This morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 1:12–15:
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Scheduling note: Jazz is on vacation this week, so I pushed this to the first article of the day.
What does it mean to be “fulfilled”?
Today’s brief Gospel reading has a literal meaning to it, of course. The Israelites had yearned for centuries for a Messiah, the Anointed of the Lord that would lead them into a new and permanent Davidic kingdom. All of the prophets had at least alluded to it; Isaiah had explicitly prophesied it, at length and in detail. John the Baptist had prepared the Judeans for an immanent arrival of the Messiah and the fulfillment of all scriptures that promised the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus began His mission in the wake of John the Baptist’s arrest, He clearly intended this literal meaning. Jesus is the Word of God, the eternal King, who will become its greatest servant in sacrificing His life for the eternal salvation of all. The Kingdom of God is literally at hand, for those who repent and believe in the Gospel.
There are other ways to read this proclamation, though, that have more to do with our orientation toward the Lord on an ongoing basis. What does “fulfillment” mean to us in that sense? This season of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday four days ago, calls us to consider that in stark terms.
Do we choose to find fulfillment in the worldly sense, or do we put that aside and seek the fulfillment of eternal joy?
Although our Gospel reading today does not include the details of Jesus’ temptations in the desert, those demonstrate this very point. Matthew describes in his fourth chapter the three ways in which Satan attempts to corrupt Jesus by appealing to a sense of worldly fulfillment rather than trusting in the will of God. Satan tempts Jesus by comfort (turning stones into bread while fasting), status (by “proving” His authority by casting Himself from the top of the temple), and finally worldly power, authority, and global domination.
Jesus resists all three temptations during His 40-day fast in the desert. As I wrote several years ago, Jesus does this to redeem mankind’s three great rejections of the Lord and to sanctify us with His atonement:
This brings us to our Gospel reading today, where Satan offers three temptations to Christ in the desert. At each turn, Jesus redeems the great failures of mankind. He first refuses to sell His birthright for food, answering both Esau and the Israelites’ rebellion that prompted the Lord to provide manna in the desert. Jesus then rejects Satan’s taunting demand for a test of His identity, answering the Israelites’ faithless idolatry of the Golden Calf as a way [to reject] Moses and the Lord.
Finally, and most importantly, Jesus rejects the temptation that felled Adam and Eve — the promise of power that rightly belongs to the Lord. Jesus, sent to save mankind as the Word made incarnate, understands His place as the servant of the Father’s will. Rather than get caught up in His own desires and arrogance, Jesus accepts the will of the Father and refuses to bend to sin as the one true man, the redeemed Adam. He remains obedient, rather than usurp the Lord’s role.
These are the failings of sin that remain with us to this day, collectively and individually. We desire material wealth, power, and status — and are willing to sell our birthright as children of God to get them.
But what happens when we do? Does that become a “time of fulfillment” for us, or does it become an empty and meaningless point in time? The answer to that can be found in two other questions: Does the acquisition of these satisfy us so that we no longer desire any more? Or do we feel as though we have only a taste, and all it does is reveal more hunger for the material good and power we assumed would fulfill us?
These desires trap us in sin and separate us from the Lord. Lent provides a season of sacrifice so that we can escape the trap and reconnect to Jesus and accept His authority and His salvation as our true fulfillment. It allows us to see past the temptations of the devil, the same temptations that Jesus repudiated during His own 40-day sojourn in the wilderness.
And it allows us to see more clearly that these temptations are all false. Worldly power exists, but it’s transitory even under the best of circumstances, and it does nothing if it doesn’t serve the Lord. The desire to grasp it is the same desire that drove Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which is a desire to usurp the Lord and order Creation according to our own appetites. Jesus understood that Satan did nothing more than show mirages in the desert and promise what the devil had no power to deliver.
His fulfillment is in the Lord.
Is ours?
Previous reflections on these readings:
The front-page image is “Christ Tempted by the Devil” by John Ritto Penniman, 1818. On display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Via Wikimedia Commons.
“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.