Baptism, Wilderness, and Repentance
Text: Mark 1:9–15
The season of Lent is an opportunity for us to hear and respond to Jesus’ call to repent. Our gospel reading from Mark has three clear parts: Baptism, wilderness, and the proclamation of repentance. Mark takes only seven verses to describe these three significant events, helping us to focus on the movements rather than the specifics of each.
There is one important difference between Jesus and us, though. We aren’t as resilient as he is—he didn’t give in to temptation in the wilderness, but we do. So, the last step is a little different. Rather than the preaching of repentance, we practice it. Baptism, wilderness, and repentance.
Baptism
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Mark 1:9–11
Baptism forms the basis of our life in Christ. Even an adult who is baptised later in life, even if they had a faith before being baptised, begins a new life in Christ by water and the Word at that point.
Jesus was the Son of God even at creation, so it’s not a sudden change of Jesus’ identity, but it is announced to the world at his baptism: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” What makes this announcement so important for us is that we are not born into this world as God’s beloved children. “In sin did my mother conceive me,” the psalmist says (Ps. 51:5). We confessed this morning that “we are born in bondage to sin,” not to Christ.
In our rite of Baptism, which I’ve used twice in the last three weeks, we say that “the word of God teaches that when people are baptised, God our heavenly Father adopts them as his children.” St. Paul speaks about adoption as God’s children in Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians.
It’s hard for most of us to comprehend or even realise that there is a difference before Baptism and after Baptism. Even Jesus, who is already the Son of God, isn’t ready to begin his ministry until he is baptised. We, who are born in sin, are completely changed by this simple little rite. Without being born again by water and the Word, we can’t enter God’s kingdom (Jn. 3:5). It is a critical part of our life in Christ, as it is a critical part of Jesus’ own life.
Now, I’m trying to sell a car at the moment to someone in Victoria. I didn’t realise that to transfer a vehicle’s registration over there, it has to pass a roadworthy test first. Once it gets the tick of approval, all good.
Baptism is often treated like one of these kinds of things. It’s just a formality (and frankly an inconvenient one) that we have to go through to gain approval—whether it’s God’s or someone else’s. This is a massive under-estimation of the power of Baptism. We may not see the Spirit descending like a dove and the heavens being torn open, but that is precisely what happens. In baptism, we are adopted as a child of God and receive the Holy Spirit. And that’s just the beginning.
Wilderness
The gospel of Mark is the shortest gospel account and the most urgent: he uses the word “immediately” is 41 times. Here, he writes that when Jesus is baptised, he is “immediately” driven into the wilderness by the Spirit. The same Spirit that descended on Jesus when God said, “You are my beloved Son,” drives him into a place of suffering, isolation, and temptation. What a loving Father God must be!
Mark doesn’t tell us about the temptations that Satan threw at Jesus like the other gospels do: the stones, the temple, the mountain. Instead, Mark’s focus is on God’s action through this whole process.
Like Jesus, we face all kinds of wilderness even before we’ve dried off. We might not go into a desert and live with wild animals for forty days, but we certainly face different kinds of wilderness throughout our lives.
We are in the wilderness when we are isolated from other people, when we doubt whether we have the stamina to endure, and when we are under pressure.
For example, a middle-aged person might live in a comfortable home with their spouse and three children, a double garage, a pet dog, and a fully-stocked fridge, but their marriage is under strain and they struggle to find joy in their job. It doesn’t look like wilderness, but it is.
An older person might have just retired and enjoys regular caravan trips all around the country, but they struggle to connect with their kids and they’ve just been diagnosed with a serious illness. It doesn’t look like wilderness, but it is.
Many people are facing their own wilderness while appearing completely fine and “together” on the outside. There are three things that God wants us to know when we find ourselves in the wilderness:
God is in control. Time spent in the wilderness is not a sign that God has abandoned you, that God does not love you, or that God is nowhere to be found. This is actually the greatest temptation in any wilderness: to believe God is not around.
God cares for you. God sent angels to care for Jesus in his suffering. I’ve seen situations where someone has been diagnosed with cancer or experienced a miscarriage, and then they have been absolutely amazed to find that so many people they know have gone through the same thing. God knows our needs better than we do.
God is bringing in a new creation. It’s interesting that Jesus wasn’t fighting the wild beasts in the wilderness, but living with them. There will be a time when lambs and wolves will lie together (Is. 11:6). When we experience the wilderness, it feels like that’s all there is and that it will never end. God does not leave us in the wilderness forever—he has a greater future in mind for his children.
In Baptism, we are adopted as God’s children and given the Holy Spirit. We then very quickly face the wilderness of the real world, but we have hope in it.
Repentance
Jesus’ time in the wilderness tested and prepared him for what was going to be a very tough and intense few years of ministry. He didn’t give in to Satan’s temptations and he knew that his Father was with him. We are not so resilient.
When we experience wilderness, we lose hope. We lose faith. We lose God and instead look to our own ability to solve the problem.
There is a reason why Jesus’ first sermon involved the words, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” These are the same words we say during the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The season of Lent gives us forty days to hear and respond to Jesus’ call to repent and believe.
Repentance is far more than just being sorry for our sin. The wilderness makes us realise that we fall short of God’s glory and are in desperate need of his help. The Spirit tests us so that we turn away from our sin and towards God. That’s what it means to repent.
Some of you might not be particularly fond of Lent. It doesn’t feel particularly joyful or hopeful. We all get very serious and sombre. The truth is, in all the seriousness and sombreness, we are actually filled with hope. It’s just a deep and quiet kind of hope.
The Spirit drives us into the wilderness and brings us to repentance not to make us feel bad about ourselves or to punish us, but to drive us back to the God who forgives and restores us. The outcomes he desires for us are forgiveness, life, and salvation—all of which are promised to us in Baptism. And so, we are taken back to the start again.
During these forty days of Lent, may you hear Jesus’ call to repent not as a threat, but with the promise of forgiveness that he will make possible for us on the cross. Amen.
