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Mark 1:9-15

Where the Wild Things Are

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Mark 1:9-15

Where the Wild Things Are

By The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH AND THE MEDITATIONS OF MY HEART BE ACCEPTABLE IN YOUR SIGHT, O LORD, MY ROCK AND MY REDEEMER.

Children have fears that we may not always be aware of. “Monsters Inc,” the Disney movie, is a wonderful story about the fear of monsters in the closet that children may have. But in the movie, the scary monsters turn out quite nice after all. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is the story of a little boy’s fantasy and dream of encounters with wild beasts. What starts out frightening becomes a great adventure for him.

As adults we have more realistic monsters but we have them too and they are often in the wild and unknown places for us, just as they are for our children. We are faced by temptations and struggles and our fears. Our wild beasts may be health concerns for ourselves or our loved ones; our monsters may be financial worries and wondering what the future may hold for us.

“On a hillside, Jesus found a cavern and there made his solitary camp. His sole reason for retreating to this grotto was that he must become acquainted with human suffering and temptation. Jesus had to know them first-hand and altogether before he could begin his work …He must overcome temptation himself as a man and not as God before he advised others what they must do. That was why Jesus made his way into the wilderness.” So the book and movie The Greatest Story Ever Told explains why Jesus went into the wilderness.

Then Jesus encounters Satan sitting in a cave eating his lunch dressed like a worker taking his lunch break. The impression we are given is that the encounter is foreseen if not actually planned. Jesus needed to come face-to-face with the force of temptation—the power of the devil and his demons– before Jesus could bring the Gospel of Salvation. Jesus had to encounter, head-on, all that we would face, before Jesus could tell us the good news.

The desert can be a frightening place. This past winter I saw the movie “Jarhead,“ a story about our troops in the Gulf War. The young Marines were stationed in the Arabian Desert far from home; it was a difficult place for those young people to be. Some kept scorpions as pets because that is the only life they found.

Dehydration and even death are real possibilities in such a hostile region. Like the deserts of Arabia, the Great Western Desert of Egypt is one of the harshest landscapes on earth where the only forms of life are scorpions and snakes. The wind has sculpted the landscape and transformed mountains into natural sphinxes. Some areas receive no rain for an entire generation. There are few oases. Caravan drivers are warned not to go out of sight of bleached animal bones or they would be totally lost and never again be found. The wind howls fiercely and wild animals shriek. No human lives there. The Judaean desert at the time of Jesus was not much different. It is where Jesus is driven immediately after his baptism. Arising from the waters of baptism, from his confirmation as the Beloved Son of God, Jesus is driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, out where the wild things are, there to meet the Adversary, Satan.

St. Mark in his Gospel doesn’t describe the encounter or list the temptations—both Matthew and Luke give fuller accounts. Mark simply states, “He was in the wilderness forty days”—which means a long time and makes us remember the forty years the ancient Israelites wandered in the same wilderness. Jesus was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts and angels ministered to him—waited upon him. Then he was ready to proclaim the Gospel: Repent and believe the good news.

As I read this again, I thought that this story—baptism and then temptation in the wilderness—represents not just the story of Jesus but the story of all of us. The first thing that happened to Jesus after his baptism was being driven into the wild places where he was confronted by temptation. Isn’t that true of us? Our life in this world is one of temptation, wilderness wanderings, facing down trouble.

There are some preachers who pretend that everything is solved by becoming a Christian, that our troubles will cease if we follow the Lord. That is not true at all. Sometimes I think it is just the opposite. When we become a follower of Jesus all sorts of trouble ensues. We follow a Lord who was tempted and tried and crucified and this is the Master who tells us to take up a cross and follow him. Christians are not spared trial and temptation and testing—the Greek word here means all those things. Christians are flesh and blood people—we are not angels. We will be driven out into the wilderness. Our faith will be proved over and over again. We are not spared life’s troubles. We are not immune to the snares and tricks of the Adversary.

Jesus’ Temptation marks a defeat of Satan. What is begun here in the desert continues with Jesus’ victory on Calvary and ends with the promised downfall of the Enemy in Revelation. The power of sin is being broken. Jesus emerges victorious from the wilderness to go forth and proclaim the Gospel. He leaves the wilderness to preach and teach and heal. Jesus is more powerful than Satan and we can claim that power as well. Sin and death have no more dominion over us but life and salvation.

It was popular in the Early Church to go out into the deserts to fast and pray. Many wanted to carry on the work of Christ—not just in preaching and teaching but in combating the demons and forces of evil. Perhaps the most famous desert father, as these people were called, was St. Anthony of Egypt. Anthony’s family was wealthy but he sold all his goods and went into the Great Western Desert.

St. Athanasius in his book, The Life of St. Anthony, written in 357 AD writes, “Anthony’s acquaintances who came to see him often spent days and nights outside his hermitage for he would not let them come in. They heard what sounded like riotous crowds inside making noises, raising a tumult, wailing piteously and shrieking: ‘Get out of our domain! What business have you in the desert? You cannot hold out against persecution’. At first those outside thought there were men fighting with him and that they had entered in by mans of ladders, but as they peered through a hole and saw no one, they realized that demons were involved; and filled with fear, they called out to Anthony. But he was more concerned over hearing them than to pay any attention to demons. Going close to the door, he suggested to them to leave and have no fear. ‘It is only against the timid’, he said, ‘that the demons conjure up specters. You, now, sign yourselves with the cross and go home unafraid, and leave them to make fools of themselves’.”

Others too went out into the wilderness with the cross of Christ, unafraid of the wild things. Much of Europe was civilized by monks with adzes felling trees and establishing settlements and schools and monasteries in the wilderness.

Most of us aren’t tempted or tormented by demons. The devil is not usually so blatant with us but comes to us in more subtle and devious ways. The devil tempts us to think that we don’t need the grace of God, that we can live a good life by our own efforts. The devil tempts us to think that religion is to help us make it through the day or the week—that it is all about us rather than all about God. We are tempted to think we can find security in our bank account and investments, job or family, rather than only in God. We are tempted by the demon of self-righteousness to look down on others, being critical and judgmental, thinking less of others because they are different from us. The devil tempts us by replacing good things—family, friends, community for the best thing which is faith and obedience to God. The devil does not usually come to us in scary shapes, as monsters in the closet or the wild things in the night but with things that look good and tempting and desirable.

But the devil does tempt us. Ogden Nash once joked, “I can resist anything except temptation.” And again the wag put it, “The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.” Unfortunately for so many of us, this is just the case. La Rochefoucould, the French writer in Maxims, aid it this way: “When we resist temptation, it is usually because temptation is weak, not because we are strong.”

We are weak, but God is strong. Jesus went out into the wilderness, was driven out by the Spirit, and resisted the temptations of Satan. Because he did not fall into sin, he was empowered to return to Galilee with the message of the Kingdom: Repent and believe the Gospel. Through faith in him, we are given strength in our temptation, forgiveness for our sin, God’s presence in our daily walk.

In the TV movie “Eric,” the young man Eric is struggling with cancer. There is a touching moment when he stands on the beach at his summer home with his father. “Dad,” he says, “remember how I wanted to swim across the bay with you. We got halfway across and I said I couldn’t make it. You reached out and held on to me? Well, Dad, I don’t think I can make it now.” Eric’s father said, “I won’t let you down” and put his strong arms around his son. “I won’t let you down. Put your arms around my neck and we’ll go on together.”

Jesus goes with us into the wilderness of our lives. He has met the enemy and won. He won’t let us down. Amen.

Copyright 2006, James D. Kegel. Used by permission.