Mark
1:12-15
Jesus invites us to follow Him, to imitate Him. Knowing this
helps us to try to do so without becoming overly focused on the fact that there
is something very different about Him. He is God. This should be on our minds
as we follow Him, but it should not intimidate us. He really suffered when He
was tempted. When we are tempted we should to try to imitate Jesus. This Sunday,
we find Jesus in the desert among the beasts being tempted by Satan — with
angels (no less) ministering to Him.
Having begun the days of Lent we should be experiencing the way
our personally chosen sacrifices feel. Jesus’ example helps us. First, we
notice that His “desert experience” was one He began when the Holy Spirit
“drove” Him to it. We can be sure that Jesus was supremely docile. He went
willingly and whole-heartedly into these days of sacrifice and prayer. We know
a great deal more detail about these days from the Gospel of St. Matthew, of
course. In a way, though, the sparseness of St. Mark’s account can help us see
the importance of allowing the Spirit to lead us into the spiritual discipline
of Lent without additional drama. We are called by the church to enter into
these days with a willing spirit, a willingness to be renewed in our own
spirit.
Everything that Jesus did was done out of perfect obedience to
the will of His Father. The most striking thing He did was offer His life for
us on the Cross. His days in the desert were days spent on this same road — obedient
suffering for our salvation. In other words, Jesus made sacrifices out of love
for others, out of love for all, out of love for His Father. We would never be
able to understand it if Jesus chose another road even for a moment. Yet, we
are strengthened by knowing that His temptations were real. His freedom was
engaged against other possibilities and He chose the way of suffering. When we
are faced with temptations that make obedience appear unattractive, we recall
the steadfast way of Jesus.
We find no description about what role or what effect the wild
beasts had on Jesus’ stay in the desert. Given the fact that He was their
Creator it seems reasonable to think that He was helped by them more than
harmed. We can imagine “a greater than” St. Francis here. The “beast” who
caused Him the difficulties He faced so well was Satan. The wild beasts are
mentioned to indicate to us that Jesus was in a most remote place. The battle
was waged between the perfectly good Jesus and the lying leader of all the
fallen angels. For Jesus, this battle was everything, His life’s work. Seeing
everything clearly, as He did, Jesus was willing to accept all manner of
sacrifice and discomfort for the sake of accomplishing the victory of love over
hatred, of life over death. The abundant life He lived would not be tolerant of
the suggestions of Satan that this world’s pleasures or honors somehow offered
Him more.
Our noble efforts to imitate Jesus should include willing
sacrifices as found in our Lenten practices. Jesus and the saints also teach us
that we should sacrifice the burdens that come to us based on our vocation and
state in life. Endurance of the things we cannot change is a way of living our
mission to help Jesus in His. Imitating His peaceful and decisive rejection of
what is evil and worldly teaches us how to share even now in the beauty of
being spiritually alert and attuned to the love that is eternal. The willing
offering up of the many possible pleasures before us gives us a greater
appetite for the greater ones that we will be able to keep forever. We can be
like Jesus because He became like us.
Fr. Zuberbueler is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church
in Falls Church.Top of Form