2/15
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| "....with the wild animals...." |
Yesterday was the day of the Covid Valentine. Met a friend indoors as the city has opened up indoor dining again. It’s hard to get over a feeling that you are doing something wrong by being inside. Adjusting to what used to be normal is not going to be easy.
Today, I visit Central Park to see my friend’s polar bear snow sculptures before they melt then meet someone for lunch at the Israeli coffee shop. (A portrait of Reb Schneerson hangs in the office….) It is good to be inside.
Tonight in our Bible Study, we are preparing for the first Sunday in Lent. The gospel is Mark 1: 9-15. In three succinct periscopes, we find the Baptism (again), the time of temptation in the wilderness and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
We notice that it is the same Spirit that proclaimed Jesus beloved that drives him out to the wilderness…drives…He will spend 40 days there like Moses on Sinai receiving the law or Elijah on Horeb. ( A reminder of the Transfiguration story from last week…)
His three companions are Satan, wild animals and angels. As for Satan, the Biblical Satan is more ambiguous and complex than the one we have in popular culture. (See Job 2:1-8) God and Satan seem to be in relationship, as it were. Almost like Satan is testing Jesus on behalf of God. We can however, find portrayals of that ambiguity in Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and the Amazon Prime series “Good Omens.” Satan’s like a Lou Gossett drill sergeant getting Jesus ready.
It is significant that Jesus is with the wild animals. Note that word. A scene of peace like Isaiah 11’s Peaceable Kingdom. Like in those wonderful paintings by Edward Hicks. No more predators and prey. Natural enemies have become friends. It also implies that the “kingdom” Jesus proclaims is not just about people, but all creatures, all creation. Which has profound implications for our behavior and sense of responsibility. Satan, wild animals, angels, all together. The “neighbor” we love includes all living things. And since we are made of earth, the very earth is our neighbor.
Immediately upon leaving the wilderness, we learn that John has been arrested. So Jesus picks up John’s mantle, goes to Galilee and begins to preach the Good News of the arrival of the Kingdom of God and the call to repent, to turn around, to begin living a new way.
The construction is so clean. The wilderness experience lies the middle part of a sandwich with John on either side. Almost as if the wilderness experience was especially intended to prepare Jesus for picking up John’s mantle.
We enter into this Lent with a pandemic still raging but potentially in retreat. A state like Texas unable to meet its people’s basic needs while also exemplifying attitudes that define our current radical division. This Is our context in which we must proclaim the Good News of the arrival of the Kindom of God. Let these 40 days of Lent be days of preparation. Let us use them for reflection, contemplation, repentance, renewal. They say this Easter could truly be a time of return, Let’s be ready….
Mark 1:9-15
New Revised Standard Version
The Baptism of Jesus
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;[a] with you I am well pleased.”
The Temptation of Jesus
12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry
14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news[b] of God,[c] 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;[d] repent, and believe in the good news.”[e]
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