The
season of Lent is upon us. And the
traditional text that starts this forty day period is that of Jesus in the
Wilderness for forty days. The text in
the Gospel of Mark is very brief and leaves out the three temptations of Jesus
that are included in Matthew and Luke.
Mark summarizes this wilderness experience into three statements: And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the
wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by
Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
This story happens right after Jesus
is baptized by John the Baptist, a story that we examined in early
January. Jesus is baptized, the Holy
Spirit descends upon him as a dove and the same Spirit drives him into the
wilderness. From baptism to wilderness,
what does that mean?
If we take a step back into the
scriptures, the Hebrew people are in oppressed as slaves in Egypt. God liberates them, they cross the Red Sea
and enter into the wilderness for forty years.
Oppression to liberation with water defining the exit from one into the
freedom of the other.
What is the wilderness? Is it a bad place or a good place? When we think of wilderness, we might think
of camping, or going to one of our national parks to hike and enjoy the beauty
of the undeveloped landscape. The
wilderness might be a place where we expect to see wildlife, where we look for
Moose, or bear, or buffalo, or elk. In
our modern world, we have created rather clear definitions of what is our
territory, our towns, our neighborhoods, and what is wilderness and we struggle
a bit when a bear or other wilderness wild life find their way into our
space. Now, I don’t mind the cute little
red fox and we actually think it is rather cool to see the bear, but I draw the
line with the coyote and her pups living under our back porch.
So, Jesus is baptized, and the
Spirit drives him into the wilderness for forty days. Jesus is not in the wilderness as a
punishment, and although he seems to be there alone, he is not there
alone. The Spirit of God is with him
and, in Mark, the angels are there as well.
This is actually a sacred place, a place filled with God’s presence, a
place that seems to be defined differently than the regular life of Jesus, but
not a sinister place. We often define
the wilderness as a place of suffering, but this is not the case. Yes, Jesus faces temptations, but let’s again
go back to Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. They too face great temptations. They are full of fear of the unknown and wish
feel it would be better to be slaves in Egypt than to die in the
wilderness. They are hungry and cry out
to Moses and complain against him. They
worship the golden calves. And yet, God
is with them. God journeys with them. Yes, their complaints and lack of faith and
trust in God seem to make God rather upset, but God does not desert them, God
remembers that there is a purpose for these people and God continues to mold
them into the people God is calling them to be.
Sometimes, when I am on a retreat,
we are asked to go and spend time by ourselves, to take time to think about
what might be holding us back, or what might be weighing us down. Retreats are spiritual times, they are geared
to feel connected to the Holy, and I have never thought of a retreat as being
in the wilderness. But, it is. When we attend a retreat, or when we really
spend time examining our inner most being, when we decide to name our own
temptations or own moments of weakness, and are willing to take the next step
in moving forward, of seeking ways to let go of a bad habit or to stop a
certain behavior or move into emotional or spiritual healing, we have faced
what the scriptures call Satan and are strengthened by God’s love within
us.
Is Jesus having a spiritual battle
in the wilderness? I think he is
participating in his true humanity. In
order for him to move forward into the ministry that God has called him into,
he has to prepare himself for complete obedience. He has to truly understand his call, he has
to let go of his own agenda and ideas of what he might be able to
accomplish. When I entered ministry, I
went full force towards youth ministry.
That was it. I knew my calling
and didn’t even consider anything else.
So, when I entered into a very hard time, a time that I called my
wilderness, I had to do some serious soul searching. What was God calling me towards? What was my purpose within the body of
Christ?
We can feel that way. We can come to church, we can worship, we can
serve on a committee, and we can still feel unfulfilled, we can still wonder if
we are truly using our gifts to the purpose that God is calling us. Lent can be that season of the church year
where we dig a bit deeper into our own soul, our own spiritual selves and
listen deeply to the Holy Spirit.
Instead of season of fasting or a season that is often connected to the
temptations of Jesus, we can enter this season as a spiritual spring a time of
renewal of our own inner being a time of asking what do I have to change in
order to move in the direction that God is desiring me to move into?
Who knows what Jesus might have had
to let go of, we hear in the other gospels that there is the temptation of
food, the temptation of power, the temptation of testing God. Maybe, just maybe, these are three things
that Jesus has to release from his own inner being to move fully into the
ministry that God calls him into.
If only we could call the whole
world into the wilderness, into the season of Lent, into a deep soul searching
of what we, as a human race need to let go of in order to live fully into God’s
calling. If only, if only we could let
go of greed, of abundant waste, of corruption, of bullying, of discrimination,
of harassment, of over development, if only.
If only we can find a way to be in the wilderness of God and not the
wilderness of brokenness. Forty days,
Forty years, the number forty calls us into change, it calls us to listen and
respond to God. Let this be a season of
our own spiritual spring. Amen.
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