"Wild Things"
Sermon on Mark 1:9-15
Lent 1-B
March 1, 2009
The Rev. J. Curtis Goforth, O.S.L.
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And 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.
11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased.” 12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan;
and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels served him.
-Mark 1:9-13
Back when I had cable, I used to love to watch the channel Animal Planet. Not because I like animals, but because I used to like to watch The Crocodile Hunter, that crazy Australian guy Steve Irwin. To that guy, it was nothing to wrestle an alligator or handle the world’s second most poisonous spider. I think he must have had some strange power over animals. The animals seemed to just relax and leave him alone when he said the word “Kraike!” I was saddened when I learned he had been killed by a stingray back in 2006. But I mean, seriously, that guy faced imminent death every day around all those wild animals at his zoo and on his television show. It’s a wonder the guy lived as long as he did being around deadly wild animals every day.
The Crocodile Hunter was about 300 times braver than I am, especially when it comes to spiders. I can handle snakes and stuff, but I can’t deal with spiders and I scream and run like a schoolgirl when a bee chases me. My dad used to really pick on me because of that, but hey, if my running and swatting and stuff manages to get me not stung, then I’m okay with it. What gets me is that this Crocodile Hunter guy would go out there with these wild animals and film them up close with no guns or even a blow dart or something. I might be able to handle a lion or a bear if I had a gun, but you won’t catch me wrestling any crocodiles with my bare hands. I’ll leave that to the folks down in Australia. Being out in the wilderness with wild animals stalking me is not my idea of a good way to spend a Saturday morning.
You’re probably wondering what this foray into the great outdoors is all about. Well, in Mark’s version of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, we are told that Jesus was out in the wilderness for forty days where he was tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts. Not only is Jesus being hunted and tracked by Satan, he’s also in danger from the wild animals. In the words of the late Steve Irwin, “Kraike!”
All the different temptation stories in the Gospels have a few variations, but our gospel lesson from Mark this morning is remarkably different from the versions in Matthew and Luke. We’re more familiar with theirs. In them, Satan speaks and gives Jesus a series of three tests. But in Mark’s version we’re simply told that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days amidst the wild beasts, Satan was tempting him, and the angels were bringing him food.
In the other gospels, Jesus is in the wilderness—fasting, but the emphasis is on Satan. In Mark though, the emphasis of Jesus’ surroundings of the wilderness with all those ravenous wild animals is what comes to the front. Even that dove that descends on Jesus after his baptism in the Jordan is a little more beastly than usual, for we’re told that the Spirit drove Jesus out in the wilderness. That word “drove” would be better translated as “cast out” because it’s the same Greek word used to tell us what Jesus does when he casts out demons. Even a gentle dove seems a little more beastly, almost picking up Jesus with talons and throwing him into the wilderness (to be a little more dramatic). So what exactly is Mark trying to tell us about our story this first Sunday of Lent? Mark tells us about the wild animals being around Jesus because they serve as a figure of the demonic. They add a second level of danger to the temptation story.
The word used here translated as “wild beasts” is a Greek word that can only refer to beasts of prey like lions and panthers, not to domesticated animals. It’s actually the same word that shows up in the book of Revelation—that infamous Beast that arises out of the ocean and terrorizes the world. That Beast is a reference to Rome where they were famous for executing criminals and Christians in the Colosseum by the method of feeding them to the wild animals. Nero, the emperor of the Roman Empire when Mark was writing his gospel was even referred to by his own pagan contemporaries as a wild beast; and it’s the same word that Mark uses in our story of Jesus’ temptation.
Mark doesn’t tell us how Satan tempts Jesus. There is no taking Jesus up on a high mountain and tempting Jesus to worship him by giving him all the kingdoms of the world. There’s no Jesus on top of the Temple. All we’re told in Mark is that Satan tempted Jesus—and that’s enough! I almost like this version better, because temptation seldom comes to you and me in such a decisive and acute way. A guy with horns and a red suit doesn’t show up on our doorstep and announce who he is and that he is here to tempt us. Rather, temptation comes to us most commonly in very subtle ways. More often than not, we are confronted by the temptation to think that we can find security in our bank accounts, our jobs, our family, etc. Satan usually doesn’t come to us in scary, beast-like forms or wild things that go bump in the night. More often than not, temptation comes in the form of things that look good on the surface: success, wealth, power, prestige, luxury.
It comes to us by the suggestions that we can do everything by ourselves. Temptation usually comes to us the same way it came to Jesus—when he was alone, out in the wilderness. We need not journey to the outback of Australia to find ourselves in the wilderness and vulnerable to the wild beasts of temptation.
The key to overcoming temptation is to recognize it as temptation since it disguises itself so well in our lives and even in our own souls. Gregory the Great, one of the Church Fathers who lived not long after Mark, says that temptation has three stages to it: (1) suggestion, (2) delight, and (3) consent. If we can cut it off at the suggestion or at the delight part, it is much easier to avoid the consent. The French writer Francois La Rochefoucauld said that when we resist temptation, “it is usually because temptation is weak, not because we are strong.” Ogden Nash has said that “the only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.” Though he does bring a certain amount of humor to the topic, I disagree with him. There is no way to get temptation to go away. It will always be there. It has been a part of peoples’ lives since the beginning of time. And, as long as we have free will, temptation will continue as a part of our lives.
I was always astonished when I watched those episodes of the Crocodile Hunter. What amazed me was that he was able to even find those exotic and often deadly wild animals. And, when he found them, it was almost as though he had some strange power over the wild animals. He could get up close to them and even touch them. But he even eventually fell prey to them.
Jesus had some strange power over the wild beasts too. Like some biblical version of The Crocodile Hunter, Jesus is able to be right there in the midst of these wild animals of the wilderness and the wild animals of the soul—and to overcome them. Just as Jesus was present with the wild beasts in the wilderness during his temptation story, so he is present with us in the wilderness of our temptation stories. It might be helpful next time you come into temptation to put on your best Australian accent and recognize that wild best with your best “Kraike!” Amen.
