Wilderness

The Bible begins in a paradisial garden. It ends in a paradisial city. In between this perfect beginning and perfect end, life is lived in the desert places.
 
We aren’t meant to remain in the desert places—our home is the garden-city of God. Yet we are in exile in the desert places, wandering east of Eden, waiting for the heavenly city where the trees of life bring forth their fruit.
 
If you love to create gardens, the echoes of Eden are still beating in your heart. If you like woodwork and architecture, the remodeling of homes, city blocks, and parks, the hope of the coming city is alive in you. Art and music, good literature and cooking—our pursuits reveal that we are meant to live in the garden-city of God, where beauty, peace, and joy flourish.
 
Yet the path in the desert places is marked by futility, pain, and fear. The darkness of the valley of the shadow of death is far removed from the light of the garden-city. The echoes of Eden and the promise of the coming city still throb in our hearts—we see them in creation and in one another—but on many days, we feel sin’s effects, we feel our exile in the desert places, far more than we feel our ancestral homeland and pilgrim destination. We are unable to go backward or forward, no matter how hard we try by our pursuits of justice, pleasure, or technology.
 
And so the Son of God came to the desert places to be with us and lead us out. And in that wilderness, he confronted our ancient enemy face-to-face. We could not leave until “the strong man was bound” (Mt. 12:29); we were captives in the wilderness, captives to our sin, captives to death, captives to the devil. The victory was won when Jesus rebuked the devil and rejected his temptation in the wilderness. It was won as he “cast out” the “ruler of this world” (Jn. 12:31) by his death on the cross—a cross raised in the wilderness, outside Jerusalem, the typological city of God. And it was won when he emerged from the darkness of the tomb—the true valley of the shadow of death, the deepest wilderness—into a garden (Jn. 19:41), the garden of the resurrection that will never wither or fail.
 
For those who wait for the return of Christ, that is, for those who have already been brought out of the desert places by the Spirit and yet live by faith in the midst of the desert places of this world, Lent offers us a chance to remember. It is purposefully modeled after Christ’s 40 days in the wilderness, and so in Lent we remember how our victory was won—the Word descended to fight our fight in the desert places. But in Lent we also remember the true state of humanity—it is a miniature picture of human history. All around us are those wandering in the desert places, hungry for a home that cannot be recovered by their own strength.
 
If, during Lent, you are acutely aware of the frustrations of life, do not despair. It is actually part of the point. If you are aware of your inability, don’t fear! If you see your inadequacy, remember that the one who could achieve victory already has, and he has done it on your behalf. The garden-city will come, the Lord Jesus will return, and our wanderings will end.
 
Steven+