The Wild Places - Day 29

Friday, April 19On our final day of Bible reading in Lent, we’ll read the whole of Mark 15, a long passage, but I will keep my comments at the end brief. I encourage you to read slowly, imagining yourself present as a witness, even if the material is very familiar. 

Mark 15 (CEB)At daybreak, the chief priests—with the elders, legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin—formed a plan. They bound Jesus, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate. 2 Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

Jesus replied, “That’s what you say.” 3 The chief priests were accusing him of many things.

4 Pilate asked him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? What about all these accusations?” 5 But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate marveled.

6 During the festival, Pilate released one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. 7 A man named Barabbas was locked up with the rebels who had committed murder during an uprising. 8 The crowd pushed forward and asked Pilate to release someone, as he regularly did. 9 Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” 10 He knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of jealousy. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas to them instead. 12 Pilate replied, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?”

13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

14 Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done?”

They shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”

15 Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, so he released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus whipped, then handed him over to be crucified.

16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters,[a] and they called together the whole company of soldiers.[b] 17 They dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him. 18 They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!” 19 Again and again, they struck his head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him. 20 When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

21 Simon, a man from Cyrene, Alexander and Rufus’ father, was coming in from the countryside. They forced him to carry his cross.

22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place.23 They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it. 24 They crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine who would take what. 25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.”27 They crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left.

29 People walking by insulted him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you? 30 Save yourself and come down from that cross!”

31 In the same way, the chief priests were making fun of him among themselves, together with the legal experts. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross. Then we’ll see and believe.” Even those who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him.

33 From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. 34 At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

35 After hearing him,

The Wild Places - Day 28

Thursday, April 18

Mark 14:53-72 (CEB)

53 They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and legal experts gathered. 54 Peter followed him from a distance, right into the high priest’s courtyard. He was sitting with the guards, warming himself by the fire. 55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they couldn’t find any. 56 Many brought false testimony against him, but they contradicted each other. 57 Some stood to offer false witness against him, saying, 58 “We heard him saying, ‘I will destroy this temple, constructed by humans, and within three days I will build another, one not made by humans.’” 59 But their testimonies didn’t agree even on this point.

60 Then the high priest stood up in the middle of the gathering and examined Jesus. “Aren’t you going to respond to the testimony these people have brought against you?” 61 But Jesus was silent and didn’t answer. Again, the high priest asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed one?”

62 Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Human One sitting on the right side of the Almighty and coming on the heavenly clouds.”

63 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “Why do we need any more witnesses? 64 You’ve heard his insult against God. What do you think?”

They all condemned him. “He deserves to die!”

65 Some began to spit on him. Some covered his face and hit him, saying, “Prophesy!” Then the guards took him and beat him.

66 Meanwhile, Peter was below in the courtyard. A woman, one of the high priest’s servants, approached 67 and saw Peter warming himself by the fire. She stared at him and said, “You were also with the Nazarene, Jesus.”

68 But he denied it, saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand what you’re saying.” And he went outside into the outer courtyard. A rooster crowed.

69 The female servant saw him and began a second time to say to those standing around, “This man is one of them.” 70 But he denied it again.

A short time later, those standing around again said to Peter, “You must be one of them, because you are also a Galilean.”

71 But he cursed and swore, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” 72 At that very moment, a rooster crowed a second time. Peter remembered what Jesus told him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down, sobbing.

Points of Interest

Mark tells the story of two trials, the one in which an innocent, blameless Jesus in condemned to death, and the one in which a guilty Peter escapes harm but breaks down in shame.  The high priest and Jesus share an insider theological moment, with high stakes for them and their fellow second temple Jews. Jesus is asked if he is God’s special son, the Christ, which in Hebrew, is the Messiah. In the early first century and the decades before, hopes ran high that this figure would save Israel. Jesus hasn’t used this term of himself to date, but he says, essentially: Sure, you can call me that. But he reframes his identity and mission on different terms - language lifted from the then very popular book of Daniel. Jesus says he’s that mysterious figure from Daniel’s prophecy, now alive in history. He is the “Son of Man”, translated here the Human One, and repeats Daniel’s metaphorical language for God’s right-hand man and messenger to earth. Jesus’ trial ends with him true to himself and soul-strong, but beaten, mocked, and spat upon.  Peter doesn’t yet face legal trial for his role as one of Jesus’ closest known associates.

The Wild Places - Day 27

Wednesday, April 17

Mark 14:27-52 (CEB)

27 Jesus said to them, “You will all falter in your faithfulness to me. It is written, I will hit the shepherd, and the sheep will go off in all directions. 28 But after I’m raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

29 Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else stumbles, I won’t.”

30 But Jesus said to him, “I assure you that on this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

31 But Peter insisted, “If I must die alongside you, I won’t deny you.” And they all said the same thing.

32 Jesus and his disciples came to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus said to them, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John along with him. He began to feel despair and was anxious. 34 He said to them, “I’m very sad. It’s as if I’m dying. Stay here and keep alert.” 35 Then he went a short distance farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if possible, he might be spared the time of suffering. 36 He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible. Take this cup of suffering away from me. However—not what I want but what you want.”

37 He came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Couldn’t you stay alert for one hour? 38 Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.”

39 Again, he left them and prayed, repeating the same words. 40 And, again, when he came back, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open, and they didn’t know how to respond to him. 41 He came a third time and said to them, “Will you sleep and rest all night? That’s enough! The time has come for the Human One to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Get up! Let’s go! Look, here comes my betrayer.”

43 Suddenly, while Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came with a mob carrying swords and clubs. They had been sent by the chief priests, legal experts, and elders. 44 His betrayer had given them a sign: “Arrest the man I kiss, and take him away under guard.”

45 As soon as he got there, Judas said to Jesus, “Rabbi!” Then he kissed him. 46 Then they came and grabbed Jesus and arrested him.

47 One of the bystanders drew a sword and struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his ear. 48 Jesus responded, “Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me, like an outlaw? 49 Day after day, I was with you, teaching in the temple, but you didn’t arrest me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled.” 50 And all his disciples left him and ran away. 51 One young man, a disciple, was wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They grabbed him, 52 but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked.

Points of Interest

As Jesus looks at his friends, he quotes an obscure but evocative passage of Hebrew scripture. In Zechariah 13, there is this line about violence done to a shepherd and the sheep being scattered. Jesus sees this playing out before him, just as he does a previous verse that refers to the wounds dealt to us by our friends inside their own homes. There is no wound we experience, however odd or however deep, that God who is with us in Jesus, cannot imagine or relate to. The last time we saw the trio of Peter, James, and John, they were witnessing Jesus’ healing power in giving life to a 12-year old girl. Now they witness Jesus’ pain and doubt, as he feels the great cost of his healing mission. There is irony, of course, that Peter pledges unending, heroic, loyal partnership, but can’t even stay awake in Jesus’ hour of need. Our spirits are all so much more eager than our capacity for follow through,

The Wild Places - Day 26

Tuesday, April 16

Matthew 14:10-26 (CEB)10 Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to give Jesus up to them. 11 When they heard it, they were delighted and promised to give him money. So he started looking for an opportunity to turn him in.

12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, the disciples said to Jesus, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?”

13 He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city. A man carrying a water jar will meet you. Follow him. 14 Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The teacher asks, “Where is my guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?”’ 15 He will show you a large room upstairs already furnished. Prepare for us there.”16 The disciples left, came into the city, found everything just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.

17 That evening, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 During the meal, Jesus said, “I assure you that one of you will betray me—someone eating with me.”

19 Deeply saddened, they asked him, one by one, “It’s not me, is it?”

20 Jesus answered, “It’s one of the Twelve, one who is dipping bread with me into this bowl. 21 The Human One goes to his death just as it is written about him. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays the Human One! It would have been better for him if he had never been born.”

22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 I assure you that I won’t drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way in God’s kingdom.” 26 After singing songs of praise, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Points of Interest

Preparation for the Passover always has been and continues to be a big deal. Clear the leaven out of your home, prepare for hospitality and feasting. The disciples and Jesus are doing this. It’s meant to be alarming that Judas is preparing for Passover by making financial arrangements for betrayal. While our jaws drop in horror, they delight in opportunity. Perhaps this is the nature of all betrayals – a song is playing that we should be listening to, even singing along, while we stridently whistle an unrelated, discordant tune. What a jarring meal. Jesus prepares for one of his closest students and friends to betray him. He feels and talks about all the stakes of this night. There is the waste of a life, the undying regret associated with Judas’ betrayal. And there is Jesus most pressing into his identity as the True Human (most traditionally translated “Son of Man”) as he prepares to die. It’s as if he’s aware that his death is destiny, but wishes for everyone it didn’t have to come to pass quite like this.And then in a moment in which I would be seized by anger and sadness, and locked in defensiveness, Jesus opens his arms and his heart to his friends, Judas included, and says, “Here I am. All that I am, all that I have is yours.” Today these words read to me like strange but holy wedding vows – take all of me!Covenants are somewhere between promises that involve a form of mutuality and solemnity. They’re a little like contracts, but with much more heart and soul. Traditionally, in the Near East, covenants were marked with blood as well. Jesus interprets his death on these terms – as a new way of God with people coming to pass. We’ll drink together again someday, Jesus says, before they sing and get up to go.

The Wild Places - Day 25

Monday, April 15Jesus’ God-with-us life reaches its climax in the week of his death. This one week in Jesus’ life takes roughly a third of the text in the gospel accounts. We’ll join Jesus for the final two days of this week, sometimes called The Passion, referring to Jesus’ suffering as well as the intensity of the experiences generally.  

Mark 14:1-9 (CEB)It was two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and legal experts through cunning tricks were searching for a way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 But they agreed that it shouldn’t happen during the festival; otherwise, there would be an uproar among the people.

3 Jesus was at Bethany visiting the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. During dinner, a woman came in with a vase made of alabaster and containing very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke open the vase and poured the perfume on his head. 4 Some grew angry. They said to each other, “Why waste the perfume? 5 This perfume could have been sold for almost a year’s pay and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

6 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me. 7 You always have the poor with you; and whenever you want, you can do something good for them. But you won’t always have me. 8 She has done what she could. She has anointed my body ahead of time for burial. 9 I tell you the truth that, wherever in the whole world the good news is announced, what she’s done will also be told in memory of her.”

Points of Interest

Mark sets the scene by reminding us of the religious and political significance of this week. It’s a holy week, the city’s population is swelling with pilgrims, and a delegation of Roman soldiers has arrived as well. Crowd control is a concern, and reputations are at stake. The most empowered members of Jesus’ society find his God-with-all-people-in-all-places message threatening to their control and are working out strategy and power angles. Meanwhile, Jesus has dinner with his friends – a ragtag group of young men from the countryside, a formerly ill and outcast host, and a woman who loves and respects Jesus immensely and has chosen a complex, intense, and costly way to express that love.The unnamed woman’s breaking open of the vase is evocative of so much. She’s emptying her life savings in giving Jesus a costly, extravagant, impractical gift. She’s also treating him like a king, or a priest, or a loved one who has died – these were occasions for anointing in her culture – coronation, ordination, and preparation for burial. Any one of these would be an intense statement to make. But whatever she had in mind, Jesus picks option three, interpreting the anointing as pre-death burial preparation. The men argue about the impracticality and waste of the gesture. For what it’s worth, almost every man – other than Jesus – in the Passion narratives comes off poorly. All the women, every one, are devoted and loyal. I’m not telling anyone what to make of this, but it doesn’t seem accidental and does seem noteworthy.I can’t unpack all the symbolism and dense language here, but there’s something about Jesus’ explanation that is like communion in reverse. In the bread and the wine, representing Jesus’ body and blood, the good news is embodied and proclaimed – the embodied God/human broken and poured out for us. Here, in preparation, a human gives broken and poured out love to Jesus, and this too is part of how the good news will be embodied and proclaimed. There’s some kind of mirroring happening here. As if Jesus’ passion is seeking to call out our own. As if the reaction that best honors Jesus’ suffering is to join him in a broken-open heart – giving more generously, loving more extravagantly.

The Wild Places - Day 24

Friday, April 12 

Mark 5:21-43 (CEB) 21 Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. 22 Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.” 24 So Jesus went with him. A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. 25 A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. 27 Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. 28 She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. 29 Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed. 30 At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it. 33 The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. 34 He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.” 35 While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?” 36 But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” 37 He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. 38 They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.”40 They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. 41 Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” 42 Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked!43 He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat. 

Points of Interest 

This mashing together of two related accounts, allowing them to both enrich and comment on one another, is a common storytelling technique in the gospels. Here we have a 12-year old daughter and a woman, called Daughter by Jesus, who has been ill for twelve years. We have a synagogue leader, maybe even a rabbi, in distress, and we have a woman whose illness keeps her away from the synagogue, ashamed to even touch or speak with Rabbi Jesus. One person’s private distress is healed very publicly, while another family’s very public distress is healed in private. I have known many people, and frankly many women, who have “suffered a lot under the care of many doctors.” Our hearts go out to this woman. In this woman’s case, she has any number of medical conditions that lead to prolonged, heavy menstrual bleeding. A source of great shame in ancient – and sometimes modern – times, this could also involve significant pain, as well as infertility. Jesus’ disciples may share the woman’s confidence in his unusual powers, but they don’t think there’s anyone or anything interesting in the crowd of people. Jesus doesn’t see crowds, though, he sees people one by one, offering us peace, stirring faith that makes us well, calling us sons and daughters. Which is the greater miracle?

The Wild Places - Day 23

Thursday, April 11 

Mark 5:1-20 (CEB) Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out of the tombs. 3 This man lived among the tombs, and no one was ever strong enough to restrain him, even with a chain. 4 He had been secured many times with leg irons and chains, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one was tough enough to control him. 5 Night and day in the tombs and the hills, he would howl and cut himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from far away, he ran and knelt before him, 7 shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” 8 He said this because Jesus had already commanded him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!” 9 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He responded, “Legion is my name, because we are many.” 10 They pleaded with Jesus not to send them out of that region. 11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. 12 “Send us into the pigs!” they begged. “Let us go into the pigs!” 13 Jesus gave them permission, so the unclean spirits left the man and went into the pigs. Then the herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned. 14 Those who tended the pigs ran away and told the story in the city and in the countryside. People came to see what had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the man who used to be demon-possessed. They saw the very man who had been filled with many demons sitting there fully dressed and completely sane, and they were filled with awe.16 Those who had actually seen what had happened to the demon-possessed man told the others about the pigs. 17 Then they pleaded with Jesus to leave their region. 18 While he was climbing into the boat, the one who had been demon-possessed pleaded with Jesus to let him come along as one of his disciples. 19 But Jesus wouldn’t allow it. “Go home to your own people,” Jesus said, “and tell them what the Lord has done for you and how he has shown you mercy.” 20 The man went away and began to proclaim in the Ten Cities all that Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed. 

Points of Interest 

In this section of Mark, Jesus is moving into an escalation of wild places, encountering increasingly fearsome powers – bad weather and forces of nature, then spiritual and mental health trauma, and in tomorrow’s passages, long term illness and death. I’ve taught three ways of understanding what’s going on with this troubled, self-injurious, alienated man who calls himself Legion. The most traditional understanding is demon possession – that harmful spiritual forces are turning this person’s agency against his own welfare. The most modern understanding would be of extreme mental illness – deep depression and schizophrenia, accompanied by suicidal ideation. The most culturally and literarily sensitive reading would be to see this man as carrying and embodying the trauma of his culture and times. He is identified by the very Roman military forces that have ravaged this community with terror and death and will soon do so again. Jesus brings clarity to this person’s troubled condition and – in allowing the spirits to enter into the pigs – clarity to the devastating forces involved in his pain. There’s something about corruption, evil, and death that can’t help be what it is. It wants to escape the abyss (where first century Palestinians would have thought evil spirits lived) but ends up going there anyway. There’s also something about humanity that, even trapped in enormous trauma, illness, and pain, we have so much resilience that with the help of God and friends, we can in time be restored and be well. Jesus wants better than for him to leave his culture and join his rabbinic school.

The Wild Places - Day 22

Wednesday, April 10 

Mark 4:35-41 (CEB) 35 Later that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” 36 They left the crowd and took him in the boat just as he was. Other boats followed along. 37 Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. 38 But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?” 39 He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “Silence! Be still!” The wind settled down and there was a great calm.40 Jesus asked them, “Why are you frightened? Don’t you have faith yet?” 41 Overcome with awe, they said to each other, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!” 

Points of Interest 

All four of the gospels, in different ways, include scenes of Jesus crossing over. Jesus deliberately leads his friends away from comfort, familiarity, prosperity, and ease into complex, cross-cultural, disorienting experiences. In this sense, stepping into wild places can be a healthy part of movement toward God and toward growth. The boat was swamped, and somehow Jesus was asleep. This is one of my favorite moments in perhaps my favorite sections of the Bible (Mark 4 and 5). In chaos and trouble, perhaps we always wonder if God is with us and if God cares. And perhaps God is always with us, always cares, and is always calm – present, but not overwhelmed. What a surreal, magical moment: Jesus giving orders to the wind and speaking to the lake, bending nature toward silence and a great calm! I feel a tension with this scene. It is extraordinarily evocative and beautiful, and I don’t doubt God’s enormous power to do strange and beautiful things. And yet, this is not usually how God operates – with or without our prayers, overwhelming laws of nature, adjusting science for our benefit. I’m sorry to name this tension without a simple resolution to it, but I like being honest in these guides. I’ll only add that I feel about this scene like I do about all things epic. Epically amazing moments really happen, unusual as they are, and hard as they are to believe to those who weren’t there. I find them beautiful and glorious and important to my life and faith, but I don’t let them lead me to despise the ordinary. In other words, in the great majority of ordinary days and ordinary struggles, I hope to experience God with me – adding hope, love, peace, and joy to my experience – without changing my circumstances. When my life or circumstances are altered, and stunningly, well, that’s pretty awesome as well of course, just not the usual course of things. This trip ends as so many good things do, with wonder. To be overcome by life is natural for us, but also maybe a sign that our faith has grown thin. To be overcome with awe may be a sign that we’re near to God. 

A Direction for Prayer 

Pray for your friends and family whose wild places of overwhelming problems or chaos are known to you. Ask Jesus to be in the boat with them. Pray that God brings such peace, stillness, and help to them that they are moved to wonder and gratitude. 

Spiritual Exercise of the Week 

God with Me Mediation – We take a few minutes of quiet and welcome Jesus to be God with us. Ask Jesus, how are you with me right now? How do you see and know me? How are you present with me in all my strengths and weaknesses, in all my joys and stresses and sorrows? After a few moments of imaginative prayer, welcoming Jesus’ presence with you, close by praying this excerpt from the ancient prayer, The Breastplate of Saint Patrick: 

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,Christ within me, Christ beneath me,

The Wild Places - Day 21

Tuesday, April 9 

Matthew 4:1-11 (CEB) Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him. 2 After Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights, he was starving. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “Since you are God’s Son, command these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus replied, “It’s written, People won’t live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.” 5 After that the devil brought him into the holy city and stood him at the highest point of the temple. He said to him, 6 “Since you are God’s Son, throw yourself down; for it is written, I will command my angels concerning you, and they will take you up in their hands so that you won’t hit your foot on a stone.” 7 Jesus replied, “Again it’s written, Don’t test the Lord your God.” 8 Then the devil brought him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 He said, “I’ll give you all these if you bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus responded, “Go away, Satan, because it’s written, You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” 11 The devil left him, and angels came and took care of him. 

Points of Interest 

The same Spirit that revealed God’s love and pleasure to Jesus also led Jesus into hunger and thirst and danger in the wilderness. So suffering is not a sign that God is not with us or that we have lost our way. Also, sometimes we need to set aside luxury and privilege to encounter God in harder places. Jesus meets another force in the wilderness – one that is called the tempter, the devil, and Satan – an untranslated Hebrew word that means accuser or adversary. Whatever this being is, it knows the Bible (the second temptation is a quotation from Psalms) and encourages independence and manipulative use of power. Turns out the Bible can be used for good or harm, and abuse of power remains the greatest and deepest temptation for most leaders. I’ve read a hundred things about Jesus’ responses to the temptations he experiences. Four of them most interest me today.One, Jesus is grounded. Each of his responses come from just two chapters of the book of Deuteronomy. I have to think that in the days preceding his time in the wilderness, he’d been reading these two chapters extensively, committing them to memory, meditating on them. All that served him.Two, Jesus shows us the power we all have, in all times and all places. No one can take away our power to guide our mind toward truth and light.Three, Jesus is just not interested in reputation and external power. He is also secure in his vulnerability and leans in to love and trust of God.Lastly, Jesus is keen to experience the full range of human vulnerability, including bewildering choices and hard temptations. Jesus knows what it means to not have enough food and to not have great reputation or power. In all our wild places, Jesus can be with us still. Finally, I have no idea how “the angels came and took care of him,” but I take it that whether visible or invisible, literal or metaphorical, we should expect to encounter true and untrue thoughts and forces, nourishing and destructive forces when we are alone with our thoughts and feelings, or otherwise looking for God. 

A Direction for Prayer 

Pray for any friends or family who are experiencing hunger, setback, or hard choices – that they will find a way to lean into God’s care and love, and find God providing them the guidance or help they need. 

Spiritual Exercise of the Week 

God with Me Mediation – We take a few minutes of quiet and welcome Jesus to be God with us. Ask Jesus, how are you with me right now? How do you see and know me? How are you present with me in all my strengths and weaknesses, in all my joys and stresses and sorrows?

The Wild Places - Day 20

Monday, April 8

The Jesus tradition teaches that in Jesus, God became flesh and lived – and still lives – among us. One fancy word for how Jesus did this is kenosis – the emptying of God’s status and power that was part of Jesus being fully human, just like us. Jesus, divested of all his privilege, went again and again to the wild places of our lives. This week we meet Jesus in the literal wilderness, and in the wild places of hunger, temptation, fear, chaos, illness, and death. 

Matthew 3:1-17 (CEB)In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing, 2 “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” 3 He was the one of whom Isaiah the prophet spoke when he said: The voice of one shouting in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” 4 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 5 People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River came to him. 6 As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 7 Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon? 8 Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. 9 And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire. 11 I baptize with water those of you who have changed your hearts and lives. The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am. I’m not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” 13 At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize him. 14 John tried to stop him and said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus. 16 When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him.17 A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.” 

Points of Interest 

• In business, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that changes the status quo and creates new opportunities. John the Baptist is a human force of disruptive innovation. Conventional religion thought God was at work in the temple, in the center of religious life in Jerusalem. It said the glory days of God’s work are in the past and that some people are God’s favorites more than others. And it kisses up to the in crowd, comforting and assuring them while judging others. Conventional religion still does stuff like this. John does the opposite – says God is at work in the wilderness, the glory days of God’s work are ahead of us, all people can find God, and all people need to change to make room for God. It’s radical, it’s disruptive, and it is somehow making room for the life and work of Jesus. 

• And surprise, surprise, Jesus shows up, not first to lead but to participate. Baptism likely has its roots in the Jewish mikvah – a ritual bath that cleanses you from sin or impurity, represents conversion into God’s family, or prepares your dead body for burial. Jesus – sinless, Jewish, and very much alive – needs none of this.