Advent Week 2: Wilderness

Location: Mountain Cabin
Matthew 3:1-12

"People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River" (Matt 3:5-6, NIV).

A few times a year, my mom and I head to a mountain cabin outside Chattanooga where there is the most beautiful vista and a stunning sunrise. When it’s warm, we do yoga, meditation, and prayer practices outside on the deck overlooking the mountains. We encounter God there and feel centered and overcome with peace. It’s interesting that we leave our respective homes and our churches to come to this place to experience God. It’s not that we don’t encounter God at home or in our church, but there’s something special about being in the wilderness that enables us to feel God’s presence is near.

During Advent readings, the theme of wilderness comes up when we read about John the Baptist in Matthew 3. John was a prophet who proceeded Jesus and preached in the wilderness, telling everyone he could that the Kingdom of God was near. I always picture John as a peculiar fellow, a man who’s a little off-kilter and would definitely stand out in a crowd. Kind of a Tarzan of sorts. Scripture is very specific to tell us that John wore clothes made of camel hair and ate locusts and wild honey (Matt 3:4). And what especially caught my attention about this passage is that it says people left the city of Jerusalem and all regions of Jordan to come to John out in the wilderness to hear about Jesus’ first and second coming (Matt 4:5). 

Like my mom and I pilgrimage to the mountain cabin to encounter God’s presence, the people of Jerusalem and all regions of Jordan also left their homes and their temple to hear John the Baptist share God’s truth outside of their traditions and religious institutions. 

Throughout scripture, the wilderness has many important implications and meanings, but in this instance, the wilderness reminds me of God’s wild and free spirit. God rarely follows human-made rules and structures. God could have chosen a well known Pharisee or a member of the Sanhedrin to prophesy about Jesus’ two comings, but God chose John the Baptist who preached outside of the Temple and ate the food of the poor.(1) 

God could have ensured that Jesus was born as someone of noble birth, born to a King to inherit a thrown. But instead, Jesus was born to a humble woman named Mary, who was almost disowned by her husband, and who had her baby in a cave surrounded by livestock. 

God could have chosen people with influence to be his disciples. People with powerful jobs who already had followers. But Jesus chose seemingly ordinary men—from the sunburned fisherman to the disliked tax collector—for his inner circle. 

God is not against institutions and structures, Jesus taught in synagogues for example (Luke 4:15), and God cannot be contained by institutions and structures—Jesus also taught on mountainsides (Matt 5:1), in houses (Luke 5:18), and on boats (Luke 5:3).

"God cannot be contained by institutions and structures..."

This Advent season, as you prepare your heart to celebrate Christ’s first coming and eagerly anticipate Christ’s second coming, grow closer to God by looking for God in the wilderness. Take time to find God in all things: in the songs on the radio, in the memories of your ornaments, in the joy of watching a child open a present. Open your mind to see God where you may not usually look. And the wilderness of your life may be a beautiful vista, but it also may be a desolate darkness. Regardless of what your wilderness looks like, you can find God there.

Work Referenced
(1) Boring, Eugene M. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary Volume VII. Edited by Leander E. Keck et. al. Abingdon Press: Nashville, 2015, 90.