God’s grace, His peace, and His mercy I pray is always yours. Amen.

Opening Orientation – Where We Are Beginning

Last Sunday we stood at the Transfiguration and watched Jesus shine with glory on the mountain. Then on Ash Wednesday we entered Lent, walking into the night. This Sunday the Church walks with Jesus straight into the dark and the night; into wilderness. That turn is deliberate. Lent begins without a resolution to the problems. Lent begins where many believers live, trusting God’s promises while feeling like He is distant.

The prophet Habakkuk knows and believes God is faithful, yet he still cries out because God feels silent. He looks at what is happening around him and to him and asks a question many faithful people ask, “How long will this continue?” The Gospel, the third reading today, places Jesus in a similar place. The Spirit leads Him into the wilderness, surrounded by hunger, isolation, and temptation. God the Father has spoken at His baptism. He was close. It was a moment full of spiritual security and safety. Then Jesus walked into “the dark.” Heaven goes quiet. Faith remains but God doesn’t feel close anymore. Have you ever felt like that?

I. The Feeling of Distance Is Real

Jesus is driven into the wilderness immediately after His baptism.¹ One moment His Father is close. The next there is hunger, dust, and silence. No crowds. No reassurance. Time stretches out. The days grow long.

The Bible shows this experience again and again. Israel wandered in the wilderness and questioned whether God was still among them.² Habakkuk cried, “How long, O Lord?³” Faithful people experience seasons when prayer feels unheard, or even useless and faith begins to feel feeble.

Lent walks into this out-loud and on-purpose. Doubt is real and denying it is far more dangerous then acknowledging it. Bring it to God. God calls His people to trust Him. Distance is not abandonment. Silence does not signal absence. God’s people have always lived with unanswered questions and no apparent answer to prayer. Many of us have been there. Life continues, responsibilities remain, life goes on but for a time it feels empty.

II. When God Is Silent, the Tempter Gets Loud

In that wilderness, the devil likes to get loud, he speaks while God remains silent. He attacks when strength is low, when you’re tired, when the day feels long. He tries to press Jesus toward the wrong road: self‑rescue, self‑provision, and self‑proof. Satan quotes the Bible, but it is twisted into lies and independence from the Father. The same temptation brought to Adam and Eve appears again: step away from trust.

We deal with the same stuff. Trust weakens when answers delay. Taking control feels safer than patient waiting. Seeking proof can see feels easier than relying on a promise. When God feels distant temptation grows closer.

Martin Luther struggled with these kinds of things all the time. That’s why he taught fearing, loving, and trusting God above all things must remains the central focus of the Christian life.⁴ The Law holds up a mirror and shows how quickly trust slips into control.⁵ The wilderness doesn’t create this struggle. It exposes what already lives in our heart.

III. Christ Stands Where We Fall

Jesus doesn’t endure temptation to display how powerful He is. He stands in our place. He stands where we fall. He stands where Habakkuk questioned God. Faithfulness marks His path. Where we reach for control, He clings to God’s Word. He answers the devil with Scripture and trusts the Father even when Divine nearness feels feeble or gone.

We sang:

They crown Thy head with thorns,
they smite, they scourge Thee;
With cruel mockings
to the cross they urge Thee;
They give Thee gall to drink,
they still decry Thee;
They crucify Thee.

Jesus patient obedience in the wilderness is already pointing toward the cross where He truly was utterly alone. The wilderness leads to thorns, mockery, scourging, and crucifixion. The sermon hymn⁶ speaks of the suffering carried on His shoulders. Jesus walks this road for His people so they will never walk alone.

IV. When God Feels Far Away, He Remains Faithful

Habakkuk anchors faith with a confession: “The Lord is in His holy temple.⁷” The Church confesses God delivers forgiveness and life through Word and Sacrament, even when emotion fails to tell us the truth.⁸ Jesus is present. He comes through ordinary means: spoken words, water, bread, and wine, strengthening faith. These quiet moments teach to trust in the wilderness, reminding us silence does not negate His mercy. Distance does not undo His grace.

Closing Direction – Looking Ahead

So what’s the answer? The things we’ve read from the Bible today don’t answer that. This message does not resolve the problem either. It names it. It says it out loud. It brings the questions before God… then it waits. It waits for the answer which is sometimes slow to come. Lent doesn’t hurry past the quiet times or rush to easy answers. God allows His people to remain in the wilderness longer than we prefer because faith grows there.

Next week the journey will move deeper into the night, the dark. Distance will give way to doubt. Questions will challenge our faith. Darkness will press in. Nicodemus, a faithful teacher who knows Scripture, comes to Jesus at night because his certainty has slipped. Faith remains present but questions have come.

The path continues forward. Faith waits. Faith listens. Faith trusts. Jesus continues to meet His people in the dark, nearer than they dare to hope.

Amen.

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NOTES

Worship Bulletin

 (ChildrenBulletin)

As We Gather

When God feels far away, faith is tested. This message explores Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and gives voice to the experience many believers know well—trusting God’s promises while sensing His distance. Christ stands where we fall, remaining faithful in silence and temptation, so His people may rest in God’s mercy even when clarity is absent.

Prayer Before Service

O Lord Jesus Christ, who before all things are, and through whom all things exist, grant that we may hear Your Word with faith, receive it with humility, and bring forth its fruit in love, for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Historical Note:
St. Ambrose of Milan (c. 340–397) was a key early Church father and teacher of the Western Church. This prayer has long been used as a preparation for worship, asking God to open hearts to His Word rather than relying on human understanding or emotion. Its focus aligns well with Lent’s call to attentive listening and trust in God’s promises.