Facing the Wilderness—Deut. 26: 1-11; Luke 4: 1-13
Today’s Gospel lesson begins with the words that Jesus “was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” Many of the Biblical Commentaries give great detail to the theology surrounding the temptations. They talk extensively about the Christology of this passage, meaning an explanation of how Jesus is shown as the Son of God. But, for us, right now, the concern is how do we cope with living in the wilderness? Jesus was baptized, filled with the Spirit, energized, and living on the great spiritual high place, then immediately, he found himself in the wilderness. How do we, too, live in the wilderness?
There’s also the Deuteronomy passage for us, which records the departure of the Hebrew people from Egypt. If you recall, it was 40 years they wandered in the desert. But most translations call it a wilderness, not a desert. In thinking on that scripture, it’s easy to judge and say, “How dumb do you have to be to mess up so badly that God sends you to wander in the wilderness for 40 years?” But the truth is, it’s a lot easier to wind up in the wilderness than you may think.
Many of us find ourselves in the wilderness these days. Life has seemed kind of heavy. The news is dire. Our good health is fleeing quickly. We’re facing new places and challenges in life we never expected. All of these places that challenge our peace, comfort, and ease of mind can be rightly called a wilderness. Basically, you don’t have to be in a literal desert to find yourself in the wilderness. It’s a place of temptation, trial, and fear which all hit us when we are most weak, vulnerable, and insecure in our lives.
In that point of great weakness, need, and vulnerability, Jesus was not only struggling physically in the wilderness; he was also viciously tempted by Satan to make him utterly fail. It is when you are at your lowest point in life’s wilderness that your trials and temptations will shout the loudest. The three points where Satan sought to tempt Jesus were doubt, greed, and selfishness.
Jesus was starving after fasting for 40 days, struggling, weary, and tired. Satan comes to him recognizing this weakness and taunts both Jesus’s sovereignty and exploits his hunger. Satan tells Jesus to turn the stones to bread. He doesn’t tempt Jesus to actually eat. He only lays the bait. He calls on Jesus to doubt that God the Father will sustain him through the wilderness and fasting. Jesus then redirects Satan—bread is not the point of life; God is the author, the source, and the whole reason for life.
Then Satan tempts Jesus with greed. He offers the kingdoms of the world to Jesus. This temptation is harder than you may initially think. Greed is more than just money. It’s a lust power. It’s a gluttony for living in ways of excess which cause us to worship the world and its blessings instead of the One who created the world and all the blessings of it. If your wilderness is boredom, addiction, a desire for things, or a dissatisfaction with God and God’s blessings, then this is a tough temptation at your lowest point for it invites you to a momentary feel-good place instead of working through the trial with God. The invitation is to come and worship bad habits which feel good for a moment, instead of God who is strong and loving in every moment of life.
Then Satan tempts Jesus with selfishness. Satan takes Jesus to the holiest place and, knowing Jesus will not worship Satan, asks Jesus to worship himself. There’s an old movie called The Devil’s Advocate, where Al Pacino plays the devil. One of his lines in the movie is, “Vanity is my favorite sin.” Selfishness shows up a number of ways: criticizing constantly, needing to be right and show you are right (which I confess I need to lay on the altar myself), refusing to acknowledge a need for God and those who are around you. Vanity is an easy temptation because humility doesn’t exactly feel good most days. But we must find a careful, spirit-filled balance between good self-esteem and self-worship.
Jesus overcomes temptation. After tiring of Satan’s antics, he flat says, “You must NOT test the Lord your God.” With that Satan is finished…for now. An important point is that we are told Satan leaves “until the next opportunity.” Life is lived through a series of trials and temptations. It’s unfair, I’ll be the first to admit. But the unfairness is evened out, because just as Jesus had the strength to respond and navigate through the wilderness, so do we. The Hebrew people spent 40 years struggling through the wilderness, but God saw them through to the promised land. Jesus suffered for 40 days in the wilderness, but he came through and began a work which saved the world.
Living life in the wilderness is hard, and there’s no way to soften that truth. But the wilderness is made more bearable by a few things in life. First, like Jesus, we must face the wilderness filled with the Holy Spirit. There’s really no other way to go through life’s wilderness and trials. Second we have a Savior who has suffered through and overcome the wilderness and a God who has power over all things including the power to get us through the wilderness.
Finally, we have people who will journey with us. I was cleaning out emails the other day and came across an old one from 2012 where Sissy, or Saint Sissy, as we called her wrote me an email while I was out sick with the flu. I imagined her sitting and slowly typing the short email with her small hands twisted up with arthritis, but still persisting in sending me a message. She told me to drink lots of hot green tea because it’s soothing for the throat and fever. She added, let God love on you. Me too. Sissy. Facing the wilderness can be frightening, the unknown, the doubt we carry, the inhumanity we see every day. But God is always with us, and there are those around us who will be our help and support as we journey together. As the hymn says, “What have I to dread, what have I to fear [when I’m] leaning on the everlasting arms?” Amen.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/650339992899412