heart is directed completely towards God & the task in hand. In the Theophany, YHWH God, Source of all Being, calls & endorses Jesus in the Role. In His Testing, Jesus takes up that challenge of being the true Messiah. He can, He will, live out that connected-ness with that Source of all Being, not least our own. Providing we, like Jesus make & keep the connection! 

I suggest choosing ‘testing’ for Jesus’ experience in the wilderness, over ‘being tempted’ will help us celebrate a more positive Lent. Giving a positive emphasis, rather than a negative one. 

Come back with me to those heavenly Boom! Boom! Boom! Booms! Jesus experiences, & some others witness, & maybe we will hear God attracting our attention & equipping us for ministry by asking questions like:

(1) Whether or not we were baptised as hapless infants, or adults, have we grown into that baptism? Let it really happen to us? 

(2) Do we hear, do we recognise, God calling you & me ‘His beloved son or daughter’ now? 

(3)Are we facing up to any ‘satan' in ourself, including our own demons & choosing instead God & God’s way in life? 

(4) Is God ruling in me, now? God’s Kingdom coming in power & glory in me, now? As it does in Jesus back then?

A positive answer to all these - our own personal testing, in today’s wildernesses - may give us a more positive Lent than many we’ve experienced before!