Temptation your name is ......

Switching from Noah in the Old Testament to the gospel rendering of Jesus' baptism and temptation in the wilderness, moves us from water to desert.  Since we are in the year of Mark, we have already heard the baptism story at least once if not twice and this is the sparsest rendition of the temptation scene among the gospel writers.  (John has no early temptation/wilderness scene at all).

Temptation is such a good topic to start Lent with.  We all know it, intimately.  We all can name it (I would name it 'chocolate').  We all wonder about its pull on us.  Why can't we just walk away?

Mark's wilderness story has no dialogue between Jesus and the tempter (devil??).  But note that it is the Spirit, which Jesus received at his baptism, that drives....yes, drives.....him out into the wilderness for 40 days among the wild beasts.  Angels are mentioned as well.  Apparently there is some important work that Jesus needs to accomplish.

Without all the details that Matthew and Luke give, we are left with this simple fact:  after baptism comes temptation.  Coming to terms with temptation is an important - maybe even essential - part of Jesus' preparation for ministry. 

Perhaps that is all we need to know.  Following baptism, we will come face to face with temptation.  What we do, how we respond, where we take our failure to be 'strong' when we succomb to temptation....perhaps those are the more important questions.  For as Luther teaches us, we are all both saint and sinner.  The water of baptism makes us saints, beloved children of God.  But we will have one foot in this world until we lay down for the last time, and so we continue to experience and practice sin each day.   Temptation is our constant companion.

And we don't get to face these temptations out in the wilderness when perhaps we are able to give it our full attention.  Oh no.  The temptations comes when the laundry needs to be done, groceries bought, year end reports completed, taxes filed, a baby's diaper changed  (you get the idea). 

So maybe it isn't the wilderness that makes the temptation, but the temptations that make the wilderness.  Perhaps if we give in to every whim and desire that comes alone, without thought, without calling on the name of the Lord, then we will surely end up in our own wilderness - where we will thirst after God's presence and the Spirit's power. 

Now that would be a wilderness I would want to avoid.    Peace.