A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

6 March 2022

I. Introduction

  • Of all the stories in the Gospels, the stories about Jesus' temptation, or testing, may be among the most uncomfortable – they remind us of the humanity of Jesus, which we are happy to talk about theoretically, but less happy to talk about in earnest – a human Jesus feels a bit too close to home
  • There is much at stake in the testing of Jesus – most of all, the stake has to do with the sort of Son of God that Jesus will be – will he be headstrong and follow his own way, which is the easier way, the way of the world? – or will he be true to the identity that the Evangelist has already gone to some length to establish?
  • So, we talk about these forty days in the wilderness to discover what they can tell us about Jesus and what they can tell us about ourselves

II. Jesus in the Wilderness

  • From the beginning, Luke wants his readers to know that Jesus is Son of God – in the Annunciation to Mary, the angel Gabriel tells her that her son will be called "the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1.32)
  • In the story of Jesus in Jerusalem for Passover when he was twelve, Jesus' parents lose him in the crowd and search for him for three days, before finding him in the temple – Jesus expresses surprise, saying that they should have known that he must be in his Father's house (Luke 2.49)
  • In the story of Jesus' baptism in Luke, we read the heaven being open, the Holy Spirit coming down in bodily form as a dove, and a voice from the heaven saying to Jesus that he is God's Son, the Beloved (Luke 3.22)
  • Then, immediately prior to today's story, the Evangelist provides us with his genealogy of Jesus, which begins with Jesus, "the son (as was thought) of Joseph," and ends with the words, "…Adam, son of God" (Luke 3.38) – with those words in our ears, we next hear of the Holy Spirit leading Jesus out into the wilderness for a time of testing
  • This sets up an immediate comparison between Adam in the garden, son of God and Jesus in the wilderness, Son of God – whereas Adam had stood before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and replied to the voice of evil, "Give me some of that," we are going to learn from the Evangelist Jesus replies to the voice of evil by saying "I will not go where you want me to go" – we are all of us like Adam, a name that means "the man," but we all of us have the potential to be like Jesus
  • In Scripture "wilderness" connotes many things – wilderness represents danger, chaos, threat, evil, and death – bad things can happen, and do happen, in the wilderness – it is not a nice place or a comfortable place
  • At the same time, the wilderness is where God makes the covenant with the people of Israel – we might even say that the wilderness is where God creates the people of Israel – in the wilderness, the people of God have to trust on God – there is little there that will allow them to fend for themselves – they have to rely on God and on God alone
  • In the same way, Jesus relies on God in the wilderness – Jesus is there to confront evil within and without – Jesus undergoes testing and trial and he comes out of the wilderness knowing himself – he knows who he is and what he has to do – the wilderness experience prepares Jesus for his public ministry – thus, the Evangelist moves immediately from the testing story to Jesus preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth, where he declares that his ministry will be to bring good news to the poor, healing to the broken, release to the captives, and the year of God's favor
  • The story that the Evangelist tells us includes three moments that come at the end of forty days of fasting in the wilderness – in these three moments Jesus confronts the evil that encourages him to rely on himself and on ideas about who he is that have nothing to do with God's Vision – if Jesus hears an actual evil voice in the wilderness, I imagine that it is his own voice – this is the hard part for us – we might think that Jesus is able to withstand his testing because he is Son of God – we have to remember that he is also a son of Adam, and the possibility exists that Jesus will listen to that seductive evil voice and do exactly what it says
  • The first of the moments of testing comes to Jesus in his physical hunger, but it also comes to him in a way that says he could use his relationship with God for his own ends – "command this stone to become a loaf of bread," the voice of evil says – to which Jesus replies that he will not
  • The second moment of testing comes to Jesus as an appeal to human concepts of power – "I will give you power over all the kingdoms of the world," the voice of evil says, if only Jesus will worship evil – to which Jesus replies that he worships only God
  • The third moment of testing takes Jesus to Jerusalem, at least in his imagination, and places him on a high point of the temple – "throw yourself off this pinnacle," the voice of evil says, "and see if God will protect you" – to which Jesus replies that he will not test his relationship with God in such a way
  • The Evangelist concludes the story by saying that evil departed from Jesus until a more opportune time – throughout his public ministry, Jesus will confront evil repeatedly – and each time the confrontation tests Jesus to see if he will finally use his power to remove the evil of violence, the evil of oppression, the evil of choosing a way other than the way of God's Vision – but to do that would undermine God's Vision – Jesus has not done with confronting evil when he leaves the wilderness – he has only begun – and evil returns at many opportune times in Jesus' life
  • Let us be clear at this point – Jesus endures the testing, he goes through the time of trial, because he stands firm in his relationship with God – he does not endure because he can quote Scripture – notice that the voice of evil also quotes Scripture – words alone will not get Jesus through the trial – knowledge alone will not get Jesus through the trial – Jesus succeeds in the trial by holding on to his relationship with the one from whom those words and that knowledge proceed
  • Thus, when he comes through the trial, Jesus knows who he is – he knows he is God's Anointed – he is Messiah – he is Son of God – and God is with him, holding him close to God's heart
  • Jesus also knows what his mission will be – he also knows what it will not be – Jesus' mission will not be to see to his own comfort – it will not be to use power as the world knows power – it will not be to make himself famous by performing tricks for large audiences

III. Forty Days

  • When we talk about the testing of Jesus, we have to be aware of one thing in particular – we are none of us sons or daughters of God in precisely the same way that Scripture proclaims that he is – we are all of us sons and daughters of Adam, not in any literal sense, but in the metaphorical sense – we are human beings
  • At the same time, we have to remember that when we say we are human beings, we are saying quite a lot – we are saying that we are, that all human beings are, children of God, created in the image of God – to say that we are children of God is to say that we have power in us that we have only begun to tap
  • Lent is a journey of forty days – it is a time to take notice of the fact that for us life is a test – for forty days we focus on the choices we make and on how we live and on how our lives point to our heritage either as children of Adam or as children of God – one of the things that makes Jesus unique is that he lived both of those realities fully – we, on the other hand, can only live one of them fully – for us, we can live as children of Adam or as children of God, not both
  • For forty days, we remember that we are much like "the man," Adam – very often we fall short, we miss the mark of God's Vision – these forty days also remind us that we aspire to something other than that – we aspire to follow the way of the Vision of God that Jesus shows us – these forty days help us learn and grow to become the people that God wants us to be
  • Jesus' forty days in the wilderness, while they are unique, also give us an example of how to live into the Way of Jesus – we live into the way of Jesus by living lives of service to others rather than service to ourselves – we live into the way of Jesus by choosing to forgo the ways of the world, which we see demonstrated most palpably in Ukraine – they ways of the world are the ways of power over others, of violence, of domination, of oppression, and they lead us away from God and away from one another – we live into the Way of Jesus by placing our trust in God and not in other human beings
  • Jesus' forty days in the wilderness also show us that we do not face the tests of the world alone – we do not have to resist the seduction of the world by our own will and power – we face the test of life with the Holy Spirit beside us every step of the way – through the Holy Spirit, the power of God is in us all the time, and we can face every testing, come what may

IV Conclusion

  • Forty days, the number of days in Lent – forty days to face the tests of the world and to learn to rely on our relationship with God through Jesus Messiah
  • Forty days to walk with Jesus, so that we can extend that walk to all the days of our lives
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