It’s A Good Thing Jesus Went Into the Wilderness First
“It’s a Good Thing Jesus Went There First”
A Sermon for Pleasant Street Church
February 21, 2010 (First Sunday of Lent)
Rev. Reebee Girash
Texts: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11; Matthew 4:1-11
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. 9 What gain have the workers from their toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Matthew 4:1-11
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Prayer
Are you ready to travel?
If the Spirit came and led you into the wilderness, would you sneak off back home? Would you say, on the road over to the Middlesex Fells, listen, I’ve got to turn back, my compass and my cell phone and my safety blanket and my safety whistle and my water proof matches and my water bottle and my beef jerky are all at home, I can’t possibly wander into the wilderness without them? (Or, from our move this weekend: Uh oh, I can’t find my toothbrush. Or the cat.)
It must be no end of scary to be led into the wilderness and dropped off alone without a guide or resources.
For those of us who have not earned our Boy Scout orienteering merit badge (which by the way was once called the Pathfinding badge) the wilderness may be a scary place filled with unknown dangers.
It’s a good thing that we are not the first to be led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
It’s a good thing Jesus went there first. He is our guide in the wilderness.
For Jesus it was probably a good thing that Abraham and Sarah went there first. That Moses and the Israelites went there first. That Ruth and Naomi went there first. That Elijah went there first. They went out into the wilderness and God showed them a path, sometimes even parted a sea, and said in every case, on the other side of this wilderness there is a new home or a new hope, waiting for you.
I would imagine that when he saw the Spirit standing there, on the edge of the Jordan river, while Jesus was still wet from his baptism, when he heard the Spirit say, now it is your turn in the wilderness, he first thought this: No way, not yet, I’m just getting comfortable here, come on now, that wilderness business is tough! Don’t you realize there’s no food out there?
But then, Jesus, in all his human-but-yet-divine wisdom, remembered what wilderness really meant in his faith tradition.
It’s the place where there’s nothing and no one to take care of you, except God.
It’s the place where you don’t choose to go – you get led into – but you also get led back out, strengthened.
The wilderness is one of the “thin places” (as the Irish would say) “in which one encounters a transcendent reality” (Edward Sellner, http://www.thinplaces.net/clonmacnoise-sellner.htm)
The wilderness is where you clear away everything that isn’t important.
The wilderness is where you focus on God, and God’s path for you.
The wilderness is where you meet God, for a while.
~~
Like I said, it’s a good thing Jesus went there first. And it’s a good thing he had trailblazers, too.
Abraham and Sarah – we’ll hear their wilderness tale next week, along with one from our own congregation’s past.
Moses and the Israelites – they went from the frying pan into the fire, as they say. God saved them from the Pharoah, but to get to the Promised Land, they spent 40 years walking through the wilderness. (I’ll just point out: after three days of carrying all of my possessions around, I can tell you, the Israelites were sore.) Also, bone tired. And hungry. They were tempted. They built idols. They complained about the food. And yet, somehow, they made it to the promised land.
Ruth and Naomi, widowed and starving, set out through the wilderness to return to Judah. Widowed and starving and at least Naomi was sure that God had turned against her, and they couldn’t tell what would happen next… the temptation was to give up. But they didn’t. And on the other side of the wilderness, God provided a home.
Elijah spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness, with no food, and then landed in a cave. There was fire, there was wind, there was an earthquake. And then, there was God’s still small voice.
It’s a good thing Jesus knew, others had gone into the wilderness before him.
Because to everything there is a season, and for everyone, there is a time when we are drawn out into the wilderness. Willing or not, ready or not. A moment when we have to trust God to guide us.
The hardest thing about Jesus’ wilderness tale, I think, is the testing at the end. He was at his lowest. His hungriest. His most tired. His most lonely. And someone came and said, I will restore everything to normal, even better than normal. Food, wealth, rest! Don’t you want that?
But that someone wasn’t God.
~~
I have to tell you, we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about the wilderness this Lenten Season. It’s always a good theme for Lent, but this year, even better than usual.
Although I can’t figure out, in my move-addled state, whether we are getting ready for a wilderness journey, or if we’re in the middle of it right now.
On the one hand, we are looking forward to a merger. Working toward it. Starting to mentally pack our bags for a journey, either spiritual or physical or both, that joins us with another congregation. Not sure of what that wilderness holds.
On the other hand, it feels like were on day 37 of our 40 in the wilderness. We’ve thinned down some. We’re working hard to get through the wilderness. We’re tired. We’d really like to find a comfy highway rest stop right about now.
I can say this. I know what the temptation is. What the temptation in this congregation has been for a bunch of years now. The temptation is to follow the most comfortable path. The path with the least amount of change. If we do this, maybe everything will go back to feeling the way it did….in 2004. In 1997. In 1989. In 1969. In 1846.
But the Bible’s wilderness tales all have some common points. Nobody ever comes out of the wilderness unchanged. The wilderness, as much as it is a thin place of theophany, is also a place of transformation.
And so, if the temptation is the familiar and comfortable, I say, the better path is transformation and change. I’d say that the familiar, the way we’ve been doing things, has simply stopped working. Its time has past. The time for transformation has come. If we do it right, the congregation we’re part of won’t feel like this one anymore. That will be hard, but it will be good, too – if as part of a merged church, we are more focused on mission, more capable of serving God in the world, more able to nurture one another and our children, and most of all, more focused on God.
~~
Jesus chose transformation. He transcended all the temptations that an ordinary mortal would have given into. He relied on God, he trusted God, and he chose God’s path.
And it was hard. There is no doubt he anguished. Following the Spirit into the wilderness, he probably looked back over his shoulders and said, I really wanted to stay at my baptism party a little while longer. When his head was cradled only by a rock, he probably missed home. And when the tempter offered his starving body food, he probably thought, no one but God would care. But God’s opinion was enough.
The good news, though…the good news Jesus carried with him into the wilderness, the only luggage he packed, was the knowledge that people had gone there before him, and God had gone beside them, and saved them. Jesus knew, God was right there with him.
And that’s the lesson for us, too. John Stendahl puts it this way. “The desert is not God-forsaken nor does it belong to the devil. It is God’s home. The Holy Spirit is there, within us and beside us. And if we cannot feel that spirit inside of us or at our side, perhaps we can at least imagine Jesus there, not too far away, with enough in him to sustain us, enough to make us brave” (New Proclamation 2001).
~~
The sweet epilogue, that only Luke bothers to tell us? The reason I chose this version of the tale for today?
Having made it through the wilderness, through the 40 days, through all the temptations…
Suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Now, I think we’re ready for the hard work. Ready for the wilderness. But I hope we’re also on the look out for angels, and for sweet surprises along the way.
Amen.