Luke 4:1-13
“Even in the Desert”
Preached Sunday, March 9, 2025
Today is the first Sunday in this season that we call Lent. Lent is a season marked by self-reflection, fasting, and penitence as we move toward Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection. It is 40 days, not counting Sundays, symbolic of Jesus’s 40 days of being tempted in the desert.
Biblically, Jesus was just baptized - his first public appearance, if you will, as the coming Messiah.
It's good and right that we baptized a beautiful child of God this morning - on the first season of Lent. That's what Jesus did, after all, right before going into the desert. Baptism is a celebration that we are all beloved children of God. Baptism is a promise - child to parent, congregation to child, child or the baptized to God - that we will love one another and live our lives as God would have us live them - those promises made in the vows this morning. And God promises to us - you will be my child. And so it is appropriate that Baptism also gives us the opportunity to examine our lives - specifically to ask: am I living out my baptismal promises? Promises to repent, to reject evil, to serve and confess Christ, to nurture one another in Christian love?
These are good questions to ask ourselves at any time. Lent specifically, offers intentional opportunists for such reflection over our lives, as Christ reflected in the desert.
So Jesus is baptized and then he goes into the desert before the rest of his public ministry. In our observance of Lent, we talk about this season as a time for us to be in the wilderness of the desert alongside Jesus. Metaphorically, we follow Jesus out into the desert. - so I want to ask you today: what do you first think of when you think of the desert?
Perhaps words like….dry, hot, sandy, brutal, lifeless.
Many of us probably think of something like this.* This is an image of the Sahara Desert which is the largest desert in the world and the biggest source of sand and dust in the world. When thinking of images like this, combined with the Biblical stories of Jesus being tempted in the desert, and the Israelities wandering the deserts it is easy to think of deserts as harsh, unforgiving places…which, well, they can be.
The Gobi Desert*, pictured here, has temperatures that range from -40 degrees fahrenheit to 122 degrees fahrenheit. Yes, snow in a desert. The snow there never actually melts, it will snow and then instantly vaporizes when the temperatures start to warm.
And that’s not even the hottest desert. The hottest place on earth is Death Valley*, pictured here, a northern part of the Mojave desert in California. It has reached record temperatures of 134 degrees fahrenheit.
Looking at these pictures we might be thinking…do we really want to follow Jesus into the desert? Do we really need to do this whole season called Lent? So we really need to examine our lives and promises? Haven’t we given up enough? Haven’t we already given up enough? I long for a fuller, richer, more alive life. I long for the Spring and blooms of Easter, the joy of resurrection - not the somber and reflective mood of Lent, not fasting, not the cross. I long for the lush vegetation and life of the rainforest, not the barren, lifeless landscape of the desert.
Except - except…deserts make up one-third of our planet and not a single one of them is lifeless. Even in the hottest place on earth, like Death Valley, a small amount of rain can awaken seeds that have been there for decades, creating beautiful desert blooms.* Yes, THAT picture is a picture of the desert. That picture is a picture of the hottest place in the world - literally with the word death in its name. But there is so much life.
In fact, deserts are not lifeless places. The desert may make it harder to survive but animals do indeed adapt and even thrive.
The desert is full of resilience. Snakes have armored skin to protect against sand storms. Insects go beneath the ground. These Red Kangaroos* in Australia take shelter under trees in the hottest part of the day. They then lick their body to allow their saliva to evaporate off of them and cool their blood. They dig in the sun-baked earth to get to cooler soil.
These Fennec Foxes* in Africa, like many wildlife in the desert, are nocturnal, coming out at the coolest parts of a day.
And even though it is not a living creature*, rock formations like these in Egypt’s White Desert tell a story of resilience against the storms of life that would try and topple us over.
So yes, the desert is a place of resilience. The desert is also a place of beauty and of color.
Take a look at these lizards*, called Flat Lizards, in South Africa where there is the highest density of lizards in the world. They are bright and vibrant.
And then there is the saguaro cactus* and its beautiful flowers, found in the desert of Arizona. The largest cactus in the world that can grow up to 40 feet tall, live 100 to 200 years, and soak up and store 200 gallons of water at a time. Its flowers* bloom at night for four weeks out of the year so bats can visit it for pollination as they traverse across the Sonoran desert. A journey that the whole ecosystem depends upon.
So yes, the desert is resilient. And the desert is beautiful. And one more thing about deserts and then I’ll get back to Jesus, I swear! But the desert can also surprise you!
*Take for example the Atacama desert in Chile which is the driest desert in the world. On average, it only has one significant rainfall once a century. So how in the world can life survive and thrive here? The desert’s coast runs parallel to a cold sea that creates a dense, thick fog, that rolls over the desert. You can see the fog in the image. Within minutes the landscape and vegetation are drenched in mist, giving life to all, like this bird* pictured here.
At this point I’m sure you’re all thinking: Okay, Pastor Allison, the bird and everything is cool and all…but remind me again what this has to do with Jesus and Lent?
Okay. Hear me out on this. We must rethink how we view and think of the desert, not just as an ecosystem but in the spiritual desert of the season of Lent.
What if we viewed Lent, not as a season where the glass is half empty….or even entirely empty, but a season where the glass is overflowing with God's abundant and generous grace for us.
What if we viewed Lent, not as a time of restriction or restraint of ourselves and our lives, but an opportunity to more fully be who God calls us to be, who God created us to be - our true beloved selves.
What if we viewed Lent as a time to contract the scarcity mindset of our world - if capitalism, oppression, and hierarchy that always tell us there is not enough. What if we viewed Lent as a time to lavish love, kindness, generosity on others proclaiming that there is always enough to go around.
What if we viewed Lent, not as another thing to do, but as a time to step away from the world’s demands of us that diminish us - to step away from the rest race and seeking of power and the desire for more, more,.more….and instead claimed Lent as a time for us to fully live into our baptismal vows: we are enough. We are beloved.
God, in our baptisms, has already claimed as as God's own. We don't need to earn that this Lent. But we may need to accept that gift and live and love more deeply in to it.
So again - what does this have to do with Jesus in the desert?
When Jesus is tempted in the desert he is offered things that would give in to the scarcity mindset and the mindsets of this world, the mindsets of domination and power. I will not turn this bread into stone - for there is enough bread for everyone - something Jesus shows in his miracle of feeding the 5,000. And no, I will not vie for the power and kingdoms of this world - for my Kingdom is not of this world and does not rely on the subjugation and violence of this world’s kingdoms. And no, I will not put the Lord my God to the test, for there is no need to test God, God’s grace is abundant, spilling over, given not earned - always there.
In the desert, Jesus shows us another way. Perhaps, symbolically, these temptations didn’t necessarily need to take place in a desert, in a dry and sandy ecosystem. But the desert has long been known as a place of journey…and a place, despite the harsh environment and sun and extreme temperatures - a place where God could be found.
If I’m in a lush environment, I might not notice the life all around me. But in the desert - the resilient, beautiful, surprising desert - there, life captivates us. It’s hard to miss. Our eyes are drawn to it, our souls are called to it. The kangaroos are all the more an example for their resilience. The desert blossom is all the more beautiful for being rare. The mist covering the land is all the more wanted, all the more life inspiring. God’s presence is all the more known for the lack of distractions around us.
So as we enter our Lenten journey, and follow Jesus into the desert, let us resist the temptations of this world - temptations of scarcity, and power, and doubting God’s love. Because in the desert - God is with us. In the desert, we are resilient - we can not only survive, but thrive, for God is with us. We can not only grow in the desert, but blossom like flowers. And in the desert, we can be surprised by God’s abundant, overflowing, life-giving presence.
This is the Lent I am calling us towards today. A Lent in the desert, yes. But not a Lent devoid of life and beauty, no - a Lent where we appreciate those things all the more for being in the desert.
May God bless us on this Lenten journey.
Amen.
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