Beyond the Wilderness MARCH 4, 2022
by MELISSA BILLS, Campus Pastor and Director of College Ministries
Luke 4:1-21 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was 32
Agora/Spring 2022
given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
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he Christian church has just crossed into the season of Lent, which is a season where we are encouraged to engage in the spiritual postures of self-reflection, humility, and penitence. Similar to our readings for Ash Wednesday, which ask us to be honest with ourselves about our mortality, today’s reading, which is the reading for the first Sunday in Lent, asks us to face openly the very human temptations toward greed and power that divide us from God and from one another. The devil offers Jesus three temptations in the wilderness: exploitation of food, or basic needs; exploitation of power; exploitation of God’s favor. “Fill your own belly with good things, no matter the hungry bellies on the other side of the desert,” the tempter suggests. “Make the nations bow down to you, even if you have to sell your soul to do it,” the tempter offers. “Call down God’s favor for your own whims, and exploit your divinity for your own gains,” the tempter encourages. Dear ones, we are living in a world right now that is showing us very clearly what happens when those with power exploit their power to seek to fill their own
Melissa Bills bellies; when they exploit and trample the vulnerable as a show of power; when they exploit narratives of faith and divine will to justify themselves and their actions. A war is unfolding before our eyes that is a maneuver of flexing power for power’s sake. A pandemic is still plaguing us, in part because we are tempted to feed our own desires for “normal life” ahead of the needs of those who are most vulnerable. Our national politics are in shambles because we keep equating one political party or another as doing God’s divine will, and because winning power has become more important than just about anything else. I don’t know whether Jesus was actually tempted or swayed by any of the devil’s offerings, but I do know that Jesus, in the wilderness, was faced with the very things that he urges us, with his very life, to guard against. Jesus draws us beyond wilderness temptations to give us an alternative vision for the world.
