Sermon: First Sunday in Lent, Luke 4:1-13

March 9, 2025 

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman

Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. When you hear the word ‘wilderness,’ what images pop into your mind? 

For me, wilderness can mean a vacation from the concrete jungles of urban living that offer beauty, peace, respite, and visions of the transcendent glory of God. Wilderness for me can mean the spectacular beauty of the snow-covered Cascade mountains in Washington state. Wilderness can mean the verdant beauty of the Appalachian Mountains out East and being enveloped by life – trees and plants – as far as the eye can see, a welcome embrace of gentle Mother Earth.

Then I moved to Arizona for a very different encounter with the wilds of desert life. Beautiful, wondrous, I love it. But the wilds are different here. They are literally life-threatening in the extreme heat of the desert sun. Gorgeous, but deadly. 

Indeed, wilderness conjures up all sorts of images and memories of experiences. As we heard in today’s gospel story, Jesus spent his time in a wilderness more resembling Arizona than Minnesota… His forty days in the wilderness became a rigorous, dangerous time especially since he ate nothing during the whole time. 

Of course, we don’t have to be out in the wilds of nature to experience wilderness. The biblical Greek can also be translated as a place of ‘desolation.’ A devastated, ruined, uninhabitable place. Complete emptiness. Barrenness. Or metaphorically, anguished misery or loneliness. Hopelessness. Despair. Abandonment. 

Given all of that, we don’t even have to get out of bed to experience the wilds of desolation. In fact, those anxious hours in the middle of the night when we cannot sleep can make us feel that we’re in a desolate place in the wilderness of our over-active imaginations.  

We may feel desolate and abandoned in the current situation in our nation and world. Gone is the sense of stability and security. And who is there to help us?

And think of the plight of so many refugees and immigrants, echoing the circumstances of the people of Israel recorded in today’s first reading: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien…”

Now many of us feel like aliens in our own land….

Our varied experiences of wilderness desolation weigh heavily on us….

The good news is that Jesus has been there and done that. He himself was sent by the Spirit into the desolate wilderness. He got there ahead of us. And this means that Jesus is still with us in our desolate states. 

And of course, being in these circumstances can bring on huge temptations, testing, a sense of being on trial. In our desolate times of feeling abandoned to the wilds of life, we may give in to temptations and turn to drugs or alcohol and more to numb us to the discomfort and anguish. Or we might be tempted to give up in despair or give in to the injustices being perpetrated all around us at a dizzying, disorienting pace.

When we’re at our weak points in desolation, that’s when the devil shows up to do the dirty work. And so it was that the devil or adversary appeared to Jesus to tempt him, to test him. The Greek of the Bible gives us a more expanded view of the devil than cartoonish depictions of a ghoulish figure in a red suit with a pitch fork. The devil is any adversary in person or spirit who slanders and accuses falsely, who defames and brings charges, who throws darts and arrows, grenades, as it were, seeking to tear us down. Most of the time such adversaries exist in our minds. Sometimes, too, they do their mischief for real in our wider world.

Again, Jesus had not eaten anything at all. The rigors of the wilderness would have been overwhelming. Then the devil appeared. How did Jesus make it through these forty days of testing? 

Jesus got through the time of trial in the power of the word of God. I’m sure that Jesus did not have a Torah scroll with him out there. But years of study and learning had allowed Jesus to memorize many of the biblical stories and sayings. Through study and daily devotion, Jesus incorporated biblical wisdom into his very being. 

In other words, Jesus embodied what the apostle Paul proclaimed in today’s second reading from Romans quoting Deuteronomy (30:12-14), “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart.” 

So it was, in fact, that every time the devil came at Jesus to tempt him, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy to turn back the devil and to stand firm in his faith. The book of Deuteronomy focuses on the words and sermons of Moses who expounded on the Law of God and our call to be devoted to that Law to show our allegiance to 

God. The word of God’s Law is our protection in times of trial.

So it is that when the devil tempted Jesus to turn a stone into a loaf of bread to alleviate his famished hunger, Jesus said, “One does not live by bread alone.” That’s Deuteronomy 8:3. 

When the devil tempted Jesus by his offer to give him all the kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would worship him, Jesus retorted with Deuteronomy 6:13, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” 

The devil was a quick study and therefore quoted scripture back at Jesus when the devil tempted Jesus to jump off the highest point of the temple. To entice Jesus, the devil twisted the words of Psalm 91 – “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you” and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” 

But then Jesus returned with more from Deuteronomy: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” That’s Deuteronomy 6:16.

While Jesus did not enter the wilderness full of food, he did go “full of the Holy Spirit” who led him there in the first place. And that Spirit was present as the power of the biblical narrative to sustain Jesus and see him through the tests of the devil. 

Of course, what was available to Jesus is available to us – the energy of God, the Holy Spirit, working in, with, and under the pages of God’s holy word.

And this word of God is constantly available to us in preaching, singing hymns, reciting and praying our Sunday liturgical texts. God’s word is available to us in bible study, daily devotions, and more. And in my own teaching and writing, I’ve provided for you many scriptural passages to help you navigate and understand and withstand the temptations of our current, crazy time. 

Through these means, we, too, fulfill what Paul said: the word is very near us and on our lips, too. And not just in scripture, but in the word that we eat in the Eucharist. Christ, the very Word of God made flesh, is literally on our lips and thus very near us in, with, and under the bread we eat and the fruit of the vine we drink.

Then the power of the word of God is unleashed in us in the power and energy of the Holy Spirit working through that word, renewing and strengthening our faith, building our courage, because, as Paul writes, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” (Romans 10:8b-10)

And so it is in faith and at Faith, what happened to the people of Israel happens to us: “We cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.” 

“The Lord brought us out of Egypt [out of our desolation] with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 26:7-9) 

For us, Jesus is the one who brought us up out of our version of the desolations of captivity in Egypt. The mighty hand and outstretched arm were Jesus’ arms extended on the cross. His emergence from the tomb in resurrected life was for us the terrifying display of power, the sign, the wonder. 

And the land flowing with milk and honey is right here in the church where we drink the divine mother’s milk in honey sweetness in bread and the fruit of the vine at this table of grace. 

In short, Christ, as God’s word made flesh, is our liberation to stand free and firm in faith amidst the trials and temptations and testing of our ongoing wilds of desolation. 

And in this confident freedom, the Spirit leads us back into the desolate wilds of the world to minister to others in their desolation just as the angels ministered to Jesus in his wilderness experience. Thanks be to God. Amen.