Rev. Sandy Lacey
February 22, 2026
I have been used to thinking of the wilderness as a negative thing a place of intense struggle, near death experiences, deprivation, loneliness, and confusion. I have considered the wilderness (spiritually speaking) a place to avoid if I can. One never knows what you will find in the wilderness and even whether you will be able to survive it. Will you have the resources you need to battle the demons that present themselves or will you acquiesce and follow their lead, slipping into mere accommodation? Wilderness journeys scare me because you never know how long they will take and exactly what you will encounter. Our Scriptures are full of wilderness journeys. I remember the story of the Hebrew people leaving their homeland to seek refuge in Egypt during the time of the Patriarch Joseph. All went well for a while until the Egyptians became afraid of them, so they enslaved them. They remained in the land of Egypt for 400 years before God sent Moses to deliver them. Then they left Egypt with Moses to return to their promised land by way of another wilderness journey that lasted 40 years. In this journey, they encountered lack of water, lack of food, despair, fear, in-fighting, confusion about who was in charge, and how to trust and worship the God who delivered them. They had one physical and spiritual crisis after another until God brought them through the wilderness.
There are other wilderness journeys in our Scriptures. The Genesis passage today reminds us of our history of wanting to be like God to do things our way. That sin led to Adam and Eves ouster from the Garden of Eden and their journey into the wilderness to discover what it meant to live in relationship to God and to one another. There are other examples too , including the Great Exile of the people from their home country of Judah to the country of Babylon. It seems that wilderness experiences are not mountaintop experiences like we talked about last week. In the wilderness, we are not surrounded by the sublime and basking in Gods glory. Instead, wilderness journeys are full of intense struggle in which we struggle to learn who we are and who God is and how God works. Our very identity is often called into question during literal and figurative wilderness journeys.
The New Testament Scriptures offer us wilderness journey motifs and experiences as well. Todays passage in Matthew is right after Jesus baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. The baptism had been a glorious experience and Gods voice came from the heavens to declare Jesus as Gods son. The Spirit alights like a dove on Jesus, and we are off, we think, on a glorious adventure, only to read todays text next in which the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness to face a test.
I have often wondered what kind of schizophrenic spirit this is that alights on Jesus and participates in the glorious announcement of who Jesus is one minute and then the next minute, drives this same Son of God out into the wilderness to be tested. Apparently, Jesus identity formation required a journey of sorts. To assist his journey, Jesus chose to fast to remove distractions and to help him more completely understand his dependency upon God. Most of us are not familiar with the spiritual practice of fasting so it may seem a little foreign to us. Our friends from other faith traditions, namely Jewish and Muslim traditions, tell me that with practice, the spiritual practice of fasting helps them to examine themselves and reprioritize what is important. The text tells us today that Jesus had reached a point that he was not only hungry, but famished when he encountered the test.
The first test/the first temptation was to gratify his immediate need and not wait on God. If/Since you are the person you claim to be, you can turn these stones into bread yourself. First (like we are instructed to do on airplanes) take care of yourself so that you can take care of others. Jesus response is to remind the tempter that nourishment comes in more than one form and it is his responsibility to trust and completely rely upon God for the provisions he needs.
Then in the second temptation, the Adversary reminds Jesus of Scripture, If/Since you are the person you claim to be, then throw yourself down from this high place God will surely not let you fall and hurt yourself. In other words, lets make God prove it – that you are the Son of God and that he loves you! Jesuss response to the tempter is to say that he will wait for Gods agenda and not superimpose his own agenda and insecurity into this critical formation time. Jesus says it would be wrong for him to put God to the test. Instead, he must trust that God meant what he said at his baptism that Jesus is Gods son and is very much loved!
Finally, the Adversary tests him further by suggesting an easier way to be a Messiah: worship me and I will give you all the power you need to accomplish what you want. Do you really think the way of the cross is the best way? Isnt that a little naïve, Jesus? Just imagine what you could do if you have all the power that I could give.
Jesus, because he has prayed and fasted, does not suffer from distraction as he solidifies his identity and faces down the tempter. He has placed himself in the position of being completely reliant upon God and he recognized that his priorities must be subservient to Gods priorities. In the second test, Jesus believes and trusts Gods promises, so much so that he recognizes the folly of pushing God to perform a different agenda. There is no need to try and manipulate God. In the third test, Jesus refuses the bait to short-circuit Gods agenda by worshipping someone or something else. Real power, the kind that changes lives, can only come through what the world perceives as weakness through suffering love. Only God is to be worshipped, no matter how tempting it is to achieve the same results anther way.
Each one of us individually and corporately face these same tests as Jesus did we are tempted with gratifying our own needs and wants first before we ever consider what God would have us do. We could easily look at how we spend our time and money to see evidence of how we face this temptation. Many of us choose to gather for worship when we can fit it into our schedule and many of us pay our bills and our entertainment expenses first before we consider how much is left to give to God and others. And communally, as a community of faith, we are often tempted to spend more on maintaining our structures and our buildings than we do on mission and ministry.
Like Jesus second test, we are tempted to force Gods hand, put God to the test, when we push forward various agendas we determine are important. If I give a prescribed amount, God will make me wealthy. If I pray long enough and hard enough, my family member will be healed from illness. And in the church, if we do things the right way and say and do what makes people comfortable, then our numbers will grow (and we can do the hard, prophetic stuff later.) Or we might look for signs: if this happens, then I will know God exists and I will follow him. Putting God to the test is not trust; it is some feeble attempt at manipulation. We must learn to trust God in all circumstances, then celebrate when things go well and pray Gods mercy when they do not.
And lastly, I would say that we are constantly tempted to worship other gods instead of the One True God. In this country we worship the almighty dollar, the almighty god of self-sufficiency, the god of personal liberty, the god of me-first or this nation first so much so that we build up our own coffers way beyond our needs and ignore those in our midst who are struggling to survive. Even in the church, if we are not vigilant, we bow down to the god of power, prestige, and numbers over its opposite: humility, working behind the scenes, and integrity of mission and purpose. Lets face it, we, like Adam and Eve, face serpents masquerading as voices of temptation nearly every day, both in our individual lives and in the life of this community of faith. And unlike Jesus, we face those temptations without the disciplined benefit of fasting and prayer.
More recently, I am beginning to see that wilderness journeys are a gift rather than something to be avoided at all costs. For it was in 40 years of wandering in the wilderness that the Hebrew people gradually dropped their identity as a slave people to once again remember their original identity of being Gods children, blessed to be a blessing. It took them 40 years to remember and reform their identity. And it was in the years of captivity and exile that the Hebrew people began to recognize the error of their ways, that the blessings they received from God always include responsibility to others. And it was in Jesus wilderness journey that his identity as the Son of God was confirmed and strengthened. From that identity formation, he was able to begin an effective and transforming ministry that changed the world.
So, perhaps, a figurative and literal wilderness is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a place where the Spirit causes us to reflect, to solidify what is truly important; a place where we can affirm our identity as Gods beloved children. A wilderness can be a place where our purpose is once again revealed. It is a place where we are more likely to lean on God than lean on ourselves. During these 40 days of Lent, let us do so together. AMEN.