A Wilderness Experience
A Lenten Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
Abington Presbyterian Church
February 10, 2008

Matthew 4: 1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It is written,
    “One does not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
    “He will command his angels concerning you”,
    and “On their hands they will bear you up,
    so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
    “Worship the Lord your God,
    and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.*

Can you imagine an employer hiring a new employee and then hearing from her new employee that he would like to take forty personal days immediately? Businesses have put into place all types of safeguards to assure that this does not happen. Vacation and personal days are earned by putting nose to the grindstone and producing. Yet from one perspective, that was precisely what Jesus did. He took forty personal days before ever showing up for work!

When he was baptized by John, his commission as Messiah was declared by the voice from the heavens: “This is my son, listen to him!” Jesus received God’s blessing and was endowed with authority. What else did he need? There was a great deal of work to do. People were in need of healing. People were in need of hearing the good news. People were hungry for hope and a message that their future was assured. There was work to be done. One would think that Jesus would get right at it. But he didn’t! Instead, he went off into the wilderness. Did he waste 40 days? Matthew said that he went to be tempted by the devil, but who else knew that? Would it not appear to the casual viewer of the day that Jesus was taking some time off: time off from being a messiah to “get his head together?” This morning, I want to examine Matthew’s account of Jesus’ temptation, because I believe that it is much more profound and instructive than our understanding of temptation today. Today we have trivialized temptation believing that it has something to do with chocolate, perfume, or provocative clothing. The struggle with temptation is primarily an identity struggle.

First, I want to briefly make some comments about Christ’s wilderness experience. Second, I will try and set a context for how Christ’s wilderness experience might fit into our age. And third, I want to address the challenge and opportunity of this text for our lives.

I

Let us look at Jesus’ wilderness experience. From the perspective of Matthew’s gospel, this journey into the wilderness, and the ultimate confrontation with temptation, was absolutely crucial to the development of Jesus messianic identity. Jesus began to understand, by confronting vocational temptation, who he was and what he was called to do, while out there in the wilderness. There, bereft of food, friends, and other amenities, Jesus was left with himself and his calling or vocation. He did not start on the job right away; rather he retreated and pondered who he was and what God was calling him to do. This struggle with his identity took the form of the temptations. But if the truth be known, most identity struggles take the form of temptation.

The three temptations were opportunities for Jesus to define (but also limit) the scope of his vocation. Turning stones into bread is a wonderful thing. If Jesus did that, he could eliminate the scourge of hunger in the world. Jesus could be an economic savior. Jumping from the Temple could be a pretty exciting event. It would garner a great deal of attention. Jesus could use that publicity to spread his message. But Jesus response indicated that he knew well that tricks and gimmicks, no matter how exciting, would ultimately define him as a showman: a first century Houdini. He would be popular and well known, but ultimately forgotten: a footnote on the page of history. The kingdoms of the world were shown to him. Wow! Can you imagine the good that Jesus could do if he had that kind of power? (We should also note that this power is the devil’s to give!) But such power is not the power that saves. It is not the power that heals! It is not the power that brings hope!

Each of these “gifts” was a temptation. If a poll could be taken in the ancient world, these temptations probably reflected the wants and perceived needs of the ancient world. What is crucial to this story and to the structure of the gospels is that Jesus needed to struggle with these temptations apart from others and the world. He needed to go off by himself. He sought the solitude of the wilderness: a time to reflect and to wrestle with the temptations of his calling.

II

Does our society value solitude? Do we encourage people to take time to be apart from things and reflect on what they are doing, to ponder the problems and challenges that they face, to grapple with the temptations that are so much a part of life? Do we value the struggles of the soul and the fruit of wisdom that these struggles produce? I fear not, and our society pays a large price for this.

We often dismiss this solitude and reflection as dreaming. We might label it as “touchy feely” or “psycho babble”. We might borrow a modern term and call it “slacking.” We value production and immediate results, and going off and contemplating your navel does not produce. We often regard such behavior with scorn and consider it laziness. A computer engineer named Tom DeMarco challenges this attitude in a book entitled: Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency. DeMarco is a 60 year old engineer who developed a complex mathematical equation that challenges the modern work ethic and argues in a counter-intuitive manner that the highly valued “nose to the grindstone” work ethic is inefficient. He argues that knowledge worker, their supervisors, and their employers should take advantage of “dead time” to rethink jobs, tune up departments and even reinvent the mission of entire companies. He writes: “The legacy of the nineties has been a dangerous corporate delusion: the idea that organizations are effective only to the extent that all their workers are totally and eternally busy.” This “busy-ness” is really a cop-out. It reflects a retreat from responsibility. “There’s a certain relief in doing just what people tell you to do.” What is the price that we pay for this? The loss of creativity, innovation, imagination, and positive energy. We become wed to the status quo and fail to recognize the changes in the external environment. We become stuck in our own mud and find ourselves unable to respond to a changing world. Most of all, we lose our sense of self-awareness.

We should never forget the words of that anonymous Egyptian Monk of the fourth century who wrote: “Unawareness is the root of all evil.”

Think about the story of Jesus retreating in the wilderness: That was a time to grow in self awareness for Jesus. He left that experience in the wilderness, not exhausted and tired, rather he was filled with the confidence and the assurance of knowing who he was and what he was called to do.

III

Christians need to be self-aware. We need time to reflect on our identity: who we are, what we are doing, and how we are doing it. I remember when I first started in the ministry; my father came to see me. I was an associate pastor in a large university congregation. The church prided itself in being up to date and having a very active program. I showed him around the church and took him to the office suite. There he saw the three secretaries answering the phone and typing away. He saw the scurry of activity and the four phone lines lighting up. His son, (me), was the proverbial busy pastor. That night, over supper I asked him, “Dad, what did you think of the church?” His response: “It sure is busy.” That was not a compliment. It was his way of asking if the church was centered on the good news of Jesus Christ, or if it was busy being busy.

The challenge for the Christian today is not to be busier with “church work.” Rather it is to retreat into the wilderness, to wrestle with our identity and the various temptations that we face in this modern era. Christians rarely struggle with what it means to follow Jesus today. The desert monastic communities of the 4^th century developed in response to Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. After he converted and Christianity became the religion of the empire, it was easier to be a Christian. The “Desert Fathers and Mothers” sought the wilderness because they believed that Christians like Jesus needed to struggle with the temptations that often obscure our identity and calling.

Let me conclude with a personal perspective. In seven weeks, I will begin a three month sabbatical. I will be unavailable to the church and will be spending time away from the church writing and studying and praying. I suspect that some think of it as “time off” which may or may not be deserved. But as I planned these three months with others in the congregation, I am became more and more convinced that this will be “time on.” My prayers are that it will be “time on” for wrestling with my identity as a disciple of Jesus and as Minister of Word and Sacrament. It will be “time on” for reflection on what I am doing, the temptations of this calling, and the opportunities that God is creating in Abington and the world, for faithful service I hope that it will be a “time on” for introspection and growing self-awareness. These are things that a person cannot do when she or he is busy being busy. Busy-ness is a great way to avoid self-awareness and understanding. The model is Jesus.. He began his ministry with a retreat into the wilderness. Read how often he had to get away from the crowds to be alone and reflect. After 32 years of ministry, I am convinced that the “busy pastor” is the most sophisticated form of idolatry in my profession, hence the need to retreat is a genuine expression of repentance.

The season of Lent is a time of introspection for all Christians. It is time to look at ourselves, what we are doing and the myths and lies that hold us hostage. It is a time to retreat, to enter that spiritual wilderness and seek the self awareness that is attained by wrestling with temptation. For forty days, Christ wrestled with temptation and his calling. He emerged from that wilderness, not tired, but ready, refreshed and prepared to serve. May these 40 days of our lives be a time to gain self-awareness. At the conclusion of these forty days may we emerge from the tombs of human sinfulness and delusion, ready to serve and follow Christ. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org