A MEDITATION ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT

A MEDITATION ON THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENTMatthew 4:1-11by Gregory Holmes Singleton Wilderness and mountains both enticeAnd frighten; places of excitementAnd foreboding. Our first parents, formed in a garden,Were thrown into a wildernessTo suffer pain and death.To a wildernessIshmael and Hagar were exiled,And God’s chosen lost a generationWandering four decadesIn strange waste lands. Yet in more recent loreComposed near the American shore,Wilderness was a place of comfortFor brave Hester and timid Arthur,And a place of sensual wonderFor Young Goodman BrownAnd his fickle Faith. But for JesusWilderness was the place of trialThe place of truthAnd the place of clarity. And what will thisForty day simulationOf wilderness beFor meFor youFor us? Mountains are another matter.Wilderness seems to last forever,But mountain tops are forShort stabs of intense terror,Of serious business inspiring aweAnd sometimes dread.Seeing God in the burning bushAnd receiving the condemning lawMight induce nightmares.Taking a beloved sonUp the mountain to be sacrificedPuts a strain on family affections,And even the Angelic interventionWith the jovial note of “Just Kidding!”Does nothing to remove theTerror and sorrow which mustHave lingered in father and sonTo each of the last dying breath. Yet in a later secular scriptures,Zarathustra went up the mountainTo find joyTo find purposeTo find truthAnd came down to announceThe death of God;Tommy, re-gifted withVoice and Hearing and SightExcitedly climbs the mountainTo Celebrate and proclaimFreedom. But for JesusThe mountain topWas the arena forConquering ego,That cunning fiendThat brings us to ruin. And what will thisForty day simulationOf high peaks beFor meFor youFor us?