Mark
1:9-15
Temptation is one of the simplest and one of the most
complicated aspects of life. We all know
what it is and can see it plain as day and at the same time we don’t always
recognize it when it’s right in front of us.
Temptation is serious, because one wrong choice that looks small (and
maybe is small) often has consequences larger than itself and before you know
it, you’re stuck in a situation that is beyond you and even your efforts to get
out of it just seem to make things worse.
Try out this poem by C.S. Lewis, and see if you don’t know what he’s
talking about:
“Nearly they stood who fall.
Themselves, when they look back
see always in the track
One torturing spot where all
By a possible quick swerve
Of will yet unenslaved–
By the infinitesimal twitching of a nerve–
Might have been saved.
Themselves, when they look back
see always in the track
One torturing spot where all
By a possible quick swerve
Of will yet unenslaved–
By the infinitesimal twitching of a nerve–
Might have been saved.
Nearly they fell who
stand.
These with cold after-fear
Look back and note how near
They grazed the Siren’s land
Wondering to think that fate
By threads so spidery-fine
The choice of ways so small, the event so great
Should thus entwine.
These with cold after-fear
Look back and note how near
They grazed the Siren’s land
Wondering to think that fate
By threads so spidery-fine
The choice of ways so small, the event so great
Should thus entwine.
Therefore I sometimes
fear
Lest oldest fears prove true
Lest, when no bugle blew
My mort, when skies looked clear
I may have stepped one hair’s
Breadth past the hair-breadth bourn
Which, being once crossed forever unawares
Forbids return.”
Lest oldest fears prove true
Lest, when no bugle blew
My mort, when skies looked clear
I may have stepped one hair’s
Breadth past the hair-breadth bourn
Which, being once crossed forever unawares
Forbids return.”
When the gospels of Matthew and Luke talk about Jesus
being tempted, they do it in a way that illuminates the ways in which evil
disguises itself as good and the importance of staying close to God’s teaching
for our own welfare and safety. But the
gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ temptation in a way that, while less precise
and less extensive, seems to me to go to the heart of what it can be like to be
in the midst of it for the rest of us and what it was also like for him.
“He
was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild
beasts; and the angels waited on him.” [Mark 1:13]
When temptation comes to
someone, it’s like being in a wilderness, alone. It’s like being surrounded by all the dangers
that are out there, some of which give themselves away and some of which lurk
quietly for the chance to pounce.
There was a guy named Colin who I knew in Middle
School. He was two years older, so we
weren’t buddy-buddy, but we lived in the same neighborhood. Around that time he got into some trouble and
was in a serious fight with a kid from another school. He was in the hospital for awhile, and after
that just sort of faded out and I never really paid attention; I had my own
friends, like you do at that age.
Somewhere around ten years ago, somebody passed along a brief obituary
with Colin’s name at the top. At the end
it said memorial contributions could be made to the Caron Foundation, so I
figured that he had died of substance abuse of some sort.
Last week I attended a presentation that the bishop
arranged at Hempfield UMC, west of Lancaster.
The speaker spoke about opioid addiction, and why it is so hard to get
out of it. He explained that the opioids
do some unusual things to the human nervous system. They can block pain, which is what they are
prescribed to do. They increase a sense
of pleasure, which is part of what gets people hooked. In so doing, however, they destroy the
receptors for naturally-occurring dopamines, which are the substances that
allow us to feel good in non-harmful ways, like when you feel a sense of
accomplishment or when somebody gives you a hug or you feel good after
exercising. These receptors can grow
back, but it takes months. So if
somebody gets off the abused drug that they were using to kill pain or make
themselves feel good, there will be a long period afterward where they will
feel nothing. They will be emotionally
blank or worse. Meanwhile, the part of
their brain that is still craving the drug that destroyed the receptors will
keep calling to them and creating physical desire for another hit.
In the lobby after this, I was talking with someone who
is friends with Colin’s mother, and she brought him up. “You know that’s what killed Colin,” she
said. “He had been clean for a good,
long time and was doing okay at work and so his mother and stepfather thought
they could go away for a couple of days, and when they got back…” and then she
described a scene that I’ll spare you.
The wild beasts: sometimes you hear them out there, howling like a
hungry coyote; sometimes they are like a copperhead waiting under a log. Jesus was out there in that wilderness, and
is there now. He’s the Good Shepherd who
leaves a flock of ninety-nine sheep who are all accounted for just to find the
one that is missing and may not even know the dangers it faces.
That brings me to the other part of Mark’s description of
what goes on. Jesus
“was
with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”
The word “angel” simply
means “messenger”. Angels are messengers
of God. They might be supernatural or
they might be natural. Like temptation,
the message might be loud or it might be subtle. If you want loud messengers, take the Ten
Commandments. They are pretty
straight-forward. The quieter messengers
are there, too, those little voices and gut reactions that something is just a
little out of line, and it’s good to listen to them, too. I disagree with Mike Pence in a lot of ways,
but I will give him credit for one thing that he’s taken some heat for. He says he will not dine alone with a woman
other than his wife nor attend functions without her if alcohol is being
served.[1] If he knows his weaknesses, he pays attention
to them, and that makes sense.
There’s a danger of legalism, too, of course. Nobody said it would be easy. In fact, Jesus himself said that
“the gate is narrow and
the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” [Matthew 7:14]
It’s easy, again, to
point fingers or to identify one or two activities that are sinful and to say
that as long as you stay away from those, you do no wrong. I had a textbook for an ethics course one
time whose title was Money, Sex, and
Power. What if it had been called Making a Living, Relationships, and Getting
Things Done? That would be a little
less catchy, but not off-target. Life is
tricky and complex. No wonder Jesus
taught us to pray,
“Lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
They are out there, both
temptation and evil. Let’s not sugarcoat
it, or pretend that we don’t face temptation, when even Jesus did. We fool ourselves if we think the beasts
don’t leave us with plenty of bites and scratches along the way. But let’s not forget that Jesus is out there,
too, and he knows the way when we don’t.
East of the Jordan, in the wild lands where Jesus may
have spent those forty days, is an area that was once called Gilead. It was known as the source of a medicinal
plant, Pistacia lentiscus, that
contributed to an antiseptic, anti-irritant ointment called “Balm of
Gilead”. Out in the wilderness, where
Jesus has been, the wilderness where we also find ourselves sometimes, there is
also healing for the deepest troubles, the things that lead to addiction or
despair or to seeking power over others, the things that warp the way we see
ourselves or the way we see God, the things that we allow to come between us
and his love.
“There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded
whole.
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick
soul.
Don’t ever feel discouraged, for Jesus is your
friend,
And if you look for knowledge, he’ll ne’er
refuse to lend.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded
whole.
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick
soul.
If you can’t preach like Peter, if you can’t
pray like Paul,
Just tell the love of Jesus, and say he died for
all.”
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