The First Sunday in Lent - February 22, 2026

Summary

Mother Suzanne explores how Jesus deliberately entered the Judean wilderness for 40 days of testing, following in the footsteps of Moses and Israel's 40-year journey. She encourages the congregation to embrace their own wilderness experiences this Lent, recognizing that God calls us into difficult places not to abandon us, but to transform us and speak to us in the solitude where His love proves more certain than any fear.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                 Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ 
 and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God, 
 and serve only him.’”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. 

Artwork:  The Temptation of Christ, created by the French painter Ary Scheffer in 1854. 

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance in the name of the one God, father, son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. Well, in today's gospel we find Jesus alone in the Judean desert. It is a mountainous, an arid region that stretches 30 miles from Jerusalem, from the east, all the way down to the Dead Sea, which happens to be the lowest place on earth. It is striking to me how deliberately and methodically Jesus sets out here to follow in the footsteps of one who came before him, Moses and all the people of Israel, just as they had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, being tested and prepared for the promised land. So now the same exact spirit which fell on Jesus at his baptism, drives him into the wilderness for 40 days to be tested and prepared for the beginning of his public ministry.

Well, in the spiritual realm and in Jewish literature, the process of separation happens in the wilderness. The wilderness in our own lives can sometimes be the places where big choices are made or not made, proving who we really are because there are very few places to actually hide in the wilderness, and that is why it is so good for our souls. The wilderness is where one should go if you are looking for God. Our brother, John the Baptist, knew this all too well. Choosing to dwell in the desert and to prepare there for the arrival of the Messiah, the wilderness, it is wild. It is raw, it is unpredictable. The ancients knew this. The wilderness was not a place humankind could tame. And knowing all too well what possibly lurked in this unseen place, one did not go until the wilderness, unless forced, like when cities became unsafe or when God was prompting you to go.

Deserts were to be avoided at all costs until they absolutely could not be. And when they couldn't be, God had a way of transforming them for his glory and our salvation, oddly making the wilderness a safe haven. Thus, the reason why Jesus goes there, and this is one of the reasons why in the second and third century, nearly 1700 years ago, a movement of men and women made their way to the desert, abandoning the cities and powers of control. They left and headed to the wilderness. These folks eventually became known as the desert, mothers and fathers, some of the most interesting and wildly eccentric people of faith. All of them adhering to strict asceticism and austerity for some of these early church mothers and fathers. Choosing a life in the desert was of higher calling than actual martyrdom being seen as just as difficult for survival, as well as undergoing the endless testing.

So many were driven there and that there were enough of them that they actually formed cities. They were known as cities in the desert. And interestingly enough, these cities in the desert eventually became the beginning of monasteries or the Christian monasticism movement. They too went to the desert, the wilderness, the desert, whatever you would like for it to be called, can be a place where new beginnings can happen. It is a place if you change your perspective just a bit, where God actually protects and provides a place into which God lured Israel back when he wanted desperately to rekindle the relationship. When it was no longer scary, the wilderness became a place to reclaim one's fertile life with God. Entering the wilderness always meant leaving one's old life behind and recognizing there isn't a returning to the old life. There can't be the old way of life is neither tempting to return to nor desired any longer.

So this begs the question, if the wilderness is what Jesus went to, if the early church mothers and fathers went to the wilderness, what in the world and how can these wilderness times be so formative, so transformative, so attractive, despite so harsh? But when thinking about this question all week, one thought came to mind. Well, perhaps the quiet and solitude of the wilderness when this happens and when we enter into that space, opens up for God to speak and for us to hear. Because most often wilderness times are done alone. We are forced in this time to seek God out for intimacy and for security.

Maybe that might ring true for you. Oftentimes though, I think as the church, we look for Jesus perhaps in other ways, big conferences, Bible studies, people who have massive social media platforms who speak about the Christian way. But what if we were to show up in an unlikely place? Or what if he were to show up and speak through an unpopular person? Or what if he were to show up and to send me somewhere that seems utterly unpromising? What if this lent Jesus is telling me to prepare a way for him right here and now within wilderness, the painful and shameful places of my life?

I hope that you have joined me on this Linton journey, me, and I have to remind you all as I have reminded myself again and again this week, if we so choose to go and to move into the wilderness, whatever the wild beast of our particular wilderness may be. Let me tell you this. His love is more certain than they are scary. His love is more certain than any wild beast may be in my wilderness. In your wilderness, just as God called Jesus into the wilderness, we too are called there. We have to go. And answering that call can be scary. But if we are open and if we desire to go to this very difficult place in all of its rawness and discomfort, it can actually be a place that leads to surprising beauty.

So I'll ask, what does the wilderness look like for you? This lent? Is it an unfulfilling job, a painful relationship, a particular unanswered prayer? Maybe you feel so stuck and you are completely at a loss as to how to get unstuck. Well, today's passage makes a startling prediction that God's blessings may come not instead of this wilderness, not in spite of this wilderness, but actually within it. The very situation I am currently to resent may become the theater of God's greatest grace in my life if we let it. And so I must ask myself, and I must ask you this difficult question.

Is it possible that God has actually called me into this dry and difficult or disappointing place? I And what if I were to make peace with it? What if I were to make peace with it instead of what we like to do, fight it and his own humility and obedience in his passion and in his death? Jesus shows us that whatever poverty afflicts us, however we find ourselves without resources or support in all of those places, we fall short. Jesus is there with us, standing with us, crying out with us, giving us strength to know that what we face now is not all there is for us. Thanks be to God.

There is more. And sometimes we feel so swallowed up by what we have to face. Now, a promise of Lent is this, by Christ's handiwork. Everything scary and untamed is overwhelmed and proven empty by the truth of God's love and faithfulness to us, his children. God is more than able to take, which seems to only cause death. And guess what? Bring new life. That is the story of gospel. Death becomes life as he beckons us to face the untamed wilderness in our lives. This Lent, I pray for you and for myself that we might be brave and courageous as we walk. Knowing the same spirit that called Jesus is also calling us to the wilderness. And the promise is, if God is calling you to the wilderness, you won't go alone. It's impossible. You won't be alone and you will never be the same because you chose to go. There might be pain and dadgumit, there is always risk. And for someone like myself who is very risk averse, it is not always easy to go. But even in the midst of not knowing what will happen or where you will go, my friends, God will meet you there, God will meet me there and new life will come, I promise. Amen.

Mother Suzanne:

Bless you. Thank you. The Lord is called to all you and give you and give you peace. Give you peace, give you peace, the to shine you and be, be on. Be gracious

Mother Suzanne:

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, son, and Holy Ghost rest upon you and those whom you love and care for this day and always Amen.