Beloved ( Feb 8, 09 )
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Mark M1 February 8, 2009
Title: Beloved
Text: Mark 1: 1-13
Big Idea: We can face any “what” if we know we are the beloved.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, in his book Blink writes:
“Researchers did a study in which they had [2] groups of students answer 42 Trivial Pursuit questions. ½ were asked to take 5 minutes beforehand to think about what it would mean to be a professor and write down everything that came to mind.
Those students got 55.6% of the questions right. The other ½ were asked to first sit and think about soccer hooligans. They ended up getting 42.6%.”
That’s a 13 percent difference
“Psychologists [asked] black college students [to answer] 20 questions from the GRE…
(which is the standardized test for admission to graduate school). When the students were asked to identify their race on the pretest question… the number of items they got right was cut in half.” That simple act of identifying their race was sufficient to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement – and the number of items they got right was cut in half.”
Gladwell demonstrates that how we perceive ourselves has a powerful impact on how we live and perform.
Jesus’ self-identity shaped the way he lived and overcame.
Even as 12 year old boy Jesus had a clear sense that he, in a special and unique way, was God’s son and so during a trip with his parents to Jerusalem, Jesus felt drawn to spend extra time in the temple.
When Jesus is 30, he is really clearly affirmed in his identity by God.
Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptizer, has been preparing the way for Jesus. John the Baptizer recognizes that, in Jesus Christ, God is opening up a door for people to enter into a life with God that had never been possible before. And so, John the Baptizer calls people to repent.
Repentance simply means that we turn away from our sins toward God. Repentance isn’t just about giving up certain sinful or destructive habits, but it is redirecting our lives toward God.
John calls people to turn and go through the door that is being opened by Jesus and to enter into a life with God. Baptism was a sign that people were turning to God and entering into a life with God (being immersed into a life with God).
If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 1: 1-13:
(We are beginning a new series in the Gospel of Mark.
Part of the uniqueness of Mark, which is the earliest Gospel, is that Mark shows us the both the humanity and power of Jesus Christ. In this message we’ll focus on two scenes: Jesus’ baptism and his testing in the wilderness and how they relate to each other.)
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, [a][b] 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way" [c]—
3 "a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' " [d]
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with [e] water, but he will baptize you with [f] the Holy Spirit."
The Baptism and Testing of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted [g] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
John is saying turn your lives around because a door to God is being opened to you through Jesus Christ. John urged people to enter the door to a life with God and was baptizing those who wanted to experience this new life with God.
As John is baptizing people in the Jordan River, he baptizes Jesus as well.
As Jesus is coming out of the water, the invisible curtain of heaven is torn open (a violent expression), and God says of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, my priceless treasure. With you I am well pleased.”
Later in the Gospels we see Jesus transfigured in the light of presence of God. This is seen by Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John. And again the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I well pleased. Listen to him.”
What is God saying to us in these words in baptism and transfiguration?
He’s saying at least 2 things.
As gifted commentator Dale Bruner says one of things God is saying is, “All I want to say and all I want to show you about me, I’ve made known in my son Jesus. If you want to hear me, listen to Jesus. If you want to get to know me, get together with Jesus.”
But there is a second meaning in the voice that is similar to the first. All the love that we hear in the voice of God the Father for his one, true Son, Jesus Christ, is also offered to us when we join our lives to Christ, when we unite our lives to him through baptism (i.e., when are immersed in the water of baptism and the reality of God), when we become a son or daughter of God.
When we give our lives to Christ, when we are baptized (or immersed) into his personhood, when we become a son or a daughter of God, God the Father says of us, “This is my son whom I love and in him I am well pleased. This is my daughter whom I love. In her I am well pleased.”
The essential foundation in a journey with God--knowing that we are deeply loved by God.
When Sakiko and I were in Japan earlier this year, she bought a best-selling book written by a Japanese psychiatrist on raising children. This psychiatrist is not a Christian, but based on his extensive experience and research as a psychiatrist working with hundreds of children and their parents in Japan, he has discovered that that when kids get into trouble, let’s say in adolescence, parents assume it is all because they did not discipline their children sufficiently. Obviously, discipline is an important part of parenting, but this psychiatrist, based on his experience working with hundreds of children, parents and families, says that the reason that an adolescent may be acting out is not because he or she wasn’t disciplined hard enough when they were young, but because they do not feel loved. They feel ignored, so they are acting out.
For a child to grow up in a healthy way—it is essential that he or she feels loved.
Richard Rohr, the respected Franciscan, in his book, From Wild Man to Wise Man, says, “We cannot be ourselves, we cannot be our own man, until we have been someone else’s little boy. We need someone who is older than us to love and bless us, even after our mistakes.”
A few weeks ago, I came across the story of a man who went to his aging father and told him how he desperately needed his love and validation. He described a scene he loved from the movie Braveheart, where William Wallace’s closest friend Amish is blessed by his father. His father says, “I can die a happy man to see the man you have become.” The man asks his father to do the same for him. His father’s response? Silence. He looked down at the table, and then he said, “I can’t. My father never did that for me.”
We have a need to be loved and validated by a father figure.
Yet, like this man, there are many who have never really experienced that.
If we enter into a relationship with God, adopted into his family… God says to us, “I am delighted in who you are. You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter.” He says to you and he calls you by name, “My beloved daughter”—you, and he calls you by name. “My beloved son… and I am delighted in you.”
As a new father, I feel a deep love for our son Joe that is independent of anything he’s done or accomplished—7 months… Some of you are parents of infants—how do you feel about your baby?
If we as imperfect parents, feel that way about our babies (nieces and nephews) how much more will our Father in heaven who is perfect love us?
The text tells us then that the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The text translates the phrase “Spirit descending on him.” The original Greek intensified this and can read, “The Spirit was descending into him,” indicating that Jesus was equipped and fulfilled for his ministry by the Holy Spirit.
Through our union with Jesus Christ, through our baptism into him, we too can receive the life and energy of the Holy Spirit. He will equip us and empower us for all that we need to do and all that God calls us to.
The Holy Spirit in Romans 8 also bears witness to our spirit, that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. In Romans 5 we are told that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts a sense of being loved by God. The way we know are beloved is not only a matter of understanding intellectually that we are loved by God, but it is also a matter of the Holy Spirit making that truth known to us.
Then our text tells us in verse 12: At once the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.
Being loved by God and favored by him, does not necessarily mean that we will live a life of ease and prosperity in a worldly sense. Being loved and favored by God means that we will spend at least part of our life in the wilderness place where we are tested. The word in our text in vs. 12 can be translated either “tempted” or “test.”
Strictly speaking, God tests us, but doesn’t tempt us. In the Book of James we are told that God never directly tempts us to sin—that’s what Satan does—but that we are tested by God.
What is the difference between tempted and tested? As commentator Ben Witherington and others have pointed out, the difference between tempted and tested is NOT necessarily a difference in the particular circumstance that a person is facing, but the purpose of the challenge. God allows us to experience adversity, to be tested to strengthen our character and to purify us. Satan, on the other hand, tempts us in order to destroy our character.
God will at times lead us into the wilderness to test us so that we can be strengthened.
The affirmation that we are loved by God is obviously a gift, but the wilderness is also a gift.
Paul Tournier, the Swiss doctor, has written a book called Creative Suffering. Tournier was an orphan and he soon came to realize that many of the great religious leaders of the world were virtual orphans or had suffered in some significant way. Moses’ parents had to give him up as a baby because of the persecution of the Jews in Egypt. Confucius lost his father at age 1. Pascal lost his mother at age 3. We know from general observation that many of the people that we would consider to be the most developed are those who have suffered greatly. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison in Robben Island.
The affirmation of knowing we are loved is a great gift, but so is the wilderness because the wilderness is a place where we are tested and refined.
The order of Jesus’ affirmation, being followed by his being led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness, is significant. We can face the tests of the wilderness if we know who we are… if we know that we are the beloved.
Henri Nouwen in his book Life of the Beloved says:
Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection.
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
The temptations to success, power, and popularity are the temptations that Jesus faces in the wilderness, but the temptation behind these temptations may well be the temptation to not believe that God loves him.
Though Mark which is this earliest and most concise Gospel does not specifically name the tests that Jesus faced in the desert, the other Gospel writers do.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. 40 days without food. He was obviously hungry. The tempter Satan came to him and said, “If you really are the Son of God, cause this stone to become bread.” Jesus answers by quoting Scripture (the Book of Deuteronomy), “It is written that people do not live on bread alone.”
Like Jesus, we can be tempted to rely on something other than God to sustain us.
In these times of financial crisis, it is especially tempting to rely on money or our work or what we have to give us a sense of security.
In times of financial difficultly, we can be tempted to worry and to hoard what we have.
But, if we really know that we are loved by God, if we know we are the beloved, we don’t need to be overcome by worry about money. We don’t need to hoard.
The temptation behind the temptation to build our lives on what we have is the temptation to believe we are not truly loved by God.
According to the other Gospels, the tempter comes to Jesus in the wilderness, and says to him, “If you really are the Son of God, then tell these stones to become bread.”
Satan here tries to get Jesus to doubt God’s love for him. Satan suggests--if you really are loved by God--then you would have enough to eat.
This tactic of Satan is the same one he used on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan approaches Adam and Eve and asks, “Did God really say you could not eat of any tree in the garden?” God actually never said that. God permitted Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan twists what God has said and suggests that God has prohibited Adam and Eve from eating of any tree in the Garden of Eden. Satan shifts Adam and Eve’s focus from all that God has provided to God’s one prohibition.
One of the primary ways in which Satan will tempt us is by causing us to doubt God’s goodness and God’s love for us by getting us to believe that if truly follow God’s way, if we truly trust him, we will somehow miss out.
As a teenager I believed in the existence of God but I had a suspicion in the back of my mind that if I really gave over my life to God, I would miss out in the excitement of a bad-boy life. Sometimes as an adult I’m tempted to believe—if I really fully follow God’s way, I’ll miss out. Of course, the temptation behind that temptation, is to believe God doesn’t really care for me, doesn’t have my best interest in mind.
Another temptation we will face is to build our lives on what we do rather than on God’s love for us.
The second test that Jesus faced in the wilderness involved the Devil leading him up to a high place, showing him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. That high place involved a trip to Jerusalem where Jesus was made to stand at the very pinnacle of the temple. And Satan suggested that if Jesus were the Son of God, he could prove it by jumping off the top of the temple, and surely the angels would save him from harm, and the crowds below would gasp in awe when they realized just who he was.
Jesus responds by saying, it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the Test.”
As Henri Nouwen observes, Jesus here is faced with the temptation to do something spectacular.
If the temptation of turning the stone into bread was to be defined by what we have, the temptation to jump from the temple would be defined by what we do.
Part of the way that we can know whether we are tempted to be defined by what we do is by asking ourselves, “Am I unnecessarily too busy?”
Henri Nouwen, in his book The Beloved, says this:
There is absolutely no reason for most people to be as busy as they are. You want to earn more money than you need. You want to watch more television than you need. You want to read more books than you need to read. You want to keep in touch with too many friends. You want to travel too much. You can even be busy with looking for the meaning of solitude! (Nouwen 2007 p. 11-12)
If you are busy, very busy, ask yourself, “Why am I so busy? Perhaps you want to prove something. Why are people so busy? Perhaps they want to be successful in their life or they want to be successful or they want to be popular or they want to have some influence. If you want to be successful, you have to do a lot of things; if you want to be popular you have to meet a lot of people; if you want to have influence, you have to make a lot of connections… Sabbath frees us from our drive to have success: more money, more popularity, more influence.
The temptation to do be defined by what we do is also directly connected with our sense of being beloved by God.
If we doubt that we are God’s beloved, if we doubt God’s goodness and that he can provide for us, if don’t know who we are and whose we are, we will be driven to busyness, to do things, to impress others, ourselves, to be spectacular.
But we can overcome this test if we know who--that we are the beloved--and whose we are—we can rest.
Another test we may face is the test is the test of whether God is good, or not.
When Jesus was in led into the wilderness and then went without food for 40 days, Satan tempted Jesus by questioning whether God was really good.
Rachel Barkey who along with her husband Neil and her kids Quinn and Kate has been part of this community knows about this question.
In an email Rachel recently wrote she says:
For those who have not yet heard, recently cancer has returned--the cancer has spread to my liver and bones.
There is no cure.
And everyone is wondering "how long" and the truth is, we don't know. It is likely several months but it could be less or it could be more.
This is, by far, the hardest part of this for me: leaving Neil, Quinn and Kate. Serving them is my joy. Loving Neil and helping him has been the most wonderful privilege I could ask for. And being a mother has been a gift that I did not deserve. Quinn and Kate are treasures that were entrusted to me for a time and I am grateful that I was able to be their mother for these years. I struggle, of course, with the knowledge that I will not be there for them for much longer and wonder what life will be like for them without me. But I wrestled with this years ago, as some of you will remember, and was gently reminded that there is One who loves them even more than I do. And so He gently reminds me again.
We are overwhelmed, once again, by the love and care being offered and given by our family and friends. Thank you so much for your words of comfort and offers of help. And especially for your prayers.
Last Friday night in the hospital, as Neil sat on my bed and we wept together at the news we had just received, we said, "God is still good." And He is. We will not doubt Him now when the road ahead is dark. He will use this for good and for His glory. There is no doubt. And, in the depths of my sadness, that makes my heart glad.
Even in the wilderness and sadness—if we know that we are beloved , our hearts paradoxically, like Rachel’s, can be glad.
What we believe about our identity will shape how we face life… whether it’s a test… or death itself. If we know we are the beloved, we will overcome.
Mark M1 February 8, 2009
Title: Beloved
Text: Mark 1: 1-13
Big Idea: We can face any “what” if we know we are the beloved.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point, in his book Blink writes:
“Researchers did a study in which they had [2] groups of students answer 42 Trivial Pursuit questions. ½ were asked to take 5 minutes beforehand to think about what it would mean to be a professor and write down everything that came to mind.
Those students got 55.6% of the questions right. The other ½ were asked to first sit and think about soccer hooligans. They ended up getting 42.6%.”
That’s a 13 percent difference
“Psychologists [asked] black college students [to answer] 20 questions from the GRE…
(which is the standardized test for admission to graduate school). When the students were asked to identify their race on the pretest question… the number of items they got right was cut in half.” That simple act of identifying their race was sufficient to prime them with all the negative stereotypes associated with African Americans and academic achievement – and the number of items they got right was cut in half.”
Gladwell demonstrates that how we perceive ourselves has a powerful impact on how we live and perform.
Jesus’ self-identity shaped the way he lived and overcame.
Even as 12 year old boy Jesus had a clear sense that he, in a special and unique way, was God’s son and so during a trip with his parents to Jerusalem, Jesus felt drawn to spend extra time in the temple.
When Jesus is 30, he is really clearly affirmed in his identity by God.
Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptizer, has been preparing the way for Jesus. John the Baptizer recognizes that, in Jesus Christ, God is opening up a door for people to enter into a life with God that had never been possible before. And so, John the Baptizer calls people to repent.
Repentance simply means that we turn away from our sins toward God. Repentance isn’t just about giving up certain sinful or destructive habits, but it is redirecting our lives toward God.
John calls people to turn and go through the door that is being opened by Jesus and to enter into a life with God. Baptism was a sign that people were turning to God and entering into a life with God (being immersed into a life with God).
If you have your Bibles please turn to Mark 1: 1-13:
(We are beginning a new series in the Gospel of Mark.
Part of the uniqueness of Mark, which is the earliest Gospel, is that Mark shows us the both the humanity and power of Jesus Christ. In this message we’ll focus on two scenes: Jesus’ baptism and his testing in the wilderness and how they relate to each other.)
1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, [a][b] 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way" [c]—
3 "a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.' " [d]
4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with [e] water, but he will baptize you with [f] the Holy Spirit."
The Baptism and Testing of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted [g] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
John is saying turn your lives around because a door to God is being opened to you through Jesus Christ. John urged people to enter the door to a life with God and was baptizing those who wanted to experience this new life with God.
As John is baptizing people in the Jordan River, he baptizes Jesus as well.
As Jesus is coming out of the water, the invisible curtain of heaven is torn open (a violent expression), and God says of Jesus, “You are my beloved Son, my priceless treasure. With you I am well pleased.”
Later in the Gospels we see Jesus transfigured in the light of presence of God. This is seen by Jesus’ disciples, Peter, James and John. And again the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I well pleased. Listen to him.”
What is God saying to us in these words in baptism and transfiguration?
He’s saying at least 2 things.
As gifted commentator Dale Bruner says one of things God is saying is, “All I want to say and all I want to show you about me, I’ve made known in my son Jesus. If you want to hear me, listen to Jesus. If you want to get to know me, get together with Jesus.”
But there is a second meaning in the voice that is similar to the first. All the love that we hear in the voice of God the Father for his one, true Son, Jesus Christ, is also offered to us when we join our lives to Christ, when we unite our lives to him through baptism (i.e., when are immersed in the water of baptism and the reality of God), when we become a son or daughter of God.
When we give our lives to Christ, when we are baptized (or immersed) into his personhood, when we become a son or a daughter of God, God the Father says of us, “This is my son whom I love and in him I am well pleased. This is my daughter whom I love. In her I am well pleased.”
The essential foundation in a journey with God--knowing that we are deeply loved by God.
When Sakiko and I were in Japan earlier this year, she bought a best-selling book written by a Japanese psychiatrist on raising children. This psychiatrist is not a Christian, but based on his extensive experience and research as a psychiatrist working with hundreds of children and their parents in Japan, he has discovered that that when kids get into trouble, let’s say in adolescence, parents assume it is all because they did not discipline their children sufficiently. Obviously, discipline is an important part of parenting, but this psychiatrist, based on his experience working with hundreds of children, parents and families, says that the reason that an adolescent may be acting out is not because he or she wasn’t disciplined hard enough when they were young, but because they do not feel loved. They feel ignored, so they are acting out.
For a child to grow up in a healthy way—it is essential that he or she feels loved.
Richard Rohr, the respected Franciscan, in his book, From Wild Man to Wise Man, says, “We cannot be ourselves, we cannot be our own man, until we have been someone else’s little boy. We need someone who is older than us to love and bless us, even after our mistakes.”
A few weeks ago, I came across the story of a man who went to his aging father and told him how he desperately needed his love and validation. He described a scene he loved from the movie Braveheart, where William Wallace’s closest friend Amish is blessed by his father. His father says, “I can die a happy man to see the man you have become.” The man asks his father to do the same for him. His father’s response? Silence. He looked down at the table, and then he said, “I can’t. My father never did that for me.”
We have a need to be loved and validated by a father figure.
Yet, like this man, there are many who have never really experienced that.
If we enter into a relationship with God, adopted into his family… God says to us, “I am delighted in who you are. You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter.” He says to you and he calls you by name, “My beloved daughter”—you, and he calls you by name. “My beloved son… and I am delighted in you.”
As a new father, I feel a deep love for our son Joe that is independent of anything he’s done or accomplished—7 months… Some of you are parents of infants—how do you feel about your baby?
If we as imperfect parents, feel that way about our babies (nieces and nephews) how much more will our Father in heaven who is perfect love us?
The text tells us then that the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The text translates the phrase “Spirit descending on him.” The original Greek intensified this and can read, “The Spirit was descending into him,” indicating that Jesus was equipped and fulfilled for his ministry by the Holy Spirit.
Through our union with Jesus Christ, through our baptism into him, we too can receive the life and energy of the Holy Spirit. He will equip us and empower us for all that we need to do and all that God calls us to.
The Holy Spirit in Romans 8 also bears witness to our spirit, that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. In Romans 5 we are told that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts a sense of being loved by God. The way we know are beloved is not only a matter of understanding intellectually that we are loved by God, but it is also a matter of the Holy Spirit making that truth known to us.
Then our text tells us in verse 12: At once the Spirit led Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.
Being loved by God and favored by him, does not necessarily mean that we will live a life of ease and prosperity in a worldly sense. Being loved and favored by God means that we will spend at least part of our life in the wilderness place where we are tested. The word in our text in vs. 12 can be translated either “tempted” or “test.”
Strictly speaking, God tests us, but doesn’t tempt us. In the Book of James we are told that God never directly tempts us to sin—that’s what Satan does—but that we are tested by God.
What is the difference between tempted and tested? As commentator Ben Witherington and others have pointed out, the difference between tempted and tested is NOT necessarily a difference in the particular circumstance that a person is facing, but the purpose of the challenge. God allows us to experience adversity, to be tested to strengthen our character and to purify us. Satan, on the other hand, tempts us in order to destroy our character.
God will at times lead us into the wilderness to test us so that we can be strengthened.
The affirmation that we are loved by God is obviously a gift, but the wilderness is also a gift.
Paul Tournier, the Swiss doctor, has written a book called Creative Suffering. Tournier was an orphan and he soon came to realize that many of the great religious leaders of the world were virtual orphans or had suffered in some significant way. Moses’ parents had to give him up as a baby because of the persecution of the Jews in Egypt. Confucius lost his father at age 1. Pascal lost his mother at age 3. We know from general observation that many of the people that we would consider to be the most developed are those who have suffered greatly. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison in Robben Island.
The affirmation of knowing we are loved is a great gift, but so is the wilderness because the wilderness is a place where we are tested and refined.
The order of Jesus’ affirmation, being followed by his being led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness, is significant. We can face the tests of the wilderness if we know who we are… if we know that we are the beloved.
Henri Nouwen in his book Life of the Beloved says:
Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection.
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
The temptations to success, power, and popularity are the temptations that Jesus faces in the wilderness, but the temptation behind these temptations may well be the temptation to not believe that God loves him.
Though Mark which is this earliest and most concise Gospel does not specifically name the tests that Jesus faced in the desert, the other Gospel writers do.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. 40 days without food. He was obviously hungry. The tempter Satan came to him and said, “If you really are the Son of God, cause this stone to become bread.” Jesus answers by quoting Scripture (the Book of Deuteronomy), “It is written that people do not live on bread alone.”
Like Jesus, we can be tempted to rely on something other than God to sustain us.
In these times of financial crisis, it is especially tempting to rely on money or our work or what we have to give us a sense of security.
In times of financial difficultly, we can be tempted to worry and to hoard what we have.
But, if we really know that we are loved by God, if we know we are the beloved, we don’t need to be overcome by worry about money. We don’t need to hoard.
The temptation behind the temptation to build our lives on what we have is the temptation to believe we are not truly loved by God.
According to the other Gospels, the tempter comes to Jesus in the wilderness, and says to him, “If you really are the Son of God, then tell these stones to become bread.”
Satan here tries to get Jesus to doubt God’s love for him. Satan suggests--if you really are loved by God--then you would have enough to eat.
This tactic of Satan is the same one he used on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan approaches Adam and Eve and asks, “Did God really say you could not eat of any tree in the garden?” God actually never said that. God permitted Adam and Eve to eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan twists what God has said and suggests that God has prohibited Adam and Eve from eating of any tree in the Garden of Eden. Satan shifts Adam and Eve’s focus from all that God has provided to God’s one prohibition.
One of the primary ways in which Satan will tempt us is by causing us to doubt God’s goodness and God’s love for us by getting us to believe that if truly follow God’s way, if we truly trust him, we will somehow miss out.
As a teenager I believed in the existence of God but I had a suspicion in the back of my mind that if I really gave over my life to God, I would miss out in the excitement of a bad-boy life. Sometimes as an adult I’m tempted to believe—if I really fully follow God’s way, I’ll miss out. Of course, the temptation behind that temptation, is to believe God doesn’t really care for me, doesn’t have my best interest in mind.
Another temptation we will face is to build our lives on what we do rather than on God’s love for us.
The second test that Jesus faced in the wilderness involved the Devil leading him up to a high place, showing him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. That high place involved a trip to Jerusalem where Jesus was made to stand at the very pinnacle of the temple. And Satan suggested that if Jesus were the Son of God, he could prove it by jumping off the top of the temple, and surely the angels would save him from harm, and the crowds below would gasp in awe when they realized just who he was.
Jesus responds by saying, it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the Test.”
As Henri Nouwen observes, Jesus here is faced with the temptation to do something spectacular.
If the temptation of turning the stone into bread was to be defined by what we have, the temptation to jump from the temple would be defined by what we do.
Part of the way that we can know whether we are tempted to be defined by what we do is by asking ourselves, “Am I unnecessarily too busy?”
Henri Nouwen, in his book The Beloved, says this:
There is absolutely no reason for most people to be as busy as they are. You want to earn more money than you need. You want to watch more television than you need. You want to read more books than you need to read. You want to keep in touch with too many friends. You want to travel too much. You can even be busy with looking for the meaning of solitude! (Nouwen 2007 p. 11-12)
If you are busy, very busy, ask yourself, “Why am I so busy? Perhaps you want to prove something. Why are people so busy? Perhaps they want to be successful in their life or they want to be successful or they want to be popular or they want to have some influence. If you want to be successful, you have to do a lot of things; if you want to be popular you have to meet a lot of people; if you want to have influence, you have to make a lot of connections… Sabbath frees us from our drive to have success: more money, more popularity, more influence.
The temptation to do be defined by what we do is also directly connected with our sense of being beloved by God.
If we doubt that we are God’s beloved, if we doubt God’s goodness and that he can provide for us, if don’t know who we are and whose we are, we will be driven to busyness, to do things, to impress others, ourselves, to be spectacular.
But we can overcome this test if we know who--that we are the beloved--and whose we are—we can rest.
Another test we may face is the test is the test of whether God is good, or not.
When Jesus was in led into the wilderness and then went without food for 40 days, Satan tempted Jesus by questioning whether God was really good.
Rachel Barkey who along with her husband Neil and her kids Quinn and Kate has been part of this community knows about this question.
In an email Rachel recently wrote she says:
For those who have not yet heard, recently cancer has returned--the cancer has spread to my liver and bones.
There is no cure.
And everyone is wondering "how long" and the truth is, we don't know. It is likely several months but it could be less or it could be more.
This is, by far, the hardest part of this for me: leaving Neil, Quinn and Kate. Serving them is my joy. Loving Neil and helping him has been the most wonderful privilege I could ask for. And being a mother has been a gift that I did not deserve. Quinn and Kate are treasures that were entrusted to me for a time and I am grateful that I was able to be their mother for these years. I struggle, of course, with the knowledge that I will not be there for them for much longer and wonder what life will be like for them without me. But I wrestled with this years ago, as some of you will remember, and was gently reminded that there is One who loves them even more than I do. And so He gently reminds me again.
We are overwhelmed, once again, by the love and care being offered and given by our family and friends. Thank you so much for your words of comfort and offers of help. And especially for your prayers.
Last Friday night in the hospital, as Neil sat on my bed and we wept together at the news we had just received, we said, "God is still good." And He is. We will not doubt Him now when the road ahead is dark. He will use this for good and for His glory. There is no doubt. And, in the depths of my sadness, that makes my heart glad.
Even in the wilderness and sadness—if we know that we are beloved , our hearts paradoxically, like Rachel’s, can be glad.
What we believe about our identity will shape how we face life… whether it’s a test… or death itself. If we know we are the beloved, we will overcome.
posted by Shigematsu at 2:30 PM
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