Bonus Episode: Testing in the Wilderness

Well after a long hiatus that involved cross Atlantic moves and a new job, we are back with a bonus episode to get things started again at the Burning Word.

The past three weeks I’ve been preaching on Jesus being tested by Satan in the wilderness.

And the more I’ve thought about it, the more this passage seems to hold just about everything you could hope for in an invitation to return to the Word in order to encounter God again.

Jesus manages to take up in himself in this short scene the whole story of Israel and the even bigger story of humanity. It’s a scene that holds within it the entire Biblical drama.

Yet rather than just a sweeping Shakespearean saga, when you slow down with the details this scene unfolds a rather intimate portrayal of what you and I struggle most with when it comes to being in relationship with God. The hunger. The power. The safety. All these longings that seem so reasonable, if only we could stretch out our hands and take, or even more if God would just simply give.

This is why we need Jesus facing the trial.

This is why we must remember. Not just Jesus’s body and blood, but also his testing in the wilderness. There is comfort here, much as there is freedom, and truth. But there is also testing.

May we know that we are not alone in the testing.

And may we find Jesus with us whenever we are in the wilderness.