The Gospel for today, the first Sunday of Lent in Year B, comes as we might expect from Mark. And again, as we might expect, the account is briefer and less elaborated than the perhaps more familiar accounts of the Temptations that we read in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.
After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’
Mark 1:12-15
In Mark’s account the focus seems to be less on the nature of the temptations and more on the contrast between the time of preparation and the beginning of the preaching of Good News. The fact of that preaching is all the more remarkable for its taking place in the time immediately following the arrest of John the Baptist, which – the readers of the Gospel will know – led to his execution.
Even in the bleakness of that injustice and murder, Jesus preaches Good News.
- What bleakness shadows your life?
- What Good News enlightens it?
- How might you share that Good News with others?
Photograph of the Judaean desert. (c) 2007, Allen Morris.
Living Eucharist 