Lent is our journey of 40 days (Kuwaresma) toward Easter. The first Lenten Sunday starts us off with the bone-bare narration about Jesus’ sojourn in the desert and his inaugural victory over Satan and the gist of his good news to the people that it is time already for the reign of God (Mark 1:12-15).
The return of the spirit
The end-time has begun; the Spirit of God has returned in and through Jesus Christ, the Spirit that the old people of God in their infidelity have quenched. John the Baptizer had announced that the one mightier than he who comes after him would be the one to baptize the people with the Spirit and so create a new people in the new life of union with God (Mark 1:7-8). The Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan and so anointed him for his messianic mission of salvation (Mark 1:10-11). Immediately thereafter the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert for 40 days to recapitulate and rewrite the story of God’s people who for 40 years in the desert showed themselves so unfaithful.
Spirit-filled and Spirit-driven, Jesus was a necessary target for Satan, just as for the same reason Jesus must take on the enemy. The confrontation in the wilderness was just the launch of the permanent enmity between Jesus and the devil that in the rest of the gospel would be waged relentlessly. In the wilderness of Sinai, the Israelites with Moses underwent trials and temptations in the process of being molded somehow into God’s chosen people; now the new Israel in Jesus Christ would come out of the desert in defining triumph. So, for 40 days and however long it takes to cross over to the “promised land”, Jesus the new Moses stood up to, and is facing down, the enemy.
Fulfillment in metanoia
The reign of God is already at hand in Jesus and through Jesus; his subsequent words and deeds reveal that God’s power is truly already in the midst of the world. In exorcisms, healings, authoritative teaching, and later on the cross, Jesus would emerge victorious over Satan. This fundamental conflict with evil is stressed with the noted presence of wild animals, housing demons (Psalm 22:13-22; Isaiah 13:21-22), with Jesus out in the wilderness. But a note of anticipated victory is introduced by the apparent quiet of the subdued wild beasts in Jesus’ company; the era of primeval peace has dawned and paradise is for practical purposes regained and restored (Isaiah 11:6-9). The other detail given by the evangelist during this initial confrontation with Satan refers to the angels ministering to Jesus, the man of God under divine protection (Psalm 91:11-13), recalling how God was feeding Moses and the Israelites in the Sinai desert (Psalm 78:24-25) and the angels sustaining Elijah during his journey to the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:5-8).
In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus in the wilderness successfully takes on Satan and the forces of evil and death, and inaugurates the reign of God in the world. But what Jesus has accomplished for us requires from us our active participation. If God’s reign is already at hand and the fulfillment of divine promises is now, we are correspondingly summoned to a faith that acts, as Jesus proclaims the good news of our salvation. Conversion and transformation (metanoia) rooted in faith, the renewal of our lives as believers, demands decision and commitment.
Alálaong bagá, we have to take off the old fallen man in us, in order to put on the new man risen in Jesus Christ – not only every season of Lent but also every day. We need to turn away from our old way of giving supremacy to selfish interests in dishonesty and injustice, so as to be able to measure up to the gospel values of truth and charity, service to others and obedience to God. Lent summons us to face down the forces of evil in ourselves and in the world, and live in harmony with all even the untamed, and open ourselves to the experience of divine mercy and holiness even in the wilderness of our society.
Join me in meditating on the Word of God every Sunday, from 5 to 6 a.m. on DWIZ 882, or by audio streaming on www.dwiz882.com.