Mark 1:12-15
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
You Don’t Have to Be Perfect, Just Penitent
Mark is pretty stark when he writes about Jesus’ temptation. He’s stingy with the details. Matthew and Luke both tell us exactly what three of the temptations were. Mark doesn’t even mention one. What Mark does do with very little ink is make some strong implications. He simply tells us that Satan tempted Jesus and then allows us to imagine what that must have looked like.
He starts by saying, “At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness.”[1] This temptation took place immediately after Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River.
This was a big moment in Jesus’ life! John had been laying the groundwork for Jesus to take center stage for years. Up to this point we know virtually nothing about Jesus’ life. We have a record of his birth. We have a story from when he was 12. And that’s about it. But when Jesus walks into the Jordan River and get baptized by John, something happens. While all eyes are on Jesus, heaven opens above him and the voice of God the Father announces for all to hear, “You are my Son whom I love. With you I am well pleased.”[2]
Jesus had arrived. That moment marked the beginning of his public ministry. From then on out, Jesus would be a figure in the public eye. He would have audiences and crowds of people following him wherever he went.
But first: “At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness.”[3]
There was no time for a potluck reception to celebrate Jesus’ inauguration into ministry. There was no meet-and-greet networking session, no honeymoon period. Jesus went right to work. Jesus was thrown into the fire. From day one of his public ministry, it was immediately obvious what Jesus came to do – he came to defeat the Devil. So the Spirit sent him into the wilderness to square off with Satan.
The desert was the perfect place to duel with the Devil. It was barren and empty. It was the haunt of hyenas and jackals and other wild animals, but no people. No spectators. No support. Just Jesus in a lonely and perilous place, in an inhospitable and hostile environment where Jesus was going to be alone and unassisted for 40 days.
Jesus was there for more than a month only doing 2 things the entire time –fasting and being tempted by Satan.
For most people, that would be a deadly combination. Have you ever tried to fast? It’s hard! It’s hard enough to make it from lunch to dinner without having an afternoon snack. Try going a whole day and then multiply that by 40! That’s what Jesus did.
Imagine how weak you would feel in both body and spirit. Imagine how quickly you would fall on the first fast food joint on your way back into town. Imagine how irritable you would be and impatient. And then, imagine that you’re not alone, but you have the Prince of Darkness loitering around, relentlessly assaulting you with temptation after temptation.
This month and 10 days of Jesus’ life was intense and difficult, and even though we only hear about 3 temptations in the other Gospels, Mark makes it sound like Satan was Jesus’ constant companion, pestering him every day with a new and uniquely challenging temptation.
It sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Would you have the stamina to say, “No,” to the devil every day? I think an honest look at your life right now would tell you that you don’t. We can’t make it one day without giving in to temptation, let alone the 40 that Jesus spent in the wilderness or the 12,000+ that Jesus spent on this earth. I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb to say that every one of us has sinned several times since the sun rose this morning.
You don’t have to invite another woman into your bed to sin. All you have to do is linger on a picture on your phone and lust is born in your heart. You don’t have to cut the brake lines of your neighbour’s car in the hopes that they die in a fiery crash. All you have to do is get mad at them and harbour hatred in your heart for a moment.
It must have seemed so easy for the devil to have Jesus alone in the desert without his disciples, without any food, without any support of any kind – physical or spiritual – for 40 days and all he had to do was get Jesus to think a single sinful thought one time, and the devil would win. Jesus had to be perfect. He had to be constantly vigilant, always on guard, always mindful and aware of every idea he thought, every word he spoke, every thing he did. No second chances. No slip ups. Satan must have loved his odds in this duel in the desert.
But 40 days later and Jesus – tired, hungry, exhausted as he must have been – withstood every temptation that Satan could throw at him. The struggle for Jesus was real, but he emerged victorious. Only then, after the temptations were over,[4] did God send his angels to strengthen Jesus in body and soul after a grueling duel with the devil in the desert.
Mark barely says a word about what must have been one of the most challenging and difficult times in all of Jesus’ life. But that moment was so meaningful, because in that wilderness we see our Saviour do something that you and I never could. We see Jesus get tempted in every way, just like we do every day, yet he was able to stay without sin. He resisted every temptation and remained spotless, sinless.
And that matters! That means that we have a Saviour who can sympathize with us. Jesus knows what temptation feels like. Jesus knows, better than we do, what it is to have the devil whisper in your ear; for Satan to hold out forbidden fruit and make you lose all taste for anything else. Jesus knows what it feels like to be frustrated with your government, to be concerned about the future, to be attracted to someone or something you can’t have. Jesus knows what you go through on a daily basis.
But better than having a Saviour who can sympathize with you, this story tells us that we have a Saviour who is better than you, who was able to do what we cannot. We have a Saviour who is perfect and sinless. We have a Saviour who defeated the Devil and came out victorious over Satan, and not just in the month plus after his baptism either. Jesus won every battle his whole life long, up to and including the moments he spent hanging on a cross, despised by the people he came to save, forsaken by his Father in heaven, but still filled with perfect love for you – a love that was willing to sacrifice his life for you.
Jesus died, not for sins that he committed – he hadn’t committed any. Jesus died for all of your sins and for all of mine. He was the sinless, spotless lamb of sacrifice to pay for the sins of the whole world.
We have a Saviour who can sympathize with us. We have a Saviour who came out victorious. We have a Saviour who was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
That’s why Jesus began – and ended – his 3-year preaching tour with the same message: “Repent and believe the good news!”[5]
You and I are not as strong as Jesus was. You and I give in to temptation all the time. We are attracted to people and things we can’t have. We are concerned about the future and don’t always trust God to provide. We grow frustrated with our government and the things they make us do. And sadly, sometimes – oftentimes – we give in to those temptations.
We speak ill of our government and we justify disobeying their laws just because we don’t understand or agree with them. But that’s a sin against the 4th Commandment: “Honor your father and mother” and everyone in authority, whether you agree with them or not, whether they deserve your respect or not. You have an obligation to obey them, not for their sake but for God’s sake.
We often grow afraid and anxious about what the future holds for us, but instead of casting all our cares on God and entrusting ourselves into his more-than-capable hands, we try to take matters into ours. We put our trust in our own ability to make money, our own ability to provide, forgetting that it’s God who gives us those abilities in the first place.
We are attracted to people and things we cannot have. We grow discontent with what God has given us in our lives and we spend our days looking at the greener grass on the other side of the fence. Until eventually our envy entices us to trespass and go somewhere and do something that we shouldn’t. Enjoying a pleasure God hasn’t given us. Rejecting as worthless what God has given us.
That’s why Jesus’ six-word sermon starts with “Repent.” We are not as strong as Jesus is. We cannot resist the devil and his temptations. The struggle is real and we often lose, but hope is only lost when we refuse to repent, i.e. when we turn a blind eye to our sin.
When we listen to Jesus and do repent – when we admit our sinfulness and ask God for forgiveness – he turns our attention to the good news of Jesus. To the good news that we have a Saviour who can sympathize with temptation, but who is stronger than we are. To the good news that our stronger Saviour nevertheless willingly sacrificed himself for you to forgive all your sins. To the good news that you don’t have to be perfect to be saved. You just need to be penitent – to be sorry enough for your sins that you recognize your need for a Saviour and rejoice that God has given you Jesus.
The season of Lent is a struggle. It’s a struggle to say, “No,” to the temptations of Satan. It’s a struggle to say, “Yes,” to all that God wants me to do. But it’s a struggle that Christ won for you. He came out victorious after his grueling duel with the devil in the desert and gives us his victory through faith in his Word.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this season of Lent, repent and believe the good news: Jesus is your Saviour from sin. Amen.
[1] Mark 1:12
[2] Mark 1:11
[3] Mark 1:12
[4] Matthew 4:11
[5] Mark 1:15