The Wilderness and the Will of God

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that we may learn Your Word together as a family. We give You all praise and honor and glory, in Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.

Good morning again, Encouragers.

Today, the Church leads us into the wilderness. She does not rush us there. She leads us deliberately…..Ash Wednesday marked us with the sign of mortality…..Ashes on the forehead reminded that we are dust, and that apart from grace, we return to dust.

Now, on this first Sunday in Lent, the Gospel places before us the Son of God standing in the desert, hungry, alone, and tempted.

Lent has begun in earnest.

The Collect today is careful and searching. We ask Almighty God to give us grace “to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness.”

That prayer deserves our attention.

We are not asking simply for willpower. We are asking that our flesh be subdued to the Spirit, that our lives come under proper order, so that obedience becomes steady and sincere.

The Church doesn’t send us into Lent to prove something. She sends us into Lent to learn dependence….. So, we look to Christ.

St. Matthew tells us that immediately after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Think about that. He was led by the Spirit….. The wilderness was not accidental….. It was not outside the will of the Father….. It belonged to the obedience of the Son.

That process matters to us as Christians. We sometimes assume that struggle means failure. We imagine that temptation means we are off course. Yet the Gospel shows us that the wilderness can be precisely where obedience unfolds.

For forty days and forty nights, Jesus fasted….. The forty days recall Israel’s forty years in the desert.

Where Israel murmured, Christ remains faithful….. Where Israel doubted, Christ trusts….. Where Adam grasped at what was not his to take, Christ receives only what the Father gives.

This is a snapshot of Lent….. about being drawn into Christ’s faithfulness.

The first temptation comes when He is hungry. “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”

The suggestion sounds reasonable. He is hungry. He has power. Why not?

But the temptation is about trust….. Will Jesus use the Father’s gifts on His own terms? Will He seize what He has been given to receive?

Our Lord answers from Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

That is not a denial of bodily need. It is an ordering of life.

Bread sustains the body. The Word sustains the soul. Without the Word, even bread becomes insufficient.

We live in a culture that rarely fasts from anything. We are surrounded by abundance and constant access. Lent interrupts that pattern.

Food is not evil. Comfort is not sinful. Yet our lives require reordering.

The question beneath the first temptation is simple. What governs us? Is it appetite? Anxiety? Impulse? Or is it the Word of God?

The second temptation moves from the belly to presumption. “Cast thyself down.”

Did you notice that even Satan quotes Scripture? Not every biblical quotation is rightly applied. Holy words can be twisted toward unholy ends.

And so, this temptation concerns spectacle. It is about demanding that God act dramatically on our terms.

Jesus refuses. “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” True trust does not force God’s hand….. It rests in His.

The third temptation widens the horizon….. The kingdoms of the world….. Glory without suffering….. Authority without the Cross….. Satan says. “All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

It is a temptation toward compromise….. A small bow….. A slight adjustment….. A quiet shifting of allegiance.

But Christ answers plainly: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

That sentence frames Lent for us…… Lent concerns worship….. It is not so much about deprivation, but about restoring clarity to whom we serve.

We may not be tempted to command stones to become bread….. We are, however, tempted daily to let lesser things govern us.

We may not stand on the pinnacle of the Temple, but we are tempted to shape faith around convenience.

We may not be offered visible kingdoms, yet we are offered comfort, influence, and security at the price of subtle compromise.

The wilderness reveals what holds our hearts….. But in His great mercy, Christ has already stood there for us.

He did not enter the wilderness as a private individual….. He entered it for all of us….. Where Adam fell, He stands….. Where Israel faltered, He obeys….. Where we fail, He remains faithful.

As we progress through this season of Lent, we must remain rooted in the Gospel.

If Lent becomes self-improvement, it will crush us….. If Lent becomes comparison, it will distort us.

But if Lent becomes participation in Christ’s obedience, it will steady and humble us.

The Epistle today reminds us of this spiritual realism. St. Paul speaks of weakness, endurance, affliction, watchings, and fastings. His confidence does not rest in stamina. It rests in the power of God working through frailty.

He’s teaching us something important. The Christian life is not a display of invulnerability. It is a life lived under grace.

And that brings us to the altar.

Each Sunday, after the consecration, we say, “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.” Why? “So that He may dwell in us and we in Him.”

Notice what we bring. Not our achievements. Not a perfected discipline…… We simply bring ourselves.

Lent is not about constructing a better version of yourself to present to God at Easter. It is about placing your real self into His hands….. Disordered loves….. Uneven obedience….. Weary faith.

The wilderness strips illusion. It clarifies dependence. It also reveals companionship.

After the devil leaves, angels come and minister unto our Lord. The Father did not abandon the Son in the wilderness, and He does not abandon His children.

Psalm 91 speaks of the Lord as our refuge and fortress. Psalm 51 teaches us that God desires truth in the inward parts.

See, the Father’s aim is not humiliation. It is healing.

Lent is a school of truth, and it teaches us that we are not as strong as we imagine.

It teaches us that temptation is real….. It teaches us that self-denial clarifies the heart….. It also teaches us that the Spirit leads us, that the Son stands with us, and that the Father sustains us.

So, Lent should not be seen as a harsh season, but rather, a hopeful one.

In a small parish like ours, Lent unfolds quietly….. No grand gestures….. Simple choices….. More prayer….. Less indulgence….. Greater charity….. Honest self-examination.

The Christian life is not dramatic in appearance. It is steady in direction…..When you feel hunger, let it turn you toward the Word…..When you feel the impulse to control outcomes, let it return you to trust…..When you feel the temptation to compromise, remember whose Name you bear…..And when you fail, remember this…..The One who stood in the wilderness stands now at the altar.

We do not come to this Table as conquerors of temptation. We come as those who need mercy…..And the mercy is real.

Here, bread becomes the Body of Christ. Here, obedience is nourished as a gift…..The same Lord who said, “Man shall not live by bread alone,” now gives heavenly Bread to sustain the journey.

The road to Easter runs through the wilderness, yet it doesn’t have to be a lonely road…..Christ has gone before us…..Christ walks with us…..Christ will carry us through.

So, let’s begin Lent simply….. Offer yourself….. Receive grace….. Walk steadily.

And trust that the Father, who led His Son into the wilderness, will bring you through it as well.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.