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+
An Introduction to Lent and Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of preparation for Easter. From very early on the church believed that it was important to prepare for the celebration of the resurrection through fasting, penitence, prayer, reading Scripture, and gifts to the poor. It might strike you as odd that that the early church felt that we need to prepare for Easter for 40 days, and it might strike you as odd that preparation for the celebration doesn’t mean cleaning and decorating the home or buying the ingredients for the big meal. Fasting, alms-giving, penitence, Scripture reading, and prayer are strange sorts of preparation!
It is odd, because our culture doesn’t do this sort of thing. We aren’t particularly patient; we tend to think in minutes and hours rather than weeks and months. Preparation for us is something that happens a day or two before, not for weeks and weeks! But the ancient church believed that the great feasts of the church—Easter and Christmas—were something to prepare for, and preparation was a movement of the soul over a long period of time. The early Christians saw this pattern all over the Bible. Noah underwent a period of fasting and waiting on the ark as the rain fell for 40 days before he came out and encountered God. Moses waited in Midian for 40 years before he met God and returned to Egypt to free his people. He fasted on Sinai for 40 days before he received the Law from God and saw God himself. The Israelites waited in the desert for 40 years before entering the promised land. Elijah fasted for 40 days before he encountered God at Mount Horeb. Jesus fasted for 40 days before beginning his ministry of salvation.
The early church rightly taught that preparing for an encounter with God or for a new season of ministry was the Biblical pattern. According to the Bible, the best way to prepare was to pray, to fast from things that distract us, to pay particular attention to confession and repentance, to increase our devotion to the Scriptures and worship, and to give to the needy.
We need to “mortify” ourselves; that is, we need to put to death our desires through fasting and confession, so that we will be prepared to meet God in the celebration of the resurrection of the Son. We don’t earn anything by doing this. God doesn’t love us more if we keep a rigorous fast. Fasting can make people self-righteous if they think it gives them favor with God or makes them better than others. We fast, very simply, because we need it: we are distracted, weighed down by the world, weighed down by our fleshly desires. We need to be purged so that we can see God clearly, and Lent is the great period of preparation and purging, of mortification and prayer, while we wait to celebrate the resurrection again. I once heard someone say, “If you are driving through the mountains with mud on the windshield, taking the mud off doesn’t make you more in the mountains. But it sure helps you see them more clearly!” Fasting doesn’t earn our place with God, but it can help us see him!
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Tonight, you will be reminded of your mortality, reminded of your sinfulness, and called to confession, prayer, and fasting. But you are being called to fasting so that you might be ready to rejoice again in the resurrection. Our hope is not in our fasting or spiritual disciplines. Thankfully, Lent does not last forever! Our hope is in the fact that the Son of God became man, died on our behalf, and conquered Hell, Satan, and death by rising again from the dead. He is now at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, and by his Spirit we can enter the very presence of the Father in heaven with him. This is our hope!
Steven+
Shrove Tuesday
Next Tuesday (2/21) is Shrove Tuesday! Like many other special days in the church calendar, there are different practices associated with Shrove Tuesday in the various cultures that celebrate it. Some of these practices and ideas even seem to be self-contradictory. In some cultures, it is a day of debauchery that has completely lost its Christian character, and in others, it is a day of self-examination and confession prior to the beginning of Lent. Clearly those two things don’t fit together well!
Christians have done several things on Shrove Tuesday for hundreds of years. First, it is traditional to spend time in prayer, self-examination, and confession on this day. This practice is at least 1000 years old, and the name “shrove” comes from the archaic verb for confession, penance, and absolution. In this tradition, the spiritual disciplines of Lent begin with a time of focused confession. Second, it is a day of modest feasting before Lent’s fast. Eating pancakes for dinner comes from the practice of ridding the cupboards of rich foods before Ash Wednesday, so that they won’t tempt us during the weeks of fasting. Third, it is the traditional day for burning palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday, which is where the church gets the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
Many members of the church will be joining together in homes for a Shrove Tuesday meal, and I pray that these meals would be examples of God’s kindness in each of our lives. Throughout the Bible (read Psalm 104 to see an example of this), we hear that food is one of the primary ways God shows us his goodness, and it is important to set aside particular meals to remember this. Eat a good meal and thank the Lord for it as you do!
I also encourage you to spend time asking God what sins need to be confessed and changes made in your life this year. If you want to speak to me in that process, either for confession or advice, please don’t hesitate to let me know.
I am thankful for you all and pray that the upcoming season of Lent will be a time of growth in the Lord.
Steven+