Lenten Perspective: The Slanderer and the Advocate

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The Slanderer and the Advocate

Then Iēsous, full of the holy life-breath, returned from the Iordanēs and was led by the life-breath to the wasteland, and for forty days he was tested by the slanderer...

Luke 4:1-2a (as translated by Sarah Ruden)

But the Voice of Truth tells me a different story
The Voice of Truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of Truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth

From "The Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns

In three of the Gospels, we read that, before Jesus begins His public ministry, He spends forty days fasting in the desert.¹  There, He faces temptation from the devil.  During the season of Lent, the roughly forty-day period of time preceding Easter Sunday, Christians around the world figuratively follow Jesus into the desert for a time of self-denial, introspection, and repentance.

A couple of weeks ago, when I encountered the story of Jesus' time in the desert in the Gospel of Luke, I decided to read it from a more recent translation by classics scholar Sarah Ruden.  Interestingly, Ruden translates the Greek word diabolos, which is typically translated into English as "devil," as "slanderer."²  This translation choice affected the way I read the story this year.  It caused me to consider that maybe the things the devil says to Jesus are not merely temptations but also slanderous lies and that maybe Jesus responds not just with Scripture He has memorized but with what He knows to be the truth.

Because Jesus has been fasting in the desert, He is hungry, so the devil says to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."³  Jesus came to the desert from the Jordan River, where He was baptized.  As He was praying after His baptism, the heavens were torn open and a Voice from Heaven said to Him, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."⁴  Now, in the desert, the devil is slandering Jesus by calling His very identity into question and is demanding that He prove who He is by using His divinity to His advantage.

The devil's slander does not work on Jesus, because He knows the truth.  Quoting Scripture, He responds, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"⁵  Jesus knows who He is, and He knows that He has everything He needs, even in the desert.

Next, the devil somehow shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world in an instant and says to Him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."⁶  The devil is now slandering God by calling God's sovereignty into question and claiming sovereignty over the world for himself.  He invites Jesus to bow down to him so that he may bestow upon Him power like that of the Roman Caesar.

Jesus knows the truth that, even though it might seem at times that the whole world has gone to hell in a proverbial handbasket, the devil is not the true ruler of this world.  He responds, again quoting Scripture, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"⁷  Jesus and His people have been commanded to worship and serve God alone, because God is the true Lord of this world, who makes all things work together for good,⁸ no matter how dire things might seem at any given moment.

Finally, the devil whisks Jesus away to Jerusalem, places Him on the highest point of the temple, and says to Him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"⁹  Once again, the devil slanders Jesus by calling His identity into question.  He then misappropriates the ninety-first psalm in an attempt to get Jesus to flaunt His divinity to the people of Jerusalem by doing something extremely reckless.  Perhaps the Gospel writer is suggesting that the misuse of Scripture is a form of lying.

Jesus is not affected by the devil's lies because He knows the truth.  He responds, quoting Scripture once again, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"¹⁰  Jesus knows who He is; He knows that He does not have to prove Himself to anyone, especially not some arrogant liar; and He knows how utterly stupid it would be to jump off a building in order to provoke God to act.

The devil finally leaves Jesus alone... for the time being.¹¹

At the same time the Father claimed Jesus as His own beloved Son, the Holy Spirit took the form of a dove and descended upon Jesus.¹²  We read that the same Holy Spirit is the One who compelled Jesus to go into the desert.¹³  Ruden translates the Greek phrase normally translated into English as "Holy Spirit" as "holy life-breath."¹⁴  The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, and the Spirit remained present with Him, like His own breath.

In at least one translation of the Bible, the Holy Spirit is called "the Advocate."¹⁵  Any voice that tries to discourage us or lead us on a destructive path does not come from God, for the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Advocacy.  The slanderer will try to make us doubt that God claims us and loves us.  The Spirit of God assures us that we are God's beloved children.  The slanderer will try to convince us that evil is winning, and that, if we want to succeed in this world, we will need to lower our standards.  The Spirit of God encourages us to trust in God and to continue doing what is right.

May we learn to ignore the voices of slander, and may we learn to trust the Voice of Advocacy.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
2. Sarah Ruden.  The Gospels: A New Translation.  2021, Modern Library.  pp. 177-178
3. Luke 4:2-3 (NRSV)
4. Luke 3:21-22 (NRSV)
5. Luke 4:4 (NRSV) (See also Deuteronomy 8:3.)
6. Luke 4:5-7 (NRSV)
7. Luke 4:8 (NRSV) (See also Deuteronomy 6:13.)
8. Romans 8:28
9. Luke 4:9-11 (NRSV) (See also Psalm 91:11-12.)
10. Luke 4:12 (NRSV) (See also Deuteronomy 6:16.)
11. Luke 4:13
12. Luke 3:21-22
13. Luke 4:1
14. Ruden, p. 176
15. John 14:16 (NRSV)

Christ in the Wilderness was painted by Ivan Kramskoi in 1872.

Lenten Perspective: Once More Unto the Wilderness

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Once More Unto the Wilderness

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NRSV)

All of this, all of this can be yours
Just give me what I want, and no one gets hurt

From "Vertigo" by U2

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, when Jesus goes to the Jordan River to be baptized, He spends some time in prayer.  While He is praying, the heavens are torn open.  The Spirit of God takes the form of a dove and descends upon Him, and a voice from Heaven says, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."¹

Jesus is then compelled by the Holy Spirit to journey into the wilderness, where He spends forty days fasting.²  At some point, the devil starts trying to tempt Him.  Knowing that Jesus is hungry, the devil says to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."  Not only was Jesus identified as the Son of God at His baptism, He was also endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit.  Quoting the Book of Deuteronomy, Jesus replies, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"³

The devil then shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world and says to Him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."  Quoting the Book of Deuteronomy yet again, Jesus replies, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"⁴

The devil then whisks Jesus away to the roof of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, and says, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here."  Seeing Jesus' appreciation for the Hebrew Scriptures, the devil quotes the part of the ninety-first Psalm:

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.⁵

If the multitudes in Jerusalem could see Jesus jump off the temple and be caught by angels, they would have no doubt about who He is.  Quoting the Book of Deuteronomy for a third time, Jesus replies, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"⁶

Resisted three times, the devil decides to leave Jesus alone... for the time being.

The story of Jesus' forty day journey through the wilderness provides the basis for our observance for the forty-day season of fasting and penitence known as Lent.  As Jesus fasted in the wilderness, we too practice self-denial, and, as Jesus stared down the tempter, we face with a spirit of repentance the ways we have given into our own temptations.

I've written about the story of Jesus' wilderness experience a number of times in the past, pointing out the ways that Jesus' temptations might reflect some of our own.

Almost eight years ago, I pointed out how Jesus' temptations reflect those faced today by the Church.  The temptation to misuse divine power to turn a stone into bread reflects the temptation of leaders in the church to misuse the authority entrusted to them.  The temptation to bow down to the devil in exchange for world domination reflects the temptation to take one's eyes off the one true God in pursuit of other gods like wealth, power, and fame.  The temptation to take the devil's supposedly biblical advice and jump off the temple reflects the temptation to misuse Scripture in self-serving ways.

About two years later, I pointed out how Jesus' temptations were all temptations to avoid suffering by taking the easy way out.  Turning a stone into bread would have been an easy way to avoid the pain of hunger.  Kneeling to the devil in return for power would have been an easy way to avoid the Cross.  Being caught by angels in front of the people of Jerusalem would have been an easy way to avoid the pain of rejection.  As the Suffering Servant of God, Jesus was not meant to take the easy way out.

Three years ago, I drew from the teachings of Henri Nouwen and pointed out how Jesus' temptations reflect the ways we are tempted to define ourselves.  The temptation to turn a stone into bread reflects our temptation to define ourselves by what we do.  The temptation to take over the world reflects our temptation to define ourselves by what we have.  The temptation to put on a show for the people reflects our temptation to define ourselves by what other people think of us.⁷  Perhaps, it was not just a knowledge of the Scriptures that enabled Jesus to resist temptation in the wilderness but also knowing His identity as the beloved Son of God with whom God is well pleased.

Of course these are only three ways we might see our own temptations reflected in the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness.

Scholar William Barclay suggests that Jesus' temptations were all temptations to influence people through various means.  The temptation to turn a stone into bread was the temptation to influence people through bribery.  The temptation to worship the devil in return for power was the temptation to influence people through compromise.  The temptation to be caught by angels was the temptation to influence people through sensationalism.⁸

Scholar N.T. Wright suggests that Jesus resisted temptation in the wilderness in order to succeed where His own people had failed in the past.  When Jesus refused to turn a stone into bread, He was placing His faithfulness to God over His physical needs.  When Jesus refused to kneel to the devil in exchange for world domination, He was choosing the path of humble service over the pursuit of status and power.  When Jesus refused to jump off the temple and allow angels to catch Him, He was refusing to provoke God to act by doing something extremely foolish.⁹

The ways we might apply the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness to our lives are countless.  The story, however we might apply it, teaches us that, in the words of one early Christian theologian, "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin."¹⁰  Maybe, during this Lenten season, we could consider how our own temptations are reflected in the story of Jesus' temptation and how we might follow Jesus' example in resisting them.


Notes:

1. Luke 3:21-22 (NRSV)
2. A majority of this perspective is based on Luke 4:1-13.  Quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
3. See Deuteronomy 8:3.
4. See Deuteronomy 6:13.
5. Psalm 91:11-12 (NRSV)
6. See Deuteronomy 6:16.
7. Henri Nouwen.  "Being the Beloved."
8. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 52-53
9. N.T. Wright.  Luke for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 44
10. Hebrews 4:15 (NRSV)

Christ in the Wilderness was painted by Ivan Kramskoi in 1872.

Advent Perspective: A Highway in the Wilderness

The following perspective is an excerpt from a sermon to be delivered on December 6, 2020, the Second Sunday in Advent.  The entire sermon will be posted on that date.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

A Highway in the Wilderness

A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 40:3-5 (NRSV)

And though these are days of great trial
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
"Prepare ye the way of the Lord!"

From “Days of Elijah” by Robin Mark

The second part of the Book of Isaiah, in which words of warning give way to words of hope, begins with a scene that some commentators have described as a “heavenly council.”¹  Amid this divine gathering, God calls for words of comfort to spoken to God's people, who are far from home, in Babylon.  “Comfort, O Comfort my people,” God says.  “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.”²  The people of God have paid the price for their unfaithfulness, and their long exile is finally coming to an end.

Another voice in the council then cries out, “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”  The voice says that valleys are to be filled in, that mountains are to be leveled, and that rocky ground is to be made smooth, so that all people may see the glory of God.  God is at work, and there are to be no obstacles to stand in the way.³  God is going to God's people in exile to gather them, as a shepherd would gather his scattered flock, and to lead them home through the wilderness.⁴

St. Mark begins his Gospel with a reference to this very scene from the Book of Isaiah: “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”⁵  He then goes on to describe a voice in the wilderness named John.

Mark's description of John makes the prophet seem a bit eccentric.  He lives in the wilderness, wears strange clothes, and eats strange foods.⁶  Scholar William Barclay suggests that every aspect of John's life is an act of protest.  John lives in the wilderness, away from the hustle and bustle of society, so that he may hear God's voice in the stillness, silence, and solitude.  By rejecting comfortable clothing and donning the garb of the prophet Elijah, a robe of camel's hair and a leather belt, he reminds people of the ancient prophets who called the people to repentance.  The food he forages, like locusts and wild honey, are the kinds of simple foods the poor of his day would eat.⁷

Mark tells us that John proclaims “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”⁸  In other words, John calls people to change their hearts and their lives and to receive God's forgiveness.  In another Gospel, he proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”⁹  The people of Judea come to him in the wilderness to confess their sins, and he baptizes them in the Jordan River as a sign of their penitence.¹⁰

St. Matthew and St. Luke tell us, in their Gospels, that John is a fiery preacher.  To the people who come to him in the wilderness, he says, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Bear fruits worthy of repentance...  Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”¹¹

Luke tells us that when people ask John what they should do, he offers them practical ways of “bearing fruits worthy of repentance,” ways that they may demonstrate that they are indeed turning their lives around.  He encourages those with excess to share with those who do not have enough, saying, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”  He urges those in authority not to abuse their power.  To tax collectors, he says, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”  To soldiers, he says, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”¹²

God is at work once again, and, in the same way that the voice in the Book of Isaiah calls for the removal of all mountains and valleys to build a highway in the wilderness, John, the voice in the wilderness, is calling people to build a highway into their hearts by removing the sinful obstacles from their lives.


Notes:

1. Joel B. Green, William H. Willimon, et al.  The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 860
2. Isaiah 40:1-2 (NRSV)
3. The Wesley Study Bible, p. 861
4. Isaiah 40:10-11
5. Mark 1:3 (NRSV)
6. Mark 1:6
7. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 16-17
8. Mark 1:4 (NRSV)
9. Matthew 3:2 (NRSV)
10.  Mark 1:5
11. Matthew 3:7-10 and Lk 3:7-9 (NRSV)
12. Luke 3:10-14 (NRSV)

The photograph of the desert highway was taken by Linnaea Mallette and released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Lenten Perspective: The Wilderness and the River

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Wilderness and the River

The Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing.

Psalm 23:1 (CEB)

All of You is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with Your love

And all I have in You is more than enough

From "Enough" by Chris Tomlin

Today is the first Sunday in the season of Lent.  During this roughly forty-day period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, Christians around the world remember that Jesus once spent forty days in the wilderness, fasting and facing temptation.¹  We figuratively follow Him into the wilderness, through self-denial, introspection, and penitence.

In two of the Gospels, we read that, as Jesus grew hungry in the wilderness, He began to hear the voice of the tempter.  The tempter called His attention to a stone and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread."  Quoting the Book of Deuteronomy, Jesus replied, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"²

The tempter then somehow showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world in an instant and said to Him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority...  If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."  Jesus replied, again quoting Deuteronomy, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"³

The tempter then whisked Jesus off to the roof of the temple in Jerusalem and said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here."  Quoting a Psalm, he continued, "For it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"⁴  Jesus replied with yet another quote from Deuteronomy, saying, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"⁵  At this point, the tempter decided to leave Jesus alone for the time being.

When preaching on the story of Jesus' facing temptation in the wilderness, pastors are quick to point out that Jesus countered each temptation with Scripture.  Many of us learned Scripture as children, yet, truth be told, our knowledge of Scripture is not always what guides our decisions.  The story of Jesus' temptation shows us that even the devil himself knows Scripture, yet it apparently hasn't made much of a difference for him.  The truth is that, despite our knowledge of Scripture, we struggle with temptation throughout our lives.  I believe that knowledge of Scripture is beneficial, but I think that maybe something else helped Jesus to withstand temptation.

I think that maybe Jesus realized that He did not need any of the things the tempter offered Him.

The temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness are universal.  According to Henri Nouwen, there are three lies we tend to believe about our identity: I am what I do, I am what I have, and I am what people say about me.  Each of these lies is connected to a temptation Jesus faced.⁶

The first temptation Jesus faced was to define Himself by what He did.  He could have established His identity as the one who provided for Himself and for others by miraculously producing bread.  The second temptation Jesus faced was to define Himself by what He had.  He could have amassed wealth, power, and glory for Himself by following Satan and conquering the world.  The third temptation Jesus faced was to define Himself by what people said about Him.  If He had jumped off the Temple and allowed angels to catch Him, the people who witnessed the spectacle would have no doubt that He was indeed sent by God.

Before Jesus forayed into the wilderness, He stopped at the river.

One day, while people were being baptized in the Jordan River as a symbol of their penitence, Jesus went to the river to be baptized as well.  After He emerged from the water, He stopped to pray, and, as He prayed, the heavens opened.  The Holy Spirit descended and, taking the form of a dove, landed on Jesus.  A voice from heaven then said, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."⁷

I believe that, along with a knowledge of Scripture, Jesus took with Him into the wilderness what He received at the river, namely the power of the Spirit and the approval of the Father.  He did not need anything the tempter offered Him because He knew who He was.  He did not need to define Himself by what He did, what He had, or what others said about Him because he already knew that He was the beloved Son of God, with whom God was well pleased.  He knew that God claimed Him, loved Him, and delighted in Him, and that was enough for Him.

A knowledge of Scripture is an important and powerful tool, but we need to know who we are in God.  We need to know that each of us is a child of God, whom God loves, with whom God is well pleased.  We need to understand that we are enough.

I know that it can be difficult to say that God is well pleased with us or that we are enough, especially when we consider our faults and failures.  At the same time, I think that what causes us to go wrong is a failure to believe that, in God, we are enough and we have enough.

A story at the beginning of the Bible tells us that the first humans tended a garden planted by God.  We read that they were permitted to eat anything produced by the garden with the exception of the fruit of a single tree, specifically the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  One day, the tempter appeared to the humans and told them that, if they ate the fruit of this tree, the knowledge they would receive would make them like God.  The humans gave into temptation, ate the fruit they were forbidden to eat, and faced great consequences for their transgression.⁸

The first humans gave into temptation because they did not believe that they had enough or that they were enough.  They were allowed to eat anything produced by the garden with the exception of the fruit of one tree, but what they had wasn't enough for them.  They had to have the one thing they were forbidden to have.  They had been created in the image of God and made the caretakers of what God created,⁹ but what they were wasn't enough.  They had to become even more like God.

On this first Sunday in Lent, I encourage you, the reader, to spend some time at the river before you foray into the wilderness.  In other words, consider spending some time at the beginning of your day contemplating who you are in God.  Know that you are a child of God whom God loves and with whom God is well pleased.  Know that God claims you, loves you, and delights in you.  Then take this knowledge with you as you go about your day.

The wilderness is where we have the opportunity to learn that God is enough for us, and the river is where we have the opportunity to learn that we are enough for God.  Before you journey into the wilderness that is your day-to-day life, consider spending some time wading in the river of God's love.


Notes:

1. Much of this perspective is based on Luke 4:1-13.  Quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.
2. Deuteronomy 8:3
3. Deuteronomy 6:13
4. Psalm 91:11-12
5. Deuteronomy 6:16
6. Henri Nouwen.  "Being the Beloved."
7. Luke 3:21-22 (NRSV)
8. Genesis 2:4b-3:24
9. Genesis 1:26-28

Christ in the Wilderness was painted by Ivan Kramskoi in 1872.

Introspection: Gone Fishing

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Gone Fishing

Simon Peter told them, "I'm going fishing."

They said, "We'll go with you."  They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing.

John 21:3 (CEB)

Hey you

Out there beyond the wall

Breaking bottles in the hall

Can you help me?

From "Hey You" by Pink Floyd

For the last few weeks, the pastors of my church have been preaching a series of sermons based on the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.¹  Reading the book for myself and discussing the sermons with my small group have helped me to gain a new perspective on some things in my life.

In one chapter of the book, Scazzero describes what he calls the "Wall."  The Wall is what St. John of the Cross called the "Dark Night of the Soul."  It is a season in one's life marked by doubt and spiritual dryness.  This season is often brought on by some sort of crisis or disappointment.  During this time, God might seem distant, and one's faith might not seem to work as it once did.  When we reach the Wall, we need to somehow make our way through it, but we will need God's help.  Many people find themselves stuck at the Wall, while others bounce off the wall more entrenched in their ways.²

As for me, I feel like I hit a Wall back in 2013.

A couple of my friends from my small group, both of whom are retired pastors, seem to think that I ought to go into the ministry.  December 28 of this year will be the tenth anniversary of the day I delivered my very first sermon, so the idea of going into the ministry is not new to me.  For a while, I thought I might actually be headed in that direction.  To dip my toe into the water, I started preaching at my home church.  Later on, I started taking classes with Lay Servant Ministries so that I could fill in as preacher at other churches within my denomination.

A series of events starting in 2013 showed me that I just don't love people enough to be a pastor.  I realized that I tend to bail out on people when I feel that they want too much from me.  There is simply no point in trying to be a minister if I'm too selfish to minister to people.  I did feel as though a rift had opened between myself and God, not because I felt that God had disappointed me but because I felt that I had disappointed God.

What Scazzero calls the Wall, my pastor Jonathan calls the "Wilderness."  In his sermon on the subject, he referenced a number of people in the Bible who went through a Wilderness of some sort.  At God's call, Abraham and Sarah journeyed through the wilderness into the unknown.  After leaving Egypt, Moses and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years before they finally reached the Promised Land.  Elijah fled into the wilderness when the queen threatened his life.  The Israelites walked again through the wilderness into exile when their homeland was conquered.  Even Jesus himself wandered the wilderness for forty days, where He faced temptation.  Jonathan encouraged the congregation to consider which of these stories parallel our own.³

When it comes to my own experience at the Wall, the Biblical story that resonates the most with me is that of Peter.  Once known as Simon, Peter left behind his job as a fisherman to become a student of Jesus.  Always the most brash and most eager of the Disciples, Peter once declared that he was willing to die for Jesus.  Jesus, who knew that trouble was coming, warned Peter that he would deny knowing Him three times by morning.⁴  A few hours later, after Jesus was arrested, Peter denied that he knew Jesus, just as Jesus had predicted.⁵

I suspect that Peter hit a Wall of his own when he denied Jesus.  One night, after Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, Peter told some of the other Disciples that he was going fishing.  The others went with him, and they spent the night catching nothing.  There are various interpretations regarding the significance of this fishing trip.  Personally, I suspect that Peter must have felt like a failure and that, by going fishing, he basically tendered his resignation as a disciple and returned to his former line of work.

When I hit my Wall, I too "went fishing," so to speak.  I gave up on ever becoming a pastor, and I kept doing what I was doing as a layperson.  I kept writing, teaching Sunday school, and preaching on occasion.  After years of taking classes, I was finally certified as a Lay Speaker, and I even started teaching one of the classes I had taken.

Peter might have resigned as a disciple, but Jesus reached out to him once again.  Three times, Peter had denied knowing Jesus.  Three times Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?"  Three times Peter said yes, and three times Jesus called him to feed His sheep.⁶  Peter was still a "rock" on whom Jesus would build His church.

The journey through the Wall is a time of learning and growth.  According to Scazzero, people who make it through the Wall become less judgmental, more comfortable with mystery, more patient, and more detached from their circumstances.  Scazzero said that, when he made it through his own Wall, he was more free from the opinions of others, more clear about who he is, and more assured of God's love for him.⁷

I'm not sure I've fully made it through the Wall, but I feel like I have been changed by my experience.  Looking back, I think that, if I gone into the ministry years ago, I would have been eaten alive.  People expect pastors to be all things to all people, and I have no doubt that I would have expected the same of myself.  I did not have clarity about what is mine to do and what is not mine to do.  I did not think realistically about what others should expect of me and what I should expect of myself.  I did not see a difference between being selfish and doing what is right for myself.  My experience at the Wall has forced me to reconsider such things.  I'm starting to see that neither selfishness nor selflessness is really a good way of life.  The world doesn't revolve around me, but I still matter.

I've never been very good at predicting my own future.  I suppose it's still possible that someday I'll find myself in pastoral ministry, but, for the time being, I'll keep on "fishing" by serving as a layperson.  Whatever happens, I think I'm better off having hit the Wall several years ago, because it showed me that, regardless of what I do, I have to be myself and not what everyone wants me to be.  If we could see the difficulties that obstruct the path ahead of us, we would doubtlessly take detours, but, when we look back on the trials we've faced, we can see how they've made us stronger.


Notes:

1. Peter Scazzero.  Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It's Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature.  2017, Zondervan.
2. Scazzero, ch. 4
3. Jonathan Tompkins.  "In the Wilderness."  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church, 10/28/2018.
4. John 13:36-38
5. John 18:15-18, 25-27
6. John 21:15-17
7. Scazzero, ch. 4

The photograph of the fishermen was taken by Francis Hannaway and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Sermon: Into the Wilderness

Delivered at McBee Chapel United Methodist Church in Conestee, South Carolina on February 18, 2018, the first Sunday in Lent

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Into the Wilderness

Audio Version

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Mark 1:9-15 (NRSV)

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice

From “The Journey” by Mary Oliver

Have you ever felt that you were meant for more than the life you were living?  Have you ever felt that your nine-to-five job was not your calling, that what you did to pay the bills was not what you were put on this planet to do?  Have you ever sensed a purpose that was too far away to see clearly that still somehow tugged at your heart from a distance?  If you have ever felt that way, you are not alone.  I suspect that most, if not all, of us have longed to live for a higher purpose at some point in our lives.  Lately I've wondered if maybe Jesus felt this way in the first thirty years of His life, before He began His ministry.  I've wondered if He always knew who He was and what He was born to do or if maybe He had to discover these things, like the rest of us.

---

Biblical scholars generally agree that the Gospel of Mark was the earliest of the four Gospels, written sometime between AD 60 and AD 70, and that it served as the main source of material for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  Church tradition tells us that St. Mark, the author, was someone close to St. Peter, perhaps an interpreter.¹  Mark's Gospel is the shortest of the four.  It does not contain the lengthy discourses we read in Matthew's Gospel or the fleshed-out narratives we read in Luke's Gospel.  There is a recurring theme of secrecy throughout Mark's Gospel: Jesus constantly tells people not to tell anyone what He did for them or who they believe He is.  The Gospel of Mark is probably the most fast-paced of the four Gospels.  The word immediately occurs twenty-seven times in the New Revised Standard Version, and Jesus always seems to be on the move.  Consider how much action is packed into the passage we just heard, which consists of a mere seven verses.

At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, we read about a prophet named John.  He was a rather eccentric man, to say the least: he lived in the Judean wilderness, away from civilization, foraging for food and making his own clothes.²  He challenged the people of Judea to repent of their sins and offered them the ritual of baptism as a means of expressing their repentance.  The people flocked to John in the wilderness to listen to his message, to confess their sins, and to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.  Mark describes John, using the words of an ancient prophet, as a messenger, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'”  John spoke of someone who would come after him, someone greater and more powerful, whose sandals he was not worthy to untie, someone who would baptize the people not with water but with the Holy Spirit.³

Meanwhile, Jesus had been working as a carpenter in the town of Nazareth.⁴  Justin Martyr, an early church historian, reported that Jesus constructed farm equipment like plows and yokes.⁵  Jesus realized that what He had been doing to make a living was not what He was born to do: He knew that He was meant for something more in life than building farm equipment.  Scholar William Barclay suggests that the emergence of John the Baptist and the Godward movement he represented was perhaps a signal to Jesus that the time had come for Him to do what He had been put on the earth to do.  It was the kind of movement with which He wanted to identify Himself.⁶

Jesus traveled from His hometown of Nazareth to the Judean wilderness to be baptized by John.  He had no sins of which He needed to repent, but His baptism was still for Him a turning point and a symbol of a new beginning.⁷  As Jesus descended into the water, His life as a carpenter came to an end, and, as He ascended from the water, His new life with His new calling began.

So what exactly was Jesus being called to do?

As Jesus ascended from the waters of baptism, He looked up and saw the heavens ripped open.  He saw the Spirit of God descend upon Him in the form of a dove.  What Jesus was being called to do would require power from Heaven.  Up to this point in the Biblical narrative, the Spirit of God was endowed to the leaders and prophets who had been entrusted by God with a special task.  The Spirit's descending upon Jesus meant that He was being equipped by God to do what He was called to do.⁸

Jesus then heard a Voice from Heaven call out to Him, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  On the surface, the message from Heaven contained three affirmations that every child needs to hear from her parents.  Every child need to know that she is claimed by her parents, that her parents love her dearly, and that her parents are proud of her.  Jesus heard these three affirmations directly from God, but, as someone who was familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, He would also have heard a couple of additional revelations.

The first part of the message from Heaven - “You are my Son, the Beloved” - calls to mind the second Psalm, in which God's anointed one hears from God, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”⁹  This Psalm was thought to point to the Messiah, the long-awaited leader who would deliver the Jewish people from oppression and usher in an age of peace and prosperity.  The second part of the message - “With you I am well pleased” - calls to mind particular sections of the Book of Isaiah which describe a certain servant of God.¹⁰  The first of these “Servant Songs” begins, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”  This servant of God would be empowered by the Spirit to “bring forth justice to the nations” and to show mercy to the weak and the broken.¹¹  A subsequent Servant Song tells us that this servant of God will suffer greatly on behalf of his people.¹²

In short, Jesus was told by God that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Suffering Servant.

Having received both the power of the Spirit and the approval of the Father,¹³ Jesus was immediately driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He remained for forty days.  Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark leaves almost everything about Jesus' journey through the wilderness to the reader's imagination.  Given that Jesus had just heard that He was the beloved Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah, and the Suffering Servant of God, I think it is safe to say that He had a lot to process and ponder during those forty days.

The author does offer us a few details about Jesus' wilderness experience.  He writes that, in the wilderness, Jesus was “tempted by Satan.”  John Wesley writes in his notes on the Gospel of Mark that “in all the children of God, extraordinary manifestations of his favour are wont to be followed by extraordinary temptations.”¹⁴  The author does not tell us the specific nature of the temptations Jesus faced, but we can logically assume that they somehow concerned how He would carry out His mission as the Messiah and how He would use the power and authority He was given.  I suspect that remembering the voice of the Father helped Jesus to withstand the voices of temptation.

The wilderness, figuratively speaking, is a dry, desolate, difficult, lonely place in life, far from anything familiar.  We rarely go into the wilderness willingly; rather, we are driven into it, as Jesus was driven.¹⁵  The wilderness experience teaches us who we really are, for it strips us of everything we are not.  It is quite often where were are unknowingly prepared for whatever comes next in our lives.  The author tells us that, in the wilderness, Jesus “was with the wild beasts” and that “the angels waited on him” there.  The wilderness is a place of peril, symbolized by the wild beasts, but it is also a place of Providence, symbolized by the angels.  Jesus was never alone in the wilderness, for the same Spirit who drove Him into the wilderness remained with Him as He journeyed through it.¹⁶

By the time Jesus returned to civilization, John had caught the attention of the wrong people and had been arrested and thrown into prison.  It was now up to Jesus to come after John and to take up the task of calling people to repentance, or else the movement John represented would begin to lose momentum.  Unlike John, who taught the people who came to him in the wilderness, Jesus took His message directly to the people.¹⁷  He traveled throughout the region of Galilee, proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  It was this very message and the urgency it warranted that kept Jesus constantly on the move throughout His ministry.

The word Jesus used to describe His message, which is translated into English as either “good news” or “gospel,” is the Greek word euangelion, from which we get the word evangelical.  The word was originally used to describe a proclamation from the Jewish people's Roman oppressors, perhaps news of some imperial victory.¹⁸  Jesus' royal proclamation was that God was doing something new in the world.  In the eloquent words of scholar N.T. Wright,
This was what all Israel had been waiting for.  It wasn't a new piece of good advice.  It wasn't a new political agenda.  It wasn't a new type of spirituality.  It might eventually lead to advice, agendas and certainly to prayer, but it was itself something more than all of these.  It was the good (and extremely dangerous) news that the living God was on the move, was indeed now coming into his kingdom.¹⁹

The Kingdom of God is what God had in mind for humanity since the very beginning.  It is, one might say, a Kingdom “not of this world,”²⁰ a Kingdom fundamentally different from any earthly kingdom that has ever existed.  It is a Kingdom different from the Roman Empire, which maintained peace by crucifying anyone perceived as a threat.  Everything Jesus went on to do throughout His ministry – teaching the crowds, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, enabling the lame to walk, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, feeding multitudes, and calming storms – was a manifestation of the reign of God.²¹

Wright points out that Jesus' good news “demanded a definite response,”²² and this response, according to Jesus, was to repent and believe.  The Greek word translated into English as “repentance” is metanoia, which literally means a change of mind.  It is used to describe a change of mind and heart that works itself out as a change of conduct.²³  Jesus' royal proclamation demands a change of mind, for if God is indeed doing something new – something the world has never known – then we must be willing to reconsider everything we think we know.

---

A poem by Mary Oliver titled “The Journey” begins, “One day you finally knew / what you had to do, and began, / though the voices around you / kept shouting / their bad advice...”  After years of working as a carpenter, Jesus knew what He finally had to do, and He took the first steps of His journey when He stepped into the waters of baptism.  As He emerged from the water, He received the power of the Holy Spirit and the approval of the Father, both of which He would need on His journey ahead.  The Spirit then drove Jesus into the wilderness, where He faced voices of temptation that attempted to sway Him from doing what He had to do.  He did not heed the voices or their bad advice, for He had already heard the voice of the Father, the only voice He needed to hear.  In the end, the temptations He faced only strengthened His resolve, and, when He returned from the wilderness, He began to make His own voice heard.

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the season on the Church calendar marked by self-denial, soul-searching, and repentance, during which we follow Jesus into the wilderness, figuratively speaking.  During Lent, many chose to give things up – especially those things they tend to use as a crutch – so that they can grow in their reliance on God as they fight temptation.  Some take up new spiritual practices so that they may grow closer to God as they become more disciplined.

I think that this wilderness season is a good time to ponder some of the questions that the story of Jesus' baptism, wilderness experience, and return to civilization might present to us.

What is God calling you to do right now?

What journey do you need to take?

What voices do you need to heed?

What voices do you need to tell to be quiet?

What new thing is God doing in your life or in the world around you?

What changes do you need to make in light of what God is doing?

Consider what you are learning as you journey through the wilderness and what you will do with it when you return.

All of us will journey into the wilderness at various times in our lives, whether it is the wilderness of Lent or a particularly dry and difficult season of life.  When you find yourself in the wilderness, may you listen to the voice telling you that you are a beloved child of God, and may you block out any voice telling you otherwise.  May you know that you are not alone in the wilderness, for God journeys with you.  May you emerge from the wilderness, strengthened in your faith, ready to serve God, as you are equipped by the Spirit.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Adam Hamilton.  Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today.  2014, Harper One.  pp. 97-99
2. Brian Zahnd.  “A Burning and Shining Lamp.”  Word of Life Church Podcast, 12/10/2017.
3. Mark 1:2-8 (NRSV)
4. Mark 6:3
5. Justin Martyr.  Dialogue with Trypho.  ch. 88
6. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 20
7. Barclay (Mark), p. 21
8. Barclay (Mark), p. 22
9. Psalm 2:7 (NRSV)
10. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 46
11. Isaiah 42:1-4 (NRSV)
12. Isaiah 53
13. Barclay (Mark), p. 22
14. http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/john-wesleys-notes-on-the-bible/notes-on-the-gospel-according-to-st-mark/
15. Shane Hipps.  “Driven into Wilderness.”  Trinity Mennonite Church, 03/05/2006.
16. ibid.
17. N.T Wright.  Mark for Everyone.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 9
18. Rob Bell.  NOOMA You | 015.  2007, Zondervan/Flannel.
19. Wright, p. 8
20. John 18:36
21. Richard Byrd Wilke and Julia Kitchens Wilke.  Disciple Fast Track: New Testament Study Manual.  2016, Abingdon Press.  p. 19
22. Wright, p. 8
23. Wikipedia: “Metanoia (theology)”

Christ in the Wilderness was painted by Ivan Kramskoi in 1872.