From Wilderness to Glory
Lent and Easter for Everyone
By N.T. Wright
WestminsterJohnKnox, 192 pages, $18
Prolific author N.T. Wright supplies a chapter for each of the 40 days of Lent and the seven days of Easter Week. Each chapter is about four pages long and is based on a New Testament passage translated by the author. With some Easter Week exceptions, all the passages are from the Gospels. Two questions for reflection or discussion conclude each chapter.
Ash Wednesday and the three days following are devoted to Jesus in the wilderness. Week 1 takes up the theme of Jesus among the crowds; Week 2, Jesus in prayer; Week 3, Jesus among friends; Week 4, Jesus among enemies; and Week 5, Jesus in the city. Holy Week explores Jesus on the cross; and Easter Week Jesus in glory.
This book is a useful resource for Lent and other times of year, however well or not so well one comprehends the New Testament text and message. Here are fresh or refreshed insights that I found valuable:
- When Jesus learns of the martyrdom of John the Baptist, he slips away to a quiet place. The crowds disrupt his solitude, but his response is compassion, not anger or frustration. He feeds the 5,000.
- Not only does Jesus teach the Sermon on the Mount, but in the gospel narrative, it gradually comes true in him as he faces the suffering and sorrow of which he spoke.
- At the Last Supper, Jesus must realize that he is about to leave his disciples behind. He has only been with them a short while. They have learned so little, understood so little, grasped so little of what he has been doing in their midst. How will they cope without him?
- The kingdom Jesus came to live and announce was characterized by a generosity that is glorious, uproarious, and absurd. He wants us to live in certain ways because that is what God is like.
- Jesus the mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings is no sentimental image but points ahead to his Passion, for sometimes after a barnyard fire, a dead and burnt hen is found with live chicks underneath her.
In his brief introduction, Bishop Wright reminds us of the perennial Christian pattern of lament (Lent) and celebration (Easter). He helps us live out that pattern in a way that engages our hearts and minds.
The Rev. Charles Hoffacker is an Episcopal priest who lives in Greenbelt, Maryland.
