Cliff Loesch February 10, 2008 Matthew 4:1-11 Out in the Wilderness      How often have you heard someone say, "Nothing prepared me for this?"  Maybe you've said those words yourself when you have faced a really difficult challenge or trial.  You may have thought you were strong enough, or prepared enough for just about anything.  Yet sooner or later all of us face situations where we simply say, "I am not prepared for this."      When we look at Matthew 4 there is a puzzling verse that says the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  Think about that: the Spirit led Jesus to a place of temptation?  The Spirit placed Jesus in harm's way, so to speak?  This seems strange.  But I think we need to view this as a time of preparation, and a time of testing.  It was a time for Jesus to clarify in his own mind what his purpose was, and what his mission would be.  And it was a time to gain strength.       Everybody goes through times of testing.  That's part of life.  As difficult as some of our trials may be, we also recognize the value of testing and preparation-because life demands of us all the things we gain from times of testing: we need focus, we need clarity of purpose, we need an understanding of who we are or who we desire to be, and we need strength.  I know I have used this illustration before-sometime in the past-but in Pasadena, California where I got my masters degree, the wind never blew.  It was always nearly perfectly calm and still.  On the campus at Fuller Seminary, there was an outdoor commons area where they had several easels set up and they would have posters on the easels to announce different things.  And they weren't tied down or anything.  I always marveled at this.  Here in Kansas those posters wouldn't stay there for five minutes.  On almost any day of the year (here in Kansas) a little gust of wind would come through and the posters would be on the ground- and on some days, the easels themselves would likely roll like a tumbleweed-but not in Pasadena.  The posters stayed in place, peacefully displaying their messages.  But one week the wind came.  Parts of California can be windy.  You've heard of the Santa Ana winds I'm sure.  Those winds were usually to the east of Pasadena, but for whatever reason, one year they came right through town.  And it was windy.  Even here in Kansas, we would have called it a strong wind.  But not unusually strong and certainly not the strongest we've ever encountered or anything like that.  Yet the effect of this wind in Pasadena was amazing.  The same wind blowing through Wichita would not have been a problem at all.  But in Pasadena, the trees were not used to wind.  And I could not believe how much damage there was to the trees.  There were branches everywhere.  And I saw several great big palm trees on the ground, toppled by the wind.  The trees out there had not grown up with the constant testing of the wind.  And when the strong winds came, they were simply not prepared.       There's no doubt about it that testing makes us stronger-and of course, you know this.  But I believe this was the purpose of Jesus' time in the wilderness-or actually I think all of these things were happening: gaining strength, clarifying purpose, testing his own physical limits, understanding himself, and, of course, understanding more deeply his relationship to God.      Now the temptations, themselves, are interesting: stones into bread, jump off the Temple, become a king.  Make sure that you notice that none of those things are sins in and of themselves.  There is nothing whatsoever that's sinful about turning stones into bread if you happen to have that ability.  There is nothing sinful about jumping off the Temple if you are lacking some common sense and think you can survive it.  And there is nothing sinful about becoming a king if that opportunity comes your way.  In fact, another way of looking at these three things occurs to me.  For turning stones into bread-isn't that a little like saying that you make the most out of what you have?  Isn't that like someone who starts with nothing and through ingenuity and resourcefulness and creativity turns nothing into something really big?  We admire people who can do this.  And if you can turn stones into bread in your life-I say go for it.  That's a good thing.  And what about throwing yourself off the Temple?  Could this be seen as taking a big risk?  In life, sometimes taking a risk is the right thing to do-and risk takers are often admired as well for their courage and their willingness to step out into new territory.  Sometimes big risks bring big rewards.  And then there was also the offer of several kingdoms.  There is nothing sinful about accepting a powerful position or an important or an influential position.  That's also a good thing.  So in other contexts none of the ideas that were suggested to Jesus would have been wrong or sinful.       So why were they sinful in this context?  Why did Jesus see them as temptations?       Actually, it had to do with identity and purpose and motivation.  If you'll notice, the tempter said to Jesus two different times, "If you are the Son of God."  He was questioning Jesus' identity-and trying to get Jesus to question himself.  On one hand it was a subtle way of saying, "You're not the Son of God, by the way.  What ever made you think such grandiose thoughts?"  He was chipping away at Jesus' identity and his self esteem.  And the statement, "If you are the Son of God" was more like a taunt: "Look at you-whatever made you think you might be the Son of God?"  But I think the taunting went two directions at once.  On the one hand it was intended to get Jesus to question his identity, but on the other hand it was a challenge.  "If you are the Son of God," then prove it.  Do something about it.  All this starving and loneliness out here in the wilderness is beneath you.  If you are the Son of God you wouldn't be out here struggling and suffering and lonely and tired.  So do something about it.  Get yourself some bread.  Wow the people by jumping off the Temple.  Then get some respect and royal treatment.  That's what you need.  You're worth that-aren't you?  That is, "if" you really are the Son of God.      Jesus faced some real choices out there in the wilderness.  Some hard choices.  He thought his aim in life was to reveal God to the world and to point the way-to be the way-to God.  But would he take his power and gifts and abilities and use them for his own personal needs alone, or would he use those gifts to wow a crowd, or would he accept a place of importance-maybe even to be ruler of kingdoms?  But he could see that all of those temptations steered him off course from his primary goal.  And the last one-to have several kingdoms-he could see that to take that kind of power would result in a change so great in his motivations and purpose that it would be like serving the devil rather than serving God.  And I think Jesus left the wilderness with a clear understanding in his own mind, "No-that is not what I want.  This is the path I choose to follow."      Like Jesus, I think many people hear little voices inside that say who do you think you are?  Or how could God love you?  Do you really think you can live your life for God?  In a lot of ways those little voices are the worst, because they try to chip away at our identity and cause us to doubt God's love.  But there are also many voices out there that would pull us off course-that would divert us from our primary purposes in life: to love God with our whole heart and to love others deeply.  I pray that we can emerge from our times of testing with a clear focus for our lives-but even more-so with a clear realization of God's amazing love for us.