• "A Commentary on Freedom : Jesus in the Wilderness"
• Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent
• February 13, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness can be read as a commentary on freedom. Jesus is free to obey God rather than the voice of the devil and the temptations of world and flesh. This idea of freedom-that freedom is the freedom to do God's will-stands in contrast with the modern idea that freedom means the freedom to do whatever I want to do.

Lent highlights the contrast. In Lent we fast; we willingly forego various pleasures. If we accept the modern view of freedom, this is strange. If happiness means being free to do and have what we want, why would we forego a legitimate pleasure, a thing that might make us happy?

The answer is found in the biblical story of the fall of man. The devil suggested to Adam and Eve that they were free to break God's commandment and that if they exercised that freedom they would experience a positive result: "When you eat of [the tree] your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).

However, the knowledge of good and evil brought a curse rather than a blessing. Fallen man became a slave to his desires. In anger and jealously, Cain killed Abel. Knowing good and evil, man chose the evil. The promise of freedom from constraint led to judgment and death in the Flood.

When we know the biblical story, we understand that the modern idea of freedom is nothing more than a repackaging of the ancient demonic lie. Genuine freedom is the freedom not to do what the first human did. It is the freedom to obey God's law and, so, break the cycle of sin, guilt, judgment and death.

Mankind's slavery to sin and death is highlighted by the story of Israel in the Old Testament. God gave the law through Moses. Then he again tested his people. God put a tree in the garden to test Adam and Eve. God led Israel through the wilderness to test the nation. As Deuteronomy says, "The Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not (8:3).

Like Adam and Eve, Israel failed the test. God gave manna, but the people murmured and demanded meat. They were impatient when Moses was with God for forty days and fell back into idolatry. They complained about the lack of water in the desert. Psalm 95 sums it all up in the form of an exhortation:

Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not you heart as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways: "Unto whom I sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest" (BCP p.459).

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is to be read in the light of Israel's wilderness failure and the encounter between the devil and the first humans. Jesus passed the test that they failed. He is the New Man, the New Israel, the example for us to follow.

The devil's message to Jesus is the same old thing: "If you are the Son of God then you are free to do whatever you want." Jesus answered the devil with three Bible verses from Deuteronomy-verses which were written to address Israel's failure. Jesus not only knew the Scriptures; he also made a willful commitment to live by them in the face of temptation. Jesus shows us that true freedom is the freedom to be faithful. True freedom is the freedom to do the will of God.

Like the first humans, Israel and Jesus, it is also our vocation to be tested, "to see what is in [our] hearts, whether [we] will obey his commandments or not." God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can follow the example of Christ and not the Old Testament failures. We have the grace that comes to us from prayer, the sacraments, the Scriptures and the communion of the saints.

The Spirit also leads us into the wilderness. This life is meant to be a wilderness of testing that prepares us for the Promised Land-the new heavens and the earth that will result from the resurrection on the last day. The category of wilderness also helps us to understand the dry times of the spiritual life-the times when satisfaction is distant and temptation is near.

Sometimes we are forced into the wilderness. Sometimes the things that satisfy us are not available. By contrast, in Lent we enter the wilderness voluntarily. In Lent we willingly surrender things that give us pleasure. In Lent we forsake the modern false notion of freedom in order to pursue genuine freedom, freedom to do the will of God.

We do this guided by wisdom. Wisdom teaches us that the pursuit of more as the end of life leaves us with less. Wisdom teaches us that to follow our fallen desires without reference to God's will leaves us unsatisfied. Wisdom reveals that the message of the false prophet of freedom is just the ancient demonic voice in modern English.

As 2 Peter says of first century false prophets, "They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved" (2:19). We are enslaved to that which overcomes us. Thus, we fast, like Jesus, so that we might develop self-control and avoid being captive to things. We pray, like Jesus, so that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit and overcome by God. We read the Scriptures, like Jesus, so that the law of God might be written on our hearts.

We observe Lent so that we might become more free to do the will of God. We observe Lent with our eyes firmly fixed on the Day of Resurrection when our liberation will be completed; when, as Romans says, "The creation itself will be set free from bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (8:21)