I am convinced it is the danger of the wilderness, more so than its beauty, that draws one to experience, at a great depth, the vastness and mystery of the universe, and the mystery and awesomeness of the God who created it all.   So, having experienced the danger and mystery of the Chihuahuan Dessert, and come away deepened spiritually, I find it fascinating that the Bible has some significant things to tell us about the wilderness, and the role the wilderness plays in our experience of God. 

          When the word “wilderness” is mentioned in the Bible, clearly it is a place of danger, harshness and hardship.   In the biblical world, the wilderness is trackless, desolate, savage territory. 

          There is an imperative for Jesus to enter this dangerous, desolate, God-forsaken wilderness.  He will do battle with the forces of evil there as personified in Satan; he will be subject to the ravages of the wild beasts in the wilderness.  He will emerge, after a time, forty days, unscathed by wild beasts, undaunted by Satan, his physical body and divine soul intact.  Jesus will emerge from this dangerous, critical encounter validated even further as God’s chosen one, but nevertheless, tested, challenged, subject to dangers in the wilderness of life. 

          Jesus emerges from the wilderness encounter a different person; we might say he emerges as one with more wisdom, more insight about himself and God having traversed the wilderness.  Literally, he emerges from the wilderness as one ready to proclaim, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  

         It appears the wilderness was necessary for Jesus.  The dangers and testing he experienced there were necessary in some way to bring Jesus to maturity spiritually and to help him accept his role as Messiah.  And hence the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness; it is a place of imperative – a dangerous, yet necessary place.

          There is a great, spiritual truth embedded in this story.  God uses the wilderness to teach us more about God; and as John Calvin so rightly put it, the more we grow in the knowledge of God, the more we grow in the knowledge of ourselves.  God uses the wilderness to drive us to deeper and broader understandings of God and ourselves.  Now this realization can be frightening.  We do not want to think of God as a being that tests us, puts us up to the task to see how we respond.  And yet, how do we mature if not tested; how do we grow mentally, physically, spiritually if not challenged and pushed a bit – sometimes in directions we would rather avoid. 

          Now please understand.  I do not believe God’s testing leads to anyone’s death or dismemberment or the like.  Nor does God ever tempt to evil, or test someone to make them sin.  The N.T. is clear about this. But the text suggests that God can and will use life’s wilderness experiences for God’s redemptive purposes – to strengthen faith, broaden character, deepen commitment to God and God’s ways. 

          So what are these wildernesses?  How do you know when you are in the wilderness?  I would suggest to you that any place where you feel a little off balance, out of control, perhaps confused, uncertain, even scared is one of life’s wilderness places.  Any place where you feel out of touch with God; any place where God seems distant, far off; any place where you struggle to come to terms with life and faith and you are asking the deep questions of who am I?  What is my purpose in life?  What does God expect of me?  Where is God?  Does God even care?  These and many like them are wilderness questions. 

          Our text today offers a warning and a promise: the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, the divine seized initiative to test and prove an individual; and while in the wilderness Satan tempted Jesus for forty days.  But there is gospel in the midst of the wilderness, there is grace.  Mark says there are wild beasts out there in the wilderness, but also angels and “the angels waited on him...the angels waited on him.”  Turns out the wilderness is not devoid of God’s presence.  The wilderness though desolate and scary and a place of wild beasts, is not beyond the providence of God’s care and God’s concern. 

          Jesus had to enter the wilderness to emerge, ready, to accept his vocation as Messiah.  As his followers we are not immune to life’s wilderness experiences.  And it appears God does use life’s wildernesses for redemptive purposes: to strengthen our faith; to deepen our commitment to God; to broaden our devotion and action on Christ’s behalf.  There is a reason why mention of the wilderness appears the first Sunday in the season of Lent.  Lent is the season for us to enter the wildernesses of our lives, to confront the issues in our lives that prevent us from being fully the people God’s calls us to be; to come face to face with the changes we need to make in our lives to be more fully faithful people; the wilderness is where we are called to in Lent, a place where we are vulnerable enough to be formed and shaped by the word of God more and more into the likeness of the Christ whom we profess and in whose name we live.                     

          The Spirit is seeking to drive you and me into the wilderness for the forty days of Lent, not to destroy us, but to make us, so that we emerge a willing people, a people willing to proclaim the good news of God.