Readings:
- Genesis 9.8-15
Psalm 25.4-5, 6-7, 8-9 Response: “Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.” - 1 Peter 3.18-22
- Mark 1.12-15
[Note: Many parishes use the readings from Cycle A during Lent. In that case, the gospel would be Matthew 4.1-11.]
Reflections on the Gospel Reading
Today’s short gospel reading about the temptation of Jesus and the beginning of the Galilean ministry was chosen specifically for the first Sunday of Lent1. This brief passage provides the context for our observance of the whole season of Lent.
The Lenten Setting
Our preconceived ideas of Lent have a great deal to do with how we understand and apply today’s gospel reading. If we think of Lent as a time to punish ourselves for our sins by taking on voluntary suffering, we will observe Lenten practices that are peculiar to these forty days and have little to do with the rest of the year.
However, if we use the metaphor of a training period for the upcoming sports season, the Lenten practices take on another meaning. Lent is a time to get back into shape, to turn back to God and to the Christian practices that should mark the whole year. Suffering is an indication of how far out of shape we are; it is not the purpose of our Lenten practices.
When I was in junior high school our family lived in the small town of Princeton, Minnesota. The great baseball player, Ted Williams, used to spend time there in the off-season. One remarkable thing about him was that he never broke training; he worked out all year long and stayed in shape. In the hunting season he would tramp through the woods and fields in weighted boots to maintain the strength in his legs. He always arrived in training camp in excellent condition.
As a person who applied the practices of the training season to the whole year, Ted Williams could easily be our ideal for Lent.
The Temptation of Jesus
In the literary context of Mark’s Gospel, the two verses about the temptation of Jesus serve as a preview to the rest of the Gospel. (See LaVerdiere 1999, xii.) They symbolize the public ministry of Jesus from after his baptism through his crucifixion as a forty-day test in the desert. (LaVerdiere 1999, 35) “Sent by the Spirit to lead the people in a new exodus, Jesus was tested by Satan. Satan is the adversary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Representing the power of evil, Satan was the obstacle that Jesus had to overcome.” (LaVerdiere 1999, 36)
The exodus symbolism is clear. After passing through the waters of the sea the Israelites faced various temptations on their journey. Most of the Israelites succumbed to temptation (e.g. the golden calf and failure to trust in God for food and water), died in the desert, and did not pass through the waters of the Jordan to the Promised Land. In contrast, after passing through the waters of John’s baptism Jesus faithfully overcomes all temptations and, like Joshua, through his death (another baptism) leads his followers to the Reign of God. Matthew 4.1-11 and Luke 4.1-13 flesh out this comparison with stories from their traditions of three distinct temptations, but their symbolism is basically the same.
In what way was Jesus tested or tempted? In the cultural context of the time, the answer is clear. Jesus’ honor claim to be the Son of God was being tested.
From the very first verse of his Gospel Mark presents Jesus as the Son of God. After Jesus’ baptism the Spirit descended upon him and God’s voice proclaimed, “You are my Son, the Beloved . . . .” (See Mark 1.9-11.) The same voice proclaims the same message at the Transfiguration; (Mark 9.7) Jesus’ affirmative answer to the high priest’s question: “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14.61) is the basis for his condemnation; and after Jesus’ death the centurion proclaims, “Truly, this man was God’s Son.” (Mark 15.39)
Recall that in an honor-based society there is a fixed amount of honor, and a person’s honor is determined at birth. According to John Dominic Crossan the artisan class was made up of peasants who had lost their land. They were only one perilous step above the unclean and degraded class. (See Crossan 1991, 45-46.) For Jesus to claim, either by word or deed, an honor greater than the lowly status of a construction woodworker was a problem for his contemporaries. If there is only so much honor to go around, a claim of greater honor than one was born with appears to involve stealing and must be challenged by other honorable men.
Mark’s entire account of the ministry of Jesus can be seen as a series of challenges by Satan to Jesus’ claim to honor as Son of God. (See Pilch 1996, 49-50.) ”The wild beasts and the angels may evoke biblical passages, but they also represent those who challenged or ministered to Jesus.” (LaVerdiere 1999, 36) The challenges are carried out by people such as the Pharisees who attack Jesus like “wild beasts” surrounding a person in the desert. Others, mostly women, minister to Jesus like “angels.” (See also Malina & Rohrbaugh 1992, 145-148.)
Mark did not write his Gospel primarily to convert people to Christianity. He wrote it to deepen the faith of those who had already been baptized. What Mark seems to be saying to his audience and to us in this passage is something like this:
Your public claim to be Christians (i.e. your honor) will be tested just as Jesus’ claim to honor as Son of God was tested. Your loyalty to Jesus has implications for action, especially to carry out Jesus’ command: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9.35) You will face challenges to your trust in God – temptations to acquire and hoard possessions, to exercise power over other people, to set yourself aside as a privileged class. How you respond to these temptations will either vindicate your honor as followers of Jesus or reveal your shame as hypocrites who do not live in accordance with what they profess to believe.
Now is the Time of Salvation
In the second half of today’s gospel reading, again just two verses summarize the core message of “the good news of God.” Jesus tells us, “This is the time of fulfillment, and the Reign of God is at hand.” This is the special time, the kairos, that the Prophet Isaiah foretold: “In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you.” (Isaiah 49.8 NRSV) Similarly, in the second reading for Ash Wednesday the Apostle Paul declares: “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6.2 NRSV)
Jesus also says: “Change your outlook on life and believe in the good news.” Underlying the Greek word metanoeo (repent, change one’s outlook) is the Hebrew word shuv (turn back [to God]). (See Taylor 1959, 167.) Jesus, then, tells us to reorient our lives while there is still time.
Lent, then, is a golden opportunity, a gift of time. Lent is a special time of grace – a time to repent, to shape our ways of thinking and acting into a truly Christian lifestyle. Lent is a time to return to following Jesus, to show by our actions that we really believe the good news from God.
During Lent we need to go back to the basics and get in shape. We need to ask for God’s help to recognize not only our personal failings but also the structural sins of our society. We need to counteract our acquisitiveness and greed with greater sharing of our abundance with our sisters and brothers. We need to confront the idols of consumerism, racism, militarism, and violence. We need to begin again to live in accordance with Jesus’ teaching that we are all sisters and brothers, children of the same God. In the words of Isaiah:
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house:
when you see the naked to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
(Isaiah 58.6-7 [NRSV])
In preparing these reflections, in addition to the biblical texts, I consulted the following works:
Brueggemann et al. 1993 – Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year B. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993)
Crossan 1991 – John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991)
Dix 1982 – Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (New York: The Seabury Press, 1982 [reprint of 1945 second edition])
Donahue & Harrington 2002 – John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Mark (Collegeville [MN]: Liturgical Press, 2002)
Guralnik, Ed. 1970) David B. Guralnik, Editor in Chief, Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition (New York: The World Publishing Company, 1970)
LaVerdiere 1999 – Eugene LaVerdiere, The Beginning of the Gospel: Introducing the Gospel According to Mark (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999)
Malina & Rohrbaugh 1992 – Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1992)
NRSV – Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy, Eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible containing the Old and New Testaments (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Pilch 1996 – John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus: Sunday by Sunday, Cycle B (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996)
Taylor 1959 – Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan & Co Ltd, 1959)
Notes:
- Our English word ”Lent” comes from the old English noun ”lengten,” meaning “the spring” when the days lengthen. (See Guralnik, Ed. 1970, s.v.)
The Christian practice of observing forty days of Lent developed over a long period of time. At one point in that development (fourth or fifth century), the Roman church began Lent (called quadragesima or “forty-day period”) six weeks before Easter. About that time Matthew’s temptation narrative (Mt 4.1-11) became the gospel reading for the first Sunday of Lent. The forty days were counted, including Sundays, from the first Sunday of Lent through Holy Thursday. It is not at all clear that the 40 day period involved 40 days of fasting or that the fasting involved more than the penitents. There are indications that the first pre-Easter fast was three days and gradually extended to 40.
In those early centuries Lent ended on Holy Thursday with a Eucharistic celebration, the reconciliation of penitents, and the final instruction of the catechumens. At this time in the development of Lent, the forty days were seen as a time of preparation for the Triduum, the three-day celebration of the Christian Passover (Pascha), which began with the Good Friday service (without the Eucharist), extended through the vigil service of readings, and concluded with the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist) on Easter Sunday. (See Dix 1982, 348-357.)
In the Eastern Church it seems that there never was a practice of fasting on Sunday. That gradually extended to the western Church. By this time (sixth century?) the entire forty days were considered fast days. So the Lent was extended to make up for the six lost Sundays by including four weekdays before the first Sunday and two days after what we now call Holy Thursday. ↩