Lent begins. Our 40 day time of preparation and prayer, penitence and fasting. A time of testing and probing, that leads us, with Jesus, to the cross.
Any student of the Bible quickly learns that 40 is an
important number.
The rains fell in Noah’s day for 40 days and nights (Genesis
7:4)
Israel ate manna and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years
(Exodus 16:35)
Moses was with God on the mountain, 40 days and nights,
without eating bread or water (Exodus 24:18, 34:28)
The spies searched the land of Canaan for 40 days (Numbers
13:25)
40 lashes (stripes) was the maximum whipping penalty
(Deuteronomy 25:3)
God allowed the land to rest for 40 years (Judges 3:11,
5:31, 8:28)
Abdon, a judge in Israel, had 40 sons (Judges 12:14)
Israel did evil; God gave them to an enemy for 40 years
(Judges 13:1)
Eli judged Israel for 40 years (1 Samuel 4:18)
Goliath presented himself to Israel for 40 days (1 Samuel
17:16)
Saul reigned for 40 years (Acts 13:21)
David reigned over Israel for 40 years (2 Samuel 5:4, 1
Kings 2:11)
Solomon reigned the same length as his father, 40 years (1
Kings 11:42)
The holy place of the temple was 40 cubits long (1 Kings
6:17)
Elijah had one meal that gave him strength for 40 days (1
Kings 19:8)
Ezekiel bore the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days
(Ezekiel 4:6)
Joash reigned 40 years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:1)
God gave Ninevah 40 days to repent (Jonah 3:4)
Jesus fasted and was tempted 40 days and nights (Matthew 4:2,
Luke 4:2, Mark 1:13)
Jesus remained on earth 40 days after the resurrection (Acts
1:3)
And this is not even every mention.
40 is a time of testing, a time of proving, a full
generation, a time for something to run its full course. There’s a wholeness to the number. It shows the fulfillment of something,
usually a divine intention.
And so our season of Lent is patterned after this, all of
this, but perhaps most especially Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and temptation.
Mark tells us that after Jesus is baptized the Spirit drives
him, or more literally “casts him out” into the wilderness. It’s a bit of a strange construction. But it reminds us of another Old Testament
story, which we do well to compare to Mark’s temptation account here.
It reminds us of another time, long ago, when another man
was cast out. Adam, and his wife Eve, fresh with the stain of sin, and death,
the fruit of their sin, they are cast out of the Garden of Eden. No longer to
have access to the tree of life, for in his mercy, God didn't want them to eat
of it and live forever in sin. So what seemed like exile, punishment, and
rejection was really also an act of love. God placed an angel with a fiery
sword to block the way back. And now Adam would bring food to the table only
with great trouble. Work had become labor. The ground produces thorns. Life is
tough. And then, death.
The wilderness is the opposite of the garden. In the garden, everything is orderly and
nice, beautiful and safe. The fruit is
already there, pleasing to the eye and good for food. But in the wilderness it’s chaos and
danger. This is what sin has wrought.
This is where we live. The whole world
has become such a wilderness. All of us
in sin are cast out of paradise.
Jesus is the Second Adam. He comes to repair the damage.
Fresh with the baptismal water of his anointing with the Spirit - a baptism not
for his own sins, but which identified him with us sinners.... and fresh with
the declaration of the Father, “This is my Son, whom I love” ringing in his
ears, Jesus is driven out to the wilderness.
His public ministry begins with a fast. 40 days. A time of testing, probing. A time of self-denial. A time of preparation,
and the full measure of it is appointed.
Satan gets a chance to have at him. And Satan fails. We know
from Matthew's Gospel many of those details, the three different temptations.
But Mark doesn't fill us in. It's enough, here, to know that he was tempted.
But unlike the first Adam, Jesus does not fall for it.
One of the interesting details that only Mark mentions is
that in the wilderness, Jesus was with the wild animals.
The first Adam had named the animals. God brought them to
Adam, and whatever he called them, that was their name. But with Adam's fall,
all creation fell, and even the animals now have become wild. Paul says all of
creation groans in expectation, like a woman in labor, waiting for the end, the
renewal of all things. And that renewal happens in Christ. The lion and the
lamb together, the sheep and the wolf, even the little child can safely play by
the adder’s den. This is how Scripture
pictures the renewal of fallen creation in Christ. And so, yes, even the wild animals in the
wilderness, with him in his temptation, seem to bear witness that this Jesus is
about to bring blessing to all creation. The Second Adam, the Son of Man, the
Savior of all. And the angels minister to him.
This stuff matters to you and me, too. We are the children
of Adam. We are the heirs to Adam’s fallen nature, and we live in this fallen
creation. In sin did our mothers conceive us, and we are born in iniquity. Life
for us is a wilderness, filled with thorns and pains and dangerous beasts both
literal and figurative. Satan, too, would tempt us, and rule over us. He’s a
lion looking for someone to devour. And
always hovering over us is the curse of death that Adam's sin and our own sin
have brought.
Every day your Old Adam rebels against God, shakes his fist
in anger at the law, and blames everyone and everything but himself. Every day
the Old Adam seeks to deceive and deny and destroy your very faith. But every
day the same Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness drives you back to the
waters of your baptism, where that Old Adam is drowned and dies. By repentance
and faith. By sorrow for sin and believing in Christ's forgiveness.
Jesus defeats Satan, conquers sin, and destroys death –
beginning in the wilderness, until “it is finished” on the cross. There he is
finally cast off from God, who forsakes him. There your sins are finished, and
Satan's head is crushed. There the Second Adam deals death to death and by a
tree restores us who were defeated at the tree.
In this wilderness temptation, Jesus prepares for all this.
He prays, and he fasts. During the season of Lent, many of us will do the same.
Martin Luther says, “Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward
training.” And it is true. But the best preparation is the inward training of
faith, and that faith in the word of God.
Jesus doesn't just stay off by himself. He comes back and
preaches: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and
believe in the gospel.” Those words are still in effect. They are still
training us for righteousness. They are still convicting us of sin – yes,
repent of your sins, even this day! And they are still calling us to faith – to
believe in his Good News.
What's more, there is no fasting from his table. There's no
reason to refrain from eating and drinking the gifts of his body and blood. But
there is great reason to take and eat, take and drink! Jesus gives you himself
– here – for your forgiveness. To starve to death the Old Adam and feed the New
Adam with his own life. To sustain you for your wilderness wanderings in this
world, until he brings you safe at last to the promised land.
40 days of Lent – they lead us to the cross. Where Jesus
deals with sin, decisively. 40 days of preparation – so prepare. Hear his word.
Receive his gifts. Repent of your sins. Believe his Good News. It is for you.
In Christ, Amen.
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