The Desert Wilderness is a Holy Place

But, we've got to go through it first

Today is Ash Wednesday in the Christian Church, marking the beginning of Lent. I wrote about this topic a few years back, and you can read it by clicking here. In this essay, I explore the scripture lesson read on the first Sunday of the season of Lent.

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Few people would name Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness as one of their favorite stories from the Bible. However, for me, granted I’m a peculiar breed of Christian, it ranks in my top three. Jacob’s wrestling match with an angel and Jonah’s dive into the belly of the fish round out the top.

Perhaps it was my early camping experiences in the high deserts of Southern California or trips to Death Valley, but something about the desert captured my imagination. In 1984, I realized the terrain felt familiar during my first trip to Palestine and Israel. The lands around the Dead Sea and the hills of Bethlehem resonated with youthful hikes in the Mojave Desert.

Pilgrims in the Judaen Wilderness on a Winter Stormy Day

But the idea that a God-man would be summoned for a deliberate time of temptation was new. I first heard this story while visiting a charismatic church in the San Fernando Valley. I wandered into a Vineyard church with a friend and witnessed wild dancing, singing, and speaking in tongues. We were there because it was the church where Bob Dylan had his conversion experience, and we hoped to catch a glimpse of the poetic songwriter. No luck! However, we did experience quite a show. Along with the exuberant display of emotions, the preacher’s message focused on Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. I don’t recall anything he said other than the basics of the story.

Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry. The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”

For the second test he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the whole works.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness.”

For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?” “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’” That completed the testing. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.

Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure. The Gospel of Luke chapter 4 (The Message)

Perhaps the mix of incense, wild dancing, and former hippies turned Jesus freaks created a tense atmosphere of expectation. Still, the story of Jesus in the desert confronting his demons, which I had never heard, struck a chord.

Icon from St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, Italy

The traditional, and in my view unhelpful, interpretation of this passage is that Christ went through these temptations as a kind of atonement for the temptations of Adam and Eve. They messed it up, and Christ fixes it. Yes, that’s an oversimplification, but that’s what Protestants heard from preachers for much of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. However, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. Instead, this passage shows us how Christ confronts temptations, providing insights into how we can face our temptations.

This aligns more closely with the perspectives of those reading through a Jewish-Christian lens (Thank you, Amy-Jill Levine), who view this text as harmonious with other Judaic texts and consider it a guide for overcoming sin and evil—or, more accurately, for addressing temptation in this life.

The core of temptation lies in the quick fix. All three appeal to our human need for pain resolution. Rabbi Edwin Friedman summarized much of life and ministry as a choice between chronic and acute pain. Using the analogy of cancer and applying it to conflict in churches, organizations, and relationships, he believed that most people would prefer to live with chronic pain. They would choose the persistent irritating discomfort over the acute pain of surgery. An example is a church, community, or country that collectively makes excuses for the bully among them, thus allowing that individual free reign. At the same time, everyone wishes it will all go away instead of confronting the direct acute pain with say, ex-communication or clear boundaries.

We live in an age of Quick Fixes, often called the instant gratification society, which contrasts with delayed gratification. We’d rather support making June 19^th a national holiday than confront the issues of structural racism. We prefer to spend $5 a day on coffee, soda, and similar items instead of investing that same amount into a retirement account, allowing it to grow over the long term, thus delaying our reward. This quick-fix mentality permeates every aspect of our society, including politics, entertainment, medical treatment, and diet.

We tend to view these three temptations as obstacles to overcome as quickly as possible, and be happy. As we all know, the pursuit of happiness is the new god we worship. In each of those temptations, Christ is offered the opportunity to take the quick fix. He responds, "Nope, I’m going to take the slow, deliberative, nuanced approach.”

“Learning to live with ambiguity is learning to live with how life really is, full of complexities and strange surprises..:”
― James Hollis, What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life

My favorite depiction in art of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness is from the 1988 Martin Scorsese film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ.’ I love this film—it’s a tremendous cinematic interpretation of the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The novel suggests that Christ’s great temptation was to walk away from the cross and the calling to be a Messiah, choosing instead to live an everyday life as a family man. However, the desert scene of the three temptations, which you can view here, portrays Jesus in an almost dreamlike state as he wrestles with these inner temptations.

John Pitch suggests that this entire story could be seen not as historical but rather as a vision, a dream, or what he refers to as “an altered state of consciousness.” Jesus may not inhabit a physical wilderness but instead a symbolic or metaphorical one. This aligns with Luke’s acceptance of visions, angels, and dreams as means for a vertical encounter with the divine.

Movie still from the Last Temptation of Christ

But I’d like you to note what happens in Luke’s gospel, something the lectionary chooses to omit. Notice how Luke writes in the last paragraph that “Jesus returned to Galilee, powerful in the Spirit.” So often, we read this story and are left with, and the devil departed until a later opportunity, a reference to the coming crucifixion. But we miss the results of this temptation encounter. Namely, this experience in the desert leaves Jesus “powerful in the Spirit.”

There is strength, renewal, energy, LIFE after the desert wilderness time.

This rings true for most of us. Ask anyone about a time of significant growth or maturation in their lives, and they will often point to stressful periods. They’ll not talk about their recent trip to Honolulu, instead they’ll describe:

• A period of discord in a relationship

• A time of unemployment

• A health scare

• A crisis in their community (or country?)

As people gain some distance from those challenging times, those days, months, or even years in the desert wilderness, they begin to see something new emerge. A new power grows inside them and within their community, providing resources for rebuilding a marriage, career, life, or nation. This is not meant to diminish or dismiss the desert time. It is a harsh place marked by stretches of emptiness and despair. However, we do not survive on despair; we live on hope.

“I think a lot about hope, and these days I mostly just leap and say, “Hope is a muscle.” And what I’m contrasting is, a muscle is different from wishful thinking and it’s different from assuming or believing that things will turn out all right in the end. The way I think about hope is reality-based. It’s not optimism.”

- Krista Tippet in Christianity Today, Jan/Feb issue 2025

Hope arises in the wilderness, which was the place of testing and temptation for the ancient people of Israel in Exodus. The desert wilderness also serves as a place of new beginnings (Isaiah 40:3, Hosea 2:14) and is significant for John the Baptist’s ministry. People encountered the wilderness, some intentionally and others by circumstance. Many died in the howling, arid climate, while others emerged renewed and strengthened. In this story, Jesus is alone in the wilderness with his thoughts, his hunger, his God, and… Satan.

After this event, Jesus is empowered by the Spirit. Perhaps our desert experiences can guide us from the badlands to the Promised Land.

More to come,

James Hazelwood is an author and photographer. He writes at the crossroads of Spirituality, Depth Psychology and anything else that whizzes through his heart, mind and soul. His website is www.jameshazelwood.net

In case you missed it, last week I launched a new Substack focused on Photography. You can check it out here.