At the beginning of Lent, particularly on the first Sunday in Lent, traditionally is the time when we reflect on the temptations of Jesus. We are told that Jesus went off into the wilderness. We are actually told that the Spirit led him there. The wilderness is a bleak place, a lonely place, and there Jesus struggled as he reflected on the mission and ministry on which he was about to embark. How should it be approached? What were the priorities?
When I was in the Holy Land, in December 2011, we drove from Jericho to Jerusalem and stopped on the way to get a brief experience of being in the wilderness. (Thus, the picture.) It was clearly very different from anything Jesus experienced to get off a mini bus and walk a couple of hundred of metres or so into the wilderness, but it was moving to spend that brief time there, and to reflect on the story of the temptations.
The wilderness is a significant place. It can be a place of temptation or a place of reflective strengthening or, indeed, both. It is sometimes a struggle to get through it, but that needs to be done to get to the other side. It can be worth spending time in the wilderness, but few want to stay there too long.
Interestingly, one of the other things I did in 2011, but earlier, in July, was to spend seven days at a Roman Catholic in centre on silent retreat. I had spent brief periods in silence before, but never more than a matter of hours. And, to be honest, I wondered how I would get on with seven days, my only conversation, twenty minutes or so each day, with a spiritual guide and attendance at a brief service of worship. That was my time of reflection and meditation, very different from Jesus’ wilderness experience, with good food and a comfortable bed apart from anything else, but an opportunity for a focussed time with God.
And, by the way, I found it so helpful that it became the first of half a dozen or so such times across the latter years of my ministry, not always for as much as seven days, a couple were just three, though one was eight. Of course, most folk don’t get the opportunity for such an extended period of silence – and many would run a mile if it were offered, as I probably would have earlier in life.
It is for us to each find our own way; but if Lent is about anything, it’s about really trying to find, even just a little, special time for God.
