I was taking some photos yesterday and talking with a son, who asked my what most of my compatriots wanted in life. I replied with a cliche — a bach (holiday home), a boat, and a BMW. We also thought most people wanted to be loved, so we added a blonde (or brunette). But we then thought how possessions can own you. These are the temptations that are mundane, common: to use older theology lust, greed, avarice. Perhaps we should have added a BBQ (which is a grill to Americans) to the list, but we live in a land of plenty where clean water and nutritious food is assumed.
One of the experiences that I have all too frequently is that if I do something good or great, temptation trebles. If I bear witness to Christ, I find opposition. This links to the passage, for there are two very difficult questions in it.
The first is why did Jesus need to be baptized in the first place. John the Baptizer said, when he saw his cousin, that he needed to be Baptized by Jesus, not the other way round — and he was correct. For Baptism was a sign of repentance and a renewal of the covenant that Israel had with the Almighty on a personal level. Christ nothing to repent of had.
The second is why did the spirit drive him into the desert, to temptation. When I read this passage this morning my first thought was that “God is taking some pretty big risks here” For Christ would be tempted on the areas of religious weakness — not the mundane temptations that most of us have.
1The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'” 4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
12And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now the first answer is given by Christ elsewhere. His baptism was not for himself, but for others. As Calvin points out, in the questions that John asked he acknowledges that Christ is the one who will come: but he does not understand that this is the first part of Christ identifying with us, and becoming a person who will bear our sacrifice.
It is also a severing of some relationships, a move from working — probably to support his mother and his brothers and sisters — to preaching, to a public ministry. For a baptism means a death to self, and living instead for Christ.
When we baptize our children we are saying to God that we are placing their salvation in his hands, and that these children, who we love, are not our own, We trust God to bring them to a saving faith, and we promise to be faithfully obey Christ during the season of our life in which we are raising them[1].
The second one is again, around the need of identification. It relates to Christ being born in a poor part of Palestine, to a working couple, being a refugee, living in a nation run by a client who was more interested in remaining an imperial client than his people. He has been tempted in all things, including the temptations to power. The temptation to be self-righteous, a prig. And the temptation to be spectacular, to seek power.
All those things that make people want to read fiction about the supernatural, to imagine that they are a hero, a demigod, or some kind of vampire –those who believe in nothing, as Lewis pointed out, start believing in every superstition, every beastie and legend.
As if we need to have more than man to cause evil. [Yes, I believe in the Devil, and I know he usually presents as someone who is reasonable and sensible] We do enough of that alone.
Christ chose to identify with bums like us. For that we should give him glory.
_____________
1. This came to me late: when my children were born we were fellowshipping outside the reformed faith in a place that practiced believer’s baptism. I need to pray that my sons will take this step.
2. During this season I am using ecclesiastical photos taken on a conference trip in 2009, using a point and shoot camera. In Florence. The quality is not as good as modern phones…
