1. What Are We Looking For?

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 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. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

On this Ash Wednesday, we have gathered to begin again our journey towards Good Friday and Easter. We also gather as we do every Sunday to better know God’s Word. We hear God’s Word when scripture is read and proclaimed and we see it and taste it in the bread and wine, the symbols of Christ’s sacrifice for us. We even see God’s Word, strange though it may seem, in the penitential ashes that mark this Ash Wednesday and we enact God’s Word in liturgy, prayer, and song. So as we listen and look and live God’s Word I want to reflect on three brief images from the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, images that will help us understand what we are really looking for.

First, God has come near. As I studied this text, my mind was intrigued by the image at Jesus’ baptism that the heavens were “torn apart.” Just like we would rip a sheet of paper, God tore a hole in the heavens and came near us. In many ways humans don’t want God to get so near — too close for comfort, we might say. It upsets our normal lives. But for Mark, the baptism of Jesus surprises us with the news that the heavens are ripped open. The boundary separating heaven and earth has been breached. Things are no longer normal and it will be difficult to do business as usual. God is on the loose on the earth, no longer confined to the safety of the heavens far away. God has come near in a startling way.[1] Are we on the lookout for that?

A second image from this text is that God walks with us even in our struggles. This also surprises us, especially when we’ve seen that this is a God who tears a hole in the heavens to overcome the distance that separates earth and heaven. We might fear such a God loose on the earth. But this God came in Jesus not to crush us but to love us and thereby God walks with us in our struggles.

That’s the importance of Jesus’ temptation. Mark doesn’t give us many details. In fact, he seems to rush it upon us. Jesus was baptized, we are told, and immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Things came at Jesus rapidly and forcefully. We relate to that. We know that challenges often come upon us suddenly, without warning, and with little if any chance to prepare. God knows our struggles because Jesus experienced unpredictable and difficult challenges rushing at him. So are we looking for Jesus even in the midst of our struggles? Not when we’re at peace after the struggles but even in the midst of them?

The third image from the text is that God sets us free. After his baptism and the wilderness temptation, Jesus appeared in Galilee and proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” This is the most dramatic announcement in all the gospels, because it’s an invitation to do the very thing we’ve convinced ourselves that we cannot do. Burdened as we are with the challenges of life, we always feel chained to the past. But repentance is the power to set out in a new direction. Repentance sets us free.

A middle-aged man experienced a time in his life when everything seemed flat, boring, and dull. He went to his physician who found nothing wrong with him physically. The doctor then suggested that he take a day for some spiritual renewal. The doctor asked if there was some place that was special to him as a child. The man replied that he liked to go to the ocean. So the doctor told him to go there fore a day. He could take food and water, but nothing else. Then the doctor gave him four prescriptions — one to be read at nine o’clock, one to be read at noon, one at three, and the final one at six o’clock. The patient agreed and the next day drove himself to the beach.

At 9:00am he opened the first prescription, which read. “Listen carefully.” For three hours do nothing but listen? The man was annoyed, but decided to obey. At first he heard the wind, the birds, the surf — predictable beach sounds. But then he found himself listening to his inner voice, reminding him of some of the lessons the beach had taught him as a child — patience, respect, the interdependence of the different parts of nature. Soon, the man was feeling more peaceful than he had in a long time.

At noon he opened the second prescription. It said, “Try reaching back.” His mind began to wander, and he discovered himself being overwhelmed by all the moments of joy and blessing and giftedness he had been given in the past.

At three he opened the third prescription. This one was harder. It read, “Examine your motives.” Defensively, the man listed all the motivating factors of his life — success, recognition, security — and found satisfactory explanations for them all. But finally it occurred to him, in a shattering moment, that those motives were not enough — that the lack of a deeper motive probably accounted for the staleness and boredom of his life. “In a flash of certainty,” he wrote, “I saw that if one’s motives are wrong, nothing can be right. It makes no difference if you are a scientist, a housewife, a mail carrier, or an attorney. It is only when you are serving others, that you do the job well and feel good. This is a law as irrefutable as gravity.”

At 6:00pm he read the final prescription. It said, “Write your worries on the sand.” He took a shell, scratched a few words, and then walked away — never turning back. He knew, with a great sense of relief, that the tide would come in and his anxieties would be washed away.”[2]

That is not an overtly Christian story but it says a lot about repentance. Repentance simply means turning our lives in the direction of God, knowing that God has come near and walks with us even in our struggles. Our future with God is not determined by our past. We are set free. That means we do not repent in order to be forgiven. We repent because we are already forgiven. That’s what the kingdom is. The kingdom of God is the realm of God’s forgiven people. So when we know the kingdom is near, we repent because we know we have been forgiven and set free by God.

Friends, what are we looking for as we begin this Lenten journey? I hope we are looking to see how God has come near us, how God walks with us in our struggles, and how God sets us free. When we see these things we can believe Good News and share Good News for a world in need. The heavens have been torn open. Things are not what they were. The kingdom is near. Repent. Believe. And always, even in the solemn days of Lent, be of good cheer.

[1] William R. Herzog II, “Exegesis,” Lectionary Homiletics 8.3 (1997): 19.

[2] Adapted from Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989) 292-294.