by Rev. Aidan Moon
Just Passing Through
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“The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.”
– Mark 1:12-13, English Standard Version
I’m often drawn to wild places. In this case, while living in North Dakota I often made my way to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. The north unit in particular is rugged wilderness, far off the beaten path.
I’ve always found these rough places a prime place for prayer. Perhaps it is the travel itself that makes these spaces so fruitful for me. The openness may be an invitation, but travel requires an active patience. You are in motion, yet you must endure. And in open spaces, the very sparseness of the landscape provides a place for prayer. In the journey through space with nothing else to take my mind away… this is where I found the solace of the presence of God. It is in liminal spaces, in between, on the way, along the path, that I am caught suddenly and find myself in reflection and praise and thanksgiving and confession and joy. It is in between, catching a glimpse, sliding through… in places where I cannot live, but nonetheless must traverse, that I find a place for prayer.
We are in the season of Lent, that period of forty days that leads to a cross and an empty tomb. The number forty has significance as a number associated with those periods of testing and trial that God’s people must endure. Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he fasts, prays, and is tempted by Satan. This crucible right at the beginning of his ministry is a foreshadowing of what is to come. Jesus traverses the wilderness in between – in between baptism and ministry, he must retreat into the wilderness, it’s sparseness, emptiness, and danger, a place where all is stripped away except that battle between good and evil, between the tempter and the Chosen Christ, tended by the angels.
If you choose to lean into this season, may it be an opportunity for you to connect with this same Jesus, this one who is the victor over evil. May the somber tone of reflection and repentance be an opportunity for you to acknowledge the wilderness – in hope that you are just passing through.
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
