Lent
is a solemn religious observance that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers a
period of approximately six weeks or 40 days before Easter Sunday.
In
Latin, Lent is referred to by the term Quadragesima,
meaning fortieth, referring to the fortieth day before Easter. In English, the
word Lent initially meant spring, from the Germanic root for long, because in
spring the days visibly lengthen.[i]
The
traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer,
penance, and repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.[ii]
During
Lent, our worship assumes a penitential character. The color for the season is purple,
a color associated with penitence. By omitting the Hymn of Praise and Alleluia,
we distinguish Lent from the rest of the year, and form a powerful contrast
with the festive celebration of Jesus' resurrection when our alleluias ring
loud and clear.
The Lutheran
perspective of “giving up something for Lent” is a matter of Christian freedom.
Our church has no law requiring members to “give up something,” since the
Scriptures do not require this. If a Christian wants to give something up for
Lent as a way of remembering and personalizing the sacrifice Christ made on the
cross for our sins, then he is free to do so, as long as he does not judge
others who opt not to do this.[iii]
The
penitential character of Lent is not its sole purpose. In the ancient Church,
the period leading up to Easter was a time of intense preparation for the
candidates being baptized at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. This time is appropriate
for Baptism because of the relationship between Christ's death and resurrection
and our own in the sacrament.[iv] This suggests that Lent
serves as a time to meditate on the suffering that Christ endured on our behalf,
and an opportunity to reflect our own Baptism and what it means to live as a
child of God.[v]
That
you may grow as a child of God, I encourage you to read Treasury of Daily Prayer, Pastor Joshua Scheer’s Lutherans for Lent[vi] or a devotional plan from
Lutheran Hour Ministries.
We
base our 40-day Lenten observance on Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness. In
Mark we read, “He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.”[vii]
Though Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation is brief, if we interpret it without
referring to Matthew or Luke,[viii] we taste Mark’s fuller
flavor. We also see that Satan tempted Jesus throughout his life and even onto
the cross.
Before
his wilderness experience, John baptized Jesus. It may initially appear
problematic that Jesus accepted John’s baptism. After all, it called for a
change of heart in view of the forgiveness of sins. How could Jesus, who was
not a sinner, have accepted such a baptism? I will save the answer for later.
As
Jesus emerged from the baptismal waters, the heavens tore open and the Spirit
descended on him like a dove.[ix] This is a response to
Isaiah’s prayer that God “rend the heavens and come down” to
bring his flock up from the sea, put his holy Spirit in the midst of his people
and guide them in a new exodus.[x]
At
Jesus’ baptism, the rending of the heavens announced the beginning of the end;
and as he breathed his last, the Temple’s sanctuary veil, decorated to look
like the heavens, tore from top to bottom, symbolizing that in the end-time,
the holy of holies and ancient sacrifices would be no more.
The
image of the dove, a symbol for Israel, revealed Jesus as the personal embodiment
of a new Israel. As the Christ, the Anointed One, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s
prayer.[xi]
Immediately
after Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit that descended on him drove him into the wilderness,
where he was tested as Israel was tested in their exodus wilderness. This
40-day test evoked the days and nights Moses spent with God on the mountain as
he received the Covenant,[xii] and called to mind
Elijah’s 40-day walk to the mountain of God.[xiii]
Jesus’
40 days represented his entire baptismal life, ending with his passion. Sent
into the wilderness by the Spirit to lead people in a new exodus, Satan tested
Jesus. Satan, the adversary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, represented the
power of evil. Satan was the obstacle Jesus had to overcome.
The
setting for Jesus’ baptismal test was simple. Angels ministered to him while he
was among wild beasts, symbolic of the world’s evil forces. The scene evoked
numerous Old Testament passages, particularly the story of Daniel in the lion’s
den,[xiv] and the primal contest
of creation where human beings dominated wild beasts.[xv] Mark also alluded to the Psalms[xvi] and Isaiah 13, where we
read, “Desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there
the owls will dwell, and there wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will inhabit
her strongholds, jackals her luxurious palaces. Her time is at hand, and her
days will not be prolonged.”[xvii]
As
the one anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ life was an ongoing conflict with
Satan, the spirit of evil. It began in the wilderness, but reappeared throughout
the Gospel.
In
the Capernaum synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit engaged Jesus in a verbal
skirmish.[xviii]
Here, Mark showed the battle between the unclean spirit that possessed the man
and the Holy Spirit that possessed Jesus. In another case, no one was strong
enough to bind the Gerasene man possessed by a demonic spirit until Jesus appeared.
And after Peter rebuked Jesus, because he could not imagine a Messiah who would
suffer and die, Jesus, in turn rebuked Peter as Satan because he too acted as a
stumbling block to the cross.[xix]
The
point is that throughout his life, Jesus battled Satan. Satan was and is a
strong man.[xx]
He effected demon-possession and physical maladies, created disorder in the
natural world, and snatched up the Word of God sown on the path.[xxi] He tempted people to
abandon God’s will and inspired them to adopt hearts and minds set on human
ways. His activity extended to Jesus’ enemies, the Lord’s followers and Jesus
himself. Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness, in Gethsemane and on Golgotha.
Satan’s
activity was implicit when Jesus asked God to “take this cup from me.”[xxii] And when Jesus exhorted
his disciples to imitate him by watching and praying lest they enter into a
test, the same language used in the wilderness account, this too confirmed the
moment was Satan’s test.[xxiii] Bound and hung on the
cross, Jesus’ opponents declared he could not save himself – Satan’s final test
to abandon God’s will.
Finally,
upon his death, Jesus cried out in a loud voice that recalled the cries of
those from whom he cast unclean spirits. As he died, the Holy Spirit that
descended from a violently torn heaven and possessed Him at the start of the
gospel, left His body as the Temple veil tore. The Spirit’s departure implied
that it completed its work. Jesus’ death marked victory, not defeat, in His conflict
with Satan.
At
that moment, the centurion, upon seeing Jesus breathe his last, confirmed His
divinity, just as our Heavenly Father declared Jesus to be his beloved Son.
Now, instead of rising from the waters of baptism to declare the nearness of
God’s Kingdom, his Resurrection from the tomb declared God’s victorious
Kingdom.[xxiv]
How
does this relate to us? Lent is an appropriate time to remember our Baptism and
its relationship to Christ's death and resurrection.[xxv] It is also a fitting
time to meditate on the suffering Christ endured on our behalf and what it
means to live as a child of God.[xxvi]
Although
Christ broke Satan’s power, God never promised a conflict-free world, but a
world in which the risen Christ meets and restores errant followers so that
they may imitate him in their struggles against satanic powers, and like him,
endure to the end, empowered by the Holy Spirit.[xxvii]
As
we leave here, children of God filled with grace, love, mercy and the Holy
Spirit, we enter a world of conflict, corruption and evil that both blinds and
blind-sides us. Satan’s temptations are open and blatant, as well as secretive
and surreptitious.
I
may not be tempted to murder, but may be silently complicit over one million children
aborted annually. I may not be tempted to break the Sixth Commandment, but may peruse
inappropriate material. I may not steal from my neighbor, but may never open a
generous hand to feed the poor. I may never swear false testimony in court, but
may never speak kindly about others. I may never treat people as God treats me –
with kindness, mercy and compassion – but may consider myself a good Christian.
As a
good Christian, the commandment most difficult to keep is the First: You
shall have no other gods. Of this, Martin Luther wrote plainly.
“Many
a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and
possessions; he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and
assurance as to care for no one. Such a man also has a god, Mammon by name, that
is, money and possessions, on which he sets all his heart, and which is also
the most common idol on earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure,
and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of
Paradise. On the other hand, he who has none doubts and is despondent, as
though he knew of no God. For very few are to be found who are of good cheer,
and who neither mourn nor complain if they have not Mammon. This care and
desire for money sticks and clings to our nature, even to the grave.
So,
too, whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses great skill, prudence, power,
favor, friendship, and honor has also a god, but not this true and only God.
This appears again when you notice how presumptuous, secure, and proud people
are because of such possessions, and how despondent when they no longer exist
or are withdrawn. Therefore, I repeat that the chief explanation of this point
is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts.”[xxviii]
Unquote.
Each
week I confess I am a miserable sinner addicted to my things and
ways of doing things. Still, I think highly of my bad ideas and overinflated
opinions. I marry my feelings and divorce myself from others’ sensitivities. In
short, I need to be saved.
The
good news is, Christ saved me. Through no merit of my own, He saved me. He who
conquered Satan, sin and death saved me from the tyranny of that trio.
That
brings me full-circle to my earlier question. “How could Jesus, who was not a sinner, have accepted such a baptism?”
John’s
baptism of Jesus revealed His humanity and His solidarity with and
commitment to sinners.
What occurred when Jesus emerged from the water revealed His divinity and His solidarity
with and commitment to God His Father.[xxix]
If I
approach life’s challenges in individualistic terms (me against the world), the
baptism of a sinless person is senseless because baptism has no meaning beyond
the individual who is baptized. If, however, I view life’s challenges in
interpersonal terms (we are all in this together), the baptism of a sinless
person makes a lot of sense.[xxx]
Jesus
did not have to be a sinner to accept John’s baptism. All he needed was to be
in personal solidarity with men and women who are sinners in need of salvation.
Jesus’ baptism by John presented him as a person in solidarity with all human
beings, and it demonstrated his willingness to bear the weight of our sins on
his sinless shoulders.[xxxi]
Friends,
as he tempted Jesus, Satan will tempt you until you exhaust your last gasp. You
will be tempted to commit heinous sins and victimless
crimes. If you rely upon yourself or any power but God to free yourself
from his grip, you lose. Satan will bind you. Only
Christ can free you … and He has!
Brothers
and sisters, you will always have the Holy Spirit to guide you in the wilderness
of life just as Jesus did, but as Paul exhorted the freed Christians of Rome, I
beg you not to be addicted to yourself and your ways, your ideas and feelings.
Forgiven fully by Christ, surrender to the Holy Spirit. Be a slave of the Holy
Spirit, an addict of the Third Person of the Trinity and the means of God’s grace.
When you are, the peace of God that surpasses all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.[xxxii] Amen.
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent
[ii] Ibid.
[iii]
Ibid.
[iv]
Romans 6:1-11
[v]
Frequently Asked Questions, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod website
[vi]
Joshua V. Scheer, Lutherans for Lent. Revised 2012
[vii]
Mark 1:13
[viii]
Peter Edmonds, The Way Companion to the Sunday Missal. Oxford: Campion Hall
(2014), 77.
[ix]
Mark 1:10
[x]
Isaiah 64:1
[xi] Eugene
LaVerdiere, The Beginning of the Gospel: Introducing the Gospel According to
Mark, Volume 1. Collegeville MN: The Liturgical Press (1999), 34.
[xii]
Exodus 34:27-38
[xiii]
1 Kings 19:8
[xiv]
Daniel 6:23
[xv]
Genesis 1:24-28
[xvi]
Psalm 8:6-8
[xvii]
Isaiah 13:21-22
[xviii]
Elizabeth Shively, “Characterizing the Non-Human: Satan in the Gospel of Mark,”
Character Studies and the Gospel of Mark. Edited by Christopher W. Skinner and
Matthew Ryan Hauge. London: Bloomsbury (2014),
139ff.
[xix]
Shively, 144f
[xx]
Mark 3:27
[xxi]
Mark 4:1ff
[xxii]
Mark 14:36
[xxiii]
Shively, 146
[xxiv]
Shively, 148
[xxv]
Romans 6:1-11
[xxvi]
Frequently Asked Questions, LC-MS.
[xxvii]
Shively, 151.
[xxviii]
http://bookofconcord.org/lc-3-tencommandments.php
[xxix]
LaVerdiere, 34
[xxx]
Ibid.
[xxxi]
Ibid.
[xxxii]
Philippians 4:7
