Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
There is a wonderful children's picture book by Maurice Sendak called, "Where The Wild Things Are". It tells the story of a little boy named Max who, one evening, "dresses up in his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another". His mother calls him "WILD THING" and Max says "I'LL EAT YOU UP", so he is sent to bed without any supper. In his bedroom that night Max travels to a forest beside the ocean where a boat takes him to an island "where the wild things are". The wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws; but Max learns to make them still and control them so they make him their king and he leads them in a wild rumpus. But Max grows lonely among the wild things and wants to go back to where someone loves him best of all. Suddenly he smells something good to eat so clambers into his boat travels back, away from the wild things, to his room where he finds his supper waiting for him.
It is a story that can be read at many levels. On the surface, of course, it is a story of adventure and imagination. Go a bit deeper and it's a story of a child learning to cope with emotions of anger and frustration. Go deeper still and it's a story of everyman learning to accept and control, and indeed value, the wild things that are inside each one of us. The bits of ourselves we carefully hide away from others and often try to hide away from ourselves.
In our Gospel reading today Mark tells us, that after Jesus was baptised "the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him." If we read the gospels of Matthew and Luke we are given detailed accounts of the temptations which confront Jesus: to turn stones to bread to feed his hunger; to cast himself down from the temple as a miraculous sign to the people; to worship Satan so that the kingdoms of the earth will be given him. Temptations to put his own needs and bodily appetites first; to seek to rule through fame and celebrity; or to impose his will by raw power. In Mark's gospel these temptations are not described in detail; and I for one am glad of that. Mark's brief account - just one sentence long - is, for me, just as valuable as Luke's or Matthew's longer versions.
What is happening here? Jesus has just been baptised and at the moment of Baptism is affirmed by a voice from heaven which says, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.' Fully aware of who he is Jesus will set out on a path of proclaiming the Kingdom rule of God; a path which will lead him to the cross. Fully God, he enters upon this path in full awareness of where it will take him. Fully human, he enters upon this path with all the hopes and fears that you or I would have, and indeed with greater hopes and fears than you or I.
So he goes out into the desert, compelled to do so by the Holy Spirit of God. It is an interesting fact that Monotheism - the belief in one God - always arises in the desert. As one Jewish comedian put it - "in the desert we were so poor we could only afford one God." In the Bible the desert is the place where one goes to encounter God. Moses meets God in a burning bush, out in the desert. The Israelites pass through that same desert and encounter God and receive his law and his covenant. Elijah, despairing and despondent, goes out into the desert and finds his faith renewed. Latter prophets follow, so does John the Baptist and so does Jesus. In the letter to the Galatians we read that Paul the Apostle went out into the desert after his conversion to spend time with God. In the years after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman state the life of the Christian Church in the cities became comfortable and compromised and a new movement began, lead by St. Antony. Young men and women abandoned the cities to live alone and in communities out in the desert. Thus the monastic movement began. A movement which continues to this day. It's a little known fact that amongst Christian Copts of Egypt today there is a vast revival of faith and a huge renewal of the desert life. Christian monks from Egypt brought their way of life to this land an had a huge influence on the Celtic Saints like Columba, Ninian, Chad, Cedd, Aidan, Hilda and Cuthbert. The sought the out desert places on remote islands because they wanted to encounter God; and they did, and renewed by that encounter they carried the Good News of Jesus across Europe. The desert is the place of encounter with God and a springboard for ministry to the world.
But the desert is also a place of battle. Saint Anthony in his writings describes the battles he has with demons which seek to drag him away from the encounter with God. The Temptation of Saint Anthony has been the subject of astonishing art from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dali. Bizarre and grotesque demons are shown tearing at the Saint while he is at prayer. I believe that we are to understand this psychologically. These demons are the "Wild things" that seek to consume us, to drag us down, to make us less than we can be.
Which of course brings us back to Max in his room, and to our own struggle. We can and we should seek out the desert. Perhaps literally - a few years ago I spent two weeks in the Sinai desert and is was a very special experience for me. Perhaps in the more comfortable deserts of places we can go to be alone and meet God face-to-face. For me Holy Island is such a place. Perhaps in just a few minuets of 'desert time' grabbed from a busy day in order to be alone and open to God.
But we can also find ourselves driven out into the desert, the desert of bereavement, or sickness, or unemployment, disappointment or failure. Deserts we would not choose to occupy. Places of conflict and battle where "the wild things" tear at us and demons tempt us. The astonishing thing is that this desert too can be the place where God is encountered. That this desert too can be a springboard for ministry. And that the place "Where The Wild Things Are" can also be the place where angels minister to us.
