SERMON FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, FEBRUARY 21, 2021    TEXT: MARK 1:9-15
     If you feel like you just heard this passage from Mark recently, you would be right. Sunday, January 10, we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. The Gospel that day was Mark 1:4-11. Two weeks later, on January 24, we heard Mark 1:14-20, which overlaps with the end of today’s reading and goes beyond it to recount the calling of the first disciples. Why the repetition? What is the point of taking a second look at these stories so soon after their first appearance in the lectionary? It is a matter of perspective, the difference from January to February of moving through the season of Epiphany and now entering the season of Lent.
     Epiphany is about light and enlightenment. These stories reveal who Jesus is. The readings during the weeks after Christmas included the account from the Gospel of John in which Jesus summons the first disciples to follow him. “Come and see,” he says. “Come and see,” they urge one another. 
     That is the watchword of Epiphany. First we encounter the magi at the manger, foreigners who have traveled far to see the child born King of the Jews; then John the Baptist, who upon seeing Jesus exclaims, “Look, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”; next the disciples who leave their nets and their loved ones without a backward glance to follow him. Then in the first healing story from Mark’s Gospel, which we read January 31, even the unclean spirit bears witness to Jesus’ true identity. Before being expelled it cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of Israel” (Mark 1:24). 
     The story of Jesus’ temptation comes between his baptism and the beginning of his public ministry, right in the middle of the Epiphany texts. However, it was omitted from the lectionary then and appears out of chronological order now, as it does every year, on the first Sunday in Lent. Here the issue of perspective becomes clear. The lectionary could present  the temptation story as an Epiphany text, as a story of revelation. Like the account of the baptism, where we hear the voice from heaven proclaiming, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased,” the story of the testing in the wilderness offers a further enlightening disclosure as to Jesus’ character. Epiphany then concludes with the Transfiguration, when the full glory of the Lord is revealed.The season ends as it began with God calling Jesus “my Son, the Beloved,” this time commanding the disciples to “listen to him” (Mark 9:7).
     Remember, six days before the Transfiguration Jesus speaks openly for the first time about the suffering and death he must face. Peter takes offense at this, and Jesus in turn rebukes him. He then teaches his disciples about bearing the cross: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it” ( Mark 8:34-35). If the disciples are to obey God by listening to the Son, then they must take this unsparing challenge to heart. Its darkness is aligned with the radiance of the Transfiguration, just as Lent stands shoulder to shoulder with Epiphany.
     And so we return to the texts we read so recently with our eyes focused on the light of revelation. Now we are asked to look again and discover more — the elements of violence and danger and loneliness already in play as soon as Jesus steps into the public eye. John’s is a baptism of repentance. When Jesus immerses himself in the waters of the Jordan, he takes on the weight of human sin and evil and the desperation that brought people to John to be washed clean. Immediately after his own baptism, the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by Satan for forty days. This is the first confrontation. Throughout his Gospel Mark will refer to Satan’s ongoing battle against the kingdom Jesus proclaims, and Jesus himself will repeatedly attack Satan’s minions, the unclean spirits.
     Jesus returns unvanquished from his wilderness encounter. He goes to Galilee and boldly begins his mission, announcing, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” The time is fulfilled. That means the time is right, here and now, for change to occur, for the old balance to tip and give way to something new. The moment is full of promise and of danger. Forgiveness is welcome, but repentance is arduous. The powers that oppose the Kingdom will not relinquish their hold on us without a bitter fight. Jesus erupts ebulliently onto the scene, but too often he stands alone. The reign of God come near challenges us on every front — family life, community structures, religious beliefs, political allegiances, economic systems, standards of justice — nothing is left untouched. The life-giving change Jesus brings is costly. Mark makes the threat clear. “Now after John was arrested,” he writes, “Jesus came to Galilee.” This does not bode well for the future of either one of them.
     Epiphany cast its light upon Jesus. It reveals him as God’s Beloved, the herald of God’s kingdom breaking into a world longing for healing and yet resistant to it. The time, though fulfilled, is still fraught with peril. Violence, injustice and cruelty push back and too often prevail. Lent reminds us that in Jesus they will meet their match. Amen.