Jesus was baptized and led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit of God. That’s how the story of his temptation begins. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast and pray and be tempted by the very presence of evil. Have you ever thought about that?
I’ve heard this story a thousand times, but I’ve never thought about the way it overlaps with the Lord’s prayer. That prayer comes from the disciples asking Jesus how to pray, and he told them to start with glory, move to basic needs, repent for sin between us and between God, and beg that we do not have to face the same kind of trial that he did. Of course, it ends giving glory to God, too.
I’ve always wondered why God would lead us into temptation in the first place, but I guess the real issue is that temptation always seems to come along in the wilderness. That’s not to say that there is some weird demonic force living in the woods. The woods are not the same as the wilderness. The wilderness, in Biblical terms, means “untamed” or “the state of being wild”
Having spent a lot of time in the woods growing up, I remember the first time that I ever felt truly threatened. I was on staff at Camp Glenkirk in VA. It was after dark and we had cabins in a remote village set up. A girl’s cabin and a boy's cabin were set with a cooking area in between, and they were scattered around the property. I knew the trails pretty well, and I had been tasked to bring some meds to a kid who missed a check-in at the nurse’s station. It was a clear, starry night, so I turned off my flashlight. Suddenly I realized that these were unfamiliar woods, and the only creatures that were likely to be out were predators.
It was highly unlikely that there would be any with the noise of the campers and the activity and smells of the area, but I still became a little nervous. I was all alone. Who would know? You can imagine how glad I was when I saw two other counselors on some other errand. I had to confess my own sin for being on a trail at night by myself, and we saw one another to safety.
The thing is, we can find ourselves in the same state no matter where we go. Years later I was coaching soccer and I was trying to recruit another parent as an Assistant Coach. Somehow the conversation turned to time spent in the woods as kids. I mentioned how I always knew my way from trees and hills, but I find it harder here where it’s flat. He said, “Well, you can at least tell where North is.” Suddenly I realized that I’d never paid attention to that. I never needed to pay attention to it before. When I told him, it was like he suddenly lost all respect for me.
Wilderness, the state of the wild, can be like that. It can come out of nowhere, and it can be anywhere. We can find it online quicker than anything, and it flows from our very human tendency to want there to be no wilderness in the first place.
It starts with the story of Adam and Eve, which is part of the second attempt at a creation narrative in the Bible. I say the second attempt because Genesis comes from stories from at least three traditions that were blended into one, and this story was passed down through generations – as it is today – as a way to understand why humans do dumb and selfish things.
For generations we have said that it started with Eve, and whether consciously or not that has led to some very bad treatment of women based on the expectation of some cosmic penance that places women in an inferior role. Were it not so we would not be one of the 12 states that never ratified the ERA, and there would not be ongoing discussions about gender gaps in compensation or medical care. No, I’m not just talking about “man colds.” Women wait longer for treatment and are treated differently in regard to pain management, among other inconsistencies.
You may think this is a digression, but it is absolutely not. The way we read these specific passages, and the way we handle scripture in general, is crucial to our understanding of the wilderness that we are in and the path to get us all out! For example, have you ever heard or seen the scripture quote, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.”
That was from verse 9 of our Gospel reading. It wasn’t Jesus. It was the devil. Let’s talk about that guy for a minute, too. First off, in the Old Testament, Satan represents rebellion from God. The snake was never called Satan in the text, but he does fill the role. He tempts the woman to open her eyes and know the difference between what is truly good and what is truly evil. She and the man did so, and they became ashamed of their nakedness and hid.
Likewise, Stan appears to Jesus right after he’s been named and claimed as God’s beloved to test his relationship with God. So he says, “If you are the son of God…” and challenges the hungry, lonely Jesus to provide for himself. Jesus says that God provides. Besides, food only leaves you hungry again, but the word of God sustains the soul. Then he challenges Jesus to test God, and Jesus says he doesn’t need that to believe. Finally, the devil says, “Tell you what, I’ll provide for you! Just worship me.” Of course, that was the last straw, and after rejecting the devil, the angels attended him.
I’m not sure if you have had that experience before, but I have. Those two counselors that met me in the night were angels. They were messengers from God who said, “You are not alone.”
Sometimes that’s all we need. Sometimes someone else reminding you, showing you, and physically being there for you can be the very presence of God. Sometimes you can be that for someone else, but deliver us not into temptation O Lord of thinking that our comfort is the goal.
I think that is why so many appreciate the discipline of giving things up for Lent. I’ve only really successfully done it once. I gave up some things that I didn’t do much anyway, and I gave up a few things that I did. Since then I have realized that the most important part of Lent is not what I give up. It’s what I gain from letting go. Lent is about letting go of attachment, but it’s also about letting go of control.
In the end, it is about recognizing that there are things that I can do to correct my relationship with God and with others – which is the ultimate goal – but ultimately it is about responding to what has been done for me by God through Jesus Christ. Ultimately it is about the free gift which Paul tells the church in Rome is what justifies us – puts us in a just and right position – with God and with each other.
By “each other,” I don’t just mean people in this room. By “each other” I mean the big “all y’all” of scripture that includes neighbors, friends, and enemies. It includes families our tax dollars have been used to separate and orphans and women and men who are creating profits for others by serving life for a misdemeanor. Yes. It includes them.
Paul included the Roman Centurions and people in other lands he’d only met as a pen pal. He did it as a way to say that God, who has a habit of creating order out of chaos, was acting on a personal level in a way that impacted all of creation for all of time. That includes here. That includes now. That includes the wilderness you will walk into when you leave this place. It includes the wilderness that we will walk through together.
The beautiful thing is that God has done what we cannot. God has flipped the script on human sinfulness so that all we do is a response to grace and mercy. Whether we deny it for ourselves or someone else or embrace it and let it guide us out of the wilderness and into a more common unity with God and all creation, we are still responding to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ!
Nothing can ever earn that love, but we can still do our best to respond. I like the way that Maya Angelou said it. “Do your best until you know better. Then do better.”
Friends, I pray that it may be so with me and I pray that it may be so with you no matter how deep in the woods you go. And to God be the glory. Now and always. Amen.
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