Shadowed Beneath the Spirit’s Hand

the Rev. Dr. DeWayne L. Davis

March 9, 2025

Text: Luke 4: 1-13

Have you noticed those occasions when a celebrity or an elected official makes a big mistake or fails in some spectacular way? It is often when they seem at their most secure and successful. Sometimes, when they are at the peak of popularity and the pinnacle of success, they succumb to moral, criminal, or personal temptation. Consider our own journeys. When we are at our best, strongest, most comfortable, and confident, a wilderness moment strikes out of nowhere. A wilderness filled with temptations, those invitations to risks and chances that may not be good for us or are misguided and ill-advised. As a spiritual matter, it is often when we are at our most confident that we are likely to forget our need for the presence and protection of God’s spirit. When everything we think we are is challenged, we are left wondering who we are. None of us is immune to the seductions and influences of the tempter. So, when I read about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, it is a familiar and understandable part of the human condition and experience.

After Jesus is named and claimed by God at his baptism, hearing God declare to him, “You are my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased,” after Luke reports Jesus’ genealogy, referencing a lineage that connects Jesus to the great pioneers of the faith, starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, and David, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Jesus is ready. Jesus is prepared to go out into the world, secure in knowing who he is spiritually and culturally. Spiritually, he is filled with the Holy Spirit and identified as the Son of God. Culturally, he is an honorable man whose family of spiritual heroes confers upon him automatic standing and authority in his faith tradition.

Known, named, and unafraid, Jesus follows the call of the Spirit to embrace his mission and ministry, which has to begin with a time of testing and preparation in the wilderness. I would not be surprised if this isn’t one of those biblical speedbumps for many of us, a moment in the text that calls us to pause in wonder why it should be this way. Why must he endure the wilderness if Jesus is known, named, and unafraid? Why can’t he get right to the work he’s called to do? Suppose we assume that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which all recount Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, were constructed to teach us that there will be wilderness wanderings in the future for anybody who follows the way of God. In that case, the situation is all the more vividly demonstrated by the fact that even God’s own son is not exempt from the enticements of the tempter. That there is opposition to God’s work that seeks to prevent God’s movement in and through us in the world.

In his exploration of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, the theologian Fred Craddock reminds us that “a real temptation is an offer not to fall but to rise.” Jesus is strong. He knows who and whose he is. When the tempter arrives, the enticement may be to do some good but to do it faster, on a grander scale, and for less than faithful reasons. The temptation may be to fulfill the promises of God but to do so by taking a shortcut. It doesn’t matter how well-intentioned the tempter can make it seem; the effect is the same: temptation, confrontation, and disorientation at the very moment when the way forward seems so clear and purposeful, if not simple or immediate. No, the tempter seeks to shake Jesus loose from his truest identity and divine calling. Jesus’ experience indicates that a force in the cosmos opposes God. A force that wants Jesus to distrust God. A force that wants to disconnect Jesus from the God who named and claimed him as son. And if that force, that opposer, is bold enough to come for Jesus, it will not hesitate to shake us loose from our work and witness.

I often find myself hoping that Jesus would exhibit some real live-action superhero moves to stop the devil. But in his wilderness and confrontation with the tempter, Jesus does not exhibit miraculous divine power to counter the devil’s temptations. Jesus does not fight or resist the devil with his own power or even his own words. Jesus points to God. Jesus recalls the words and the promises through which God reveals God’s self. In response to every temptation, Jesus responds by quoting God, worshiping God, and looking to God. He doesn’t resist by his will; he resists by his trust in God.

And notice how the tempter works. The devil approaches Jesus to address a real need . . . Jesus is hungry. The devil pretends to own what belongs to God and dares to offer to Jesus what only God can provide. He seeks to tempt Jesus away from his relationship with God, his kinship with God, and his trust in God’s provision with offers of glory and power. The devil invites Jesus to forget who and whose he is through flattery and false admiration. Jesus is tempted to think only of himself, his own hunger, power, and safety, as if he is not already shadowed beneath the Spirit’s protective hand, as if God is not already there with Jesus in the wilderness. Feed yourself. Take possession of all the kingdoms of the world. Save yourself from harm and danger. Do all of this, but only for and by yourself. In essence, the devil is tempting Jesus to be God.

When temptation comes, it may not even be noticeable. That which opposes God will likely have an answer for a real need in our lives. That which opposes God will likely suggest options that sound good and reasonable. That which opposes God will likely convince us to submit to and worship the idols that make us feel good, powerful, or popular. That which opposes God will likely persuade us to choose what’s easy, fast, or even dishonest to secure what we believe is best for the good of all. Before realizing it, the tempter has convinced us to forget God and become our own gods. And in all of that noise and distraction, we sometimes forget the most potent truth . . . that we are known, named, and claimed as God’s beloved in whom God is well pleased.

So, as we embark on our journey through this season of Lent, I pray that we see that there is nothing the world can offer that God has not already provided or is faithful and just to provide. Because God has named and claimed us, the temptation to be popular, powerful, and relevant is ever before us. And yet, we remain shadowed beneath the Spirit’s hand, gifted with everything we need to do the work God called us to do. As the Psalter said so beautifully, “Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent” (Psalm 91:9-10). This is why in the prayer Jesus taught us, we pray, “Lead us not into temptation (or the time of trial) but deliver us from evil.”

And this is not just an individual challenge; it is also corporate. As I observe the current situation in our nation, the progressive faith community is in a moment of wilderness. Even as the political environment has become more illiberal, autocratic, and hostile to the pursuit of social justice, the organizing and mobilizing for social justice continues to ramp up, attracting people and resources for protest and resistance. However, I’ve noticed a strain for analysis calling for the progressive faithful to use the tactics of the religious right—subsuming our theological commitments under the totalizing impulses of politics; abandoning the cause of most vulnerable people in our coalition, including immigrants and LGBTQ people, for the sake of electoral gains and political power; embracing the most manipulative, objectifying messaging techniques and practices of the current social media environment to compete with conservative media echo chamber, all the while convincing us we would do it differently because we are a force for good. And yet, we face the same challenge Jesus faced in his wilderness wandering: are we called to win? Or are we called to be faithful? Are we called to get what we want by any means necessary? Or are we to be witnesses to God’s love, light, and liberation, whatever the circumstance? We are known, named, and unafraid, stepping forward shadowed beneath the Spirit’s hand. Because Jesus resisted the temptation to take a shortcut to victory, we have become empowered to move through this wilderness without succumbing to instant gratification, power, and glory.

We are surrounded by temptation. And unfortunately, when we are sure who and whose we are, the tempter comes calling. Things can be going well until we find ourselves in a wilderness, one of our own making or one that simply appeared when we least expected it. Some of us have a good fight in us, but sometimes, the kind of fighting we are good at may not be enough to resist. Perhaps the wilderness is the location where we double down on trusting God. The tempter is always trying to seduce us away from our relationship with God, our kinship with God, and our trust in God’s provision. As we undertake this journey back to the loving embrace of God, I pray that in our wilderness wandering; we remember that there is nothing the tempter can offer us that God hasn’t already provided or hasn’t promised to do for us.