Wilderness

Jesus faces hunger, thirst, loneliness, torment, and temptation as a sign of the Father’s love, as a result of the Spirit’s leading, as a consequence of his humble obedience to the Father’s will.

The wilderness is God’s idea.

That’s the straight logic of this passage. Jesus submits to a baptism of repentance out of obedience—to fulfill all righteousness; he goes immediately from the Father’s affirmation to what must appear to be the Father’s desertion; and he is ”led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” The devil is not an unfortunate encounter: he’s a divine appointment.

Ever notice that hardship often attends obedience? Or that the devil shows up on the heels of your deepest moments with God? Or that, just on the cusp of a spiritual breakthrough, you get thrust into a long stretch of confusion, temptation, loneliness, weariness?

It is natural to see such reversals as God’s abandonment. But this story, right at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, gives us pause. For Jesus, wilderness followed celebration.

Temptation rode the wave of affirmation. Jesus hears the voice of the Father, speaking truth. The next voice he hears is the devil’s, telling lies.

The Spirit leads sometimes to strange places. This is disturbing, but also consoling. It forces a radical reinterpretation of our dark nights of the soul. Could our lowest moments, our times of greatest hunger and thirst, our experiences of deepest temptation and most galling spiritual affliction, be a hidden gift of the Father? A shaping, a testing, a preparation, an empowering?

Matthew adds that when the devil left him, "angels came and attended him” (Matthew 4:11).

And then Jesus steps onto the stage of history and changed everything.

The Spirit’s leading indeed.

Respond in Prayer

Dear Father, Give me eyes to see my deserts as training grounds, my temptations as tests, my struggles as preludes to victory. May I, like Jesus, silence the devil with truth. And when I am at the end of my strength, please send angels to attend me. In Jesus’ name, I ask. Amen.

Mark Buchanan