Time for God

Time for God 

If today’s reading seems familiar, you are correct.  The Gospel reading for the First Sunday after the Epiphany was Mark 1:4-11.  Today, the First Sunday in Lent we revisit this passage in Mark but today focus on a different aspect of it. Jesus has been baptized, the voice of God is heard to say; “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus repents not from sin but he in fact dedicates himself to follow God’s will fully while on earth. 

And then, immediately the Spirit drives him out to the wilderness. Not in a couple of hours, not tomorrow but immediately.  The wilderness wasn’t some nice little park next to the Jordan River. It was the Judean Desert, bleak inhospitable, similar to other deserts of the world.  The Judean Desert was a place that the people of Israel met God. Both Elijah and John the Baptist spent time there.  They used it as a place of purification.  And immediately upon his baptism, Jesus himself went there.

Forty days is an interesting number. It appears 159 times in the Bible,  in both of the Testaments.  Similar to Jesus’s fast, both Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days, the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, Saul, David and Solomon served as Kings for 4o years each and God destroyed every living thing on Earth by flooding it for 40 days.  For Moses and Elijah this was the ultimate test of faith.  Moses proved his devotion to God and received the Ten Commandments.  Elijah was instructed how to lead the people of Israel and Jesus stood the test of Satan.  Because of this each of them gained new insights into God’s plan.  

Mark uses two sentences to describe these forty days; “And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him”. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke  describe in detail three specific temptations Jesus suffered and how he in turn resisted Satan each time.  Mark doesn’t do this, he states Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by Satan.  From Mark’s standpoint the entire period of “forty days” was a test, a temptation.  

During that period of time, Jesus was not entirely alone.  Mark writes that “he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.” In writing this, Mark tells us two things; Jesus enjoys a peaceful relationship with the animals and as the unfallen, sinless one he also has authority over them.  

Probably towards the last part of the forty days, the angels “ministered” to him.  The word Mark uses here means caring for.  The angels looked after Jesus, they gave him food to eat.  And similar to his authority over the animals, Jesus also has authority over the angels.  He is the Son of God.

As Christians we are about to begin our period of Lent.  Similar to Jesus’s time in the desert, Lent is also forty days (not including Sundays).  Since ancient times, Lent has been associated with Easter and the preparation for the baptism of new Christians which took place at the Easter Vigil.  In anticipation of that baptism, new converts went through a rigorous time of fasting and praying.  In fact the entire congregation would join them in this.  This self-denial had one goal.  To draw closer to God.  

Towards the end of the third century, men and women, traveled to the Egyptian desert away from creature comforts, to live simpler lives.  Their self removal from the world had one focus-God.  Known as the Desert Mothers and Fathers, their wisdom continues to teach us to this day. 

During Lent we don’t need to go to the extreme of leaving our families and current lives and moving to the desert. However we need to follow the Desert Mothers and fathers example and ask ourselves honestly, about the things that are taking us away from God.  Lent is a time when we ask ourselves if we need to simplify or declutter our lives.  In doing that, we will have more room for God, more time to listen and less distraction in our relationship with God.  

Our relationship with God is a covenant. God has promised a day would come that would bring forgiveness of sin, internal renewal of the heart and an intimate knowledge of God. This is part of the New Covenant, one of five of the main covenants in the Bible.  The first covenant in the Bible is the Noahic Covenant.  After God’s reset of Creation with the flood, God promised to Noah, all his descendants and every living creature that he will never again judge the world through the flood.  God blesses Noah with all the original callings, obligations and privileges that were given to Adam.  There is now a level playing field, there will be time for God’s plan of salvation to work itself out.  

Although the Noahic Covenant is unconditional, because it does not depend on anything Noah or his descendants had to do to fulfil the covenant, I don’t think we should sit back and idly watch the world go by. As Christians we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We do need to keep that relationship active and flourishing.  Lent can be that time in the desert. When we are of the world but not in it.  Where we honestly ask ourselves how can I make more room for God. Wilderness is about turning away from distractions so that we can listen more intently on the voice of God.