Jesus in the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

February 14, 2016, Lent 1

For Lent, we are including conversations about our own "wilderness" as part of the sermon.   

Death Valley
Photo, Paul Siebert

When we say the word temptation

we usually thinking of two things:

either lust or really fattening dessert.

Either way, it’s one specific 

moment or action.

Something that we want to do but shouldn’t.

And sure those are examples of temptation.

But when we see Jesus 

in the wilderness here,

those are not his temptations.

Bread is one of his temptations,

but it’s not a temptation because it’s bad for him,

it’s a temptation because God did not provide it.

The temptation that Jesus is dealing with

is trusting and relying on something other than God.

And that is our temptation too in our relationship with God.

We are pulled in many different directions,

sometimes we are driven by our own anxiety

and impatience and we choose to take our path and identities

into our own hands instead of following God.

Isn’t that what the devil is trying to do here?

He’s trying to tempt Jesus to strike out his own deals,

follow his own path.

To get him to make his own bread,

gain control of his own life, get his own power,

and show God who’s boss.

We spend a lot of our lives trying to show God who’s boss.

We are independent thinkers and doers,

and I think that a lot of us struggle with

depending even on the other people around us,

let alone God.

  

For a lot of us, it’s hard to rely on others,

what are some reasons that it’s hard to rely on others?

- lack of trust

- they don’t do what we want when we want it

- they want to do things differently

-We have to be open and vulnerable.

Depending on others requires

trust, vulnerability,  flexibility, so does depending on God.

We can practice our trust with other people.

Answer these three questions

in a small group or on your own.

·         When have you needed to rely on others?

·         Are you comfortable with it or do you fight it?

·         Does relying on God feel the same?

Relying on God is not easy.

Sometimes God wants us to do the opposite of

what we have our minds set on.

Sometimes we want things to move faster or slower

than God moves things.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what God is doing.

The greatest temptation is not eating delicious desserts

or even doing bad things.

Our greatest temptation is like Jesus greatest temptation.

Not trusting God, not listening to God,

letting our own angst and insecurities guide us.

Trusting a path that we can’t see and that we don’t know the end of can seem like a wilderness, like being lost and

But even when we lose our way,

even when we give into those temptations,

we know that God is with us in the wilderness.