The Desert, Jesus & Temptation
My first sermon at the Wycliffe Hall Tuesday Communion service. Given on February 13th, 2024 on the theme of "desert." My chosen readings were Matthew 4:1-11 and Deuteronomy 8:1-10.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I drove around the western half of the USA and spent some time driving through the desert of Nevada. Far from petrol station, mobile coverage, other drivers or any kind of civilization, it is a long way from nowhere. While we were in a truck—with a full tank of petrol—there was still that awareness that if something were to go wrong, in the desert it would go very wrong indeed.
The desert is a tough place to be. It is a hard and it is a testing place.
Psalm 107 echoes this reality. It tells of God’s deliverance that from various troubles—not least the perils of the wilderness. “Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted within them.”
It is a place without easy access to food or drink. It does not have the security of a city wall or any kind of place to securely lay down for the night. It is rough and dangerous terrain.
In a similar way that going “into the woods” in a fairy tale usually indicates some kind of foreboding—we might think of Little Red Riding Hood’s encounter with the wolf or Hansel and Gretel’s discovery of an ominous house made of bread—the desert in Christian history clues us in to a difficult time. On the Day of Atonement, it is where the sin-bearing goat is sent—to the demon Azazel whose home is in the desert. In Isaiah 13 it is the wasteland that Babylon will become post-judgement: devoid of life and goodness, but filled with ominous and dark creatures.
Athanasius wrote of an aptly named “desert father” Antony of Egypt, who spent much of his life in spiritual battle in the desert, having sold all he had, ensuring the wellbeing of his younger sister and giving the rest to the poor. Antony went into the desert and so began some fierce spiritual battle.
Athanasius’ account of his life tells of various rounds of the struggle. First the temptations were more basic: to indulge in physical desires, his sexual impulses. To fold to the more basic stuff of our bodily existence. The craving for connection and intimacy. The impulses themselves weren’t enough so the devil came before him taking an alluring female form. Later there were rounds of physical assault and injury. At other times, the devil tried to lure Antony in with gold coins and a silver platter. After multiple rounds, eventually God delivers Antony from his struggle.
And Antony responds with a startlingly honest question for God. Why didn’t you come sooner!? Why didn’t you do something before my body was broken and near to being extinguished? To my ears (at least), that’s a reasonable question!
God’s answer? “I was here Anthony, but I waited to watch your struggle. And now, since you persevered and were not defeated, I will be your helper forever…”
Anthony, like the Israelites after their liberation from Egypt, faced testing and humbling in the desert. Why? To learn how to trust in the bread that comes from the mouth of the Lord. To persevere. To remain steadfast.
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The desert is a place of testing. As it was for Jesus in Matthew 4. Jesus is taken out into the wilderness by the Spirit. Why? To be tested by the devil. Forty days without food or water, in difficult and risky terrain, at the end of which Jesus is spent. He is famished. And right on cue, the devil shows up.
And the devil’s strategy really revolves around one thing: his identity: “If you are the Son of God…”
The reading Matthew picks up just after Jesus has just been baptized. Matthew describes the extraordinary scene that speaks to the significance of this man who’s appeared with John. Crowds witness it. They see the heavens torn open, hear the words of divine affirmation. But now, that glorious moment has gone, and Jesus is now alone and hungry, with the devil looking to trip him up.
And in contrast to the Israelites in the wilderness after their own ‘baptism’ through the Red Sea: Jesus succeeds where they failed. In each temptation, Jesus does straightforwardly what the Israelites could not do: trust God’s provision of food, trust God for his safety and trust God for authority. And all in God’s timing.
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The First Temptation
Where Israel had to be taught and learn to “understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” -- Jesus does not. The devil goads him to provide for himself. We know Jesus will go on miraculously provide food to his followers—so why not do so for himself?
The text doesn’t give us what was going on in Jesus’ mind. But it does tell us this was not really about food. "If you are the Son of God…" This was an invitation for Jesus to prove his identity, by a providing a miracle.
But I suspect Jesus recognises where he is—the desert—and who he’s talking to—the devil. And a time of testing is not over when we say it’s over. It’s over when God’s faithfulness is revealed. When he provides in our waiting. Think of Job’s spiritual desert and suffering. A waiting that culminates in God’s revelation of himself.
The Second Temptation
The devil then turns to challenge Jesus’ sense of safety. Quoting Psalm 91, the devil invites Jesus: throw yourself down. Prove that God will rescue you. Prove that He cares.
How easy it might be to self-justify at this point. For Scripture does say indeed say “He will command his angels concerning you.” But Jesus is not persuaded by the devil’s misuse of God’s word. Again he quotes Deuteronomy, “Do not put the LORD your God to the test.” (Deut 6:16) Like the Israelites who did so at Massah.
Jesus is the one facing testing—he is not the one to test God.
The Third Temptation
Lastly then lastly the devil gets down to brass tacks. He makes a direct appeal: worship me and I’ll give you power and influence. Don’t worship God. Switch loyalties. In essence: be my son, not God’s. Do what Israel so often did in its history: renounce your loyalty and increase your status.
But Jesus engages with equal directness: “Depart, Satan.” Deceiver. I know you.
Again he quotes from Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord the your God and serve Him only.”
And so the devil departs. And then angels come and minister to Jesus.
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So what are we to make of Jesus’ steadfast and unwavering fidelity to God? Are we to shore up the same resolve for us, gird up our spiritual loins and strive for such holiness ourselves when we find we have been plunged into the desert?
And plunged we might be. Stephen and I chose to drive through the desert of Nevada. Anthony of Egypt chose to go into the desert. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes a time of testing can appear from nowhere: a spouse walking out, a betrayal, a long-held hope and dream finally proves itself untenable. The expectation of what we think ministry is going to look like—versus what it actually is. Sometimes it’s a severe break, an obvious crisis moment, other times it’s the culmination of countless small injuries. Something that breaks us out of our civilised, safe, inhabited worlds into the rugged and unknown deserts where who we were and who we thought God was, is suddenly up for grabs.
As Anthony of Egypt and Orthodox spirituality in general is rather good at reminding us: there is a very real battle to be fought. It is not without reason that 1 Peter 5:8 beckons us:
“Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.”
We are beckoned to bed down into the truth of who we are in Christ. To stand firm.
But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking for a minute that resolve and strength in the face of temptation is what really matters. It is imperative. It is indeed necessary. But none of us can face the devil down and win.
Except. For. Christ.
The same one who was tempted in the desert, was tested also in Gethsemane and surrendered on the Cross. He could have called a host of angels to deliver him, but he did not do so. He waited for the resurrection.
The devil offered Jesus a shortcut: worship me and I’ll give you the kingdoms of the world. But Matthew 28—at the other end of the book—tells us Jesus got the kingdoms of the world and more—without ever having to forsake his God, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not only does Jesus now have authority over all of the earthly kingdoms, but all of the heavens too—including the devil himself.
Anthony of Egypt, in one bout of particular spiritual battle, lay wiped out from the enemy’s assaults. His body had been ravaged by demons who had taken the form of wild beasts. And then the account of his life says this:
“[Antony] groaned because of the pain felt in his body, but being in control of his thoughts and as if mocking them [the demons], he said: “If there were some power among you, it would have been enough for only one of you to come. But since the Lord has broken your strength, you attempt to terrify me by any means with the mob; it is a mark of your weakness that you mimic the shapes of irrational beasts.”
“If you are able, and you did receive authority over me, don’t hold back, but attack. But if you are unable, why, when it is vain, do you disturb me? For faith in our Lord is for us a seal and a wall of protection.”
If and when we find ourselves in the desert, out of the familiarity and security of our lives as we know them. Perhaps faltering on who we are. Maybe wondering where God is. While we have our part to play in holding onto the promise and truth of what God has done for us and who we are in Him, make no mistake:
We will prevail, not because of our spiritual prowess or anything special about you or me. But because the Enemy has already been defeated. His power has been broken. By the One who has faced the very same temptations and is now seated—with all authority—at the right hand of God.
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