The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
February 10, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 06

Everything But...
           The wilderness is too nice. Modern usage has mixed up and confused the two ancient categories of wilderness and paradise. Many entreat us to preserve our precious wildernesses as great natural resources, and as locations of pristine beauty and virtual holiness untouched by humanity’s conniving grasp. The wilderness is a paradise, the garden of God, to which we yearn to return.
           I have nothing against wilderness, and its beauty can take one’s breath away, but this is not the wilderness of the Bible and of Jesus’ 40 day sojourn. The wilderness was not nice for Jesus and the rest of ancient society, a forbidding, treacherous environment that was the setting for Jesus’ “Lenten” preparation for his ministry. This wild place was no place for human beings and barely a place for God.
           The wildernesses of Israel and Mesopotamia were not the Saharan sand dunes, but rugged terrains with some vegetation, even trees and water. When one could not avoid it one passed through these regions ruled by wild animals and - I forgot - the humans lurking there, usually brigands and thieves ready to pounce upon unsuspecting travelers. Jesus’ 40 days is depicted as foodless, but nothing is mentioned about lions and jackals and scorpions, nor are robber gangs mentioned. There were plenty of demons, however, if you tried to stay in the wilderness. Jesus had at least one who tried to turn his brain and his heart inside out.
           For centuries, people who sought to be holy ventured into the wildernesses to defeat their personal demons and to allow God to find them. Strangers in a strange land: today we’ll hear about a man whose name was the Stranger and whose calling became to love all strangers.