Jesus as the New Adam
Year B: First Sunday of Lent
The forty days of Lent bring into focus a long biblical tradition beginning with the Flood in the Book of Genesis, when rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. We read about Elijah walking forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Mt. Horeb. We read about the forty years that the Israelites wandered through the desert in order to reach the Promised Land. The biblical desert is primarily a place of purification, a place of passage. The biblical desert is not so much a geographical location—a place of sand, stones or sagebrush—as a process of interior purification leading to the complete liberation from the false-self system with its programs for happiness that cannot possibly work.1 —Thomas Keating
The Transfiguration of Jesus is the crown of Epiphany. The miracles, deeds, and conversations Jesus had in the opening chapters of Mark told us a lot about who he is, but it is the Transfiguration which shows us that Jesus was more than just a prophet from God—he was totally united with God, but the story of the Transfiguration shocks the senses of conventional wisdom when Jesus gives his disciples a strange command…
Year B, First Sunday of Lent, February 18th, 2024
First Reading: Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm: Psalm 25:1-9
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel: Mark 1:9-15
Sermon - Jesus as the New Adam
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Mark 1:9–15
After Jesus’s baptism, he was drove into the wilderness by the Spirit. This is the same verb employed by Mark to talk about Jesus casting out demons (e.g. Mark 1:34, 39). One would think that this experience of baptism accompanied by Divine recognition of his mission and identity would propel Jesus into the crowds, healing and preaching, but the wisdom of the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.
Why?
While Matthew and Luke focus on the particulars of Jesus’s temptation so as to enable us to identify with Jesus in his temptation, it seems that Mark has a different agenda.
As the second Adam, Jesus lived among the wild beasts and was tempted by the Devil, but instead of falling to the temptation, the second Adam prevails and angels wait on him instead of keeping him out of paradise. These connections, and more, are brought ought by Reginald Fuller in his book Preaching the Lectionary.
The forty days of Lent remind us of these forty days of temptation. Jesus stepped away from the security and the confidence that his baptism and offered and submitted to another kind of baptism that only the solitude of the wilderness can offer. In the same way, many Christians take this time of the year to step away from some comfort in their life.
Perhaps they adopt a particular diet or fast. Maybe they give up screen time or some other privilege. Regardless of what path they choose, the aim is the same: enter the wilderness with the intention of renewing one’s commitment to Christ.
It could be that this was the wisdom of the Spirit after Jesus’s baptism. Taking on the human condition, to use Thomas Keating’s language in the context of the quote above, Jesus needed to take every precaution to avoid the most fatal sin of all—pride, which is the snare of the Devil.
If you read through Mark, you’ll notice how Jesus retreats into the wilderness anytime he seems to get any sort of popularity. The wilderness provides a place to pray, but it also provides a place to try one’s faith. As the New Adam, Jesus entered this testing ground to redeem it, and he emerged proclaiming, “The kingdom is here! Change your minds and believe the good news!”
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Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.