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| Christ in the Wilderness |
Introduction
Who hasn’t gone on a vacation to an exotic or exciting
location and wanted to stay there for the rest of their lives? Or perhaps
you’ve had a fantastic experience – maybe a social gathering, a spectacular
concert, a most exquisite meal – that you didn’t want to leave? Or maybe it was
a time when you were given an honor of some kind and you felt that you had
significance and made a difference to those around you and the world?
There are moments in our lives that stand out and leave an
impression – moments that remain in our memories, times and places that we
savor and relive, events and actions that might even define who we are.
Last Sunday was Transfiguration Sunday, where we heard about
when God reminded Jesus and the three disciples with him who Jesus was. To help
reinforce the importance of that moment, Moses and Elijah accompanied the
theophany – reminding those present of their founding narrative and their
history as a people, nation, and their belonging to God. It was a high moment,
and for the three disciples, based on their reactions, it must have been the
most amazing moment they had ever experienced. They wanted to remain there, to
continue experiencing that moment, to never leave it.
There are a couple of reasons why we cannot remain in an
elevated state for an extended period. The first is that our brains simply
don’t work that way. Our brains prefer to be in a state where it isn’t
overtaxed by the flooding of neurotransmitters. If we remain in a state of
stimulation, eventually that becomes the new normal, our brains regulate the
production of chemicals, and what was new and exciting turns to feeling normal
and ordinary. We then crave something bigger and more exciting than before. While
you might be able to do this a few times, eventually there is a limit.
A second reason is that much of the people of this world
live most of their lives in mundane normalcy at best. The ability to choose to
go and experience something extraordinary is, in most cases, something afforded
because of leisure time and disposable wealth. For many, it may be a
once-in-a-lifetime event for which they save their entire lives to make that
journey. And there are many others who will never have that opportunity. Plenty
more live in privation and suffering their entire lives.
When Jesus and the three disciples accompanying descend from
the mountain, they are immediately thrust into the difficulties and sufferings
of the human experience. They encounter a father whose son has some sort of
problem that prevents him from speaking and causes him to throw himself into
harmful environments.
As much as the disciples may have wanted to remain apart
from the ordinariness and difficulties of life, Jesus does not share their
desires. His place was with those who were suffering and lead his disciples back
into the places where people were hurting.
Driven to the Wilderness
With that prologue, we return to the gospel text for today.
It begins with Jesus’ baptism and God’s anointing of Jesus and the accompanying
declaration affirming Jesus’ relationship to God and God’s love for Jesus. It
is a kind of mountaintop experience.
But that is immediately (Mark’s word) followed by the very
same Spirit of anointing driving Jesus into the wilderness. Unlike in the
gospel account of John, there is no period of time where Jesus remains in the
mountaintop. Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness and during that time he
is tested and tried. Matthew and Luke’s accounts offer some examples of the
tests that Jesus faced, but Mark’s account is brief.
Where Mark records that Jesus was among the wild animals,
interpreters take a few different positions. A common one is that he faced
natural threats of the wilderness. But an intriguing speculative interpretation
is that he was not threatened by them, but instead that they gave him warmth
and protection, perhaps as an early sign of recreation that he was ushering in.[1]
Another difference between Mark and the accounts of
Matthew/Luke is that in Mark’s account, the plainest interpretation is that the
angels took care of Jesus all during the forty days; while in Matthew/Luke, the
angels appear only after the trials are won.
It is only after Jesus spends time in the wilderness, and facing
trials and tests there, that he re-enters his community to offer good news.
Examples of Wilderness Experiences
Today’s Old Testament reading from Genesis and the New
Testament reading from 1 Peter imply an interpretive connection with the Flood
story. Setting aside some of the problematic questions raised by that story,
the interpretive connection made is to the waters, prefiguring baptism, and God’s
act of salvation through the waters. Although the readings do not note it, the literary
record of the duration of the active flooding was forty days.
Another connection to the Israel story that can be found is
with the forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness. After the
mountaintop experience of Sinai, where God spoke and established God’s
relationship with Israel, Israel spends the next forty years wandering in the
wilderness. Setting aside the reason this happened, the thematic elements of
trials and testing remain. At the end of the forty years Israel enters Canaan,
the promised land where they are finally able to experience good news (although
the reality of what they faced in Canaan could be said to have been quite different).
The forty years might also be interpreted as preparation time needed for the
Israelites to conquer Canaan.
There is a connection, too, with Moses as an individual.
After slaying an Egyptian and getting found out, he fled to Midian where he
spent forty years tending sheep in the wilderness.[2]
At the end of these forty years Moses meets God in a burning bush at a mountain
called Horeb. Horeb and Sinai are understood by scholars to be the same
geographical feature. The forty years in the wilderness is preparation time
before God calls Moses to lead Israel.
Finally, we bring in also Elijah from the mount of
transfiguration and a parallel that can be found in his story. After three
years of drought, Elijah confronts Ahab and the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel.
After a resounding victory and the massacre of the prophets of Baal, Jezebel is
furious and seeks to kill Elijah. Elijah flees to Mt. Horeb (a parallel with
Moses can be found here). He spends forty days there, refreshed by a
supernatural messenger from God during that time. At the end of the forty days
God speaks to Elijah and gives him new instructions and messages to bring to
the people.[3]
Several observations can be made from what has been
described thus far.
·
Forty is part of a literary archetype where the
person or persons involved undergo some kind of ordeal and/or preparation which
is necessary (in the archetype) for the character(s) to make progress in
their journey.
·
The Bible is ambiguous about the source and
cause of trials and suffering. Is suffering punishment? Are trials something
God initiates? Does God simply allow suffering and trials to come upon people? Or
are they just part of life which God neither wills or controls?
·
Much of life is lived away from mountaintop
experiences, in the ordinary, that includes suffering and trials.
Ancient Historical and Literary Contexts
As is often the case, bringing in historical literary and
cultural contexts prove useful in getting better sense of the whys and whats of
these stories.
The first point that is relevant to our discussion is that
ancient people lived in social and political structures very different from
what we know and consider to be the ideal. Those of us here live in a democracy
and we assume a great degree of agency and independence for ourselves. Ancient
people did not live in a democracy, and they did not have much agency over
their lives.[4]
They accepted that someone was over them, directing much of what they were
allowed to do. They could be commanded to do something and they had no choice
but to obey. They believed that gods were all powerful but not necessarily good.
Gods could be capricious. If the gods wanted someone to go through periods of
trials and sufferings, so be it. It was the gods will.[5]
Even when it was accepted that God was loving, it was also fully expected that
part of this “love” included God punishing people and making them suffer for
their disobedience.[6]
Ancient people also believed everything had to have some
kind of intentional cause, and those things that couldn’t be explained, they
believed gods were the cause. Most of us don’t believe that way anymore and
realize that many things simply happen because of randomness that is a part of
our universe and existence.[7]
The stories in our Bible fit with the norms and expectations
of the ancient societies which birthed them. But do they codify universal and
timeless principles? Answers vary and are based on one’s or a group’s view of
God, which frequently come from a reading of scripture. And here it often ends up
as a case of circular reasoning.
In Our Time and Place
What then, might be some ways of interpreting and
understanding these ancient texts in a 21st century context during
the season of Lent?
I believe that the framework of the literary archetype we
encountered today, commonly identified as The Hero’s Journey, is a
useful framework which can be used to explain major life seasons. I don’t
believe that we are required to experience this journey, or that God causes or
brings stages into each person’s life. However, I do think that they are
inevitable consequences of having been born into this universe.
I do believe that what the biblical stories offer us is a
glimpse into how humans, when they are willing, can use difficult times that
inevitably come about as a tool to learn and grow, to become more empathetic and
compassionate, to identify with those who are going through difficulties, and
to discover God’s faithfulness and care especially during those times.
Times of difficulties, trials, and suffering inevitably will
come to us. Our natural inclination might be to try to avoid them or to pretend
they aren’t happening. Or perhaps they go on for a long time and we would
rather give up.
What today’s gospel reading reveals is that the gospel, the
good news, comes from having experienced both the highs and lows of life. The
highs offer a vision of what could be. The lows reveal the depths of the
brokenness of life. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers the way out of the lows
of life into the lifelong journey toward the kingdom of God.
Lent is a reminder that this journey is not a steady rise nor
a journey where troubles cease. But it is a journey with Christ. It is a path
that Christ traveled and through it overcame the ultimate obstacle: death. In
that sense then, it is a path that anyone who wishes to overcome death must
also travel.
The good news of the kingdom is not that joining with Christ
will remove problems from our lives. The good news is that Christ suffered and
joins in our sufferings. The good news is that Christ overcame and so can we.
