JAC Online

The Wild Gospel and Living in Deserts
by Major Danielle Strickland

We have an insatiable appetite for the positive. Those of us who follow Jesus often add ‘Jesus’ as a name for our new ‘positive’ attitude. I’ve seen more than one offer given to be ‘saved’ presented as a means to be happy and wealthy. It’s funny when the Bible doesn’t seem to follow suit. See almost every major figure in Scripture has a tragic story – and almost always a tragic ending (every single one of the 12 disciples were killed for their faith). Their lives, as a direct result of choosing to follow God led them to difficult circumstances. Granted – they did live adventurous and full lives – but they weren’t exactly poster people for happiness. 

It’s Lent. That’s the 40 days spent preparing our lives and hearts for the events of Easter… (the Christian tradition)… but of course we borrowed it from the Jews – who used it to get ready for the PASSOVER by getting rid of everything in their house that had yeast in it. Yeast represented sin and the idea was to live completely free of it for the days leading up to Passover (the big event that saved the Egyptians from their oppression in Egypt). 

To kick off Lent we often use the scripture where Jesus is tempted in the desert (wilderness) – most likely because he spent 40 days and nights there. But maybe also for a few other reasons; it mirrors the time the Israelites spent in the desert (40 years… Jesus did a fast forward version of the event in 40 days), and it was a time of testing (which is of course what the Israelites were supposed to be doing crossing the desert in 40 days – which turned into 40 long and mostly stupid years). See, Jesus embraced the experience as a means of living a truly surrendered life but the Israelites resisted it – they hated the desert, they hated to be ‘emptied’ of themselves. Someone once said it took about a year to get Israel out of Egypt but forty years to get Egypt out of Israel. We don’t have the time in this article to explore in great detail, but Israel resisted the desert experience so much that they spent most of their lives walking around in circles, complaining and setting up towns that they named things like, ‘bitter’, ‘fat’, ‘grumble’ and well, you get the idea. They wasted a whole generation resisting the process of ‘emptying’ (in Hebrew this is a reference to the ‘nothing’ of creation – what God hovers over to create)… it’s what Philippians 2 explains about what Jesus did – he ‘emptied’ himself of well, himself. And embraced the calling to save the world. See, the process of emptying, of getting to the place where the spirit can actually create something new is a difficult one to understand and to embrace. But it’s all through the scripture as a part of our faith journey. Embracing the desert places is a sure way to move deeper into the things of God’s kingdom come. 

It’s incredibly important for us to realize that the Spirit led Him there immediately after Jesus was baptized – which is to be honest, a bit weird. Jesus had just embraced His divine calling to be the Messiah – He had immersed himself (literally by his baptism in the Jordan river) in the human condition in order to fight a way through the muck and the mire of our paralyzing sin – in order to make a new way to live and model a life lived fully. Plus, it was a bit of a rock-star moment… the heaven’s parted, a dove settled on him and a voice from heaven affirmed his acceptance by the father. That’s gotta be a good day! Maybe the best day – can you think of a day like that? When everything goes right? Seriously, a top of the mountain moment… when you know deep inside yourself that you’ve heard the Father’s blessing… even God is proud of you. Then the scriptures do something strange… see, after an event like that, if you were interested in changing the world, you’d most likely stage a press conference – or head straight to Jerusalem to announce to the world powers that be there is a new King in town or something dramatic and public – maybe you’d at least head home and tell your mom that you told her so! You’ve made it now! The thing is that the exact opposite of that happens. The scripture says that IMMEDIATELY after Jesus was baptized THE SPIRIT led him into the wilderness. 

The Spirit led him. Wow. I’m not sure about you – but I have a tendency to believe that everything that happens to me that is hard and horrible is from hell. The trouble is that I’ve most likely designated ‘hard’ and ‘horrible’ as anything that is difficult and tempting. You see, if we are honest, all the things that we would do to ‘tell the good news’ and to shout it aloud are all connected to what the devil brings to Jesus to do. 

Turn stones into bread. AKA: use your gifts for yourself. 

Throw yourself from the highest point in the temple. AKA: spectacular – always aim for a big production. Public display. Power. 

Become King of the World now. AKA: skip the pain. Compromise the process. Any means necessary for the same outcome. 

What is striking about the temptations themselves is how little they veer from actually changing Jesus’ destination. The devil never once questions whether Jesus is truly the Messiah – whether He is coming to establish His kingdom – whether He is going to change the world. He only tempts Jesus in the WAY to do those things. 

Jesus resists because He knows that the WAY He brings the Kingdom is as important as the Kingdom outcome itself. As Melissa Etheridge sang, and I just found out is actually a quote by an old, saintly dead guy, ‘all the way to heaven, is heaven’. What is remarkable about Jesus is how much He embraced ‘smallness’ in His life. Small towns, small people, small followers – always resisting the big and glorious things of the world – resisting power and money and fame. He embraced the WAY of the Kingdom of God and showed us the Kingdom in living colour  - and daily. Not under the applause of humanity but under the loving voice of our Father, proud as punch of who we are. 

The thing the devil wants to get us to do is to follow Jesus - but in a worldly way. Be a Christian – but live like everyone else. Be a follower of Jesus - but you don’t need to actually give your money away – keep it. Be a follower of Jesus but… well, you get the idea. What the devil tries to do is to get us to keep ourselves full of ourselves. And this is problematic. We can spend a whole lifetime wandering around, in a wilderness, pathetically unhappy in our faith, questioning God and making up little places to settle in called ‘fat’, and ‘bitter’ and well, ‘worldy’ and miss the incredibly deeper experience of the ‘emptying’. Allowing the Holy Spirit to hover over our lives and start creating a new thing – in a new way. Imagine what He has in mind. I don’t know about you – but I’d like to embrace the desert in order that we might move on to the promise land. I’ve a feeling there is a lot there to do! Here’s praying for a forty day LENT and a lifetime of God’s kingdom come.