Guide

---

WILDERNESS OF TEMPTATION Luke 4: 1-13 2 in Series: From River to Mountain Third Sunday After the Epiphany – January 22, 2017 Rev. David S. Cooney nd

The unofficial, official beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry was right after John the Baptist was arrested and Jesus entered Galilee saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” Two events took place, however, that served as preludes to the grand opening, two preparatory experiences getting Jesus ready for the work to come. Amanda spoke to us last week about the first – his baptism. Today, we are going to talk about the second – the temptation. The first was a feel-good, affirming experience. Jesus received the Holy Spirit and God said to him, “You are my son. With you I am well pleased.” Given that Jesus was about to enter a time when political leaders and religious leaders and skeptics and friends and even family members would doubt him and work against him and challenge every word and action and ultimately kill him, this was extremely reassuring. As he prepared to be told by so many that he was nothing, God first told him that he was everything. Baptism had to be a powerful, uplifting experience for our Lord. Ah, but it was short-lived. He barely had time to come out of the water and dry off before he was shuttled off to boot camp. Don’t look for this in the Bible. Scripture does not mention boot camp. That is my analogy. Why do I call it boot camp? Well, when you enlist in the military, you are first praised. Good for you for being willing to serve. Good for you for being patriotic. Good for you for accepting this duty. Oh, you are feeling good and proud and ready to get to it. Then you get sent to boot camp where you are put through the paces and where sergeants like to get into your face to tell you that you will never amount to much of a soldier, and you can easily be made to doubt yourself. Indeed, it may feel like the purpose of boot camp is to break you down and send you home. The real purpose, of course, is just the opposite. It is to test your mettle and prepare you for the true rigors that may come. You are on call for war, and boot camp is about finding out if you are up to the task before you get to the battlefield. This is what the temptation experience did for Jesus. He was embarking on a mission that would lead to the cross. Was he prepared to see that through? Bear in mind that God set this up. Jesus has us say in the Lord’s Prayer, “and lead us not into temptation,” but that is exactly what God did with him. Matthew says it most directly writing, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” God did that? Yes! Why? God had a plan for Jesus that would lead to salvation and glory, but only by way of the cross. God needed to know if Jesus could be swayed from that plan by easier sounding alternatives, and who better to offer deceptively sweet sounding alternatives to

the ways of God than the devil? And where are you most likely to find the devil? In the wilderness. In our series “From River to Mountain,” we are tracing the steps and experiences of Jesus by geography, because geography provides some of the context clues to interpreting the Scripture. The location where something happens tells us something about what is happening. So, it is significant that the temptation takes place in the wilderness. Oh, that is not the only location for the devil or the only place we experience temptation. Think, though, for a minute, about what is represented by the wilderness. The clue is in the beginning of the word “wild.” The wilderness is a place of wildness. The wilderness feels chaotic. It is undefined. There are no real boundaries, no well-marked trails, and no obvious landmarks. It is easy to get lost, to get disoriented, and to feel very alone in the wilderness. Some years back, I had the opportunity to canoe with a few friends in the boundary waters between Minnesota and Canada. This is an area of hundreds of thousands of acres of lakes, all undeveloped and pristine. To get anywhere, you have to portage your canoe and gear over the land between lakes. Before we set out, an outfitter handed us a very crude chart and marked a large circle route covering multiple lakes and a river and said, “Next week we will pick you up here,” and marked the spot with an X. He also estimated where the portage trails were on the lakes. We thought, simple, and headed out. Well, it was not simple. For one thing, all of the land masses were thick, dense forest and in every direction it looked exactly the same. And the portage trails were not easy to spot. They were not wide, paved, well-marked paths. They were mostly one or one and ½ persons wide, hacked through so that you could carry your canoe and pack through the otherwise impenetrable forest, and there were absolutely no signs. Learning to spot them was an acquired skill. We paddled many miles more than planned, looking for them, all the while knowing that, if we found the wrong trail, we would portage to the wrong lake and literally get so lost that we might get to a place where we would never be found again. It was not like we could just follow the crowd. We went several days without seeing another single person. I’m here today, so clearly we figured it out. It was nerve-wracking at times, however, scary even. Fortunately, there were four of us and together we figured it out. What, though, if you are in that situation alone? What if you have only yourself to confirm the compass? What if you have only your own eyes with which to search for the trail? What if you take a wrong turn on the lake and there is no one else to correct it? What if you get too far off track and become too tired to paddle back? It is a risky thing to be in the wilderness alone. In the wilderness, where all of the familiar points are missing, your mind starts to wander. In the wilderness you become susceptible to doubt and fear. In the wilderness you become vulnerable to the suggestions of the devil. This is the point. Jesus was with God at the river. He was with the devil in the wilderness. God wanted to Jesus save people by way of the cross. The devil laughed. He could offer way better sounding alternatives to that. “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” That was such a good idea on so many levels. For one, he was hungry after not eating for forty days. At that point, he could almost eat a rock,

but a loaf of bread would be much better. Besides, if he turned stones to bread, he could feed the hungry and do so much good for so many – without the cross. “If you will worship me,” the devil said, “I will make you king over all the kingdoms of the world.” Interestingly, God was going to make him king, but only after he was humiliated, rejected, betrayed, beaten, and killed. He could have the same result without all of that. “If you are the Son of God,” the devil said, “Throw yourself off a high place in front of a crowd. God’s angels will catch you and not allow you to be hurt.” Well, God had told Jesus at his baptism that he was God’s son, and surely God would not allow him to be hurt in a fall. People would see his rescue and recognize him as God’s son and he would be given glory, again without the cross. These were all tempting alternatives to God’s plan. Of course they were, that is what temptation is. We are tempted to stray from God by that which seems desirable, pleasurable, and easier. If I am dieting and someone says, “You have been doing a really good job dieting, you should take a brief break and reward yourself with an ice cream sundae,” that makes sense to me. I do deserve a little reward. If someone says, “You have been doing a really good job dieting, you should take a brief break and reward yourself with a tofu bar,” I’m thinking I’ll just stick with the diet. The devil doesn’t ask questions that we can easily answer with no. The devil asks questions that cause us to say, “Maybe,” or even “Yes.” Jesus was offered attractive alternatives to God’s plan. They were even more attractive because he was alone in the wilderness. He was not around a supportive family or trusted friends who could help him resist. He was not at church or with his class or in a support group where it would be easier to say, “No.” He was not well rested, and fed, and engaged in a daily routine. If he were, he would not have been as vulnerable. No, he was alone in the wilderness, required to find that tiny portage trail all by himself, all the while the devil was whispering in his ear that he needed to paddle in a different direction. This says to me that we need to be careful when it comes to the wilderness. How? One way is simply by staying out of it, and that can be as simple as paying attention to the signs. In Colorado, on average seven persons per year are killed by avalanche. Many of these are skiers who come across clearly marked signs that read: Out of Bounds – Avalanche Danger. They ignore the signs and ski there anyway because the powder looks good and the slopes look exciting and they want to, and then they end up fatally buried in snow. How often do we wander into areas of danger, knowing it, but going anyway because we want to, and then we are surprised when the snow comes tumbling down? If we want to avoid temptation, we can start by staying out of the wilderness. Sometimes, though, we do not know we are entering the wilderness. Some years back, cults were a growing social phenomenon. Recruiters for the cults targeted young adults far from home for the first time and seniors who were isolated. Why? Because these were persons who were lonely and without support networks and, therefore, were open to friendly invitations to be with others and, once isolated and segregated, could be convinced to forget family and friends, and turn over assets, and follow the directions of the cult leader.

It is important to learn to recognize the perimeter of the wilderness if we do not want to wander in accidentally. For instance, when we are in times of transition: going off to college, retiring from a life-long career, ending a marriage, beginning a marriage, moving a great distance away, becoming empty nesters, we are on the edge of the wilderness and thus are more susceptible to temptation. When we are in times of crisis or self-doubt, we are on the edge of the wilderness and thus are more susceptible to temptation. When we become isolated from healthy support circles, we are on the edge of the wilderness and thus are more susceptible to temptation. When we stop paying attention to the mentors around us, we are on the edge of the wilderness and thus are more susceptible to temptation. Do you see the pattern? These are some of the ways we wander into the wilderness, and in the wilderness we become disoriented and then we bump into the one who seems to have a good idea but does not truly have our best interest at heart. It is best to just stay out of the wilderness altogether, but sometimes we get fooled and sometimes we do not have a choice. Sometimes we have to go through it. What then? Well, then go prepared. Experienced outdoor people will tell you to always anticipate trouble and pack accordingly. Take emergency clothing, food, medical supplies, survival equipment, and a plan for being rescued. Jesus took the Holy Spirit, a knowledge of Scripture better than the devil’s, a confidence that God’s ways are better than any alternatives, no matter how attractive, and a strong sense of his own identity given at his baptism. These sustained him in the wilderness and showed him the way out. A motto in flying and driving is “know before you go.” Know what the weather is and what is expected. Know what the conditions are and what is expected. Well, for spiritual survival, know before you go. Know the Scripture and what God teaches before the exam starts. Know how to pray before you really need to call on God. Know what is true before being given a true/false test. You may not be able to avoid the wilderness, but with the Holy Spirit as your guide and Scripture as your map, you will find your way out. Be prepared and the wilderness becomes far less daunting and far more survivable. Jesus went from the river to the wilderness. Next stop: Galilee. Amen.