When Jesus was a child, I can just hear his mom as he scrambles through the house on his way out the door to school, “Jesus, now you come straight home from school… and stay away from the wilderness! And he was gone.

Wilderness, in the ancient Hebrew consciousness was a mixed bag — a place of threat: bandits, predators, and scarcity. A place of chaos and alienation. But, at the same time, it was much, much more.

So when it was Jesus’ time, time to rise from obscurity, time to step up and live into that which God had for him to be and do from the very beginning, when it was God’s time,… Jesus headed to the wilderness.

At first, the silence drove him crazy. The voices of his family, friends, and colleagues were so sharp and clear… and the gentle but insistent push from God was more than a little annoying, “Get to it. Get on with it. What are you waiting for?” seemed to rattle through the far reaches of his being. Yes, wilderness was threatening, chaotic and remote… but the longer he was there, the silence, the hunger, the solitude… things started to change… He started to change.

No McDonalds, No Starbucks, No breakfast burritos. It was chaos. Wilderness is a place of discarding schedules, meetings and appointments, but also shedding the most basic of our routines… like eating and sleeping. A few days into the wilderness experience, with the absence of food and the abundance of cool, cleansing water, his body began to recover from the shock. As water cleansed the toxins from his blood stream, not only was his body cleansed but his soul began to shed the toxic addiction to schedule. Life is more than consumption. What brings order to the chaos? Relationships… of integrity, respect, dignity, and diversity.

There was silence and solitude. Silence in the Wilderness is deafening, shutting down the assaulting voices of the everyday. As the ears begin to heal in the silence, soft sounds of life emerge everywhere! The soft brush of the breeze caressing shoots of new life on branches and buds that soon would flower, the gentle scurrying of life seemingly out of earshot and sight: mice and lizards and birds and insects… life emerges into focus. There is life in the Wilderness. And suddenly you become keenly aware of the beauty of solitude, the realization that you are not alone. For God, creation and creatures emerge in full spectrum.

In the Wilderness, solitude leads to stillness, betraying the false sense of order shaped by schedules, meetings and communications. There is stillness. To be still means to be vulnerable: sitting duck, so to speak, to passing bandits and hungry predators lurking in the shadows. The fear of stillness plays deepest into our fear of our own failings, our own humanity. But Wilderness solitude is not about isolation. As the heart of Jesus becomes settled with wilderness’ stillness, the presence of the Divine within gains clarity in a way that is tactile.  So close.  So near… you can taste, smell, feel God’s presence.

And it was in this moment that the voice of a 1,000 years of history floods his soul and reminds the wilderness sojourner of God’s mighty hand ushering those who would follow, to freedom and respite, to home, to family/community, and to God who is persistent, present, and ultimately capable.

It may have been in this Wilderness experience that Jesus noticed that this was a place with no boundaries, no borders. There were no fences, no barbed wire, no check points, no border patrols, no lines in the sand. Just rolling sand and rock and stream and oasis, and life in abundance. No “us vs. them” in the wilderness. Just a sometimes-gentle, sometimes-not-so-gentle symbiotic relationship of God’s creation somehow working, living, thriving together. Could this have been the source of Spirit that would drive him toward expansion of the understanding of God’s “chosen”? Could it have been this place where he, with confidence and commitment, dedicates himself to a life of peace-making, and the conviction that evil and war would not rule but rather love, compassion and justice?

Yes, Wilderness is threatening. It is chaotic. But Jesus would come to know Wilderness as friend. For him, Wilderness was about living life beyond the ordinary. Its silence and solitude were not about isolation, but rather clarity. For God and self become crystal clear, as does purpose and direction. So he knew he couldn’t stay there. Because the work of God: healing, beckoning, transforming, strengthening, affirming was to be taken to the streets, homes, parks, schools and neighborhoods.

This is not the last time Jesus w0uld retreat to the wilderness. Throughout his public life of faith he would retreat to wilderness and invite his followers to join him.

So, is it your time? Is it time for you to rise from obscurity of purpose and direction? Is it time to step up and live into that which God has for you to be and do? Is it God’s time for you? When it was his time, Jesus headed to the wilderness — will you follow?

Peace – Bill