There are many forms of wilderness and different kinds of deserts. I have seen a few; from the mile after mile of rolling sand dunes of Arabia, to the vast empty plains of the desert American states with their shrubs and cacti. On the first Sunday of Lent we hear of Jesus being in the desert for 40 days and his encounter with the devil. We do not know the type of desert Jesus was in but I have seen for myself the blisteringly hot and dry deserts of the Holy Land.

Why does Jesus feel the need to go to the desert? Before what we read in Sunday's gospel there is the baptism of Jesus in the Jorden by John the Baptist. It is in that moment that the Holy Trinity is revealed, the Son being baptised, the voice of the Father is heard, and the Holy Spirit descends. A momentous occasion, a moment of revelation. Jesus takes time out perhaps to reflect on this revelation of His unique identity; what intimacy with the Father and the Holy Spirit means for Him; and what happens next for His mission and ministry, including His death and resurrection. He knows that His life will never be the same again. He has a great deal to reflect on, to pray about. He needs space, He needs his wilderness.

Today we also hear of the temptation of Jesus, but the word used in Matthew is not temptation but “test”, Jesus’ reaction to His vocation as the Messiah is tested. His time in the wilderness is a testing of the clarity of His relationship with God the Father through, and with, the Holy Spirit. The source of the account must have been Jesus Himself as He is on his own and He is the only person who knew what happened. The account is found in Matthew and Luke's gospels. But there is more to this test. The devil, Satan (a word meaning enemy), knows that in the person of Jesus his time of domination is up; he is directly threatened then, as now, by the inauguration of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is tempted. He is tempted to use His divinity for His own ends and then to worship the devil (who was originally created through the Word of God – Jesus himself). The devil offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world. Jesus stays faithful to the Father; He stays true to the Holy Spirit in the bond of love shared between them in the Holy Trinity.

What does this mean for us? There are different wildernesses that we can and do occupy. Not all wildernesses are bad. There is the wilderness of time out for, and with, God. The retreat experience where, for hours or days, when we have time to listen for the still small voice of God; the opportunity to fuel the spark of divinity that we all carry within us, planted by God at the dawn of time. The wilderness that springs into flower with the dewfall of God’s grace.

There is the wilderness of sin and alienation. The empty and lonely parts of our hearts and souls that we all sense are there. The place where our sin, our pain, and the hurt and the damage we have done to ourselves and others, are naked before us. A nakedness that we cannot bear to look at. Like God we have the knowledge of good and evil, but at times we behave less like God and more like the devil, Satan – the enemy. This knowledge is a curse rather than a blessing. We know when doing something is wrong as often as not but we do it anyway.

Time and again we see images in the Bible of how God desires to transform the wilderness into a growing place, of place of rest and beauty. A place called Eden, a word that means “delight”. God desires make our hearts and souls gardens of delight both to Him and to us. Jesus is the gardener of our souls, He nurtures us to make us better people here, and He prepare us for eternal life. Jesus gives us the means for this, He cultivates us through His word and the sacraments. How we choose to live and how we grow is down to us.

God bless and keep you all.

Fr Chris