I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Jesus’s baptism and his subsequent journey into the wilderness, where he ultimately was tempted. The part I find most thought-provoking is in the space between God’s declaration of Jesus as his beloved Son and Jesus’s decision to journey into the wilderness.
The Gospel writers provide no indication that Jesus showed up for his baptism with plans for a wilderness retreat. There’s no mention of him arriving with his camping gear ready for a forty-day adventure. Instead, the gospel writers try to reflect in different ways Jesus’s decision—upon rising from the waters of baptism—to respond to the leadings of the Holy Spirit to go on this journey to listen more deeply.
The part I find most thought-provoking is in the space between God’s declaration of Jesus as his beloved Son and Jesus’s decision to journey into the wilderness.
Jesus’s time in the wilderness and facing the temptations was a journey of discovery in the life and mission he would live as the beloved Son of God.
As we begin this season of Lent, we may not make a conscious choice to enter that vulnerable space of “wilderness” as part of our experience. Yet, the very nature of living periodically takes us into the wilderness, where we face harder and deeper questions about our life.
In many ways, Lent is less about what we choose to give up for the forty days and more about how we make the space and time to listen and discover who God is inviting us to be and what to do through our discipleship. In this act of intentional living, a new hope, a new perspective on life, is the gift we can encounter.
In many ways, Lent is less about what we choose to give up for the forty days and more about how we make the space and time to listen and discover who God is inviting us to be and what to do through our discipleship.
In my own effort to enter that space of deeper listening during Lent, I’ve come to recognize that Easter never can fully offer its truest expression of divine love, grace, and hope in what God made possible through Jesus without our time of being vulnerable to explore the harder and deeper questions of life and how we choose to live with purpose.
I’m grateful for the insightful work and planning that the World Church Formation Ministries Team has provided as we journey together as a faith community. Hope is the shared focus of what we want the church to experience in 2025. And the theme focus during this Lenten season is “Journey with Hope.”
I can’t help but wonder if this thought of “journey with hope” resonated in Jesus as he entered deep listening in the wilderness experience. When you truly discover that you are beloved by God, hope is the gift that abides with you wherever your journey takes you. I believe it was that hope and love that Jesus carried to the cross and in his last breath. And then in God’s hope, God did what only God could do. In the resurrection, hope was ignited, and it has been igniting in people’s lives from that day forward.
When you truly discover that you are beloved by God, hope is the gift that abides with you wherever your journey takes you.
As we look ahead to Easter, our theme focus will shift to “Ignite Hope.”
As I hold you—the church—in my prayers in the days to come that take us to Easter and then our World Conference, my prayer will be that hope is present and growing within each of you. May you continue to discover how deeply God loves you, and may your life reflect that love and purpose wherever your journey takes you.
