While Mathew and Luke give us a much fuller account of Jesus’ temptation, with the details of three temptations Satan made, the way Mark briefly covers it places it in context with Jesus’ baptism and his ministry in a way that enables us to step back and connect it to our own struggles, to the realities of life we encounter. Mark quickly frames it between his baptism and ministry.

Note how Peter ties the story of Noah to baptism. The flood covered the earth as God’s means of washing away sin, starting over with the righteous Noah and his family. Those waters bring us back to the waters of chaos at creation, so the idea would be that what we really need when everything has gone wrong is to wipe away the errors of the past and start over. That will fix it, right?

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Years ago we were returning home from a vacation in the mountains and I decided to surprise Meg and the kids by taking them to a Braves game at Turner Field. One of the cool things about Turner Field was that they had preserved the spot from the old Fulton County Stadium where Henry Aaron’s 715th home run had cleared the outfield fence. That home run broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing record. They left the fence there, noted the spot where Tom House, a relief pitcher for the Braves, caught the ball in the bullpen. It was out in the parking lot.

That had been a big, big deal for me. I was 12 when it happened. I’ve seen the footage so many times that I cannot recall whether or not I saw it live, but they were broadcasting every Braves game at the time so I think so. It was a big deal.

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