The following is an excerpt from last Sunday's Sermon. The Text was Matthew 4:1-11

Why did the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted? Could he not have been tempted at home, or in the local synagogue, or sitting in a little café in Jerusalem, drinking a macchiato with is mates? What is it about the Wilderness that is so significant in the Judeo-Christian [the history of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament] tradition? What can we learn, and how does a wilderness experience continue to form us?

When reflecting on the notion of Wilderness, the first thought that developed was the great reverberating narrative of the Hebrew bible – The Exodus - the great escape from Egypt which culminated in a 40 year sojourn in the wilderness. Those of you who are familiar with the story, know that it took all of about 5 minutes for the people to start thinking that perhaps they were better off with the Egyptians than they were in the wilderness. There they lacked security, they lacked comfort, they lacked food, and they lacked identity. They were not longer sure about who they were, or what they were on about. Deuteronomy 8:2 tells us the reason God send the nation into the wilderness situation, it reads: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.” And we know from reading the story that the Israelites failed to keep all of God’s commandments in their wilderness experience, whilst Jesus kept them all. I remember reading or hearing once that “It only took 4 weeks to get the Israelites out of Egypt, but it took God 40 years to get Egypt out of the Israelites.”

In the Book of the Prophet Hosea, we read again about the Wilderness. In Chapter 2, we read an inditement against the nation Israel from the Lord, via the Prophet. Here the nation is likened to an unfaithful wife, who the Lord needs to woo back to the relationship, back to the covenant that had commenced their relationship. In verse 14 we read:

¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.
¹⁵ “Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

²³ “I will sow her for Myself in the land.
I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion,
And I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”

The people had become full of themselves – they had let ego rule the day – considering what is best for me, not what is best for the community. They had ignored the fine details of the covenant; sure they worshipped God in the temple on the Sabbath – but where was the compassion and the mercy shown towards their neighbour, the widow, the refugee? God sought to take them back to the wilderness – to reconnect with them, to remind them of who they were without all the distractions. In the same way that God took the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness to get the Egyptian influence out of them, God continues to desire that his people retreat to the wilderness to remember.

In the wilderness you go without. You do not take everything and the kitchen sink when you go camping - when you retreat to the wilderness you leave things behind. You travel light. You strip yourselves of the things that distract you, and have held you back.

Sometimes in our lives, we go through a period where it seems like we have lost all that we held dear. Whether it be a person who has died, or a job that was lost, or a long held belief – we can enter a time where it seems as though God is distant – a period of wandering in the wilderness. You may find this ironic, but for me – my first couple of years at College were very much a wilderness time for me. The long held beliefs of childhood – of my early years of being a Christian had to be left behind, so I could grow, develop and be formed into something else. I was in a period of wilderness, where what I knew was no longer there and it felt like I had nothing that I knew – like I was clutching at straws – like God was somehow distant. Do you know what I mean? Do you remember a time in your life when you have felt something similar? It was a hard, but it was a period in your life that God was able to use to develop you as a disciple, as a human being, as a member of God’s kingdom. These are our wilderness experiences.

On Wednesday last week – Ash Wednesday – we began the season of Lent, which is the forty days before Easter. Lent is a season of preparation of your mind and body for the Easter period. Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. It is the season for looking at who you are, and where you are. It is an opportunity for refocussing on God, and God’s desire for your life and the life of your community.

Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for a baptism that would occur en-mass on Easter Sunday. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.[1] Traditionally people have given something up for the season of lent. Something that perhaps has taken control a bit in their lives, something that perhaps is taking time and focus away from the things of God, perhaps something which by giving it up, can help not only yourself but others. A friend of mine, last year gave up his computer for the season of Lent – it almost killed him – which just shows the power it had in his life, and this year a colleague has given up the use of his car for the 40 days of lent – choosing to use his legs, or his bike or public transport to travel around. He is giving up his dependency on fossil fuels, his freedom to act on whim and drive his car, and he is doing a small bit for the environment.

Traditionally, the season of Lent is about reflection, soul-searching and repentance – but it is also about release from what had held you captive, and freedom to be as God created you to be. The wilderness tends not to be a destination, but rather a stage on our journey – a place that we may find ourselves in a number of times, but a place we can move through on our way to someplace else. For the Israelites after the wilderness came the Promised Land, and for Jesus after the wilderness came Angels who waited upon him. In this wilderness time, in preparation for Easter and in this season of Lent – is there something in your life that needs to be released? Is there something from which you need freedom? Bring it before the Lord this Lent.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 2/11/2008 05:07:00 pm. You can skip to the end and leave a response.