There are still a few people in Pike County who have never journeyed out of the county, some who have never been to the big city of Chillicothe, or to the even bigger metropolis of Columbus. Those numbers are decreasing rapidly, because of the ubiquitous automobile, and the places people have to go to get health and social services. With the advances of the internet, a person could leave the county a lot less, but that would be a whole different generation.
We travel. Just over fifty years ago I traveled thirty miles to attend a boarding school. It was an hour’s drive, but it was a lifetime away from all that I had ever known. And I know that I am largely who I am because I said yes to making that journey.
I remember my first airplane flight. It was from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Denver, Colorado. I know that we had to change planes somewhere, but I don’t remember where. One year later I was flying from Cleveland to New York JFK on to Edinburgh, Scotland, to begin my seminary education.
Many of us have made similar journeys for social, educational, or career reasons. For some, it was because Uncle Sam pointed his finger at you and you didn’t have a choice. For others, it was all choice – I want to do this and go there. Some of us have sailed the seven seas, plied the European rails, trekked up mountains. I have a friend through the Presbytery who is on a three month journey which includes South Seas islands, the coast of Chile, and Antarctica.
The journeys of life change us. The destination is less significant than the actual journey.
The Book of Deuteronomy comes across as Moses’ memoir of the forty-year journey he took as God’s appointed leader of the Israelite people. We know that Moses lost his cool on several occasions. The incessant cries of the Israelites, “Are we there yet?” would have been enough to wear down the most seasoned tour guide. But this wasn’t a busload of weary travelers, it was thousands upon thousands according to the records. Think of the million-person march on Washington DC without the assistance of law enforcement personnel.
The journey from slavery in Egypt to nationhood in Canaan was a journey through a sci-fi time warp. It took all of the forty years to begin to shake the traditions and “we used to”s out of the people, and then as the biblical record after Deuteronomy reports, the attitude adjustment and reprogramming for a new life hadn’t completely taken, even after a whole generation died on the journey and a new generation was born.
The premise of the promised land was that it flowed with milk and honey, that is, everything would be all right if the people would buckle down and follow the commandments and keep the Lord God first and foremost in their thinking. For that honor and privilege God expected gratitude, first-fruits, early harvest thanksgiving.
Was that too much to ask? Apparently so. As the later history depicted it, people were busy counting seeds, lest they give God too much and not keep enough for themselves. All that manna – just enough for both those who collected a lot and for those who couldn’t collect much – hadn’t made an impression on them. Even in the midst of plenty the Israelites were in a wilderness of disobedience, greed, disbelief. Their journey was not over. Not for a long time.
Jesus was a traveler. In utero he traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. As an infant he traveled from Bethlehem to Egypt. As a child he traveled from Egypt to Nazareth. As a 12-year old he traveled to Jerusalem for Passover, possibly after his bar mitzvah, and stayed behind, learning from and questioning the teachers of the law. Then about age thirty, he joined the caravans of people who were traveling to the place in the Jordan River where his cousin John was baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins. The Spirit descended and announced him “Beloved.” The water’s edge wasn’t the end of his journey, it was the embarkation point.
Jesus entered the wilderness for forty days. He gave up more than chocolate or the internet or red meat. In a sense, he gave up his soul. That is, he didn’t protect it. He didn’t shield it from whatever he would encounter. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He had questions. He wondered what the time in front of him was going to hold for him. Stripped of every defense, every comfort, every connection with those who would have tried to dissuade him and pull him back from the brink of the ministry to which he had been called, Jesus could experience every temptation in its full intensity. This was tightrope walking without a safety net.
Our Lenten Calendar asks “What does it mean to “fast”? Fasting is more than food. Fasting is not only giving up something. To remove something from our lives creates a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. Vacuums fill up quickly and easily. The vacuum created by fasting needs to be intentionally filled by giving something more of ourselves as an expression of faithfulness. By giving up things that fill our lives for ourselves, we release time and energy to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with our God, to use the words of the prophet Micah (6:8).
Jesus’ wilderness experience sounds alien to us. We find it difficult to understand this story because we think of Jesus being perfect and sinless. But when we think that we forget that he was fully human as well as fully divine. We wonder how temptation was a question for him? Especially since we are tempted by so many ordinary and unnecessary things. He had nothing and no one to hide behind. But he also had no distractions.
The temptation in the wilderness was not an easy forty days for our Lord. Jesus doesn’t need to be standing in a bakery to be tempted by bread. He is able to turn stones to bread, but it was important for Jesus to journey in the wilderness so that his focus would be where it had to be: on God and God’s word. The devil forced Jesus to confront more than flesh, power and faith; Jesus had to think about the ministry he was about to begin. Jesus faced human and divine temptations.
Jesus did not prove himself to be the Son of God by turning stones into bread or by testing God’s faithfulness with foolish actions like jumping off the roof of the Temple. Jesus proved he was the Son of God by dwelling in the presence of God and relying on God’s faithfulness. Jesus did not come to feed the hungry, to rule over the nations or to be a famous preacher. Jesus proved himself to be the Son of God because he turned to God’s Word and God’s promises as the foundation for everything the did. He came to die, to bring forgiveness and healing to a world that was sick and dying from sin. The journey through the wilderness led to a cross, to an empty tomb, and to eternal life for all who believe, who call on Jesus’ name.
That’s the message that Paul sent the believers in Rome:
[I]f you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and in your heart you have faith that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Trusting with the heart leads to righteousness, and confessing with the mouth leads to salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)Whatever we choose to do as we go on this Lenten journey, let’s remember that we aren’t trying to prove ourselves. Lent teaches us how to abide in God as we face the difficulties and temptations of this world. The end of our Lenten journey is not pleasant. We have to face the cross with Jesus, deal with his death and the end of our assumptions about what He really came to do. He didn’t come to feed us, to be our king, or be a adoration generating spectacle. As Jesus hangs on the cross our wilderness shock is that this is not how it is meant to be. Our troubles are far more complex, our pain far deeper than we can imagine. Our sin is beyond our ability to overcome. There was no easy way to fix what was wrong with the world. We have to face that reality on Good Friday when even Jesus cried out to God in his suffering and pain.
During this Lenten season, as we stand with Mary and so many others at the cross, let us remember that we do not choose to go into this wilderness. We are led there by the Holy Spirit. Though it is a place of temptation, we do not need to fear, for we, like Jesus filled with the Spirit, are not alone.
Let us approach this time with God’s Word in our mouth and in our heart so that we can overcome all the temptations that assail us. We have nothing to fear, for God has already heard our cry and saved us. We live in the Most High’s shelter, we camp in the Almighty’s shade. We have the words to remember our past as we thank God for the present and move into the future, so that God’s story will be written on our hearts and in our minds forever. We have the words by which we have life and by which we live: “All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved.”
That is our Lenten journey.
Thanks be to God.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment