March 1, 2020
Scripture Reading: Matthew 4:1-11
If I say the word wilderness, what comes to mind for you? Take a moment – notice your thoughts. When I mentioned to my wife, Nora, that this week’s scripture was about Jesus in the wilderness her immediate reaction was that wilderness was a place of renewal. A place to reconnect with God. I realized that some of us do have that experience of wilderness – a place where we sometimes choose to go away to reconnect and refresh. This was not the kind of wilderness I think about when I think of this story of Jesus – and yet, maybe Nora is on to something.
This morning’s story occurs right after Jesus is baptized by John. The verses right before this say, “And a voice from Heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” And then, immediately, Jesus is led by the spirit into the wilderness where Satan tempts him. Note the temptations come at the end of the story – after Jesus has been in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, at which point he seems weak and therefore more vulnerable to temptation than ever before. The number 40 in the Bible represents a long time. It can be thought of as separating distinct epoch’s in history. So Jesus, willingly goes out into the wilderness where he fasts for a really long time (which could be by choice, but could it also be because there is just nothing out there for him to eat) and then manages to stay true to God when he is most vulnerable.
My first thought about this story is – this is not the 21st century wilderness that most of us think of. When I think of willingly going into the wilderness – I can do so, because I know I have some control over that wilderness. I can select the parts I want to experience. It’s unlikely that I’m going to starve or be lost forever. I know precisely how long I plan to be in the wilderness and what will and won’t be available to me. And while there is certainly wilderness where cell phones don’t work – rarely is that where I spend a prolonged period of time. In fact, most of the places where I dwell in the wilderness now have public Wi-Fi coverage. My experience of physical wilderness is curated by my own desires.
I’ve got my Cliff Bars, my wi-fi, my phone…..
I don’t get the feeling that this is the wilderness experience Jesus is having. The Spirit leads him to spend a long time cut off from people and to go without food. And it seems like there is intentionality to what Jesus is doing but the intentionality does not require catering to Jesus comfort – he clearly seems to suffer in the wilderness.
And when Satan shows up, Jesus doesn’t just say, “I’m out. Time to return to regular life.” Jesus chooses to endure the temptations that Satan sets before him. And then once he has endured, angels show up to minister to him. His choice to stay the course and have faith results in him experiencing the powerful presence of God through the ministry of angels.
This story made me consider – what are the temptations we are faced with today? Where are we giving in to something that separates us from God because choosing otherwise feels overwhelming? How is our attention being diverted such that we stop seeing God’s angels among us and receiving their strength?
In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer comments on the state of our lives in modern western society. He reminds readers that as technology began to make its mark on society – it was predicted that we would work less and have more leisure time. As you know – that is not what has happened. Instead we work more, and we worship speed. We are sure that getting it done faster, is better. How can I be more efficient…….or spread myself thinner? So I can quickly check off many things at once on my “tech savvy” to do list?
Comer says this,…an overbusy, hurried life of speed is the new normal in the Western world, and it’s toxic. Psychologists tell us anxiety is often the canary in the coal mine, our souls’ way of telling us something is deeply wrong, and we need to fix it, fast. In one recent study 39 percent of Americans reported being more anxious that they were a year ago. That’s not something to keep your eye on; it’s an emotional epidemic. …hurry is a threat not only to our emotional health but to our spiritual lives as well. Thomas Merton once called, “the rush and pressure of modern life” a “pervasive form of contemporary violence.” …Hurry kills relationships. Love takes time; hurry doesn’t have it. It kills joy, gratitude, appreciations; people in a rush don’t have time to enter the goodness of the moment. It kills wisdom; wisdom is born in the quiet, the slow. Wisdom has its own pace. It makes you wait for it – wait for the inner voice to come to the surface of your tempestuous mind, but not until waters of thought settle and calm. Hurry kills all that we hold dear: spirituality, health, marriage, family, thoughtful work, creativity, generosity…name your value. Hurry is a sociopathic predator loose in our society.
So, here’s the thing about Jesus time in the wilderness – it did not involve hurry. Remember it was 40 days and 40 nights – Bible speak for an awfully long time. And even when Jesus was given choices that could expediently dispense of his suffering, he refused them. He stayed the course and the result was a connection to the divine.
Our theme for this season of Lent is looking for love. I am going to warn you right now – looking for love takes time. We must slow down and notice things. We must linger and not be rushed. We may even have to be uncomfortably inefficient and unprogrammed to be “successful”.
The season of Lent is an invitation for us to focus on our spiritual lives. How do we relate to God? How do we relate to the world? What drives us? What feeds us? What might we be missing? What are we avoiding? And ultimately – how do we live love?
May God guide us on this journey and may we have the courage to stay the course even when it feels easier to find another way. Amen.