Our Lenten journey to Jerusalem in the footsteps of the Lord has now begun. Not literally but spiritually. You would have to get into some science fiction time machine and fly back to the dusty highways and byways of Galilee to follow Jesus literally. Thankfully that’s not necessary. Indeed, it would not help us in any way. Rather, for our true good, we need to follow Jesus right here and now, every day in every way. And we get to do that because the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who descended on Jesus in the figure of the dove at his baptism and then drove him into the wilderness to do battle with Satan; the same Spirit who after John was arrested and removed from the scene brought Jesus back from the wilderness into the towns and villages of workaday Galilee, there to proclaim that the time of waiting was over, that God the King was on the march and drawing near to end the usurper’s dominion and set imprisoned people free; the very same Spirit who then prepared people for the coming of the one who is truly God by working in them an about-face in orientation, a change of heart and change of mind, turning away from pathetic resignation and complicity rather now to anticipate, yearn for, even take risks for the coming of the Lord – the very same Spirit calls you here and now by the gospel, enlightens and equips you with divine gifts for following Jesus Christ into the liberation battle for the oppressed and groaning earth.
We should really call him the holying Spirit, the Spirit who holies people -- meaning that he makes them sick of sin and rather yearn for God, righteousness and life; the holying Spirit who makes followers trust in forgiveness by showing the glory of Jesus, the merciful friend of sinners. He is the holying Spirit, because just as he drove – did you notice the strong word? drove!—just as he drove Jesus into the wilderness to battle Satan, he drives you and me too, to battle, through many trials and tribulations at last to arrive in the Father’s waiting arms of mercy. That is what it is to be made holy – to land forever in God’s arms never to be lost again, holy to God, precious to God.
And do you know what? As each follower of Jesus arrives at last forever into the arms of God the Father in the power of that same Spirit, they bring with them the cosmos. For each one of us is a microcosm of the whole cosmos. Joni Mitchell wrote these words, later to be sung by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: “We are stardust. We are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.” This longing for the redemption of the earth, of the very matter which composes you and me, by which each one of us is a representative of the whole creation, a microcosm of the macro cosmos, would be the fulfillment of the covenant God made with Noah, symbolized by the rainbow: When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. So we do not follow Jesus in the power of his Spirit just for me myself alone, but we follow Jesus in the power of the same Spirit as representatives of the entire oppressed creation. We follow on behalf of the inanimate creation and we follow for the sake of unbelieving humanity still lost in darkness under the dominion of the usurpers of the earth.
Therefore, we don’t need a time machine if we have the Holy Spirit at work to make Jesus real to us by making us believers, to make us believers holy by leading into Jesus’ narrow path through the cross to the crown. We should carefully notice the two movements of the Holy Spirit and always bear in mind the sequence in which they happen. For what happens to Jesus at his baptism prefigures what happens also to us. Indeed, in so far as we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized, so to say, into his baptism so all that happened to him now also applies to us. The holying Spirit makes us holy in a two-step operation.
First: And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." See, before Jesus has done anything for God, here at the beginning of his ministry as Jesus is publicly indistinguishable from any of the multitude of penitents surrounding the River Jordan who had heeded John’s the Baptist’ urgent demand that they wash up as a sign of repentance – now the Spirit seizes the initiative, descending on Jesus as the voice of from above, tearing back the heavenly veil, announces love and good pleasure and favor in the this beloved Son. See, the first thing the Spirit does confirm the divine declaration of the favor and good pleasure of the heavenly Father which makes holy. Clearly, this communication of dine good pleasure comes not by virtue of anything Jesus has done, but, of God’s delight laying its precious claim on Jesus. This word of God the Father’s good pleasure is the basis of the public life Jesus now goes on to live as the Christ, the Spirit-anointed Messiah of God, just as it also is for us Christians baptized into him, we little Christs who follow Jesus. God’s favor is not some uncertain goal. God’s favor is the starting point of this new life, and so it remains valid every step along the way which Jesus now proceeds with we disciples in his train.
How important that is for you and me – this absolute priority and all sufficiency of God’s free grace lavished on us in the Holy Spirit pouring into our hearts the love of God! St Paul tells us in Romans 8 that just so we have not received a spirit of timidity to fall back into fear but a spirit of sonship, crying Abba, Father – how could it be otherwise? It is the very same Spirit, the holying Spirit of Jesus sent upon him once and for all at the beginning of his journey to Jerusalem, the same Spirit who makes us holy. If the word, “holy,” makes you nervous with joyless puritanical vibes, see that it means first of all precious, beloved, those in whom the God of grace delights, just because they are recipients of God’s unmerited favor. You are holy because you, no matter what you have been, are loved without measure.
Now, second. Notice then what happens next. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. Those whom God loves discover very quickly that there is an enemy of love whom the earlier I described as the usurper of the earth, this dreadful figure of the Satan. Those whom the holying Spirit makes holy by sheer grace of unmerited favor quickly find out that there is an unholy spirit, a spirit of jealousy, envy, greed, malice which hates all that God loves and works to destroy all that God creates. He is personified in Scripture as the Satan. His name in the Hebrew language means the Adversary, the Prosecutor, who attacks the creation from without in catastrophes of every sort, but attacks God’s people from within by questioning, by testing, by trying. Look, the Spirit does not leave Jesus waiting around for this to happen. Mark says the Spirit drove Jesus into direct and immediate confrontation. Mark does not spell out the temptations which we are familiar with from Matthew and Luke: the thrice repeated satanic test question, “If you are the Son of God…” as Jesus had heard at his baptism. Mark wants us to understand that the entire life of Jesus lived henceforth in grip of the holying Spirit is one long, uninterrupted, immediate confrontation with Satan, indeed, one in which Jesus seems finally to be defeated. Yes, that’s what I said: that’s how it looks in Mark. In the end, alone, betrayed, abandoned, denied, rejected, Satan wins when dying Jesus admits that he has been forsaken by God, that he was wrong and deluded to think himself God’s beloved Son whom his favor rested. Shocking, yes. But so it seems.
Truth be told, however that’s also how our Christian lives as would be followers of Jesus also seem to be under constant attack. What kind of Christian are you! Surely you are dreaming if you think God loves you or cares about you! Let me count your sins and spit them in your face, let me wake you in the night and make you sleepless with your doubts, you fool who dares to think the Holy Spirit has poured God’s love into a heart as foul as yours or there remains. Delight in you? God abandons you. Friends, this is the very voice of Satan who makes us doubt God’s word of grace and favor by accusing us of our sins and rubbing our faces in our unworthiness. And at no point do we feel more the great distance between holy Jesus on whom the holying Spirit came and dwelt and us poor Christians, so weak and wavering in our discipleship.
Yes, there is a difference. There is a reason why Jesus is the author and pioneer of our faith and we are only followers: 1 Peter today tells us that Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous. It only seemed that Satan had triumphed over Jesus when he perished as a sinner in the eyes of all the world, we know, for on the third day God vindicated Jesus’ awesome life act of obedient love for us unworthy; an act of astounding love that was hidden under that shameful death, but this way in order to bring us to God. It was the holying Spirit in fact who led Jesus into this depth of commitment to us and solidarity with us at the cross, the righteous with the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God. Peter goes so far as to tell us that the costly, holy love of Jesus for the unworthy indeed reaches right into the depths of hell, binding up the strong man, robbing Satan of his captives: He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey. Nothing in all creation, not even Satan’s lair, can stop the victorious love of Christ. So Peter likewise tells us that in our baptism into Christ he now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. Jesus is victorious Lord, our saving Lord. So when Satan assails with his doubts and fears and despairs, the Christian rebukes him with one mighty word: your quarrel is not with me but with my saving Lord Jesus Christ, who has won me a poor lost sinner and made me his own. I am worthy and holy because of him. Begone. And I will follow Jesus, bringing my world with me, into the eternal arms of the heavenly Father, no matter what outrages you still perpetrate.
So back to work! For the holying Spirit wants to draw us, beloved by God’s free grace and favor, after Jesus into this world of hurt around us to heal the sick, pardon the guilty, gather the scattered. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.