Mark 1:12-15

 First Sunday of Lent 

 

Mark 1:12-15  

 

A good Sunday to all. 

The narrative of the temptations of Jesus is one of the best-known pages of the Gospels. Even those who do not attend church regularly have heard of Jesus being tempted to turn stones into bread; of Jesus, who was taken to a very high mountain where the devil made him behold all the kingdoms of this world; and then he was also invited to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple. As temptations, they are very strange and very different from ours. 

Naturally it is not a chronicle, but three parables that we find in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. They are images that the first Christian communities used. They present a very consoling truth for them and us: that Jesus is our brother, he had to face all the trials of life, all the temptations that we also must face. Jesus had moments of pain and moments of joy. From all situations in life, you can come out mature or defeated. 

From the trial of pain, you can come out defeated and dehumanized. Pain can even make you curse God and lose faith. But you can also come out defeated by success, which can make you lose your mind and forget God and your brothers and sisters. This is what the author of the letter to the Hebrews says: Jesus went through all the situations of life with which we also must struggle. There is only one difference: he was never defeated; in everything, just like us, except in sin. 

Sometimes, we don't behave as children of God; we don't listen to the Spirit that is in us, but we follow the impulses of our passions. He, on the other hand, was always faithful to his identity as the Son of God. That is why, at the beginning of Lent, the liturgy presents how he lived every year. Jesus lived all the moments of his life: the joys, the sorrows, the moments in which he was accepted, and those in which he was rejected, the moments in which he was loved or betrayed. 

This year we are offered the version of the temptations of Jesus narrated by the evangelist Mark which does not present the three parables as Matthew and Luke do, but only two verses in which we will find biblical images that we will have to understand to grasp the message that the evangelist wants to give us to show us how Jesus lived the trials of life. 

Let's listen: 

 

"After he was baptized by John, at once the Spirit drove him out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.” 

 

It is the Spirit that, after having rested in Jesus at the time of baptism, pushes him into the wilderness. In the desert lived the Baptist, and there were the monks of Qumram who led an ascetic life scrupulously practicing the whole Torah and most probably Jesus, too, like all these people of austere life, would have spent some time reflecting in solitude and silence to reflect on his choices. 

Indeed, it is in this moment of dialogue with his Father, in the silence of the desert, that he makes the decision to begin his public life. But it is not only to remember the time that Jesus spent in the desert, for a moment of reflection, of prayer. It is not only for this reason that the evangelist Mark presents the desert. 

For those who know the Bible, the desert immediately recalls the exodus, the journey of the people of Israel towards the promised land, the time when God put these people to the test to mature their faith in him, educating them first, to be content with what is necessary. In the desert, there are no superfluous things; water is water; it is not Coca-Cola; bread is bread, not biscuit... only what is necessary to live. The Lord educated his people in the wilderness with manna, invited them to avoid accumulation. 

In the desert, one cannot accumulate goods. Each one lives on what is necessary, all his possessions are what he can carry on his shoulders. The earth does not belong to him, when he takes a step, what he left behind is no longer his; it is for others. This is what God wanted to achieve when he made his people cross the desert; he wanted to prove them; the manna could not be accumulated; whoever thought he could accumulate it, the next day, found it with worms. Also, with the water: trust in God, who does not let you lack what is necessary to live. Jesus entered this wilderness and remained there for 40 days. It is a second unmistakable detail that shows us the symbolism that the evangelist Mark intends to give this time that Jesus spent in the wilderness. 

The number 40 in the Bible indicates a whole generation; in the wilderness, everyone who came out of Egypt died. Therefore, the number 40 is the time of a lifetime, and now it is clear what Mark wants us to understand. Forty days of Jesus in the wilderness indicate his whole life; a life in which he had to face the same trials as we do. Jesus entered the wilderness after baptism and began his departure to his Father's house. And in this wilderness, he undertook the struggle against satan, a struggle that lasted until the moment he came out of this wilderness, at the moment of his death. 

Now we are interested to know what happened in this wilderness. It happened precisely what happens to all of us. Jesus was tested; he was tempted. Let's pay attention to this verb 'to tempt,' which sounds to us a little bit like setting a trap, a snare to deceive, to lead a person astray. If this were the meaning, it would not be right for the Spirit to lead Jesus into the wilderness to see if he would go astray. No, the verb 'πειραζόμενος' - 'peirazómenos' in the Greek language does not mean to incite evil but means to go through the trials that we all must face in life. 

In fact, in the Bible, it is often said that God tempts, that is to say; he tests the people who are faithful to him, not to incite them to evil but to put them in situations where they are in danger that even the righteous must face. These are the moments when one is forced to make decisions and one can also make mistakes but cannot escape from these trials. If they lived as Jesus lived them, they would become a favorable occasion to make our faith more solid and mature, they make us grow, they purify us, strengthen our adhesion to God. This fact that Jesus also passed through our desert brings us very close to him, puts him at our side. 

The letter to the Hebrews, which I have already begun to quote, says something else wonderful, it says that because of what Jesus suffered, he learned how hard it is, how difficult it is to be always faithful to God, and that's why he understands our frailty and weaknesses. And again, in the letter to the Hebrews, there is a beautiful sentence: "He is not ashamed to call us brethren." In his exodus, in his wilderness, Jesus met some characters, precisely three characters which are quoted by Mark. They are biblical images, of course, and we want to grasp their meaning and message. 

The three characters he met are Satan, he met the beasts, and he met the angels. Who are these characters? Satan, who does he represent? In the Old Testament, the term 'satan' appears 33 times and it was a common name, not a proper name. Satan means everything that obstructs a way, everything that opposes a certain way of life. Satan means the adversary, the one who opposes the way that God wills. 

Who is this Satan? Satan is indeed the impulse of the flesh that leads to making decisions that oppose the Spirit... that is, Satan. It is also the logic of this world that incites you to think of yourself, disinterest yourself in others, and do what you like. This impulse is 'satan.' Satan is also the institution that promotes immoral behaviors, that finance projects contrary to the good of man; Satan are the organizations that spread drugs, pornography; those who oppose the Gospel obstruct the way of those who want to follow Christ. 

The incarnation of this Satan is Peter... Jesus said to him: you are Satan because you have followed the reasoning of men and you oppose God. All these Satans Jesus encountered in his life; he always defeated them. They are the same Satans that we, too, must face, and we must identify them well so as not to be led astray. 

This is why, at the beginning of Lent, the Church wants us to think about how Jesus lived in his desert for 40 days. He also encountered the wild beasts in the desert. Some have interpreted a picture of the earthly paradise that would now return with Jesus: the wild beasts becoming tame, the lamb with the wolf... No, that is not the meaning that the evangelist Mark wants to give to the wild beasts. It refers to a memorable page of the book of Daniel. This prophet imagines himself living in Babylon at the time of King Nebuchadnezzar, who had destroyed the city of Jerusalem. 

In chapter 7 of his book, he relates a dramatic vision he had: he saw four dreadful beasts coming out of the sea. These are the images that the author of the book uses to describe the succession of kingdoms in this world. Kingdoms based on force, violence, greatness and courage were defined by the ability to dominate the weaker ones, and all of them behave the same way. 

What are these beasts? The first, the lion, is a symbol of the Babylonians, a bloodthirsty people that deported Israel to Babylon. Then came another, stronger than the first, a bear. They were the Medes. After the bear came a leopard. It began to dominate... it was the Persians who spread throughout the Middle East, and they went all the way to Greece. And after this leopard came a beast, worse than the previous ones, undefined but frightening, that crushed all under its feet; was Alexander the Great. These are the powers of this world based on force. 

How to put an end to this kingdom of the beasts? God sent a lamb with an appointed destiny, but it was the only way to make people understand that they were beasts; he made them face a real man, and the real man is the one who acts like a lamb. Jesus wanted to start this new world, and of course, he had to face the beasts, and he got the worst of it: A lamb among wolves has a lethal destiny. And what are the beasts that Jesus had to face? The ones that wanted to perpetuate the old world. We know them very well. They were the political power holders, economic and religious, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, the high priests, the spiritual guides, the scribes who boasted of making long prayers and then devoured the houses of widows. 

The Pharisees preached a face of God as an avenger and enemy of sinners. All of this was the old world, and Jesus faced it in his desert during his 40 days with these beasts. The evangelist wants to warn his disciples; he is telling them: 'you too, like the Master, will encounter the beasts which follow the logic of the old world, and you will have to face these beasts as Jesus did, who did not flee.' The economic powers that exploit force the people to live in misery. 

The disciple of Christ does not accept these powers because they are beasts. The crazy ideologies that lead to committing crimes are the beasts of the old world; fanaticism, religious fundamentalism, and racism are all beastly powers; and all those who use authority to dominate, to press are beasts with whom the disciple of Christ does not make peace with. He does not hate these people but wants them to realize that they are not men but beasts. 

Third character: Jesus not only encountered beasts in his wilderness during his 40 days, but he also encountered angels. Angels often appear in the Bible, but they must be understood in biblical meaning. In the Old Testament, angels are mentioned 213 times, and 104 times in the New Testament. Angels do not necessarily designate spiritual beings; an angel means everyone who is a mediator of salvation, of love, of the tenderness of God. Moses is called an angel; also, the Baptist, right at the beginning of Mark's gospel, is called an angel. The angels in the Old Testament are the prophets; they are all those who collaborate with the plan of God. 

Jesus, during his 40 days, met the beasts and also found angels by his side. Let us try to identify them; we know them very well. Angels were certainly his parents; angels were the disciples who shared his proposal of life and placed themselves at the service of the new world; angels are mentioned by the evangelist Luke right at the beginning of chapter 8, were the many women, some mentioned by name, who assisted Jesus during his public life and stood by his side; they served him by collaborating in his work of salvation. And there are many angels even today; we know that the Lord places them at the side of each one of us. 

So, let us pay attention and ask ourselves, am I an angel who cooperate with the plan of Christ, do I share his choices, do I allow myself to be penetrated by the logic of his gospel? Or am I simply deceived by the fact that I have given him my adhesion with my baptism? Yes, but then maybe in my life, many times, I follow many aspects of the beasts and the world's logic. These are the questions that we must ask ourselves. 

And now, let's listen to what Jesus did when he started his public life: 

 

"After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” 

 

The Baptist was arrested, his mission is over, and now there is a kind of relief. Jesus enters the scene and makes himself known in the place where he begins his public life. He does not return to Nazareth as Jesus knows his villagers very well, he knows that they are simple people, also very good, but stubbornly clinging to their traditions, to their religious convictions. Impossible to introduce to them the newness that Jesus came to bring to the world: a new relationship with God, a new relationship with people, a reversal of reference points, of options. 

Nor does he go to Jerusalem because there are religious authorities who are convinced that they already know everything, that they are in their place with God, and don't want any changes because they are the ones that announce the catechesis, and if someone introduces something new contrary to what they are teaching, they are immediately accused of being heretics. Jesus chose to go by the shores of Lake Galilee, and the Galileans were a people despised by the Jews of Jerusalem who considered them impure people, who had become bastardized also because in the 8th century B.C. the Assyrians came and devastated the region, deported masses of the population, and imported pagan peoples, so the Galileans were a mixed people. And also, religiously, they had their devotions, they were not as pure as the Jews of Jerusalem. 

It is the place Jesus chose to begin his public life, it will be along the shores of this lake that he will meet the fishermen; he will call them to follow him, then he will go to the customs house of Capernaum and meet Levi. He will also be friends with the tax collectors; he will accept the invitation to sit at the table with them; and for all the marginalized, Jesus will have a message of joy and hope from the Lord. This message is scandalous both for the inhabitants of Nazareth and, above all, for the religious authorities of Jerusalem; they would have considered him a heretic if he had begun to announce these things in Nazareth or there in Judea. 

How does he begin his announcement? By saying: the time is fulfilled, the preparation time has ended, and the world's and history's new age has begun. Then he goes on to say: ‘The kingdom of God is here; it has come.' And he does not explain this kingdom of God because all the people are waiting for it. The people of Israel, for 450 years, had a sad experience of monarchy, except for one or the other of the kings who did quite well, but the way the Bible speaks of all the rulers of Israel is disastrous, because they were unfaithful to God, did not listen to the prophets, and led the people to ruin. In the Old Testament, the prophets announced the coming of the kingdom of God. ‘The Lord will reign forever and ever,’ says the book of Exodus, and in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, God says: "I will reign over you with a strong hand." This is God's promise: ‘One day I will take in hand the history of this people.’ 

The government of God It is not the change of religious practice; it is the change of history and the way of life. When God comes to reign, He changes the whole way of thinking, evaluating, the reasoning, and He changes the relationship with people, the relationship within the family, the relationship with money. He changes everything. Before, in the old kingdom, the reference point was a dominion, now it has changed; the kingdom of God that is announced has arrived. When we think of the rulers during Jesus' life, we find Tiberius, or even before, when Jesus was born, the kingdom of Augustus. Who is counted in this kingdom? The humble, the meek, the simple people, the servants didn't count for anything. Those who counted were those who were able to dominate, because it was the kingdom of the wild beasts. 

Now he says: 'Enter into the kingdom of God, and everything is turned upside down. He who is humble, good, gentle, meek, just, sincere, loyal is the one who counts, no longer the dominators.' And this kingdom of God is already present in the world through the person of Jesus because these new values move Jesus, which are the opposite of what was considered valid in the old world. Jesus is moved only by the will of God which is that of a new world that is already present in him. Jesus is not moved by the will to take power, to dominate, to accumulate money, to be noticed, and he is not afraid of his opponents. He is moved by the will of the Lord, by the divine life he possesses in fullness. Here is the kingdom, therefore, present in the world in the person of Jesus. 

And what does Jesus desire now? What Jesus desires now is that this kingdom of God present in him will spread throughout the world; and he will begin to make his proposal to the fishermen who will give him their adherence. This is the kingdom that now begins to present itself to the world. 

There are two conditions to enter this kingdom of God: conversion and belief in the Gospel. To be ‘converted' must be understood well because, in the Bible, two verbs indicate conversion. One we find in the Old Testament; in Hebrew, it is 'shu,' which means to return, to come back. In Greek, 'epistrefein' is to return to God... why? Conversion in the Old Testament was proposed to the people who had turned away from their God to serve idols, and then the prophets would say 'return to the Lord, return to where you were before.' 

This verb is never used in the New Testament to indicate the proposal that Jesus makes. Conversion is presented with another verb: 'metanoein' meaning 'to change the way of thinking,' 'to change completely the scale of values' because now a new regime comes in; and when the regime changes, we know what happens: what was considered correct before, beautiful... now it is turned upside down; when the regime changes, now, for Jesus, the great ones will be the honest ones, the good, the small, the helpful, and the attentive to others. But before, it was exactly the opposite, were those who crushed the weakest. 

This is the conversion that Jesus proposes, not to return to what was done before but to accept the proposal of a new world that he makes and that is present in his message, the Gospel that he announces, the Gospel that he incarnates with his person. 

Jesus, therefore, says: ‘if you want to enter into this new world which I am beginning, change your way of thinking, attune it to the Gospel that I announce.' It is not an adherence to a package of truths but a change in the way of thinking. which then corresponds to a radical change in your own life. 

We are at the beginning of Lent. This is the proposal that Jesus makes to all of us to review our way of thinking. Perhaps1 Sunday Lent Year B English we are still tuned to our way of life with the way of reasoning of the old world, not in the way he proposes to us in his gospel. It is time for conversion and conversion does not mean returning to what we did before, even our religious convictions or traditions. To convert means to accept Jesus’ proposal of a new world. 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.