Saturday, week one: Jesus’ repentance and formation (Devotions for Lent from the Gospel of Mark)

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. He would have walked 8 ½ hours, from inland city to lakeshore to river inlet, covering the terrain across which word of John’s powerful presence had spread.

Apparently Jesus thinks that he, too, needs the word from the wild, that reordering of mind and soul that sets the creation in right relationship with the Creator. But something surprising happens as Jesus emerges from the waters of the Jordan. He sees the heavens ripped apart, a schism opening between the divine and the earthly, never to be mended. Across the divide, the Spirit like a dove, the smallest of creatures used for sacrifice in God’s holy Temple, wafts downward upon him. And from heaven a voice only he can hear blesses him, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” It’s unclear that anyone else witnesses what he does.

Then, the same Spirit that descended like a dove drives him immediately into the wild places John knows so well. This Spirit has both gentleness and power. From city, to lakeside, to river, to wilderness, Jesus now knows what John knows. Wild places are not necessarily kind. Mark does not tell us exactly what Jesus encounters in the wild, only that it is satanic and dangerous; wild and yet still infused with divinity. Mark does, however, tell us how long he is there, forty days. Forty days calls to mind other 40s from sacred story:

40 days and nights the earth flooded while Noah found safety in the ark

40 days Joseph spent embalming his father Jacob’s body

40 years the wandering Israelites ate manna in the wilderness

40 days and nights Moses spent atop Mount Horeb with God

40 days the Israelite spies scoped out the promised land

40 years the Israelites spent captive to the Philistines

40 days Goliath takes his stand and issues his challenge to the Israelite army

40 years of David, Solomon, and Joash’s kingly reigns

40 days and nights Elijah fled from Jezebel’s wrath

40 days God grants Ninevah to repent

In sacred story, forty is significant. In every case, it represents a time of spiritual cleansing, a really long time of contemplation and re-ordering.

Text for the day:

Mark 1:9-13

Things to think about:

What could it mean that a schism opened between heaven and earth?

What significance can forty days of Lent hold for you?

Things to do:

Hold these forty days as a time of spiritual cleansing for you, your communities, and world. During these days, look for modern sacred story.

God, re-order things according to your will.