How is this like a re-boot?

Lent has arrived for 2021. We thought 2020 was a rough one and now 2021 doesn’t see to have been given a proper re-boot – to use a computer term.

How do we re-boot? Well I have written about Ctrl-Alt-Delete before but this is different.

Earlier this year we looked at Mark 1:4-11, where Jesus was baptised in the River Jordan. So why do we return there? Well, following the Transfiguration we have already seen the linkage between the words from God at the Baptism and at the Transfiguration. The only differences being: [1] (in Mark’s account) Jesus only heard God speak at the Baptism, and [2] God adds ‘Listen to him’ at the Transfiguration. So what’s so important about the locations?

Geography

It might be a good idea to look back again at the Geographical references, and ponder upon them their significance. When we look at this earlier, we might not have had the time to stay with that aspect. Like the computer, ‘how is this like a re-boot?’

Nazareth

Wow, we sing about it, and we mentioned it so much at Christmas Nativity services, but Nazareth was not a good place to be associated with back then. We find in Mark 2:1-12 that Jesus is already declaring that Capernaum is the ‘home town’ now. Then again, what is your home town? Is it the place you were born? I don’t recall ever living where I was born, and with the Royal Air Force, I rarely stayed very long in any one place: so my ‘home town is a difficult one to state. In my previous location of ministry, in Todmorden in West Yorkshire, there were people who had stayed in one house for over 50 years. For them the answer may be clear. But to move them now would be such a change, It would be like a re-boot for them.

Ched Myers declares that “Jesus’ obscure origins is tantamount to introducing him as ‘Jesus from Nowheresville’ “

Binding the Strongman, p128.

Galilee

Galilee is certainly not Judea. Jesus was reluctant to venture further South towards Jerusalem until he was ready to face the authorities there. “After the two Jewish Revolts against Rome (66–70 and 132–135 CE), Galilee became the centre of Palestine’s Jewish population and the home of the rabbinic movement as Jews moved north from Judea“. Galilee was also a place which was populated by mainly poor Gentiles. The social inequality with those from Judea is stark, and Samaria separating these regions didn’t help.

The area is referred to by Isaiah as the ‘Galilee of the Gentiles‘ (Isaiah 9:1-2). The land was occupied by many nations, a frontier region of Israel, surrounded in all quarters. Luke describes those folk from Galilee as ‘Jews with a regional accent’, possibly considered laughable, and those from Jerusalem would ridicule them. {1}

Galilee is a land ripe for restoration, both politically and economically – prime for like a re-boot. Jesus offered that form of restoration to Jews from Judea and Galilee, but went oh so much further. The Kin_dom of God, however, you spell the phrase, is mentioned 14 times in Mark’s Gospel. People see a new vision of hope. Here, rather than Galilee remaining an enclave, there is a freedom of diversity of people becoming as one, regardless of borders, previous divisions.

Now, in defiance of past power struggles, “enemies could become friends, foreigners could now become neighbours, and strangers could become family” – now that’s a kin_dom, where kin are at one.

Elizondo, Virgilio., JESUS THE GALILEAN JEW IN MESTIZO THEOLOGY, Theological Studies 70(2009) – an excellent longish read.

That’s Good News (Mark 1:1)!

River Jordan

Just as Galilee is bordered by opposing factions, the River Jordan is a border between the wilderness and the promised land. Jesus, in his baptism, is that bridge, that ways of means of crossing that border for good. Jesus’ call for repentance is where we are permitted to freely cross.

Wilderness, a place ripe for like a re-boot

This wilderness is one in which people might imagine a dusty panorama, devoid of any vegetation. Perhaps it could also be imagined as a state of mind. In the current Pandemic, where mental health is a great concern, our wilderness is not clearly visible, certainly may be not to others. We might just see in this Lenten period that we may journey towards finding ourselves, giving time for us to recognise our foibles, our ways, and to see where God, alongside us, can provide that loving support.

Lent is our time to re-boot, to reacquaint ourselves where God is in our lives. We may, as Jesus, find God in that Wilderness, where we find the straight road out.

Here’s a Lenten Prayer Calendar from the Strathclyde Methodist Circuit:

Lenten Prayer Calendar 2021 by Bob Stoner on Scribd

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{1} Meier, A., “A Marginal Jew”, 3.631

Cover photo from Wilderness Reboot 2021, with thanks