Title: In Christ, the wilderness of death is made a garden of joy!
Text: Mark 1:9-15
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
As a man of the third-century was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend:
"It's a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not about this life. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians--and I am one of them."
Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 18.
We also see in this world the bad that so dominates the news, especially brother and sister Christians in the middle east who are suffering persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists, that in the midst of suffering we can have comfort as Christians because:
In Christ, the wilderness of death is made a garden of joy!
10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Following Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan we see the work of the Holy Spirit immediately driving Jesus out into the wilderness. The wilderness is a desolate place, a place of danger, a place we’re told of wild beasts and certainly a parallel of the wanderings of Moses and the Israelites, in the wilderness, for 40 years. Here too we see the parallel of 40 days and the tempting that Jesus endured. The number 40 shows up many times in the Bible having significance as a time of trial, tempting and persecution.
Here, Jesus is tempted by Satan. Satan literally means “the tempter” in Hebrew and also in Aramaic – adversary - or literally, “One lying in ambush for.”
R.C.H. Lenski commentary, St. Marks Gospel, Pg. 57
This was no demon in training that Satan sent to temp the Son of Man, no this was important business and Satan was up to the task himself. The tempting of the devil, the starkness of the wilderness and the ferocious beasts were all that Christ had in his company for 40 days. In St. Matthew and St. Luke’s gospel we read of three tempting and Jesus’ answer by the word of God to Satan, that man does not live on bread alone Luke 4:4, worship the Lord your God and serve him only Luke 4:8 and finally not putting the Lord your God to the test Luke 4:12. But what is also clear is that Jesus was tempted for 40 days – an ongoing tempting of the devil.
Unlike the Father and the Spirit, who as God cannot be tempted, but Christ Jesus true God and true man was tempted as we were, yet without sin. All of the temptations of the devil attacked the true humanity of the God/man himself, Jesus Christ. Only man hungers and thirsts and only man is led to worship falsely one who isn't God, and only man puts God - and his love for him to the test.
You like me know hunger. You like me have trusted in the things of this word, and you like me have tested God beyond measure.
Ill.
Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, "Are you sure I will never sing again?" The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. "I've had many good times singing the praises of God," he said. "And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God."
There in the doctor's presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts' hymn,
I'll praise my Maker while I've breath;
and when my voice is lost in death,
praise shall employ my nobler powers.
My days of praise shall ne'er be past,
while life, and thought, and being last,
or immortality endures.
Our Daily Bread.
In Christ, the wilderness of death is made a garden of joy!
It is fitting as we begin this Lenten season that we look to our Lord’s baptism and to our own baptism.
9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;[a] with you I am well pleased.”
Here Christ Jesus is marked for you as the one to be the once and for all sacrifice for sin. Here he begins the journey to Jerusalem and the cross of redemption for you and here too we see in Christ and in his humiliation the descent as he goes down to Jerusalem and the cross … where …
“It is finished”
… where the full wrath of God is poured out … on Christ … for you, and following his death … he lays in the tomb for three days leading to his glorious resurrection on Easter morning.
We too can have comfort and confidence in Christ’s work.
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Rom. 6:3-4
Newness od life can bring with it a confidence to boldly proclaim Christ and his saving work in spite of danger and death.
Ill.
The Prussian king Frederick the Great was widely known as an agnostic. By contrast, General Von Zealand, one of his most trusted officers, was a devout Christian. Thus it was that during a festive gathering the king began making crude jokes about Christ until everyone was rocking with laughter--all but Von Zealand, that is. Finally, he arose and addressed the king: "Sire, you know I have not feared death. I have fought and won 38 battles for you. I am an old man; I shall soon have to go into the presence of One greater than you, the mighty God who saved me from my sin, the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are blaspheming. I salute you, sire, [simply] as an old man who loves his Savior, [standing]on the edge of eternity." The place went silent, and with a trembling voice the king replied, "General Von Zealand--I beg your pardon! I beg your pardon!" And with that the party quietly ended.
Today In The Word, August, 1989, p. 7.
In Christ, the wilderness of death is made a garden of joy!
Dear friends,
“It’s a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But in Christ you can have joy and peace as his holy people who have learned a great secret.
Though despised, rejected and persecuted, as Jesus was we can care not about this life. Because of Christ who is the master of our souls we have overcome the world. We are the baptized children of God, yes Christians … and in Christ we will live forever.”
Today In The Word, June, 1988, p. 18.
May our Lord and savior Jesus Christ who has redeemed you, through the power of the Holy Spirit calling you to faith, comfort you with this blessed Good News now and forever!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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