“Testing in the Wilderness” on Luke 4:1-13 by Joe Ellis – March 9, 2025

The Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness for a time of testing. Note that the Spirit’s testing is the other side of the coin of the Devil’s tempting. The Spirit is in control of this story, not the Devil. After all, it was the Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness where he would be tempted by the Devil. In the book of James, James spells out how testing and tempting are different sides of the same coin. Tempting is what the Devil does — his goal in tempting is for God’s people to fail, to forsake who they are called to be. Testing is what the Spirit does — testing reveals who we are. Testing is a way of showing something’s true worth. The heart of a test isn’t for someone to fail, but to reveal what someone truly is. Testing is an opportunity to truly embody who God has called you to be. In the wilderness, the Devil tempts Jesus to get him to forsake who he is called to be. The Devil keeps saying, “If you are God’s Son, do this…”, but he is really trying to sabotage the Son of God. Yet in this test, we are given to see who the Son of God truly is. The test of the Spirit reveals what is true. 

The church as a whole, as well as individuals within the church, also face times of testing through which the Spirit intends to reveal who He has called us to be — these are times when the Spirit wants us to shine forth as God’s children. But on the other side of the coin, the Devil is tempting when he comes to entice Christians to forsake our calling, to forsake who God has called us to be — As the Spirit led Jesus into the desert for testing, so too, does the Spirit bring us into times of testing — to reveal what a child of God truly looks like. The Devil tempts us to forsake our calling while the Spirit intends to reveal who He has called us to be. That’s the drama we see in today’s Scripture, and that is the drama of the church and for us in the church. Let’s look at how this played out in Jesus’ life. 

The first temptation concerns bread. Jesus is hungry — He has been fasting forty days and forty nights. He is famished and the Devil approaches. “Turn these stones into bread,” invites the Devil. Jesus is hungry, and the Devil invites Jesus to satisfy His hunger. Note that the Devil, at this point, is not even encouraging Jesus to use dark magic to turn these stones into bread. The Devil did not say, “Here, sacrifice this cat on an altar to me and these stones will turn into bread.” Jesus is invited to use his own power to achieve the purposes of the Devil. Turn that phrase over a few times: Jesus is invited to use his own power to achieve the purposes of the Devil. But if Jesus obeyed the Devil, the Son of God would be shifting his allegiance. God has a different purpose for Jesus — to not satisfy his hunger with bread, but to satisfy His hunger with God, to bring His hunger to God and trust in God for satisfaction. In this the Son of God is revealed as one who has a powerful trust in God to attend to His needs.  

Here we are in Canada — on the brink, or perhaps already in, a trade war with the United States. We may very well be in a place where as a nation we grow hungry, hungry to have things back the way they were, hungry to have security in the way we once knew, hungry to be in a place where our needs are met, hungry to have our spending power return to what it once was. We may desperately want bread to appear, we may desperately want our hunger to go away. As Christians, how might we be tempted to use our power in pursuit of bread, heedless of how God is calling us to manifest as His children in this moment. Remember, the Devil frames all of his temptations around Jesus’ calling, “If you are the Son of God,” do this. What can our response to our hunger for bread say about our primary identity, which is being a follower Jesus?

Think about how you have responded to these threats of 25% tariffs. Have you noticed in yourself a fear of bread being taken away? Have you noticed an anger in your heart? As followers of Jesus how do we respond when our Saviour says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Remember, Jesus spoke these words into a context of one nation bullying a smaller nation. Notice the tension between your normal response to a threat and the posture Jesus invites you to have as His followers — Love your enemies, do good to those  who hate you, bless those who curse you. Our primary allegiance is to Jesus — and we trust that we don’t live by bread alone, that He will take care of us. How do we respond from our primary identity as followers of Christ? We are citizens of another sort of Kingdom. This is the invitation of the passage: how do we live into our primary identity as followers of Christ when our hunger begins to take over — whatever sort of hunger it is? 

The Devil then takes Jesus to the Holy City, stands Him on the highest mountain, and says, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” The Devil is drawing from Psalm 91. Now, we heard Psalm 91 earlier in the service, which is such a beautiful expression of care from God as Father to those who take refuge in Him. Truly, a beautiful expression of deep care. Yet, the Devil says, “Look! He said he would protect you if you jump off this cliff! Have at it!” Almost like saying, “Look! Daddy’s has given you his credit card, buy this Corvette!” The Devil prefaces his temptation again with, “If you are God’s Son”, and then the Devil attempts to transform the son into a spoiled brat exploiting his father’s love and power. And the Devil does this through Scripture! “If you are God’s Son, you know you can just throw yourself off, and he’ll have to catch you.”

This exchange serves as a potent warning to the church. We can be prone to use Scripture in a way that may be perhaps technically accurate (after all, the passage did say God would catch him) but twists the heart in a way that Christ is no longer recognized in His followers’ behaviour. May we be wary of becoming a follower of Jesus that uses Scripture to justify our position and actions, but have lost our true identity in the process — far from reflecting the Father heart of God. Note Jesus’ response. He quotes Deuteronomy saying, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” This is a sign of immense humility. After all, it is the teacher who gives the test, and the student who is tested. Jesus is saying, far be it for me to reverse that order. May we forever be the student, the child, the disciple — may we strive, as best we can, to forever bring ourselves under the tutelage of our Master, who is Jesus Christ. Of course, this is a great honour to be invited into this relationship with the Creator of the Universe, but our calling is not to flaunt or exploit that honour with prideful arrogance. Instead, if we are followers of Christ, we are called to live out this identity with humility and deference — Jesus shows that the Son of God Himself embodies His role with humility and defence. In these times when Christians in our nation are tempted to use our position with arrogance, may the Spirit’s testing reveal in the church a character of great humility and dependence on the Father’s hand.

The Devil takes Jesus up to a very high mountain, showing Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their grandeur. The Devil says, “I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship me.” This temptation came at a time when the Jewish Kingdom was in trouble. Israel was occupied by the superpower, Rome. The people were waiting for God to come and release them from this tyranny, this abuse of power, this humiliation. Like Jesus’ hunger for bread, the people’s hunger for their nation’s victory was painfully strong. The Devil takes Jesus to the top of a mountain, shows him all the kingdoms of the world, and offers them to Jesus if He would just fall down and worship him. 

Perhaps Jesus could have realized the people’s hopes and dreams for their kingdom in that moment. If only Jesus had compromised, bowed down and worshiped, they would have conquered the neighbouring superpower. Of course, we are in a time where our own nation is under threat — Canadians across the land feel this threat viscerally. We’re booing national anthems and refusing American products to line our shelves. We have also little kingdoms of which we are all apart — our church, our work, our towns, our family, our clubs. All these sort of kingdoms can feel more concrete and real than the Kingdom of God — which can feel more like an abstract concept than an actual real place. And so we can shift our allegiances around, especially when those earthly kingdoms we are apart of coming under threat. At times we can forget our true citizenship, as citizens of God’s Kingdom. And instead we can think of our citizenship in terms of whichever community needs us most — and then we can begin to live in obedience to these other kingdoms, rather than the Kingdom of God. 

The Devil had Jesus feel the pull of those concrete earthly kingdoms, and was trying to shift His allegiance. Jesus declines, saying, “You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.” As followers of Jesus, may our primary allegiance be to God and His Kingdom — even when the other kingdoms we are apart of are threatened, even when those kingdoms pull us to live by a different set of rules. May we primarily recognize that our true calling and identity is to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom, and in that place we worship and serve the Lord alone.

Jesus passes the test, he resists the temptation. He has been true to His calling, He has been true to His Kingdom. May He give us this strength as well. Our allegiance is to God and His Kingdom, and that Kingdom is not in trouble. Jesus knew that. The Devil offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world as security, Jesus trusted in the one Kingdom to which the Devil had not access: the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom has one ruler, one Lord, and it is to Him and Him alone that we worship and serve. This Kingdom, is not in trouble. The Kingdom is alive and present, even though we cannot see it.

When we are under temptation to forsake our calling, our true citizenship — it’s helpful to have touchstones. To remember moments in your life when you experienced God and His Kingdom as palpably real. Those sorts of touchstones can reorient you in times of temptation, when you feel the pull to shift allegiances. I’d like to share with you one of my touchstones:

Today is the first Sunday in Lent. The first Sunday in Lent was the last Sunday my mom was alive. As you’ve seen, throughout the service I have been reading out of the prayer book that was at my mom’s bedside her last week of life. This first Sunday in Lent three years ago, she read those same words in the Gospel that we heard this morning. My mom took in Jesus’ assurance that His Kingdom was not in trouble. Despite her disappointed hopes of getting better, she could align with Jesus’ call to worship and serve God alone. Mom put a ‘check mark’ next to those words in the Gospel. That next day, which is tomorrow in the church calendar, would be the last day my Mom was able to pray the daily office, after that she would slip in and out of consciousness. Despite the fact that it seemed like mom was slipping away from this earthly kingdom, our family — as the week went on, we experienced the Heavenly Kingdom drawing powerfully near. My family has never experienced such a palpable expression of the Kingdom of God as that night when my Mom died. I hold on to this memory when God’s Kingdom seems far away. When I feel the Devil tempting me to forsake who God says we are, when I feel the pull to pledge allegiance to something else. I hold on to this memory that the Kingdom of God is real, and trust that it’s breaking into our world all the time — even when I can’t see it. I hold on to that memory which guides me back to my true allegiance in Christ — which helps me when I feel tempted to doubt that God will be with me in my hunger, when I feel tempted to arrogance, or when I feel tempted to forsake allegiance to God’s Kingdom and live in service to something else.  

Do you have a moment where you were given a sort of touchstone, that grounds you in who you are during moments of testing? I think we all need them, something to orient us to what is true when the Devil tries to totally disorient us with what seems true but is just a pale imitation of truth. When times of testing come our way, may God show Himself faithful and give us all we need to live into who He has called us to be: followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.