Next Sunday is the first of April – April Fool’s Day – 24-hour period that has no great significance other than the playing of practical jokes. Over the years there have been some wonderful April Fool’s Day jokes played on people.
I remember reading the April 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated. The sports magazine revealed that the New York Mets had recruited a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a baseball at 168 mph — 65 mph faster than the previous record.
It is one thing to travel across the wilderness in order to arrive at a destination; but it is quite another to wander around a wasteland for forty years. The Israelites did both. As they left Egypt and made their way to Mount Sinai, the plan was to continue on to the Promised Land of Canaan. And they did, but when they sent twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan to see what their new homeland would be like—and what would be required to occupy it—events took a dramatic turn. The spies returned and spoke highly of the land, but they were terrified of the people already living there. Yes, Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey, but the inhabitants were giants and war-like. The spies spoke with fear, and this fear spread throughout the community of Israel. God’s people were terrified. And in their fear, they refused to go forward.
Man begins his journey in this world in a garden. Adam and Eve are established in the Garden of Eden, surrounded by various other God-created creatures and God-created vegetation. And, the Word of the Lord distinguishes, speaks specifically about, two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We are told that both trees were in the middle of the garden, perhaps side by side.
When I taught the Fourth Commandment to my 7th grade Catechism class, I asked them what kind of discipline their parents have used on them. The students mentioned spankings when they were younger, mouths washed out with soap for talking back; grounding from activities; taking away electronics; turning off the Wi-Fi; doing extra chores; having to babysit their younger siblings; and picking up dog poo in the backyard.
Slavery—bondage—servitude. Brutal taskmasters—heavy burdens—daily despair and hopelessness. This was the land of Egypt for the Israelites. Four hundred years prior, the land of Egypt was a place of refuge, a place of rescue. It was a place that promised food in the midst of famine, a land that gave the Hebrews a home at a time when things were becoming desperate. But that had all changed. A pharaoh had ascended to the throne who did not know, who did not acknowledge the great deeds and works of Joseph. Now, the Hebrew people had become a source of cheap labor. Now, the Hebrew people were enslaved to carry out the building projects of the pharaoh. Now, slavery, bondage, and servitude, brutal taskmasters and heavy burdens were their lot, and they groaned under this reality.
We do love our clothes, do we not? It is no accident that there is one clothing store after another in the malls and shop after shop that offers one style of garment or the other. These stores and shops are scattered throughout our towns and cities. Can you imagine if there was only one clothing store selling only one style of clothing intended for all people? Such a thing would cause a rebellion. How would we express our individuality? How would we strut our stuff? How would we survive without our glad rags and pretty coverings?
Peter is confused. Moments before he had given his bold and correct confession, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29) Now he is being pulled aside and admonished by the Christ.
Although Peters knows the right answer, he doesn’t know how he got there. It’s like a student who got the right answer on his math problem, but didn’t show his calculations, so he doesn’t know how he got there.
A beautiful, perfect place—paradise! God created the heavens and the earth. God created all living creatures that crawl on the ground, that swim in the waters, and that fly in the air. God created man; in His own image He created them, male and female He created them. And it was good! Very good. It was perfect. He placed man, the crown of His creation, in a beautiful garden called Eden. Indeed, it was beautiful because it was perfect. There was no need to labor and till the ground because it produced all that man needed in abundance. There was no need to worry about the weather because the world was perfect and danger did not exist. There was no need to worry about anything because everything was exactly right, exactly perfect, and exactly how God intended for it to be.
Mark gives the temptation of Jesus only a few short sentences in his Gospel: “The Spirit immediately sent Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels were serving him.” It goes by so quickly in Mark, you almost miss it.
Between my sophomore and junior years in college, I spent the summer working in Yakima, Washington. I stayed with Joe Johnson, a college classmate and a native of Yakima.
One weekend, Joe and I decided to climb one of the smaller mountains in the Mount Rainer National Park. It took us several hours to reach the top of the mountain. It was a hard, sweaty, worthwhile climb. However, we had misjudged how long it would take us to get to the pinnacle of that mountain. So, we only had a few hours to get back down before nightfall.