March 17: Waiting
♫ Music:
Monday, March 17—Day 13
Moses & Christ: In the Wilderness
So Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
Exodus 34:28 & Matthew 4:1-2
Waiting
Silence, contemplation, sleep.
Wandering.
Prayer, peace. fasting,
Singing, laughter, dancing,
Sitting, listening,
Pondering, questioning,
Praising.
Temptation, testing, hunger,
Asking,
Receiving,
Renewal.
What did Moses and Jesus do during these times, these long stretches of time, where conceivably nothing (or, perhaps, everything) was happening?
I am amazed by the way scripture treats these fasts, these waitings, so simply – mere sentences that serve to mark a moment in the story of God’s love for his people.
Scripture highlights that Moses’ time with the Lord came after clear directions for preparation, as captured in Exodus 34: 1-9. Moses was told to cut new tablets, then to “be ready” and “come up” to the mountain and “present” himself to the Lord. As the Lord passes by and names/proclaims himself, Moses worships and seeks the Lord on behalf of the people. Even then, God speaks further, renewing His covenant with Israel and directing Moses to write the things He has said. It is then that Exodus 34:28 indicates that, having received from the Lord, Moses’ fast begins.
Moses’ fast was not in solitude.
He was with the Lord.
The Lord was with Moses.
It was a communal space.
Moses was waiting to share with the people what God had shared with him. Moses came down from the mountain transformed.
Jesus’ time in the desert fasting was at the prompting and guidance of the Holy Spirit (as recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke). But scripture does not indicate that it was “with” the Lord in the way that Moses’ fast was. No time of preparation is indicated in the surrounding verses, and the emphasis on his hunger at the end of the fast points to an emptiness and vulnerability not present in Moses’ story. Jesus--God with us, was emptied by his fast.
Riviere’s piece seems to reflect on Christ’s contemplation of his humanity, and the reality of the task he is about.
In this season of fasting and waiting, where we set aside little things to remind us of the true cost of our salvation, I mentally and spiritually wander between being like Moses, acutely aware of God with me and waiting to share what has been revealed, and being like Jesus, empty and waiting for release and from release, renewal.
I am also reminded that this season is a communal season that is guided by the Holy Spirit.
And so we wait in the midst of the story of God’s love for us.
The waiting does not belong to you.
The waiting belongs to the Lord.
And so we are sustained.
Prayer
Lord, may this season of waiting and reflecting be a time where distraction, the call to be elsewhere doing other, to be pulled away from you, be minimized by the knowledge and embrace of your presence. Let us be willing to be emptied in the waiting. Let us be wiling to be guiding to places of contemplation, moved by your Holy Spirit. You alone, Lord, fill and sustain. When the waiting has ended, let us be willing to share what we have been given, in light of Christ’s great sacrifice. Let us be renewed. Amen.
Jamie Whitaker Campbell, Assistant Professor, Torrey Honors Institute
The Temptation in the Wilderness
Briton Rivière
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
Oil on canvas
About the Artist and Art
Briton Rivière (1840-1920) was a British artist trained by his drawing-master father, William Rivière. His first paintings appeared at the British Institution, and in 1857 he exhibited three works at the Royal Academy, but it was not until 1863 that he became a regular contributor to the Academy exhibitions. He is best known as a painter of wild animals, a field in which he still stands supreme.
The Temptation In the Wilderness is an example of the artist's technical skill and knowledge, and is also known as an interesting experiment in color. The white figure of Christ stands out against the sunset glow of the sky, both sky and figure being focused by the gloom of the landscape. He made many notes of the color effects derived from the juxtaposition of white and sunset, and found, as he expected and hoped, that the white, in shadow with the cold light of the south-eastern sky, appeared almost as a bright blue against the warm north-western sunset sky. This enabled him to dispense with the conventional nimbus of purely ecclesiastical pictures, and yet achieve an effect of the miraculous by showing, as if by accident, the white evening star, greatly magnified by the composition, just over the head of the Savior.
About the Music
40 Days lyrics:
Forty days to wander
Forty days to die to self
Forty days to grow stronger
As faith breaks open the gates of hell
The jubilee is over
But grace is far from gone
In the hearts of the faithful
Broken on the wheels of love
'Cause in the desert of temptation
Lies the storm of true conversion
Where springs of living water drown and refresh you
And as the Jordan pours out change
Your true self is all that remains
Where springs of living water bind and break you
Bind and break you
Forty days to remember
The Paschal Sacrifice
Forty days to discover
His passion calls us to new life
The jubilee is over
But mercy's far from gone
In the arms of the Father
As the wayward child comes home
'Cause in the dessert of temptation
Lies the storm of true conversion
Where springs of living water drown and refresh you
And as the Jordan pours out change
Your true self is all that remains
Where springs of living water bind and break you
Bind and break you
Bind and break you
Bind and break you
About the Musician
Matt Maher (b 1974) is a contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, songwriter and worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada, who later relocated to Tempe, Arizona. He has written and produced seven solo albums to date. Three of his albums have reached the Top 25 Christian Albums Billboard chart and four of his singles have reached the Top 25 Christian Songs chart. He is a practicing Catholic.
http://www.mattmahermusic.com/