Every day is stupid now, but not all stupid days are created equal. Some days are darkly energizing. You want to shout from the rooftops: Look at all the damage these malevolent, clueless jerks are doing! Other days, when the stupidity feels less evil than pointless, are enervating: You’d rather just log off and take a nap. You have to remind yourself: These are actually the good stupid days. You’d rather these than the others.1
It’s like as the wonderful comedian John Mulaney noted in one of his routines. It’s like were trying to run a hospital and a horse has gotten loose inside. “I think eventually everything is going to be okay but I have no idea what is going to happen next.” he said. “Noone knows what the horse is going to do next least of all the horse. He’s never been in a hospital before. There are quiet days when it looks like the horse has finally calmed down and then, at the next moment” the horse is back running down the halls.2
The sense that every day is going to be a stupid news day can leave us feeling as helpless, as if there were a horse is running through our hospital and, day after day, we are going to feel like we’re facing one new wilderness experience after another.
So, it is especially fitting on this day that we discover again that this is where Jesus’ ministry began - in the wilderness.
Dr. James Howell reminds us:
This wilderness is not a vast expanse of sand with the occasional cactus or tumbleweed. Instead, we see a rocky, daunting zone of cliffs and caves, the haunts of wild beasts. People avoided the place, believing demons and evil spirits ranged there, knowing that predators and brigands lurked there.
How silly are we to think that if the Spirit leads, it will be to a smooth, comfortable, pleasant place.3
Nor will it be a place of easy choices – evil or good, war or peace, kindness or aggression. The choices Jesus made were tough choices that, as the late Dr. Fred Craddock reminded us, contained “real temptation [that] beckons us to do that about which much good can be said.
No self-respecting devil would approach a person with offers of personal, domestic, or social ruin. That is in the small print at the bottom of the page”
Stones to bread – the hungry hope so; take political control – the oppressed hope so; leap from the temple – those longing for proof of God’s power among us hope so. All this is to say that a real temptation is an offer not to fall but to rise.4
All of the temptations Jesus faces promised him instant fame, greatness, and that is exactly why they are so, well, tempting. But temptation is not coercion.
“‘To tempt’ means to try and convince someone to do something. It means enticing someone to want to do something. Tempters can't make someone do something bad but try to make the temptee want to do something bad. They don't take away the will. Rather, they try to change one's will. Tempters seek “to change our wills is by lying, by stretching the truth.”5
Politicians are always offering the people “a free lunch.” Bread and circuses. That’s Jesus first temptation and he knows that this kind of fame is fleeting.
He knew the story from the history of his people.
How one day they complained that they didn’t have anything to eat, and that life was better back in the old day when, even though they were slaves, at least they had full stomachs. So, the LORD gave them bread, manna, which is basically a word that means, “what is it?” However, it wasn’t long before “what is it?” for breakfast, “what is it” for lunch, and “what is it” for dinner got tiring and wasn’t enough and so the people wanted more. They wanted a little variety in their life. Jesus knew the bread business would never be enough and told the diabolical one so.
But evil never gives up easily and so the temptations of Jesus, at least in our eyes, grow in power and scope.
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.”6
What the tempter didn’t seem to get is what every earthly ruler who is not grounded in the faith forgets: That all those kingdoms belonged to Jesus in the first place. They were not the “old satanic foes” to give away because they belonged to God.
That is what those who lust for power or who are looking for more power forget. They want to rule or keep ruling by stealth or force. They can’t settle for what they have they want “the whole works.” And if they discover they can’t have it they’ll wage a war or send their followers into the streets in order for them to remain on top, in office, ruling over the people not for the common good but for their pure pleasure and gain.
Jesus knows none of the diabolical plans he has been presented with will last. Dazzle them with one thing and they will ask for another. Give them a little power show over even the smallest things and they’ll be looking for something even bigger, more spectacular. It’s a vicious cycle that we are all caught up in and so we wander from one wilderness to another, and another, and another.
Even flinging oneself off the top of the temple will bring fame for a day but not much longer. “‘It’s written, isn’t it,’” says temptation 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’?”7
Yes, indeed, the people will be wowed but it won’t be long before their asking, “What’s next?”
Jesus is not David Blane or David Copperfield. He’s going to leave the magic to others. He’s going to leave the power shows to others.
Human kingdoms that are supposed to last for a thousand years, don’t. Kingdoms established by pure power and might over unwilling subjects usually find their time is short lived. Putting our faith in human kingdoms leaves us disappointed and wandering.
That is not however, where Jesus leaves us. He does know that way out of the wilderness. All we have to do is follow him and not others.
Following others will, even on good days, bring dumb news. Following others will keep us glued to our televisions, and smart phones, and radios for the latest updates on exactly where “the horse in the hospital is.”
But following Jesus gives us a different perspective and a way out of our wildernesses.
My former pastor, the Rev. Shannon Kerscher, gave us a way out of our wilderness wanderings when she said. “In these days of heightened polarization, we are inclined to see the message of the gospel through our already determined political lens, rather than viewing our politics and policies through our gospel lens.”8
Stones to bread will never be enough. All the kingdoms of the world will never be enough. Fantastic stunts will never be enough. But following Jesus, seeing the world with our eyes fixed not on the who gets what world of politics but the who needs what world of Jesus will help us find our way out of our wildernesses by following him and him alone.
Indeed the old gospel hymn is true. My Lord does know the way not only through but out of the wilderness, all we have is to stop wandering after lesser gods and follow.
1. Andrew Eggers, “A Good Day in Dumb News,” Morning Shots, March 7, 2025, https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-cabinet-musk-cuts-dumbest-timeline-al-green-medicaid-speech?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=9qw8e&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
2. John Mulaney, “There’s a Horse in the Hospital.” on Netflix. July 3, 2019.
3. James C Howell, “Luke 4:1-13. Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Year C, 2 (Louisville: Westminister\John Knox Press, 2018): 37–39.
4. Fred B Craddock, Luke: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1990), 56.
5. Brian Stoffregen, “Luke 4.1-13 First Sunday in Lent- Year C,” Exegetical Notes, accessed March 8, 2025, https://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke4x1.htm.
6. St. Luke 4:5-7. Eugene Peterson, The Message, (Carol Stream, Illinois: NavPress, 2016).
7. St. Luke 4:9-ll. (MESSAGE)
8. Shannon J. Kershner, “Politics and the Pulpit.” Sermon preached at The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. February 5, 2017.
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