Individually and collectively, we have experienced anxiety, fear, pain, loss, and suffering. We have been moving through a dry and weary land. We have certainly been through the wilderness this year on multiple levels. The Israelites’ long sojourn resonates with our own communal experience over the past year. They needed to coalesce, to find their way, to develop structures and leadership and a common culture before they were ready to enter the promised land. When they escaped from slavery in Egypt, they were not really formed as a people yet. We know that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Sometimes, the wilderness journey prepares us for what lies ahead.
Or, the wilderness may teach us to live with part of our lives that cannot be changed. We may learn how better to give and receive love. We may grow in strength, resilience, courage, or faith. We may find healing while traversing the wilderness. What we lose or need to leave behind and what we take on or gain in our wilderness is unique to our own histories, suffering, and needs. That’s a big part of Jesus’ wilderness experience, but that’s his experience. In fact, God helps us to use those experiences of suffering, pain, loneliness, depression, and temptation to prepare, to grow, to find our way forward, and to become the most authentic selves we can be.Ĭlearly, going through the wilderness is not just about being tempted. With you I am well pleased,” and implied in that, God says, “I am with you always.” God knows we will have wilderness experiences and never lets us go through them alone. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love with him I am well pleased’.” The same is true for us, God calls each of us by name and declares, “You are my child, whom I love. At that moment…he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. The Gospel of Matthew says, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water. Keep in mind what happened right before Jesus’ was led into the wilderness. Whatever impels us onto our wilderness pathways, God helps us to weather these times, make the most of them, and come out the other side. Sometimes life just happens – we get sick, a relationship falls apart, we make poor choices, we get caught in a pandemic, or we suffer the severe impacts of climate change.
And there may be times when God leads us into the wilderness, but more often, we stumble into or are compelled by circumstance to go through the wilderness. God does not cause suffering or pain, but God knows we will experience suffering and pain in our lives. God does not tempt or test us, but God knows that we will be tempted and tested in our lives. Let’s think about the God we know who is at work in all of the processes of the universe and intimately involved in our continual becoming as human persons. He was continuing the process of becoming Jesus. I think he was preparing himself or, rather, the Spirit was helping him to become prepared for the temptations he would inevitably face.
What was he doing the other 39 days? All Matthew tells us is that Jesus fasted. The text says that Jesus spent forty days and nights in the wilderness, but the temptations all come at the very end of the story – after Jesus has already spent. Yet, did you notice that Matthew doesn’t give us much detail about what preceded the final day when the temptations occurred. The three temptations relate to performing a miracle to satisfy his need for food, then testing God’s love and care for him, and finally the temptation of power and dominion over others. Matthew tells us that the Spirit led Jesus there to be tempted by Satan. You don’t have to imagine what that looked like – just put Jesus into the vast, barren landscape with the lone broom tree in our main image for today. The places he went were mostly desert wilderness. The story we just heard was not Jesus’ only venture through the wilderness, but it was probably his most formative. Jesus spent a lot of time in the wilderness.
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