Jesus, the Perfect Sacrifice

Sermon, Mark 1.9-13 The Reverend Scott Homer
In the name of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A group of us had lunch together on Friday. And yes, I did eat fish. I don’t have to but I choose to…but that is another sermon. And it reminds me of an old Irish joke that goes like this: John a protestant asked Mary, a good catholic girl, to marry him. But before she would agree she insisted that John become a catholic…and so he did. But one day John went to Fr. O’Brien and he said, “Father, I know I’m a catholic now but I keep having protestant thoughts. What can I do about it? And Fr O’Brien, being a wise priest, said, “Here’s what you do. Every time you have a protestant thought, keep repeating, “I’m a catholic I’m not a protestant. I’m a catholic I’m not a protestant. I’m a catholic I’m not a protestant. And before you know it those protestant thoughts will disappear. Well, one Friday evening during Lent, the good father went to visit the newlyweds and Mary answered the door, and she said, “Father, it’s wonderful to see you, please come in.” but when Fr O”Brien came in he smelled a smell coming from the kitchen. It was a smell you shouldn’t smell in a good catholic house on Friday night. So, he went and opened the kitchen door, and there was John standing at the stove frying a big old steak. And John was repeating over and over again, “You’re a fish you’re not a steak. You’re a fish you’re not a steak. You’re a fish you’re not a steak.”

Anyway, at lunch Friday, I was sitting with a group of pretty devoted Christians. These are not backsliders, reprobates and scoundrels. These are people who are trying hard and doing good. And the question that arose and occupied most of our mealtime conversation was, “Why is it so hard? Why is it so hard to live a godly life and to give ourselves unselfishly to the mission of God and the needs of others?” (I swear I didn’t start it. It wasn’t my fault.) These people are really trying hard to do the right thing and they often feel as though they are taking one step forward and two steps back. They are frustrated by the fact that they often succumb to the temptations that present themselves all too often. Why is the Christian life such a struggle? Is there any hope? Can we be victorious?

Our Gospel story this morning is about Baptism and temptation. Mark with his characteristic economy of words, uses four verses to tell us about Jesus’ first public appearance and that he goes and does spiritual battle with Satan for forty days in the wilderness. The story takes place at the Jordan River and in the Judean desert but our story really begins way back, at the foundations of human life. We could look at Noah and the Flood story. We could draw our parallels between the water of the flood and the waters of baptism but to get to the root of the problem we need to go back farther. Our story really begins in the Garden of Eden, the garden God created and then gave to Adam and Eve. Our Gospel needs to be understood in relation to Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden. It is a theme that has fascinated artists for a thousand years. My favorite rendering of the scene is an etching by Gustave Dore. He captures the grave pain in this most tragic event in the history of the world. A young, handsome couple, cast out of the King’s courts. They possessed everything. They leave with nothing. They have known all the riches the world had to offer. They have been the masters of all of creation. They have enjoyed the good life and they have been free to do whatever they pleased, everything but one thing. And now they stumble down a rocky slope being cast headlong into a frightening and dark wilderness. Barely out of the gates of paradise, their feet are already bruised by the rocks and pierced by the thorns. They have looks of anguish and dismay on their faces. Their future is clouded. The woods are full of wild beasts. They move from a world where all was cared for and all was provided, into a world where their survival will depend upon their hard labor and their wise decisions. And just ahead of them slithers the snake—just barely preceding them into their new home.

In that hostile world into which they now step, the couple will grow old…if they are fortunate…and the couple “will surely die”…just as they had been warned. And their children, and their children’s children, and all the generations after them will endure the same fate. Being born into a hostile world they will, if they are fortunate, grow old and die. There is no hope of everlasting life because in the background of the print, standing behind the young couple at the gates to Eden, stands a superhuman obstacle—the terrible warrior angel of God wielding a terrible sword of fire, poised to destroy anyone and everyone who would attempt to re-enter Eden. No child of Adam may return to the garden, no child of Adam can know eternal life until the wrong has been made right. A child of man must be born without sin, as Adam was. It must be a child who can do what Adam was unable to do, to live without yielding to the power of temptation, to live a lifetime devoted to God.

All this tragedy, all this heartbreak because of a simple temptation. God’s will had been the most natural thing in all the world until a terrible, tragic option was placed before Adam and Eve by the serpent. There had only been God’s will but in an instant there were viable options. How could there possibly be an alternative to doing God’s will, and yet there it was, an alternative, “You will not surely die,” the serpent had said. And they listened to him. “You will become like gods,” he had promised. And they were delighted with the prospect. “You can eat what you want, despite what God says.” Their delight with the idea drew them to consent to the lie and they took and they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their eyes were opened forever. The couple who had never seen anything but good now saw evil too and a whole world of alternatives to God’s good and perfect will opened up before their eyes. These new possibilities continued to delight them and they knew that they would consent to them too, ignoring God again….and again…and again. At one time they had known innocence but they would never again be able to look only on the good or do only the good.

I want to draw your attention to what the Bible says at this tragic moment because it is an important bridge to our Gospel reading today. The words are recorded in Genesis, chapter 3, verse 24. The Bible says, “So [God] drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3.24) “So God drove the man out…” into the wilderness, into the world of choices where he and his children would be presented with alternatives to God’s good and perfect will. Being presented with those alternatives is what we call temptation and the temptation is always to do the wrong thing and to make a bad choice. And as the children of Adam we continue to be confronted with temptations, to be delighted by the things they seem to be offering us and we sometimes still consent by making the choice contrary to God’s will. We are children of Adam and Eve conceived in sin and born predisposed to rebelling against God. That’s called original sin and it is a fact that makes living the Christian life very, very difficult. In fact it makes the Christian walk impossible—or it would be impossible except for one very great thing.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. St. Peter tells us, “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” Righteous means “without sin.” Unrighteous means “with sin.” Jesus lived without sin. He was not conceived like other people. Jesus was born of the Mary and made man. So he was conceived in innocence, in a different way but with the same effect as Adam had been. At his Baptism God tells us that Jesus is God’s exact image—just as Adam had been. But Adam had been tested. He had faced temptation and he had failed. And now Jesus must be tempted. Jesus must be put to the test and so God must drive Jesus into the wilderness. I usually like the NIV but the NIV translation says “the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness” and that is a very weak translation of the verb. The verb ekballo means to caste away, to throw out, or to force to go. For example, when Jesus is teaching he tells people, "If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out [or rip it out].” This is the same verb, ekballo. When Jesus tells the parable of the talents and the master says, “Caste the useless slave into the outer darkness…” It is the same verb, ekballo. The RSV gets it right. The RSV says, “The Spirit immediately drove [Jesus] out into the wilderness.” It is the same thing that God did to Adam when he “drove him into the wilderness” and Adam went on sinning. Adam and the children of Adam fell over and over. They listened to Satan. They were delighted by the prospect of an alternative to God’s word and they consented to breaking God’s commandments. But this time it is different. Jesus does not listen to Satan. He is not influenced by Satan’s lies. He does not delight in the alternative path being offered to him. The other gospel writers tell us that Jesus rebukes Satan and Jesus goes about doing what God has commanded him to do. Jesus is victorious where all the rest of humanity has failed.

There is an answer to Satan’s lies. There is victory over sin and death and victory is found in Jesus Christ and him alone. Jesus is able to be the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world because Jesus has lived as the perfect man. Jesus is the Image of God—God’s only begotten Son—but also the fulfillment of God’s intentions for all of humanity. And only the One who has lived a perfect life can die for the imperfections of others. Jesus is able to volunteer his life’s blood to God as the perfect sacrifice for the our sins and he does—once for all—for all the sins of our past—for all the sins of our present—for all the sins of our future—for our sins, for our family’s sins, for our friends sins and our enemies sins, for the sins of the whole world…Jesus is the perfect sacrifice and through him we know victory. It is victory over death and it is not ours. It is Jesus’ but we enjoy the fruits of his labor and his sacrifice when we call on him as our Lord and Savior. It is victory over the evil one but it is not our victory. It belongs to Jesus but we are able to experience powerful healing and transformed lives when we surrender to Him. We don’t know perfection. We are still sons and daughters of Adam and we are still susceptible to the serpent’s lies but we know that there is a new man who has conquered the old life and with him we can walk a new path that leads us back home towards God’s garden. We are no longer being thrown out of God’s presence. We are being drawn back into his loving arms…through Jesus and through his victory.

Following God has always been tough. Adam and Eve were unable to follow in one simple matter. In Noah’s day the people were so evil and corrupt that God decided to start over and he sent a flood. The patriarch’s failed to follow God’s commands. Moses and God’s people were thrown into their own wilderness for forty years because of their disobedience. The nation Israel was thrown into exile for their disobedience. All throughout history God’s people have been disobeying God and have found themselves in a jackpot—thrown into the wilderness. If we look honestly at our lives we will find our own examples. The Christian walk is hard and we fail regularly…but our hope is not found in our own righteousness. We will fail but our Lord will not. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
Fight the good fight. Stand firm in your faith. Do not let the evil one persuade you. Never forget, Jesus loves you and has provided the way forward for you. He has redeemed your life from the grave. You have been forgiven your sins. You no longer live as an enemy of God. Trust in God. Trust in Him even when his way seems impossible and you will discover that God is able to carry you through the most difficult problems and will assist you in resisting any temptation. Amen.