And resisting our temptations
Lent 2B | Mark 8:31-38
I still get chills when I read this passage. Peter, God love him, can’t stand the idea that Jesus is going to die. That the Messiah will lose. And perhaps most insulting of all—that he will be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes! The whole thing doesn’t make sense to him.
So he says what anyone would say. What any one of us would say. Oh, no! We can’t let that happen! By any means necessary. Which seems like the right thing to say, but it clearly isn’t.
And Jesus says “Get behind me, Satan!” Could there be a more stunning rebuke? I don’t think so.
How we wrestle with this moment depends on how much we’ve paid attention to the story so far. And the lectionary set us up perfectly last week.
The Temptation
Remember that last week, Jesus was in the wilderness, tempted by Satan.
And before we go any further, let’s just strip back Dante’s Inferno and centuries of speculation about this dark figure in the story and just go with what we have here in our scripture.
This figure is referred to in the Greek as the Adversary. He is also the Tempter. And his place is to distract us from our heavenly work by tempting people. Perhaps a temptation of Girl Scout cookies during Lent. But only if one’s desire for cookies leads us to steal, berate, and abuse other people!
No, the temptation we’re talking about is the matter of the world—what another gospel sets us up to call the kingdoms of Earth. Or what Hebrew people in the first century would call it: Babylon. The figure of earthly power, oppression: empire, and with it, devotion to militaristic might and stern control over the people.
In short, the temptation the Tempter offers Jesus (and us!) is power. Control. Control over others, our environment, and in the end, God.
This, of course, is not power the Tempter can actually offer. But he can twist and amplify our desire for it and convince us to act upon that desire.
Jesus met the Tempter in the wilderness and overcame it after his baptism. There, he dwelled among the wild beasts as one so untamed and was waited upon by angels, who certainly provided for his daily needs.
And the Tempter returns.
In Peter. Offering him control again. Freedom from death. How? You know how. There are only two ways.
- Abandoning the path by refraining from confronting Babylon where it has taken up residence—in the heart of the Hebrew faith: Jerusalem.
- Or by abandoning the character of the path by raising up an even mightier army so as to destroy Babylon completely.
This temptation to cheat death is not the same as dying your hair or billionaires sleeping in hyperbaric chambers. Though it is quite related.
It is a temptation to abandon the path Jesus is on—to reject the very will of God.
And why? Because Peter is scared or doesn’t get what he’s saying. Or because sometimes the right thing to do isn’t the right thing to do.
But mostly it is just ignorance. Peter doesn’t fully understand. He only gets half of the equation. Much like the demons Jesus silences along the way. Their ignorance toward the whole of the story is itself a kind of dangerous disruption.
Think about sharing headlines on social media when we haven’t read the story—only to find out we missed key details that made the whole thing completely different than we thought. Our ignorance leads to our confusing other people.
This isn’t about Peter, though.
As much as we want to focus on him, it isn’t his story. He is being used. His ignorance is an easy tool to tempt Jesus with a promise of power over death. Of safety.
Jesus is being offered resurrection without death. To live without dying. To have power without suffering. Control over his own destiny.
And Jesus rebukes the Tempter to get behind him. Because he is not focusing on the dream of God, but the desires of Babylon.
And that is not what Jesus came to do.
Jesus is a different Messiah.
In the ongoing story in Mark’s gospel, this all comes at a moment of tension and growing uncertainty. All leading up to this moment: the hinge point: where he will next take Peter, James, and John up the mountain for the Transfiguration and then turn his face to Jerusalem. To the heart of Babylon’s occupation of the people.
Not the historic Babylon, remember—that was nearly six hundred years earlier. The literal occupier is Rome. But to Jesus and the children of God, these are all the same sorts. People of war and occupation. People of the sword and domination.
And Jesus is going straight into the heart of that occupation to call it evil.
And doing so, the tempted will arrest him and hand him over to Rome to be tortured and killed.
Then, on the third day, God will raise him from the dead.
This Passion and Resurrection path isn’t the way of the world. Or at least, how we talk about our world. But if we trust in the reign of Christ, that this is his world, then it surely is the way of the world. Just not the way of empire. Not the way of Rome or of American or British culture.
But it can be.
This is the point of the journey, isn’t it? To walk, not only with God, but with God’s grace to share? To love as we are already loved?
All temptation is about the same thing: power/control.
Resisting it, then, is less about willpower than understanding. For we cannot control our outcomes without succumbing to that same nature. But we can learn why we’re being tricked.
And it is Peter’s ignorance that allows him to be used. Like it is our own ignorance that allows us to be used by Babylon. To be tempted by promises that can’t be fulfilled: permanent security, ever-growing abundance; even the American Dream as something a person can have without serving others.
Following Jesus involves resistance.
Resisting the evil that hides in ignorance. That thrives in our desire for safety. For easy answers. Life without the challenge of faith. Choosing certainty over hope.
So we have to think a little differently. And strive to see, not only what God wants, but what Babylon wants. To see why the path Jesus is walking reflects the character of God. And why empires never can. Especially when they use Jesus as their figurehead.
This makes Lent the perfect time to remember our path. To learn and study and focus on it. So we can remember at the end why we adore change. Why we worship a God of change. A God whose faith in humanity exceeds our fear.
We are a people of resurrection. We must live. And we must die. Because we know there is more than that. Our world is full of resurrection. From the dust and to the dust and from the dust and to the dust…
Keep at it, friends! Keep learning. And sharing. Hoping and loving. It is a beautiful path. And it is ours.
This Way of Love is not a way of glory and domination. It is humble and compassionate. And it is a way of true abundance of grace.