The Temptation to Be Normal

 Mark 1:9-15   February 17, 2024  Lent 1

 

The Temptation of Christ
J. Kirk Richards

So Jesus’ baptism was lovely.

The heavens were torn apart 

and the spirit came down

and the voice of God said “you are my beloved. “

It was a beautiful thing I’m sure.

Everyone loves a baptism.

 

But Jesus had no time for a baptismal party.

No time for punch and sheet cake

and those little quarter-cut pimento cheese sandwiches.

Because the nice spirit who just descended lightly on Jesus

just picked Jesus up and threw him out into the wilderness.

 

And when we think of the wilderness today,

it usually conjures up lovely images:

A camping trip, a weekend getaway,

maybe a little fly fishing, respite from our normal life.

But in Jesus time, the wilderness was not

a place people ever really wanted to go.

It was desert.

There were no comforts, no resources, no springs or streams,

no plants for food, no shelter.

Besides the wild beasts mentioned,

There was also the real possibility of wild people

who were out to do others harm.

 

In the bible, the Wilderness represented dangerous,

unruly, risky places.

Places that most people would be avoiding.

We could consider the wilderness as

the opposite of “normal and respectable”.

 

Yet this is where the Spirit drives Jesus right after his baptism.

Right after the anointing of him and the beginning of ministry.

The Spirit sends Jesus into a place that people would try to avoid.

  

And not only is Jesus driven into this

uncomfortable place.

But it says he was there to be tempted by Satan.

 

Notice that in Mark’s gospel –

what most people think was the first gospel written down --

there is no explanation of what that temptation was,

 

This whole story is just one sentence:

¹³He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan;

and he was with the wild beasts;

and the angels waited on him.

Matthew and Luke embellish this basic story in their gospels.

 

When traditional, US Christian preachers

talked about temptation, it has usually been about vices:

drinking, drugs, lust and sex, decadent dessert –

compulsions to do something, or consume something.

Habits or indiscretions that might enjoyable or

satisfying at the moment, but can get us into trouble.

 

And then as church people, we would pat ourselves on the back

because, for the most part we have avoided these temptations

or we have given the appearance that we have avoided these temptations, to excess anyway.

So then, temptation is only someone else’s problem.

But are those things out there really our greatest temptation?

Was that Jesus temptation?

 

There is a young and popular theologian

named Shane Claibourne.

He said in a seminar that he taught,

that normally, when we testify to Jesus power to transform lives,

we usually talk about Jesus transforming people who are in

the hold of one of these vices.

 

We talk about people who have given into these “temptations”

so much that they have fallen outside of our mainstream -

People who are not seen as “normal and respectable” –

like people who suffer from addictions, people who are

homeless or those who commit crimes.

And then they follow Jesus and they can come back

into the mainstream, they become “normal and respectable” again.

They, once again, fit in.

Those are the kind of stories that Christians seem to love,

and I know that I’ve told a few. And they are wonderful to hear.

 

But Shane said his own story with Jesus

was almost opposite from that.

He had a very “respectable” life, one others would aspire to.

He was destined for “normal and successful”.

He was homecoming king, had good grades, he was popular

was going to go to college, and would have had a lucrative career.

But then Jesus came in and messed everything up for him.

 

His faith journey moved him to go to India to work 

with Mother Theresa helping the poorest of the poor.

After he came back from there,

He started community with other Christians in

one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

He lived on the streets or in a group home.

He does not have what most people would call

a “normal and respectable life”

God called him outside a normal life to something different.

 

And I think that may be closer to Jesus journey.

Jesus temptation wasn’t drugs, or drinking,

or dancing, or lust or any number of vices

that we might think of as temptation.

His temptation wasn’t to steal, or murder,

or take advantage of people.

 

Don’t you think that his greatest temptation

was just to live a normal life?

To follow the path of everyone else around him?

 

At Jesus baptism, the heavens opened up and God spoke,

claimed Jesus as God’s beloved, set aside for a special call.

I guess Jesus could have opted for a normal, quiet life.

He could have chosen to get married

and have children, open up his carpentry business,

and just go to synagogue on Saturday night.

He could have just followed the call of the world, 

to be normal and respectable and not make any trouble for himself or others.

 

But instead Jesus chose to follow his own call.

God’s particular call for him – savior of the world.

And what if that is really our greatest temptation too?

To always go with the status quo, to not make any trouble,

To always follow the thoughts and actions

of the people around us.

To always follow the way of the world,

and do what is “normal and respectable”

and live up to those expectations.

 

Now I’m not saying that the Spirit is calling each one of us

to leave our jobs and family and drop out and live in

communes in poor neighborhoods.

That is not my call.

That may be the call for some of us,

but not all of us.

  

But I do think that God is calling us, as people

and as a congregation, to be different.

To be different than the dominant culture.

We are called:

-To trust God above our own abilities,

-To not put our trust in the market system

or the blind pursuit of wealth and security.

-To trust in God’s abundance. To share what we have.

-To not fall in step with the drums of war and violence.

- To forgive instead of holding grudges.

-To not fear those who are different from us.

-To care for other people’s families as much as we care for our own.

-To love and pray for our enemies, to turn the other cheek.

We are called to follow Jesus teaching.

 

Our temptation is to fall in line with the rest of the world.

But we are called to be different. Not mainstream.

And that might mean that we sometimes (often?)

have to choose what is not seen

by some as “normal and respectable”.

It means that sometimes we’re seen as trouble-makers.

Satan would love for us to be like the rest of the world.

 

Maybe our biggest Christian success stories are ones where

the “normal people” finally fell out of step with the status quo. 

Where we were seen as a problem for everyone else.

Where “normal people” were called out of our “normal lives”

for the sake of the gospel and the good of the world.

 

In our baptism, God chose us to do his ministry in the world.

We are called to walk with Jesus in our lives.

And sometimes that means making difficult choices.

Our baptismal call is not always easy.

Like Jesus’ road, our road won’t always be smooth and pleasant.

Our trust in the Holy Spirit can take us to the wilderness.

 

But God promises to be out there with us,

and that is the good news we’re asked to believe.