Wilderness and Wild Beasts

February 18, 2024 - First Sunday of Lent

Focus Scripture: Mark 1:9-15

Wilderness and Wild Beasts

“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.”

These two sentences from the briefest of the gospels tell us much. They describe the relationship among the persons of God, they show and foreshadow sacrifice, and they hint at the challenges that our Lord and Savior endured to do his work, that which we will observe and celebrate six weeks from today. These two sentences and their images also give us an idea of how God is with us and works in us today.

Let’s first take a moment to consider the contrast of events in this passage. Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan. Then God speaks saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Then, in the very next sentence, we are told that the Holy Sprit immediately compelled Jesus – drove Jesus – to go out into the wilderness. While we do not get the details here, we know from other scripture that Jesus traveled light. He didn’t stop at REI on the way to the wilderness to get the latest camping gear, tent, and sleeping bag. Not at all. This was not going to be 40 days of peace and rest.

Jesus was in the wilderness. Alone. The wilderness filled with scorpions and snakes and all other types of hazards. And then, there were the wild beasts.

Wild beasts had a special place in the minds of the people who would be hearing this message from Mark. There was a belief among the Jewish people that wild beasts just might be unclean spirits or the like. This term would conjure all kinds of images.

For example, in Isaiah chapter 13, the prophet is describing what was going to happen to Babylon, the place where the Jewish people were in captivity. After Babylon had fallen, it would be desolate. Consider this passage, verses 20-22:

It will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations;

Arabs will not pitch their tents there; shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.

But wild animals will lie down there, and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will live, and there goat-demons will dance.

Hyenas will cry in its towers and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand; and its days will not be prolonged. 

– Isaiah 13:20-22 (NRSVue)

Clearly, one does not want to be spending time with the wild beasts. But Jesus did. For us.

God knew that Jesus, fully God and fully human, needed to be prepared for what was to come. If Jesus were to endure the persecution, physical abuse, and spiritual warfare that was in his future, he needed some conditioning, perhaps. As importantly, he needed to show those who would follow and learn of him what he was made of. This Jesus wasn’t just a man from Nazareth who rolled into town teaching with authority. No. This Jesus had already been tested from the very beginning of his ministry. From baptism to the wilderness to his return to find that his cousin John had been arrested, Jesus endured much from the moment he began.

But through it all, “the angels waited on him.”

Let’s come back to what Jesus took with him into the wilderness. There was no tent, sleeping bag, freeze dried food, GPS navigator, or, likely, even an extra set of clothes. Jesus was lacking the physical items that might make a journey like this tolerable and survivable, that is if one had the skills to find water. But Jesus was prepared spiritually and mentally. God had prepared God’s son with knowledge of scripture and the discipline of prayer to equip Jesus for this test. And we can assume that the tests were mighty. God knew the test would be intense, so Jesus was equipped for it. God brought Jesus through the time in the wilderness with the wild beasts. And Satan was beaten, too. Jesus provided that he had more than enough to meet that test of the prince of the world.

How often do we feel like we are in the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts? We are tested by all kinds of things. Sometimes we overcome those challenges, and sometimes we fall. The forces of the world, the forces that would have us succumb to the ways of the world are great, so we must acknowledge that.

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they complained about water and food. They crafted a golden calf and bowed down to it. There is a history of people behaving badly when put to the test in the physical wilderness. The same is true of the metaphorical wildernesses and wild beasts we encounter in our own lives.

When we forget God, when we put our own pleasures and passions at a higher, more important place than our relationship with God and our loving, caring relationships with others, we are in danger. When we disconnect, try to muscle it out, go it alone, we are headed down the path of howling creatures that will be happy to make us their prey. We see it all around us; we’ve seen it this week.

Left to go it alone, we will not overcome. We are not equipped to do it.

But when we allow God to do God’s work in our lives, when we stay connected through our spiritual disciplines, when we allow the angels to wait on us through faith and patience, we will overcome.

During our Lenten journey, we will hear the cry of the hyenas and the screeches of the jackals. They are nearby. Yet we do not, and must not, be afraid.

How does God work in and through us? How does God transform us to have the spiritual steel of Jesus? While we cannot explain it as a process – it is a mystery of faith – we can do everything possible on our end to stay in communion with God. Through worship, scripture reading, prayer, Holy Communion, and time in study with others, we can, with God’s help and mercy, fortify our spiritual armor to overcome the challenges.

Finally, this effort also requires humility. Jesus demonstrated it by being baptized and then immediately being driven into the desert to be “waited on by angels.” Jesus relied on the power of God and God’s angels to survive the experience. Why would we think we need anything less?

As we move through these 40 days of reflection, penitence, and spiritual discipline, let us stay humble so we can and will accept the unmerited love and grace of God to help us persevere. Pray for strength and patience to face the tribulations, however large or small. And lean on each other, our sisters and brothers in Christ, as we move ahead.

While we might have some time in the wilderness with wild beasts, you and I are not alone. Amen. 

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You are welcome to join the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Shelton (CT) in person or online at 10 AM Eastern Time any and every Sunday. Services are streamed live, and past services are recorded. The church's web address is www.UMCShelton.org.

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Questions? Comments? Feel free to post your thoughts. Please keep it civil. Peace to you, and thanks for reading. - Bill Florin

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Photo Credit: Photo by Saad Khan on Unsplash