Immediately after being baptized, “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1) As we get to know John and Jesus, we see that Matthew is intent on his Gospel story beginning in the wilderness, in the place of quiet, the place where God’s voice is most easily heard, where meetings and crowds don’t follow us so easily. This is the only way for our journey of discipleship to begin, by venturing into a quiet and dry space.
But just as God is more easily heard in the wilderness, so is the voice of the tempter, who comes to Jesus with the word “if.” If you really are the Son of God, the devil quips, make bread appear for your hungry stomach. Make others see how special and spectacular you are. Make the kingdoms of the world bow down to you after you bow down to me.
The tempter is unable to land a single punch. Jesus ducks every one of them. He moves with lightning-fast reflexes. When the tempter attacks, Jesus doesn’t have to think or strategize. He immediately responds with the words of Deuteronomy, “It is written: we don’t live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (4:4)
I can’t help but think that maybe the devil isn’t as bright as we often give him credit for. I suppose his strategy is to attack now at the moment that Jesus is at his hungriest and physically weakest. It’s been a month and a half since his last gram of protein or carbohydrates. Perhaps Jesus’ hunger can sway him to indulge, the tempter thinks, to be convinced that a bit of cheap comfort isn’t so bad. I see the logic of such a strategy, but here’s what makes it so foolish. Jesus has spent these forty days feasting on the word of God, on God himself. Deuteronomy is so close to his lips because he’s had nothing but scripture and prayer to feed on this whole time.
This is what wilderness does to us. It evaporates everything in us that isn’t the word and love of God. Nothing forms us the way wilderness forms us. There is no book or study or body of knowledge, no talent or accomplishment, that can substitute for building our lives upon silence and solitude with God.
There will always be a reason to saturate our lives and attention spans with noise, crowds, phones, and busy work. These things satiate our desire to feed our appetites quickly. They satiate our desire to avoid God and ourselves. But there is a still deeper desire: to know God. To experience and feast on his very presence and words. That desire will undoubtedly lead us into silence and solitude.
Solitude might mean a wide open and spacious land, good for walks and quiet time with God in nature. But solitude may also take the form of a certain chair in the house where we enjoy our morning coffee. It may be the time spent alone in the car. It may be the quiet moments interspersed throughout the workday when no one else is around. Our baptism means that the Spirit is taking us by the hand and leading us into silence and solitude. And when we accept that invitation, we receive the real daily bread that our hearts desire.