Rev. Thomas Shepherd
Pastor, Stuart United Methodist Church
“What Shall I Do For Lent?”
Mark 1:9-15
We are in the Season of Lent, which is a season of repentance and preparation for the great celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, Lent has lost its savor and many in the church today have little regard for Lent and its primary purpose. It has been diluted to little more than, “What shall I give up for lent?” If that is all Lent is about, we are in trouble.
People have the tendency to believe that if they give up something for Lent, they can be more like Jesus, who gave up everything to suffer for us. But the truth of the matter is no amount of self-deprivation will actually make us fully experience the suffering of Jesus. However, if you feel you need to give up something for Lent, by all means do it. But why stop at 40 days, thinking that by giving it up for 40 days will somehow earn God’s favor?
If you are going to give it up for Jesus, then give it up and leave it.
The other extreme in our modern culture is to take up something during Lent because we don’t like the idea of giving anything up. So, we may decide to increase our Bible reading, or prayer time, or add another devotional, or meditation time. But then again, if it is only for the season of Lent and then dropped, what good is it? If it is worth doing, it is worth doing continually and not just for a season.
There is no mention of Lent in the Bible because it is something the Church instituted as a means of preparing for Resurrection Sunday (Easter). However, we do have a great example of preparing oneself for a mission from God in Mark’s Gospel 1:9-15. In this short passage, Mark covers three life events in the life of Jesus: the baptism, the wilderness temptation, and the beginning of Jesus’ preaching ministry.
It is my prayer that as we look at this passage, we will learn some important lessons that will go far beyond Lent and will last for a lifetime because these lessons will help us in our Christian Journey.
In verses 9-11, Mark tells us of the Baptism of Jesus by simply saying, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” In the baptism of Jesus, we learn who Jesus is. John didn’t know who the Messiah was, but he had been told by God that he would know him by the Spirit coming down and resting on him (John 1:33). John saw this in verse 10. And John heard the voice from heaven say, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (11). What we learn from this is that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.
We learn that Jesus humbled himself. After all He was the Son of God, so he was equal with God, but he did not use his position to make people believe in him. He humbled himself to carry out God’s plan of salvation. What we learn from this is that we, as followers of Christ, must humble ourselves to be useful in the kingdom of God.
We learn that it was “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Christ’s baptism fulfilled the righteousness of the ceremonial law, a ritual cleansing. What we learn from this is that we are to follow His example and be baptized. Our baptism is a sign of our repentance and the symbolic washing away of our sin by Christ. We die to ourselves and are raised into newness of life in Christ.
Next is the Wilderness Temptation (vss. 12-13) where we see that “the Spirit … drove him out into the wilderness” and that “He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan;” (12-13).
Mark does not go into details like Matthew or Luke, he simply tells us that the “Spirit … drove him out into the wilderness” and that he was there “forty days” being “tempted by Satan” (12-13). What we learn from the wilderness event is if we really want to know God, we must get alone with God. It was the “Spirit” that drove Jesus into the wilderness, not Satan. Jesus was embarking on a mission for God.
I know the argument can be made that Jesus is God, so wouldn’t He know God already? This is true, but Jesus is God in human form, which would include all the frailties of being human, like the temptation to sin. Again, I know there are some who believe that Jesus could not fall into temptation and sin, but if that is the case, what is the point of Satan trying to tempt Him to sin? Also, the temptation of Jesus is mentioned in three of the four Gospels. I believe it is there for us to know that we can overcome the temptation to sin as Jesus did, but it takes commitment to God, so we must get close to God.
One of the best ways to get close to God is in nature. Often in His ministry, Jesus went out to be alone with God. We, too, need to find time away from the busyness of life and spend some quality time alone with God. This is how we prepare for temptations: 1) Get closer to God by spending quality time in the presence of God 2) Spend quality time learning the word of God and allow it to become a part of your very existence and 3) Learn to lean on Jesus, for if we are in Him, He is in us as John tells us in 1 John 4:4, “for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Through all the trials of Jesus’ wilderness temptation, God was with Him even though He was “with the wild beasts” (13). What does the image of the wild beasts bring to mind? Literal wild animals certainly, but it could also represent the evils of the world. The point to keep in mind is twofold 1) It is God’s Spirit doing the sending therefore it is sanctioned by God; and 2) God does not forsake those whom He sends for “the angels waited on him” (13). This teaches us that in our call to serve God, God will not forsake us if we are in God’s will. God will minister to us in the struggle. God will lift us up.
Following the wilderness event, Jesus takes full command of His mission of proclaiming “the good news of God” (14). He begins with the same cry as that of the prophets of old, with the same cry as that of John the Baptist, he begins with the cry of “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (15). You see, God doesn’t change! The same message of the prophets, and from John is proclaimed by Jesus, “Repent and accept the good news of God’s love for you.”
Here is the point – repentance must come first! For believers today, the message we share is the same, “Repent and believe the gospel!” Salvation begins with repentance!
So yes, we can learn something from this text for our journey. It begins with repentance, then accepting the good news of God’s love through Jesus Christ and committing ourselves to Him, and following the will of the Lord in our lives to be what God has called us to be. Serve and “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” (Deut 6:5).
So, what shall we do for Lent? Repent and get closer to the Lord, so we are better prepared to minister the gospel of God’s love to a sick and dying world.
