Where the Work Gets Done

The gospels recount a number of occasions where Jesus withdrew from his disciples and from the crowds so He could have some time alone with his thoughts and could pray to his Father in heaven. We tend to think of these passages as breaks in the action, as interruptions in the primary narrative, as detours that describe how Jesus prepared for the next important stage in his ministry--how he prepared even for death itself. Many of us would count Jesus's forty days in the wilderness, which we remember during the season of Lent, as being one of those times.

Over the years, I've heard countless sermons take from these passages the lesson that all of us need to withdraw periodically from the hustle and bustle of life so we can rest, refresh, and recover. Sometimes the message pokes fun at our pride: You think you don't need time off and can't afford to take it?! You think you're stronger and more indispensible than Jesus?! Oh, and by the way, you think you wouldn't have rested on the seventh day of creation?! Perhaps you imagine yourself in the middle of Eden, diligently installing a patio and a barbeque pit?!

I will happily confess that I've delivered this message to our congregation in sermons of my own. And I will grudgingly acknowledge that, even more frequently, I've had to press this point upon one of God's more intransigent disciples. It is a directive I find much easier to convey than to obey.

So I take it as an article of faith--and a principle of mental health--that time off matters. A lot. But I also think it is important not to indulge in what I like to call the "vacationization" of these biblical passages. It is a good thing--I would even argue a holy thing--to take a break from the pressure of our daily obligations, to get away, to sleep in the sun and listen to the water on the shore. At the same time, however, I do not think that this is what is going on in most of the biblical passages about Jesus.

Take the story of Jesus's withdrawal into the wilderness. This was no "time out"; this was "game on." We are told that Jesus was led there in order to be tempted; in order to be tested; in order to be challenged; in order to have a chance to exhibit the unyielding firmness of his faith and love for God. True, he was not surrounded by crowds pleading for his healing or disciples jockeying for his attention or opponents screaming for his crucifixion. He had to confront something much more daunting. He had to rebuff the temptations that insinuated themselves into his own thoughts.

We try to be good followers. We send money to Haiti. We serve food at homeless shelters. We visit the sick. We listen to the suffering.

But Lent is an appropriate time to remember the importance of what happens within our own mind, our own soul, our own conscience.

That, too, is where the work gets done.

Amen.