I started a thread late last night,
asking my Facebook Friends and my Twitter followers to share their experiences
of “wilderness.” What I had expected was
confirmed – we all know that place, that feeling, that wondering if we will
ever stop simply wandering through life. When are the times, where are the places, that
you have experienced the wilderness? Are
you there, now? Or have you had a pretty
good run lately and find yourself far removed from any sense of being in a
wilderness?
I apologize to those who, like me,
occasionally strap on a backpack and try to find a slice of wilderness. My greatest disappointment during the last
extended hike I did was there was never a time when I couldn’t get a cell phone
signal. In those instances, we go in
search of wilderness – wilderness as a place.
Certainly Jesus goes to a place, for
these forty days, but the experience is where the deepest, darkness sense of
wilderness occur.
How odd it is, given our desire to avoid
wilderness that this is the very place to which Jesus would go immediately
after he is baptized. He doesn’t just go
there; he is “led” there. In one version
we are even told that he was “driven” there.
Perhaps the lesson to be learned here is
that the wilderness is not as devoid of God’s presence as we might think. If God’s Spirit “leads” Jesus there, he had
to have known the way. He must have been
there before; maybe many times. And the
Spirit understands that if Jesus is ever going to understand then he must go
there, too. And not on some quick novelty
tour. He needs some intense time there.
Matthew writes: “Then Jesus was lead
up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Jesus is lead by the Spirit, into the wilderness
in order to be tempted. What is
about to happen to him is not the result of God's absence; it is the direct
result of God's presence.
I mentioned on Wednesday that Lent is
the perfect time to consider the differences between the Jesus we would prefer
and the Jesus that we get. One of the
places where that begins is in realizing that while the Jesus we prefer saves
us from trails and temptations, the Jesus we get starts out by being lead into
the wilderness where temptations and trials abound.
The temptation begins, "If you
are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Scripture tells us that Jesus was a person
of compassion. He heals the sick and
binds up the broken. How much of their
suffering was the direct result of their need?
Had the basic necessities of life been available to them, many if not
most of their illnesses would have been avoided. "Command these stones to become
loaves of bread," is more than a temptation for Jesus to satisfy his
own hunger. It sets before him the
opportunity to eliminate human suffering.
Some of those who call out the name of
Christ would have us believe that Jesus did change the stones into bread. They are the ones who claim that as a result
of their faith they have never experienced want or need. They are the ones who tell us that if we give
our life to Christ all we could ever want will come our way. They are the ones whose stories flood the
covers of religious tabloids.
The Gospel writer calls a halt to such
blindness and ignorance. Jesus doesn't
do it. He refuses to change the stones
into bread; he refuses to eliminate our suffering and need.
I don't really know why he doesn't. I have never heard an answer which really
satisfies me. But I do know that Jesus
understood his mission to be something different. His intention was not merely eliminate our
need or want.
Maybe the Tempter hoped to play upon
Jesus' strength of conviction, for the next temptation comes almost as a
dare. "Since you are so high and
mighty," the Accuser seems to say, "throw yourself down from
the pinnacle of the temple. Prove that
you are the one sent by God, the one whose Word reveals the way to
salvation." Of all the
temptations set before Jesus, this is the one that would have done the most to
make our job easier. Jesus is being
offered the chance to prove that he is the Son of God.
Think how wonderful it would be, to have
an eye witness account of Jesus being miraculously saved by a band of guardian
angels. Jesus performs so many other
miracles, why won't he do the one that would prove he is whom we believe him to
be? Doing this would surely have been
easier than some of the miracles he does perform. This could not have been as difficult as the
calming of the storm, or the raising of Lazarus from the dead, or the giving
sight to the man born blind. In one
simple miracle Jesus could remove all doubt and in its place give us certainty
as to his identity. But again Jesus
says, "No!" He doesn't do
it. And we who call upon his name are forever
left with the impossible job of explaining why we believe in something that
lacks empirical proof.
The next stop on the Tempter's tour is a
vantage point from which one sees all the kingdoms of the world. Forget for a moment the question of ownership,
whether these are indeed in the possession of Tempter of if this is a hollow
claim. The temptation which is set
before Jesus is to establish a new world order; to eliminate corrupt
governments, to make the kingdom of God synonymous with the kingdoms of this
world.
There are expressions of the faith which
still see this as their goal. They live
out their lives in obedience to the false notion that Jesus accepted this
temptation and that we are to work to bring it to completion.
These believers act in such a way as to
suggest that Jesus was mistaken when he turned down the offer to be the ruler
over all peoples. They want the mission
of the church to be defined as the process of making everybody comply with the commands
of God. You see this mind set at work
each time someone juxtaposes the Word of God with some piece of
legislation. It comes into play whenever
someone tries to reduce Jesus' conversation about the kingdom of God into a
political agenda or endorsement for some charismatic leader.
It might be a wonderful world if
everyone did obey God and saw themselves as citizens of God's kingdom. But the gospel writer reminds us that Jesus
said "No!" He did not
agree. As a result we will never live in
God's kingdom on earth. The kingdoms which
we survey are imperfect and they will continue to be. We serve God and God alone.
After he has finished his tempting, the
devil leaves Jesus and the angels come and wait on him. Matthew’s use of the word “suddenly” could be
read to suggest that they were there all along.
As Christ endures his temptation, he is not in some god-forsaken place,
living far from the presence of God.
God, and God’s Holy Angels, are with him.
In our wilderness, God is with us
too. In our hour of need, Christ is
present. Sometimes the greatest
temptations come, not when we are hiding in the shadows of seedy living, but
when we are at the pinnacle of our existence.
Sometimes the greatest temptation is to do what we think would eliminate
suffering rather that heeding God’s word to be present and be patient. Sometimes the greatest temptation is to
attempt to demonstrate that God is on our side rather than accepting the humble
role of servant. Sometimes the greatest
temptation is to re-create the world in the image we have rather than the image
which reflects God.
I have been (I continue to be) in a bit
of a wilderness these days. My sister’s
death has been tough; in many ways tougher than the death of my parents. This is a wilderness I did not anticipate
entering, at least not this soon. And, I
am not out of it yet. You can probably
tell that by my rambling sermons and my inability to follow up on even the
simplest of tasks. It is a wilderness.
But I also want to share this: as I pass
through this wilderness I am constantly and continually being reminded that I
am not alone. I may feel as if the walls
and the worlds are crashing in upon me – but I know I am not alone. The comments and hugs, the cards and messages
– they all confirm that while this may be a place where happiness is impossible
to find, it is not God-forsaken. God’s
presence has been even more real.
Other than an occasional hiking trip –
we all want to stay away from the wilderness.
It is not the place we would seek or prefer. But sometimes it is the place that we
get. How assuring it is to be reminded
that this is place where God chose to send Jesus. He and the holy angels are already there.
Amen.
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