Matthew 4:1‑11 – Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days to face temptation.
None of the Gospels tells us just how it happened, but something stirred in Jesus’ soul. Maybe it was like the voice in Field of Dreams that no one else could hear; maybe there wasn’t even a voice, just a deep intuition that the time had come to make the first step in a long journey.
He walked down the dusty streets of Nazareth, out the south end of town and down the Jordan River valley toward Jerusalem. He came to a place a few miles north of the capital city and hung a left towards the spot where his first cousin John was preaching. As John baptized Jesus the voice was clearer: “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I’m well pleased.” That’s archaic language – sounds a little like the way my grandfather spoke when I was a child. Today you might say “you’re my child – I love you and you delight me!”
Immediately Jesus entered a time of wilderness and testing. There he came face to face with the deepest, darkest, toughest dilemmas of his life.
Have you ever had the compelling sense that the Spirit was calling you to get up and take the first step on what could be a long journey? What kind of language and images would you use to describe that feeling?
This is one of those stories that is so absolutely true that we don’t need to worry whether it actually happened, or happened just like this. You know what I mean? For forty days Jesus faced the temptations that Satan dangled: to turn stones to bread, to hurl himself from the high wall of the temple, then to rule everything he could see if he would only kneel down and worship the Evil One.
Our forty days of Lent parallel Jesus’ trials and temptations in the wilderness. The number 40 is holy in scripture. It’s not literal or precise but usually means a long, yet still finite time (neither a blink nor eternity). Think of where we find it:
- Genesis tells us God made it rain for forty days and cleansed the earth, while sparing Noah and his tribe;
- In Exodus the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
- Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments.
- Then the prophet Elijah fled to the mountain of God for 40 days.
These ancient stories share common elements:
- In each, there’s a sense of crisis as the actors feel separated from God.
- Each tells us that when we’re dealing with God, even when nothing is happening something is happening.
- In each, that crisis was resolved with the demonstration that God was, in fact, at work in that time of waiting and watching.
So it was for Jesus in the Judean wilderness for 40 days as the angels watched over him.
As we enter this time of Lent we, too, may enter a trackless place where, like Jesus, we experience our own hunger, thirst, loneliness, and fear. Like him, this is prime time to explore our temptations to use our power foolishly; to woo others’ allegiance through false promises; or to act selfishly while ignoring the rightful needs of others. God called Jesus to love, serve, heal and save humankind. Satan confronted him with other choices.
Now you don’t hear me use the name Satan very often. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes. But let’s be clear that evil isn’t just some vague, vaporous, old-fashioned idea. There’s no question about the presence of powers that seek to destroy love, health, wholeness and peace. And for some it just makes sense to give that evil a name and a face, complete with horns and a pitchfork.
Evil is real and it speaks our language. We can’t make it go away by closing our eyes or thinking happy thoughts. The dark side of creation taunts us and looks for our weak point, our Achilles heel. That’s where temptation strikes.
Marketers have the same skill of seeking your vulnerability: they practically scream their temptations – lose weight, look younger, get sexier, cook better, get rich… We know it’s lies, but some of those messages get through, telling us there’s something wrong with us being the way we are.
By definition, then, we’re in a wilderness when we’re tempted to get off the path, to take a side road, to journey into the unknown, uncharted territory where we lose our bearings. That’s when we imagine we can have benefit without cost, gain without consequences.
Wilderness is all around us – but let’s be clear wilderness is not our enemy. We go there for a while… maybe forty days; maybe forty years, but it’s not permanent. We pass through wilderness times and see the land of promise on the far side.
It’s been said “We can’t say no to temptation without saying yes to something far better.” For us, that means saying “yes” to Jesus – measuring our hopes, fears, joys, temptations against the life he lived and the example he taught. The Lenten question for me then is simply: what tempts me to draw away from following Jesus?
You may be living right now in a time of wilderness and temptation; a time that taunts and tugs at you, calling your name and promising you the world. Every one of us gets lost at some point – or at many points; it’s not just weak folks or inferior Christians or lazy half-hearted believers.
If you’re in such a place, take heart and remember that wilderness the Promised Land always lies on the far side of the wilderness. There are no short cuts and no detours. The only way to get through is to go through – trusting that God will prepare the way.
Scripture tells us there were angels, too, and they waited on Jesus as soon as he turned his back on the temptations. We grow and deepen in significant ways if we will learn from Jesus, and prayerfully ask what’s keeping us from following his path.
The Gospels tell us Jesus went into the wilderness – he felt the Spirit, made the decision, and he went. There he came face to face with the powers of chaos, evil, and death. There he withstood the test and endured the trials. There he said “no” to the temptation of forgetting his humanity and grasping at divinity.
We may not be so strong when we’re tested. But by the grace of God we grow, over time, deeper in the life of the Spirit. We can’t always see where we’re going, but we can see where we used to be.
Paul Tournier, a Swiss, Christian psychotherapist in the last century once described it like this:
God leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterward, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us. Guilt and Grace
Jesus is in the business of seeking the lost, getting our attention, heading us in the right direction. This is the kind of growth that can’t happen in a day, or a single season.
Today, the Spirit urges us to take another step on the long journey towards transformation. This ancient story can guide us towards a time for prayer and reflection in our overly busy lives, as we seek and follow the way of the Christ.