Week 2: Christ in the Wilderness

O Lord open our lips.

That our mouths may proclaim your praise.

O God, come to our aid.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end. Amen.

Almighty God,

you have made us for yourself,

and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:

pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,

and so bring us at last to your heavenly city

where we shall see you face to face;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

'[Following his baptism] the Spirit immediately drove [Jesus] out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.'

[Mark 1.12-13]

Mark's is a very sparse gospel. He gives us the barebones of the story and leaves others to fill in the rest. Only on one or two occasions does he give us anything other than a bare description, for instance telling us that the place where the feeding of the 5,000 took place had green grass, an unusual feature in the Judean wilderness. It's the same with the story of the Temptation. In Matthew and Luke we get a deeper sense of the battle Jesus had to face with Satan: the temptations, and Jesus's response.

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Stanley Spencer, along with Eric Gill is one of my favourite artists. Both in their own way were deeply troubled, and in terms of Gill, troubling individuals, yet they both produced religious artwork which make us stop and think.

- I first encountered Spencer through his image 'The Resurrection at Cookham'. A painting that represents the Last Trumpet call the Great Assize in terms of eternity, that is not a manic rush, but as though it were taking place on a calm Sunday afternoon in rural Berkshire.

In this image Jesus is in the wilderness, and he holds in his hands a scorpion. He is holding it despite the fact that he seems to have been stung at least once already. (Notice how swollen his left hand is compared with the right.) Yet he does not drop or crush the creatures, but rather lovingly and tenderly considers it, as one might consider a fine piece of porcelain. It is he after all who created the creature, and knows everything about it.

Archbishop Stephen Cotttrell in his book of reflections on the artwork of Spencer notes that there are two complementary ways of viewing this image. The first is of the famished Jesus, tempted to turn the stones around him into bread, and yet instead of being given bread (or even an egg or fish) to eat is instead given a scorpion to contemplate. 

Secondly if we look at Christ's face there is profound suffering, but there is also compassion and resolve. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus will ask that the cup of suffering be removed from him, but only if God wills it. In the same way God holds humanity in the palm of his hands and will not let go, even as we his creation kick and scream like a small child caught up in the midst of an uncontrollable tantrum.

We often hold onto things that hurt us. Sometimes it's because we what we are holding onto is too precious to us, even if holding on saps us to the very core of our being. (Perhaps its person, or something we feel called to.) There are also things that we know we need to let go of, but the cost of doing so is too great for us. An addictive substance or behaviour perhaps.

For Reflection

- Take a moment to give thanks to God, that he holds on to us even when we want to go our own way.

- Who or what are the scorpions in your own life? Who or what do you long to let go of, and yet at the same time cannot or will not do so because of love? Because of the cost of doing so?

Take a moment to offer these things to God. And to ask for his help in either letting go, or the strength to persevere in holding on.

Concluding Prayer

Let us pray.

Almighty God,

whose Son Jesus Christ fasted forty days in the wilderness,

and was tempted as we are, yet without sin:

give us grace to discipline ourselves in obedience to your Spirit;

and, as you know our weakness,

so may we know your power to save;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.