The Wilderness Way, Part 2

The Wilderness Way, Part 2

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.[1]

In biblical descriptions, the wilderness is not a place one goes of one’s own volition. During the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, things got so bad they begged to return to their former lives as slaves in Egypt. Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness led to severe hunger, capped off by temptations by the devil. The Bible describes the wilderness as a place of extended discomfort, alienation, and instability. And yet, the wording used to describe Jesus’ time in the wilderness following his baptism is revealing. It says Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why would the Spirit, presumably the Spirit of God, intentionally lead someone into the wilderness? After all, the prayer Jesus taught his disciples contains the plea, “Lead us not into temptation…”[2] The stark realities of real-life occurrences and experiences often seem to betray belief in a God who loves us. It did for the Israelites; it did for Jesus; it does for us.  

If we believe a loving God would intentionally lead us into or even allow wilderness-types of suffering, there must be good reasons that elude us. I suspect the reasons have more to do with our insistence on comfort and predictability than with any desire on God’s part to watch us suffer. Consistent with all religious understandings, we easily fall prey to a seductive loop of earthly pleasures, all of which lead to decay and death. And one way out of that loop, sometimes the only way, is through forced removal. Death, of course, is the ultimate remover-in-chief, but we can learn to enjoy the earth’s pleasures without becoming attached to them as they are today long before we die. Essentially all of our suffering results from our over-attachment to that which has no permanence. When we are overly-attached to good health, we feel betrayed as our bodies decay from age and use, as all things of the earth must do. When we are overly-attached to a long-term, loving relationship, we suffer mightily when the relationship ends by the death of a partner or some other apparent betrayal. The core nature of life on earth is on-going change and evolution, and if we do not accept the reality of constant change in everything we value, stubbornly holding to an impossible-to-maintain status quo, we set ourselves up for entering a wilderness experience. It is not a lack of love on God’s part that leads us to suffering, but a lack of understanding and acceptance on our part of the nature of the reality in which we live. Arguably, suffering is our most effective teacher because we often refuse to change until it becomes too painful not to change. And wilderness is one of suffering’s most effective tools for prying our clingy hands off our comfortable status quo, allowing us to grow, change, mature, and awaken to a greater life experience.

My first wilderness experience occurred with the sudden death of my father when I was 14. That event toppled everything I thought I understood about life and God, leaving me feeling alone, frightened, confused, and abandoned. I could not see how I or my mom and siblings could survive without dad. But we did. Does that mean he was not as important a part of my life as I once thought? Of course not. Dad has been (physically) gone for decades, but he remains an inseparable part of everything I do and am. He is as much a part of my life story today as he was before he died. I could not move forward at the time, however, until I released my attachment to his physical presence. The wilderness helped me do that by forcing me to live without what I thought I needed. It opened space for a greater understanding of who I am, what I need, and the possible trajectories for my life.

Yes, Jesus was intentionally led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, inviting him to release his attachment to and identification with being a craftsman and a citizen of Nazareth. In return he gained a new vision for life on earth and was able to model for us what it is to be God in human form. It doesn’t mean he was a poor craftsman, only that there were other possible futures for him that served a greater swath of humanity than his previous life could do. His wilderness experience purged that which would not serve him well in his new role and prepared him for a different path. And wilderness experiences do that for us too, if we recognize them as such and allow them to transform us.

This is the 20^th in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way.Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are not objective truths but invitations for readers to explore, too. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

---

[1] Matthew 4:1

[2] Matthew 6:13