The wilderness is a place where you feel all alone, even if you aren’t. It’s being consumed by a ferocious past
or a present that you can’t share. It’s struggling with doubts or rejection or grief. The wilderness is a dry place filled with sand but no ocean-intense thirst, emptiness. It’s the constant beating of heat
that brings great weariness-a 
marriage that has lost its love, the struggle of
being a single parent. The wilderness is a place where you can loose your sense of direction, wandering around in circles asking, why is this happening where am I going? Will this ever end?
In the gospel reading today; Jesus is confronted with such an experience. After His baptism which was a mountain top experience, here He is His first day on the Job; He is confronted with three major temptations. This being the first Sunday in lent. It is a time of in depth reflection upon the passion and death of Jesus as well as a period of repentance for both the church and us personally.
This is the beginning of Jesus ministry and He is being sent by the Holy Spirit of God into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, to be in communion with God; and to reflect upon His upcoming ministry. While He was there, Satan comforts Jesus. It is a reminder to us that goodness is not synonymous with innocence. True goodness comes only after struggle with evil.
Some might think the Lenten season to be obsolete, outdated and that it is irrelevant. It might further be said to be old fashion to give something –up for lent, the story of Jesus being tested is mainly to show that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus actually felt hunger, the word as it is used her is best translated as famished, which says that Jesus was more than hungry He was ravishing hungry, He was enormously hungry. Hungry for food would have become a craving for Him an obsession. Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit of God sometime God will allow us to go through a wilderness experience.
All human being experience the wilderness during our lives. The wilderness symbolizes those times when we feel alone, when we feel that we may not be up to the challenge, when we feel the challenges before us are greater than our resources to overcome.
Jesus was tempted in 3 areas: the first temptation: stone into bread (lust of the flesh). This temptation was to meet an inner craving for food the devil says if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread. Jesus’ answered lets us know that we need more than bread to sustained us in life. Jesus does not say that bread is not important, but that a person cannot find life simply by the accumulation of wealth and food.
Second temptation: fall on the rock (lust of the eye), the devil leads him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdom of the world; the devil will try to get you to loose focus, by diverting attention.
Think about the story where Jesus was on His way into Jerusalem the people were praising Him they were looking for a political Messiah to through off the Romans oppressors. Successful political leader often have glory and authority to get things done. The devil of course was a liar through and through and pretended that he had the power to give such glory and authority he wanted Jesus’ worship, the devil wants to be worshipped. People become addicted to wanting to be worship, glorified and become # one. For human being it is relatively easy to become seduced into worshipping the inner temptation of personal glory, fame, recognition and all the power that go with glory, fame and recognition.
Temptation # 3 serving the wrong master (pride of life), (WORSHIP)there is an inner voice telling Jesus to throw yourself down off the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. The devil does not tells us anything good, he tell us stupid stuff if you know you cannot fly, why go to the top of a building and jump off. The inner voice of temptation quotes the scripture; the lust of the eye the devil showed Jesus all the kingdom of the world. But note how Jesus answered him (Get behind me Satan for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve).
In our wilderness moments we are to look at what Jesus did, how He overcame the tempter He used the word, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
When we are in the midst of our wilderness, we should not quit, give-up through in the towel, or go into a depression, but we should do the same thing Jesus did Call God’s promises back to Him. The word says that we have an advocate with the Father, and we can go to God in prayer. God promises are ye and Amen; the word says we are to let our request be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep our heart and mind through Christ Jesus.
When you find yourself in the wilderness of needs; the word says “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory. No matter what the need or situation, no matter what the temptation, God is not slack concerning His promises, as man count slackness. He will be with you even in the midst of your wilderness; Jesus set the example for us to overcome our wilderness no matter what it is. Remember man/woman/boy or girl does not live by bread alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God. Amen.
