Every year when we begin the season of Lent….our first Sunday is focused on Jesus in the wilderness….
How do you feel about being in the wilderness?
Some enjoy the wilderness….the smells, its beauty, the wilderness isolation away from traffic and people….
Others can live in the wilderness even amongst a crowd…by isolating themselves….or being isolated and they enjoy it.
Then there are those times in life we find ourselves in the wilderness….
The wilderness doesn't feel too good
We feel alone, life is not going as it should, we feel betrayed or let down, we feel deserted and we are not quite sure what the future holds and we wonder where God is or even worse has God turned against us!!
The problem with the wilderness….even if it appears attractive, in the long term it is not healthy and not where we are meant to be….
There is a story of 8 convicts in Tasmania who escape Macquarie Harbour Penal Settlement and find themselves living in the wilderness.
The problem was whilst they thought the wilderness gave them freedom….
They soon found themselves desperate for food
And so what did they do...
Initially they stole some food...but this wasn't enough.
To survive the convicts progressively were killed and eaten until only one convict remained….Alexander Pearce
The wilderness was not a safe or free place….
Now we may not kill someone, when we are in the wilderness
but have you ever acted in a way or done something that looked after yourself because you felt desperate or in the wilderness?
Have you ever been tempted to desert God and His ways because you were in the wilderness or desperate?
Did you ever make an excuse for bad or even illegal behaviour because you felt in the wilderness?
And in the bible the wilderness is not a happy or romantic place to be…
It is often a place where food and water are scarce
Living conditions are harsh
Even getting through the wilderness at times seems to be take a long time
And so people questioned whether God really loves and cares for them
Remember the Israelites on the 40 years of wilderness journey
At one stage…they are fed up with the conditions in the wilderness and want to abandon following Moses and God….to return to being slaves in Egypt
But from the beginning of creation through the ministry of Jesus and the early church we are reminded we are that being in the wilderness is not meant to be permanent...
In fact we are called not to be alone in the wilderness but to be in relationship with others….
Remember the greatest commandment that Jesus shared in his ministry….
Live a life of loving God and loving others as much as you love yourself….
And the whole biblical story is leading us to living in God's promise that there is a future for us him and all other believers in eternity where sin does not exist.
But today’s reading is not first about us….although I will come back to us later….
Today’s Gospel reading is about Jesus and His wilderness experience!!
Now remember Jesus had just been baptised…..you will find this in Luke 3:21-22
And on that occasion all who were present would of heard His Father say ….Jesus is my Son with whom I am well pleased
But then what happens next?
You would expect that His Father would look after him, make sure he is well received and given some prestigious and respectful role in society….
You would expect His Father reveal to everyone that He truly loved Jesus by making life good for Jesus
That’s our expectation that if someone says I like you and respect you, we expect them to at least look after us and give us some special treatment?
But listen again to what actually happens
Reading from Luke 4:1-2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
Did you hear that?
Jesus didn’t just wander off into the wilderness….
Jesus wasn’t captured and taken into the wilderness…
God’s Spirit led his Son into the wilderness….
and because God’s Spirit is always present God was with him in the wilderness…
This is important to thing to keep in mind not just for Jesus’ story in the wilderness but also for our story….
God is always with us…..even in when we think we are in the wilderness….all alone
One person expressed God’s presence with us even when we don’t realise it in the words of the Footsteps in the sand poem
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
But as I said this wilderness story is first about Jesus and His wilderness experience
Jesus has 3 human experiences in the wilderness….
1. He is hungry and is tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread… to do anything he can do to get food
2. Satan tempts Him to give up his loyalty to God the Father…in exchange for power and prestige from Satan, provided He worships Satan, this means being distracted from His Father’s mission for him.
3. Satan tempts him to prove who he really is, but by earthly human standards….
These experiences are very human experiences aren’t they
• temptation to do anything for the necessities of life…food
• temptation to do things to get out of the wilderness and gain comfort, power and prestige from some thing or someone other than God, and be distracted from God’s call
• temptation to prove who you really are….that we are really loved by God not by God’s standards but by earthly standards….eg, occasionally you will hear people say God would want you to be happy, not suffer…God wants me to have life today in a way that is comfortable for you
These three temptations can occur for anyone finding themselves in the wilderness…and ultimately these temptations are about deserting God and who He has called you to be and what He has called you to do.
So one aspect of Jesus’ wilderness experience is that it reveals to us that Jesus is human…
He experiences what we experience….
We have a powerful God who actually understands how we feel and what we go through in life….
As Hebrews 2:17-18 reminds us
For this reason Jesus had to be made like humans, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
But there is one big difference between us and Jesus, between Jesus and me between Jesus and you
Yes Jesus is human…..
But he is also God…the Messiah
Not only does he not sin……or succumb to temptation as we heard in today’s reading….
He is the one on a mission to save all who have given into temptations…and sinned
As John 3:16-17 reminds us
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
The problem for me and you is that often we have given into temptation…
we don’t feel that great or we want to avoid anyone who will hold us accountable for life, including God….
because we fear God and the consequences of giving into temptation…
yet the whole mission of Jesus is that He deals with God’s wrath for us so we know God as loving and not a condemning God
It is a little bit like those times when I make promises not to eat too much cake...but then at the end of the day I have realised that cake was just too tempting and three pieces just had to be eaten....
Then some time later I feel guilty...and I am not looking forward to what my doctor...let alone what my wife will say
One of the ironies that we see in this story in Luke 4, is that in the third temptation Satan takes Jesus to the highest point in the temple in Jerusalem…
And encourages Jesus to show him that he is the Son of God by throwing himself down and being saved by the angels…..
Well it will be in Jerusalem that Jesus does reveal himself to be the Son of God…but not Satan's way….
At the conclusion of Lent on Easter Sunday we will celebrate that Jesus found himself in Jerusalem not to save himself but to save all who have succumbed to temptation…..including you and me…..
As the Gospel writer of Matthew in Matthew 20:28 says…..
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This is why Jesus is reassuring
Have you ever succumbed to temptation?
Have you ever been tempted to think of yourself above others….
Have you ever fallen for the temptation of not loving God and not loving others even occasionally because you won't get what you want?
Well because Jesus didn’t give into temptation….
Because Jesus is the Son of God who kept focus on His Father’s mission to save the world through the cross….
By believing in Jesus and his life saving actions forgiveness and eternal life is yours for every time when you have not been able to resist temptation…..
Because of the life death and resurrection of Jesus you are not condemned you are forgiven….
But the wilderness times and temptations will continue in our lives until we join God and others in eternity
So what do we do?
How do we live the faith during times of the wilderness and temptations?
First remember God is with you at every moment of your life….even when you don’t think he is present…he is there….so keep turning to him to see him and know his presence
be like the Psalmist in Psalm 63 who says
You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
Seek to see and recognise God when you are facing wilderness times
Second remember sometimes God maybe using our wilderness experiences to shape us or even bless or help others….by being a witness of what it means to rely on God even when life is a tough..
Some years ago in a congregation I had the privilege of listening to an elderly lady of faith. Her life was harsh. She went through many difficulties and challenges, sometimes alone. But she was not a bitter person but rather talked about the goodness in her life, the blessings God had given her and others. And many people wanted to be around her and were encouraged by her because she lived a life of faith and trusting God, in all seasons of life.
Martin Luther is once quoted as saying “My temptations have been my masters in divinity.”
Thirdly be prepared for the wilderness experiences and temptations by daily engaging with God, His word that’s what Jesus did, every time Jesus was tempted he responded with scripture and if you look up these scripture passages you will discover that attached to them is a lot more about God has done, is doing and will do….And we should allow God's Word to shape our response to temptations. For us this includes engaging with God through His word in bible devotion and study, and also through His Christian community in worship and community bible engagements…. Why? Because it is God who tells you He loves you not because you have been perfect and resisted all temptations but because of Jesus whose sacrificial actions gives you the gift of forgiveness and life for eternity…..
Fourthly by engaging with God, God also gives us His perspective to live a life that involves being loved by Him and loving Him and others in all circumstances even during the wilderness experiences…who else says love your enemies... and our love for Him and others is not for our benefit but so others know about a loving and forgiving God….
And lastly when we do mess up….when we do give into temptations even during the wilderness times…. don’t try to run or hide from God….look for and receive God’s forgiving love….knowing that God hasn’t deserted you but has a love for you and the world shown through Jesus…and this is a love that never gives up. Amen
