Into the wilderness

About three years ago two of my sons and I went for an overnight camp in the Sypsy wilderness. We walked about ten miles, I think, and set up camp at the end of the day. The next day we walked another ten miles back to the car. We were truly in the wilderness for there were no amenities of any kind. Everything we needed we carried on our backs. At night it was cold and very dark, and we could hear animals all around. Though it was good to be with my sons on that adventure it was also a challenge. I was glad it lasted only two days and one night.

So I can’t imagine how it must have been for Jesus, forced into the wilderness, to be tested by Satan, for forty days. We don’t know what Jesus carried with him, but we know he had traveled from Galilee to the Judean wilderness to catch up with John the baptizer, and he probably had his travel gear with him. He may have begun his journey back to Galilee through the wilderness along the river.

I am intrigued by the word forced. Mark says the Spirit forced him into the wilderness. The Greek word is the same used to describe casting out demons and it means to drive out or expel. The related Hebrew word also means to drive out and it is used to describe Adam and Eve being evicted from the garden of Eden, and the banishment of Cain to wander the countryside as a homeless man. It also describes divorce.

One minute God says Jesus is the son God “dearly loves” and in whom he finds happiness. The next he drives Jesus away, banished, evicted, and relegated to the wilderness away from people and civilization. There he will be “tempted by Satan” and exposed to danger from wild animals.

Why exactly did God do this? Why would Jesus have to go to the wilderness after such an affirmation of approval? My guess is that Jesus had to go to the wilderness to discover exactly who he was and what he was called to do. He was lured from the carpenter shop to walk the 70-mile journey to find John, and then driven into the wilderness after submitting to John’s baptism.

Mark mentions angels caring for Jesus. Did Jesus even realize they were there? I have my doubts. He exposed himself to what seemed to him to be great discomfort and huge risks, even though angels were with him the entire time. They took care of him.

So it is, I believe, with us. When we answer God’s call we don’t know all the details. We move a step at a time, first leaving the familiar and comfortable, finding affirmation along the way, and then being ejected into a wilderness of sorts we didn’t bargain for. Our meager resources give out, and we are left to depend on God alone for protection and provision. Angels attend, but we often can’t realize it through the ordeal.

All the while the adversary is causing us to second guess everything with unrelenting arguments and accusations. He will point to our temporary as proof we missed God, that we have sinned, and that we are done for. Or he will tell us God does not care, he does not answer prayer, and that we have wasted our time. All the while we are not aware of the angels around caring for us as needed.

It is times like this we work through the temptations, motives, and desires. We question, repent, and resolve. We decide we will follow no matter what. We must come to the place, like Job, where we can say, “He will slay me; I’m without hope; I will surely trust him.”

Have you ever felt God forced you into something risky and unwanted? Did you ponder the purpose? Maybe God was preparing you to follow him no matter what.

We have begun a forty-day experience the early church called Lent. It is given to us as a gift and tool, to enable us to walk through a wilderness by setting aside certain things that distract so that we can find God on the back side of the wilderness. We can sort through what is important and what is not. And we can gather the strength to withstand trials, temptations, and accusations leveled at us. We can decide to follow Jesus no matter what.

Jesus’ ordeal in the wilderness brings to mind the forty days and nights Moses went to the wilderness to meet God and receive the law. It also calls to mind the forty-day journey Elijah took after he humiliated the prophets of Baal. Israel went to their land of promise through a forty-year wilderness journey.

Mark tells us that when Jesus’ time in the wilderness was over he went back to Galilee to begin his ministry. “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!” Luke adds that he did so in the power of the Spirit. The same Spirit that drove him away to begin with.

The wilderness is the preparation staging area for the great work of the kingdom. Embrace the wilderness, and learn what you can from it. Then go forth in the power of the Spirit.

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

Mark 1:9-15 (1 Lent B)