Sometime at the beginning of the COVID pandemic I found myself watching a few seasons of the survival reality TV series ALONE. Contestants of various hardy backgrounds – trappers and hunters and loggers and preppers and First Nations folks – would volunteer to be dropped off alone into some north county wilderness location with a backpack of supplies and a camera to film themselves. The winner of a million dollars was whoever could outlast the others as the chill of winter sets in. The show was an escape from the complicated and isolating world of pandemic lockdown. Its simplicity captivated me. The contestants all had the ability to quit at the push of a button on their satellite phone and immediately a boat or helicopter would come and whisk them away, back to warmth and civilization.
Let me be clear – Jesus’ testing in the wilderness is NOT a copy of ALONE. What Jesus goes through in our passage from Luke is NOT a reality survival show where he emerges the victorious hero after vanquishing every test set before him by the tempter.
To hear this story about Jesus in the wilderness as being about heroic fortitude would be to miss the point. Rather in our gospel text for today, what Jesus embarks on, fresh off his baptism, is a vision quest, retracing the wilderness experience of his ancestors, the people of Israel, so that he might reclaim its core lessons and warnings for his own ministry.
Jesus doesn’t sign up to go into the wilderness for the chance to win a million dollars – rather, Jesus is led into the wilderness, by the Spirit of God who fills him. The Spirit leads him to feel in his body those forty years in the wilderness the people of Israel spent, and to sense in his soul the mystery of God that Moses glimpsed those 40 days on the mountaintop.
But it is also in the wilderness where the promise of God’s creation is tested. The Devil tests the sturdiness of who Jesus is and just how Jesus will go about being God’s son: Who is this fellow? How will he use his power?
For the last forty plus days, our nation and world have grappled with the powerful ripples of the Trump presidency. The new administration began its rule with the goal to overwhelm – with shocking headlines of new actions emerging one after another, outdoing the last in cruelty and chaos. ICE has ramped up, seeking to deport our neighbors and sow fear… anxiety has permeated workplaces as scientists and doctors and public servants and health workers and development professionals have had their jobs axed….transgender people and immigrants and refugees have been the targets of hatred… Public programs designed to protect the common good – care for the vulnerable and care for the environment have been eviscerated.
Furthermore our nation’s courts and legislative bodies seem to be ineffective in preventing harm and stopping this hatred enacted as policy. We feel the chaos of this moment in our families, in our communities, and in this congregation. We are in a wilderness time as a nation, tested by the questions: Who are we, really? And what kind of power are we playing with?
The Diabolical One begins to question Jesus when he is weak and hungry and forty days have passed. “If,” the devil begins, “If… you are there Son of God…command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
“If” here is a sneaky word – because it’s a teasing invitation for Jesus to prove himself. We hear these “ifs” all the time. They are conditional statements revealing the fragility of a constructed identity:
“If you’re a boy, you won’t cry.” “If you’re smart, you’ll get A’s in class.”
“If you’re American, you’ll speak English.”
“If you are the son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
Jesus’s stomach growls as he hears the invitation. He is hungry and he knows that the rest of his ministry will revolve around food – feeding hungry people, eating with all sorts of people together at the table. The question isn’t a hypothetical for Jesus – but one that will face him every day. There are hungry people in this world. How will they be fed? There is tremendous need and hunger in Jesus’ world. How will it be met? The test Jesus’ faces is to seize power over creation, using his power as son of God to turn stones into bread.
Instead, Jesus resists. For each test the Devil offers Jesus will respond by drawing on the deep well of holy memory. Jesus turns to Deuteronomy – a book of memory, where God’s commandments to the people emerge through memory… “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt..” the text repeats again and again. So as his own stomach growls and his mind wanders to all the hungry people who will turn to him, asking for bread, Jesus remembers how God sustained the people every single day with bread from heaven, that strange what-is-this-stuff manna. So, Jesus responds to the devil with words from Deuteronomy – “One, does not live by bread alone.”
We continue to live in a world where there is tremendous hunger and need. As followers of Jesus, we live out the prayer that Jesus taught us that “God will give us our daily bread.” That is hard to do in a world of upheaval with job cuts and threats of loss and deportation and tariffs.
But Jesus shows us that in God’s creation there is abundance to sustain all of us – if we would trust God to provide that daily bread. And if we would only bless and give thanks and break and share that sustenance with one another, we will taste the miracle of generosity.
Jesus refused the baited question to provide for himself. Instead Jesus trusts that God will provide for him and for all of us.We don’t have to adopt a scarcity mindset in this time of fear. We don’t have to turn rocks into food out of fear.
Instead, following Jesus, the Spirit strengthens us to be God’s children who will share the abundance of creation with one another.
The next test that Jesus faces is harder. The devil offers Jesus authority over all the kingdoms of the world. Whether the devil actually has this power is unclear and dubious – but he’s a dealmaker here and the offer stands.
It’s hard to refuse because think of how much good Jesus could do with this kind of power. He’d have power over the legions of Roman soldiers – he could dismantle their units and reassign them to perform acts of service. Jesus could intervene in the trade routes throughout the Mediterranean – helping alleviate poverty by redistributing food.
We sometimes think those kind of thoughts too – if we could just have more people show up to church, think of what we could do. If we had more money in the budget we could really help out then! But to the Devil’s instantaneous vision of power over others – Jesus will walk the long, slow, messy road of building beloved community from the bottom up. His power is not the domineering power of control – but the infectious power of the Spirit!
Jesus refuses all the effectiveness and immediate impact that he could have had because he is unwilling to bow down before any other than God his Holy Parent. In his hunger and in his desire to live a faithfulness, he will not honor any other. It is written, Jesus says, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.” Again the old words of memory from Deuteronomy refocus him solely on God.
I can draw no easy answers from this second test: Power exists in the world. We cannot escape it. In whatever creative capacities we can I hope that we engage in political processes to build up the common good and care for the vulnerable – in our schools, neighborhoods, cities, nation and world. And in this time of white nationalism – it is crucial that we as a church proclaim a resounding NO to any offers to participate in power structures that do violence.
Violence, which claims our power over another, is a form of idolatry. Our peace witness as a church is built on Jesus’ refusal to have any other God but God.
The last test the devil offers Jesus, whisks him out of the wilderness and ont the high corner pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. Again, the devil waves those words “If you are the Son of God” in front of Jesus’ face with an accompanying dare to throw himself to the ground.
The devil justifies his dare with a well-picked line from the Psalms, invoking God’s divine angelic protection.
Jesus is faced with a double dare here: he could jump and be saved by God in a grandiose public circus trick. Or he could jump and would fall to his very public death. While the devil can proof-text nuggets of scripture, it doesn’t mean his and reasoning offers are anything but dubious. What kind of a Son of God will Jesus be? Does being God’s very own Beloved One mean that angelic power can be deployed at will, like calling in a squadron of fighter jets for a stadium flyover?
Does the pressure of being the Messiah, the Christ, with all the hopes for restoring the kingdom of Israel, and liberating the poor, mean that Jesus will never live up to them, facing this failure – should he just give up? What kind of a Son of God will Jesus be?
One more time, Jesus draws on the holy stories of scripture. One final time the Spirit of God nudges Jesus to words of deep memory: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Jesus chooses in this moment and will choose for the rest of his life to trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will not take his life into his own hands – to show off by flying or entertaining the masses to gain attention or by throwing up his hands that none of it is worth it.
To refuse to the Devil’s last offer is Jesus’ refusal to make himself his own savior. Instead, Jesus’ life will be his YES to the leading of the Holy Spirit, wherever it takes him. Jesus’ is strengthened by the Spirit in his identity as the Son of God, which will look like trust to the end that God is able to save him.
His ministry will be yielding to the power of God at work in him and in the world. Jesus will not test God but trust God. Jesus in his wilderness back and forth with the great Tempter rejects power over nature, power over people, and ultimately power over God.
Instead, Jesus yields his life to the power of the Holy Spirit that fills him and guides him. That same Holy Spirit is a power with us and among us, bringing justice, righteousness, life, and wisdom. Life brings with it plentiful dares and tests, inviting us to take matters into our own hands, to provide only for ourselves, to rule over others, and to ultimately be our own savior, our own God.
I was initially drawn to the TV show ALONE because it was an individualist escape in the midst of pandemic dystopia. These gritty men and women could survive the harshest wilderness completely alone – solely by the power of their own knowledge, tools, and capability. But the real beauty of that TV show wasn’t the bravado of these rugged individualists each striving to be their own wilderness savior.
The real beauty of ALONE was that as time wore on – people grew more vulnerable. One by one as each person tapped out, pressing the escape button, hungry and tired, they did so with tears running down their cheeks…almost always out of the desire to be back with their kids, partners, friends, loved ones. The wilderness held a mirror to who they really were and the depth of their love.
None of us are ever alone. Even in life’s most difficult and vexing and testing moments – even through a pandemic or a Trump presidency or a job loss or a deportation or the gutting of the social safety net the Spirit remains with us – calling us, leading us, filling us, strengthening us and reminding us who we are as God’s children.
It is a lie that we are alone, it is a lie that we need to be our own saviors. But it is the life-giving truth that Jesus is God-With-Us in the flesh. And his Spirit will provide all we need for this season ahead.