When Jesus Woke Up
Sermon by: Rev. Mary Alice Mulligan, PhD
1st Sunday in Lent - Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11
The 6-week season of Lent began last Wednesday with ashes and bread and wine. The ashes reminded us of our mortality and the Communion elements were symbolic food to strengthen us for the journey of Lent. For sure, we can go through Lent completely untouched. We can end up exactly where we started, so we don’t need ashes or bread and wine. But if we want our relationship with God to grow over the season; if we want to end up in a new place, then we need supplies to give us strength for a journey.
We begin our journey by considering Jesus’ journey. When he is baptized by John the Baptizer, the heavens open, the Spirit descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven announces, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Even if no one else heard it, Matthew reports the announcement for us. According to Matthew, it is no secret who Jesus is. Then immediately following his baptism, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for a period of isolation, so he can think, pray, and meditate on what might be next in his journey. We appropriately begin the season of Lent by considering how Jesus awakens to the next part of his life. Stop now and read Matthew 4:1-11.
Sometimes a godly event changes us. We are going along our normal life and some holy moment unfolds around us and we are never the same again. It can be as seemingly simple as the way a friend explains how they understand the Bible when it talks about God’s love for each person. In a flash, we sense a sacred blanket of love surrounding us which we know will always be available to us. No matter what. For other people, a change may come after many years of knowing God’s presence, but perhaps not being sure of where God is calling them until some godly flash.
For as long as she could remember, Hildegard von Bingen had experienced holy visions, but she told almost no one, fearing the rejection, even censure, of the church of the 12th century. She entered the monastic life and was held in high regard. One scholar explained, “Fear held her prisoner for almost forty vision-studded years until she received her prophetic call vision and was awakened to a profound new level of her identity…” (1) A voice from a vision of fiery brilliance told her she needed to write down and share what was being revealed to her. She eventually did write – significant volumes of doctrine and theology, but only when the Pope himself embraced her writing did she feel free to speak and write openly. For years she kept her communication with God secret until a fiery vision woke her from her fear. When a holy moment happens, we change. Sometimes a sacred experience can alter our entire life.
But sometimes it’s evil that wakes us up. Curiously enough, sometimes a confrontation with evil is the event that changes our entire understanding of reality. During the Montgomery bus boycott, Martin Luther King Jr. gave tremendous leadership, daily helping organize, encourage and work. Once the White community realized the boycott was going to continue and that King was leader, the threats began – phone calls at all hours of the day and night, hate mail, death threats, the foulest language. He realized he could be killed easily. Evil was all around him and he was exhausted. Finally, one night he was ready to give up, even though he knew what they were striving for was right. Overwhelmed with fear, he sat with his head in his hands at the kitchen table and prayed aloud, admitting his fear, afraid the people would falter if he faltered. “I am at the end of my powers,” he said. “I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.” Suddenly, he felt the presence of God as never before. He heard an inner voice saying, “Stand up for righteousness,… and God will be at your side forever.” King concluded, “Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.” (2)
When Jesus confronted evil, he didn’t go to his kitchen table. After the amazing experience at his baptism of the heavenly voice labeling him God’s Son, the Beloved, he headed to the wilderness for a time of seclusion and self-reflection. Matthew tells us while there, he faced off with satan. Of course, most of us don’t believe some humanoid personification of evil actually argued with Jesus, but we know temptations don’t have to have a physical antagonist. Our own imagination can raise up all the temptations to evil necessary. Jesus was tempted to use all his godly power to do whatever he wanted. He could drop his flesh and return to full divinity. But instead, the temptations helped Jesus choose to be fully with humanity in the flesh. Facing off with evil woke Jesus. It woke Martin Luther King Jr. Facing evil can wake any of us.
But what does being awake mean? If Jesus woke up, what does that mean? In Florida, we hear often that “woke” is something bad. But Jesus left the wilderness awake, ready to move forward in love, teaching and healing with divine compassion. That doesn’t sound bad to me. That sounds godly.
When Jesus left the wilderness, he gathered a few followers and together they traveled throughout the area talking about how God wants the world to be and healing anyone who was ill. Very soon, Matthew tells us, Jesus sat down on a mountain and preached a lengthy sermon encouraging people to be shaped by God’s compassion so they could spread God’s love all over the place. Instead of using power over people to accomplish whatever he wanted, Jesus taught a loving vulnerability that gives generously, forgives freely, and treats each person as infinitely valuable. Jesus invites his followers to be awake to the love of God which can heal the Earth from violence and divisions and selfishness.
On this last Sunday of African American history month, we might become awake to the racism which still exists all around us. The love of God calls us not only to speak up when we hear some racist slur spoken, although we certainly need to speak up then. But we are called to investigate why White people on average have more wealth to pass on to their children than any other racial group. Why do Black people earn on average less than White people with the same education and job situation? God’s love calls us to be awake to the realities around us and to get to work fixing them.
My guess is many of us have moments we would like to go back to sleep, especially when we see the evil all around us. We wish we could ignore the places where muscular love is needed, but we need to be awake to where the love of Jesus is needed. The first letter of John tells us “Perfect love drives out fear.” (3) When the compassionate love of Jesus is spread among his followers, peace and wholeness thrive. And fear subsides. In fact, to be awake means to be filled with the compassion of God and to be fearless in moving forward. What could be more exciting than that for a Lenten journey?
1 Renate Craine, Hildegard: Prophet of the Cosmic Christ, (Crossroad Publishing, 1997), 25.
2 Martin Luther King Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (HarperCollins, 1958, 1986), 134-135.
3 1 John 4:18.