Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
Matthew 4:1-11
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
My sermon from the First Sunday in Lent, (February 26, 2023) on Matthew 4:1-11.
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Every year, the first Sunday of Lent is devoted to the story of what happened to Jesus after his baptism. While his hair was still wet from being immersed in the Jordan river and with the words of God’s love for him ringing in his ears, Jesus was immediately sent into the wilderness. That isn’t the typical response to baptism that happens here since after worship we immediately take pictures in front of the altar before being sent out to whatever restaurant we reserved for a post-church brunch. This movement from church and into the land of omelets and waffles can feel pretty wild since we’re often coordinating the movements of our family members and friends. The stress we experience to get to the baptismal moment can sometimes obscure what that moment is all about. We, like Jesus, hear God’s promise that we are loved, valued, and an essential part of what God is doing in the world. This experience isn’t the culmination of our life with God but rather an opportunity to live into what God’s love is all about. Taking a moment to sit with our baptism and breathing in the promises of God is, I think, an important part of the entire experience. And while we sometimes can’t do that during the baptism itself, it’s something we should do in the day, weeks, and years that follow. Jesus, in our reading from the gospel according to Matthew, feels like he’s doing exactly that: unplugging from the world to pray, ponder, and wonder how God’s promises change everything. Yet this moment of peaceful reflection with all the quiet and lack of stress such a moment might need, isn’t a good description of what a biblical wilderness is all about. The wilderness Jesus went into is scary, untamed, and full of risk. It’s where our strength, intelligence, wisdom, and ability to even trust ourselves breaks down because it’s the kind of place where only God can be in control.
Now that doesn’t sound like a place very conducive to doing some faithful reflection after experiencing the joy of baptism. Yet that’s exactly where Jesus went and when he got there, he fasted. The fasting he did isn’t like the fasting we sometimes do, which is heavily tied to a diet culture built on body shaming and irresponsible beauty standards that devour the lives of way too many people. Jesus was already in a risky place and his religious practices weren’t designed to make that risk grow. But we get a sense of the reasons for what he was doing if we notice how much time he spent there. The number forty is a biblical number, appearing all over place. It’s a number associated with how long Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark waited before the sea began to recede. When the Isrealites were freed by God from slavery in Egypt, they spent forty years being tempted by their own worries, insecurities, and struggles in the wilderness. Another similar story to this moment in Jesus’ life is when Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights in God’s presence on the top of Mt. Sinai. He was there so long the people wondered if he had abandoned them. The number 40 represents the time it takes for a new thing to arise out of the current moment. Before the next thing comes, life just has to be lived. That isn’t usually what we think about when we imagine what our experiences with God should be like. We want them to be like Jesus’ experience at his baptism – this over the top moment filled with a joy that becomes a real pivot point to who we are. It’s the moment when our prayers are answered, the heavens are opened, and a voice lets us – and everyone else – know that God is right here. Some of us have had that kind of experience yet it isn’t universal and it’s often pretty fleeting. The voice that declares we are beloved is very quickly overshadowed by the voices that say we’re not. Our own failures, hurts, and the way we hurt others can make us wonder how transformational that experience actually was. We chase after these kinds of God moments hoping they’ll be strong enough to withstand that terror that comes when our prayers are met with silence. And while I wish every one of our faith moments could be filled with joy, they often aren’t. Our sorrows, struggles, laughter, and tears are constantly swirling around us. We have to live through temptations, frustrations, worries, and to make many decisions that have no right answers. It would be easier if we could trust ourselves to be like Jesus as he seems to be in today’s story. But what Jesus does in this moment, while powerful, is a bit deceiving since these temptations show up again and again. Jesus doesn’t necessarily overcome these temptations. Instead, he chooses to live through them.
If we reduce today’s story into simply a battle between Jesus and the forces that defy God, we miss noticing how Jesus’ experience in the wilderness also revealed what was coming next. The struggles laid out in this passage are like the ones that came later as preached, taught, and offered wholeness to all. In his ministry, we see followers who never fully understood him and how they often relied on their own perspectives of faith and power rather than noticing who God was choosing to be. Jesus, whether he was in lands filled with Jews or Gentiles, chose to help those we tend to push aside since every small act of love reveals who our God truly is. From Galilee to Jerusalem and beyond, religious and political authorities couldn’t understand how Jesus centered a life that looked more weak than strong. And when it appeared as if his story was about to end, his friend betrayed him and the rest abandoned him. Jesus didn’t push past these temptations or struggles nor did he, as the Son of God, act as if they did not matter. He, instead, lived through them so that we, with Jesus, could live through them too.
And that, I think, is gospel – good news. God, in Jesus, refused to let us live without the promise of what our lives can be. This good news wasn’t meant to minimize our lives or pretend as if temptations, frustrations, and the joys where we forget to even notice God aren’t part of a faithful life. Rather, the good news is that our Jesus leads us through life because he lived life. He experienced pain, suffering, sorrow, laughter, smiles, and joys. He will guide us through the indecisions, questions, doubts, and those moments when all we think we have is ourselves. Jesus brings us through the crosses we face everyday and tears down the ones we give to our neighbors. And while we want this good news to push us towards a kind of happiness that fills every one of our days, this good news is what sustains us through whatever comes next. The gospel fleshes out the promises God made to us in our baptism and this is a good news that is offered to all. Yet this gospel is also a bit particular since the lives we live are the lives we live. Each one of us has our own experiences, temptations, struggles, and joys. And your experience of the gospel matters because it’s how we discover that God’s story isn’t complete without your story too. It takes time, a little effort, and some work to gain the words we need to share with others what our personal experience of the gospel is. And we start learning how to do that by paying attention to Jesus’ story and noticing how he is often most faithful to us during the messiest parts of our lives.
Amen.