Week 3 | Wilderness: From Temptation to Deliverance

Jesus’ wilderness experience deepened His contemplative way. After He experienced what we experience in those three definitive temptations, He emerged with a heart to teach and share with His followers. The repeated references to Jesus preaching about the kingdom of God bear witness to this. “Repent for the kingdom of God is here” (Matthew 4:17) was an invitation to live in His presence … His gaze. 

As He ministered, a crowd began to form (Matthew 5:1) and He began to teach what has become His most well-known sermon. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) reflects what He learned in the wilderness about living in the gaze of God. The Sermon reflects the contemplative rhythms of the baptism and the temptations.

As a review, we’ve seen:

Jesus begins with an introduction that describes what is means to be “blessed” in the Beatitudes; He goes on to share about the effect that “blessed” people have on the world, as salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). “Blessed” is another way to talk about what we experience as we live in the gaze of God. A blessing, at its core, is whatever draws us closer to His gaze, or presence. In the Beatitudes, Jesus explains that this is the exact opposite of what you would expect. Living close to the heart of God happens as we are poor (in spirit), mourning, persecuted, meek, etc. From here, Jesus walks through three contemplative rhythms of surrender, sit, and see as He discusses how we are drawn away from it: anger, shame, and anxiety. Not that anger, shame, and anxiety don’t have a role in our lives, but living in them does not push us further into the gaze of God. 

Notice how this lines up in Matthew 5-7:

As Jesus challenges us to look at our anger, our shame, and our anxiety, he is leading us into the gaze of God. We will be invited to surrender to God as we notice ways that we try to control; to sit with Him as we see how we desire to be celebrated; and to see as He sees when our impulse is to get certainty.

To walk into these areas of life is not easy. It means that we will confront the false-self which are ways that we have learned to navigate life on our own. We will be challenged to reflection, introspection, and quiet prayer. These best happen with some measure of solitude or getting off the scene as Jesus did. Henri Nouwen commented, “Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self … Jesus himself entered into this furnace. There He affirmed God as the only source of his identity.”

As we move into the study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, follow Him in trust … trusting that He knows the way to freedom and life and fullness. When Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light,” He meant it. Can you trust that as you follow His contemplative path? We may proclaim the theological reality that His way is easy and light, but He invites us to experience it.

For the next few moments, assess where you are right now. Are you experiencing the easy and light way of Jesus? Sit with that question. Notice without judgment where you are today. Is there anything to release? How can you rest in His love? Is there anything He is bringing to your awareness right now?

Prayer: Lord, You are good. I am grateful. I trust in Your way. Help me in those places where unbelief still tries to take hold. Amen.