By Donald M. Tuttle

First Christian Church, Corpus Christi, Texas

WWJD?

Two years ago, it was all the rage. Christian youth everywhere were wearing WWJD T-shirts and bracelets. The letters “WWJD?” were showing up on everything from manufactured book covers to--I hate to say it—graffiti-tagged buildings. While the fad has more or less passed, the letters remain a part of the Christian vocabulary. Many Christians, maybe most of us, know what the letters mean—“What Would Jesus Do?”

That is certainly an important question to ask. Since Jesus is our example or model for life, then asking, “What Would Jesus Do?” in the same situation, in the same moral or political or ethical moment is certainly legitimate.

Yet to ask that question assumes that one already knows “WDJD?” That is, it assumes we can already answer the question, “What Did Jesus Do?” It assumes that we know the marks of his life, the words and actions that gave substance to him, that made him not a model but the model for all humanity. I don’t know that we can make such an assumption.

So during the season of Lent—the Sundays between now and Easter—we are going to explore the question “What Did Jesus Do?” We are going to look at his life and see at least some of the actions that made him who he is. I would hope that we would not only see what he did but why and how he did them.

Today we start with Jesus’ experience in the wilderness. If we were to read the account of Jesus’ temptation in the Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of Luke we’d find it quite detailed, elaborate. In those accounts Satan poses three specific temptations to Jesus.

Ÿ After Jesus had fasted for 40 days, Satan invited him to turn stones into bread. It was not merely the temptation to ease his own hunger. It was a temptation to win the world’s support by feeding it, by buying its devotion with bread.

Ÿ When that didn’t work, Satan invited Jesus to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple and let God save him. It was a temptation to wow the world into adoration.

Ÿ And finally, Satan tempted Jesus to bow down and worship him. In return Satan would coerce the world into obeying our Lord’s will.

But none of that is found in Mark’s Gospel. He sums up the whole experience in less than two-dozen words. “He was in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” In fact, Mark doesn’t even tell us that Jesus resisted the temptations, that he passed the tests. But, of course, he didn’t really need say it. That would be like saying Tiger Woods shoots par or Charlotte Church sings well. Of course, Jesus resisted temptation. That is a given. We wouldn’t be here if he didn’t.

But what is significant in Mark is what allows Jesus to do what he did. What is significant is what gave him the strength to resist them. What is significant is that he was able to pass the test because, one, he knew who he was and, two, because he was not alone.

Notice in our reading that Jesus’ baptism immediately precedes his temptation. Jesus comes from Nazareth and is baptized by John in the river Jordan. And when he comes up out of the water, the Spirit of God falls upon him like a dove, and he hears God say, “You are my Son, the beloved. In you I am well pleased.” He hears an affirmation of his identity. He is reminded that he is not just Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph; Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth; Jesus the soon to be traveling rabbi. God reminds him that he is God’s Son, that he is the power and presence of God in the world. And knowing who he is shapes Jesus’ response to the temptations he soon faces. He will not yield to the tests Satan puts before him because he knows that as God’s Son he is to honor his Father, to do what God called him to do.

And that is not just true of Jesus in the wilderness. Three times in Mark’s gospel the Pharisees, one of the religious parties of that day, come to Jesus to “test” him. “Test” is the same world used of what Satan did in the wilderness. First the Pharisees want a sign. Then they want Jesus to endorse their interpretation of the Law of Moses rather than the intent of God, and finally they want him to choose sides in their conflict with the Romans. And each time Jesus refuses to play along. Whenever he is tempted he remains steadfastly, whole-heartedly committed to honoring God, to doing what God had called him to do.

Because Jesus knew who he was he acted as he did. He remained faithful to the one who had sent him. As the Son, he honored the Father.

But it is also significant that Jesus did not face the temptations alone. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that is not the case. In those Gospels, Jesus goes into the wilderness, fasts for 40 days, then contends with the temptations Satan offers. It is not until the struggle is complete, not until after the victory is won, that, as Matthew puts it, “suddenly angels came and waited on him.”

But Mark is different. Mark suggests that just as the wild beasts—which were symbols of evil—constantly surrounded Jesus in the wilderness, so did God’s messengers, the angels. They were there waiting on Jesus. They were there tending to him. They were there supporting him in the struggle. No, they could not make the decisions for him. They could not keep him from exercising the free will that was his to exercise. But they were there to make sure that he was not alone, that God was with him, even as he was tested and tempted.

By framing the account of Jesus’ temptation with the affirmation of his identity at the beginning and the presence of the angels at the end, Mark suggests that Jesus could do what he did—that is, resist temptation—because he knew who he was and that he was not alone.

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect you may find it hard to identify with Luke and Matthew’s account of the temptation. It is probably hard to imagine being tempted to win people’s devotion with food or leap off the pinnacle of the church carillon or worship Satan as a way of fulfilling your calling as a servant of God. But I bet Mark’s account is closer to home because I suspect you know, figuratively speaking, what it is like to be in the wilderness, surrounded by the wild beasts of evil.

Ÿ Maybe that wilderness has been a hospital room where the wild beasts of disease and death have surrounded you, tempting you to despair in God.

Ÿ Maybe it has been a home where abuse and neglect have closed in around you, tempting you to hate and ponder revenge.

Ÿ Maybe it has been a job where the pressure to succeed have been ever present, tempting you to cut moral corners.

Ÿ Maybe it has been a marriage where loneliness and heartbreak have encircled you, testing your will to be faithful.

Ÿ Maybe it has been a place not outside of you but inside you, a place where sin and failure and fear threaten you each day, tempting you to abandon all hope.

In those places and many like them, temptations abound. Our faith is tested constantly. But Mark’s account of Jesus’ temptation reminds us that we can prevail.

When we confessed our faith in Jesus as Lord, when we submitted to baptism as a sign of dying to our life and rising to his, we became children of God--beloved sons and a beloved daughters. That is who we are. And just as Jesus’ identity as God’s Son strengthened him in the face of temptation, so our identity strengthens us. It reminds us that we have a Father who loves us, one we want more than anything else to honor with our lives.

But we also don’t have to do it alone. No, I am not going to start singing “There Are Angels Among Us.” But what God has provided are others who share our faith, who surround us and support us in the wilderness experiences of life. Our brothers and sisters in Christ are the angels who wait on us, tend to us, care for us in the most trying times of our lives—and in doing so they help us to remain true to God when temptations come.

Time and again God’s people have been able to resist temptation because they remembered who they were and found support in those around them.

Ÿ He has spent more than half of his not yet 40 years behind bars. It had started early with petty thefts, gang activity, drugs. In time he graduated to a host of other crimes, including robbery and assault. Today he is in prison. He will be there tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. In fact, he will be there for years and years to come. But just a couple of years ago, a group of men held a religious retreat inside the prison. And there, in a guarded gymnasium, he heard, for the first time in his life, the truth that God loved him, could forgive him, could give him a new start. And he responded in faith. He claimed that grace for himself. But if he thought prison was a wilderness before, he now knows how barren it can be. The temptations he faces are greater than ever before. But he knows who he is. He knows that he--even he--is a child of God. And with that knowledge, and the support of angel-like Christians from a local church group, he honors God one day at a time.

Ÿ Michael was dying. He knew the end was near. AIDS had ravaged his body, leaving him virtually bed-ridden. Fearing the pain and indignity that was still to come, he, like many who have shared his plight, contemplated suicide. When he told his mother and his pastor what he was thinking, they understood. But both reminded him of his faith--that he was a child of God, the son of a Father who loved him, who would, even in the shadow of the valley of death, be with him. And it was that truth--that confidence in God, that desire to live by faith--and the angelic ministration of church friends and hospice volunteers that kept him from taking his own life. It was what allowed him, only weeks after that conversation, to die peacefully in his own bed, held by the woman who had given him life.

Ÿ When the police officer came to the door, she knew something was terribly wrong. It turned out to be her husband. His car had slid out of control and struck a tree. He was, she was told, killed instantly. She couldn’t understand it. How could God have let this happen? How could God let it happen to her and to her children? Like the friend of Job, she was tempted to curse God, to never believe or pray or worship ever again. But she kept being drawn back to a cross her husband had given her. It was a simple gold cross, but it was more. It was a symbol that God loved the world, loved her husband, loved her, loved her children. It was a reminder that as children of God they would make it--a reminder confirmed by the steady stream of friends who prayed for her, embraced her children, served as angels in her time of loss and in the years to follow.

The wilderness isn’t a place any of us want to be. The temptations we face there are great. But if these men and women can endure, if these people can, like Christ, face their temptations on the strength of God’s grace and the church’s embrace, then so can we. We too can honor God and one day emerge from the wilderness more faithful than ever before. Amen.