The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 13, 2011
Vol. 14 no. 11
Lent begins oddly in a garden, circling around a tree that is trouble, and then moves out to the wilderness where trees are in scarce supply – sort of like around here. The first Adam and the second Adam or Jesus were involved in finding something to eat, which seems to be the eternal problem during Lent, traditionally a season of fasting, of doing without.
The season of Lent, full of symbols and paradoxes, symbolizes the 40 days of Jesus wandering in the wilderness after his baptism and before his active ministry began. Forty days recalls the days and nights of the rain in Noah’s Flood, the time Moses spent on Mount Sinai conversing with God, and the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness of Sinai… 40 on their minds. Traditional Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes with sunrise on Easter morning, but that is actually 46 days, for even while it was enforcing a strict fast, the Christian Church never forgot to feast on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. The six Sundays that occur during Lent are subtracted from the total. I do not believe Jesus got a break during his 40 days, but then you and I are not Jesus.
The most subtle and important symbolism is recognized by the Lectionary readings. Jesus heading off into the wilderness is a parable of Jesus reentering the now barren Garden of Eden and reversing the outcome of temptation, again first focused on the obvious desire to eat. Jesus is not to be tempted by bread alone.
Whether our setting is a garden or a desert, our first step in Lent is to recognize that we are not beyond temptation. Naming the stones we wish would be changed into bread can open the first door back into Eden.
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan