Who Will You Listen To?
Matthew 4:1-11; Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7
As we begin this series of Honest Questions, it seems that we ought to start with one: I’ll give you a choice. In the spirit of ‘to whom are we listening’: What was the last live concert you went to? OR
What was the last thing you tuned in to listen to intentionally?
Pick one. Turn to your neighbors and answer.
Questions occasionally lead to answers, but often lead us to reflection and research in our pursuit of answers. This Lenten season, in our community, we are going to be about the pursuit – the spiritual practice of seeking. The challenge for us is to detach from the need to name an object of our seeking and to pursue the journey. In seeking, we cultivate more curiosity, openness, and an ability to pay attention. Let’s see if this season of honest questions can draw us more deeply into the fullness of life together, and into the heart of God.[1]
Today’s question, Who Will You Listen To?, is bothering some of you, English teachers, but don’t let that preposition at the end of the sentence distract you from the potency of what it’s asking. Did you allow yourself to be confronted by the sources of noise and influence printed in the poem today? Today’s question doesn’t ask to whom are you listening, but to whom WILL you listen? There’s an invitation to re-consider what voices you will give your ear, what messages you will value, what words you will allow influence.
The lectionary presents us with the story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, as it always does this first Sunday of Lent. This year, we hear it from the gospel of Matthew paired with the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent in Genesis 2. This interesting pairing gets to the core of what it means to be human. Who am I in relation to God? What is my purpose? In each story, we wonder: Who are they listening to?
Let’s look at how this plays out in the garden and to whom Adam and Eve are listening compared to Jesus in the wilderness.
The woman is walking in the garden when the serpent slithers up and asks a question, “Did God say you should not eat from any tree in the garden?”
“God said we could eat fruit from any tree, except the one in the middle of the garden. If we touch that tree, we will die.”
“You will not die,” said the serpent. “But your eyes will surely be opened and I dare say you will be like God. You will know good and evil.”
Humans are curious especially when a boundary has been set. (A child and the cookie jar) Why did God set that boundary? Eve is wondering. A storybook Bible called, The Book of Belonging, describes eating from the tree of knowledge like this, “It was like pressing fast-forward on their lives. Like turning four and then 44. Like going to college right after kindergarten.” Boundaries are set so that we don’t get hurt, misstep. They’re set by someone wiser who knows we need more experience… Taking a bite of the fruit, they missed out on the wonder of coming into this knowledge through seasons of learning about the trees and their fruit, through long walks in the garden with God.
The temptation was to skip ahead, be self-sufficient immediately rather than rely on God for guidance. The test was to trust that God had their best interests in mind and that God wasn’t withholding power or knowledge from them. Kendall Rothaus writes, “Maybe God didn’t say ‘no’ to the tree of knowledge because God is anti-knowledge, but because knowledge isn’t the same as wisdom and wisdom never comes from a single bite.”[2]
Isn’t one of the greatest temptations to rush through, to grow up. You start a new job and wish you could skip the two weeks orientation and just get started already! The processes that form us and shape us into the kind of humans who can be trusted with knowledge take time, and a few hard knocks.
This world God entrusted to Eve and Adam needed tending by people who had spent more time in it, learned from it, and cared about it with the tenderness that God had for it. And that kind of relationship between Creator and creation takes time to cultivate.
Those first humans listened to the external voice that suggested there was a way to “microwave wisdom” rather than waiting for a “slow-simmering” word to lead and guide.[3] Adam and Eve were young in their relationship to God. They didn’t yet have that interior voice, that inner compass that a comes from experience and life lived with God. And so, the lure of a quick fix, instant gratification, a short game for a huge gain was too powerful. When the inner voice isn’t fully formed, we will have a hard time resisting the voices that sound convenient, compliant with the points of view we already maintain.
I don’t want to be one of those voices that chooses a convenient interpretation and continues to misplace blame in this narrative. This is a “he said - she said - he said.” The woman blamed the snake, and the man blamed the woman. The sad history of this story’s retelling in Christianity is that overwhelmingly the woman has borne the blame for the entirety of humanity’s fall.[4]
Wouldn't it be nice, one commentator offered, if, just as the story of Jesus’ righteousness overcomes the story of Adam’s sin, that the willingness of Mary or the faithfulness of Mary Magdalene, the discipleship of Tabitha could supplant the story of Eve? When we all have sneaked a cookie from the jar when we had a chance! The temptor only had to suggest that a sweet piece of fruit offered certainty and security and any Alex or Evan, any person, would have taken that first bite.
I am struck by the contrast of that first temptation in the garden, and Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Jesus’ relationship with God is key. From the onset the Temptor misspeaks – calling into question Jesus’ relationship with God with a provocative, “If you are the Son of God…”
If?? IF?! … When Jesus interrogated what he believed about himself in that moment, he discerned (knew immediately?) that the external voice in the wilderness was not one to be trusted. In his own desperate hunger and thirst, he finds strength to resist being seduced by a false voice from what he knows to be true.[5]
With his robes still damp from his baptism, Jesus remembers the words spoken that day at the river. That’s the voice of his inner convictions, who he is and who he is called to be. For all who struggle with their identity, this is good news.[6] That in the wilderness, Jesus is able to reject each temptation as well as the Tempter’s words. When we have internalized what God believes about us – that we are made in God’s image and beloved – then we don’t let the external voices define us. That is good news!
In the wilderness, in this time alone, Jesus’ guiding vision became clear, like a clay pot that is solidified in the kiln. Everything came into perspective as Matthew 4:17 says, From then onward… Jesus had the same message ‘Repent for the Reign of God is here and now.’[7] When the external voice tested him physically, spiritually, and mentally, he tuned in to his trusted inner voice that comes through a relationship forged over time and trial with God.
Who will you listen to when life puts you to the test? Who will you listen to when you are alone with only your 4am thoughts? Who will you listen to when temptation comes and no one else is watching?
Music majors and minors take a class called Ear Training. The course is designed to train the ear to identify intervals (major 3rd, perfect 5th, etc). It teaches students to recognize chords and chord progressions; to take melodic and rhythmic dictation, to hear key changes, to sight read music. In short, it trains your musical ‘inner ear’ so you can hear the music in your head just by looking at notes on a page. Some musicians are more natural at this than others, but most need practice, training, and time spent listening to intervals played over and over again, chord progressions with the 5th on the bottom, then the 3rd, then the root. It takes a discerning, trained ear to hear the difference. You can’t skip class, or skip practice and expect to get any better at listening to the notes.
Discerning the voices that deserve our ear is the kind of listening that comes from a trusted relationship. When we are working on our relationship with God, our ear training gets better. But the only way to hone that inner voice is through the wilderness.
Our greatest temptation is to skip the wilderness, skip the journey, skip the seeking… jump ahead to the end where Jesus vanquishes the foe, victorious! That’s the kind of Lord and Savior we want to worship, and pray to, and tell our friends about. We want the reign of God that has Jesus on the throne and all the “right” people in power. But then we sound like the one who said, “If you are the son of God…”
The other question is, Will we follow Jesus into the wilderness? Or will we avoid the discomfort and attempt to microwave our relationship with God? Skipping the reflection, the silence, the journey. Skip the seeking! THIS is the never-ending seduction of the church[8] to follow an all- powerful, almighty, all-knowing Christ! –and not the Jesus who wanders into the wilderness, and slow simmers a guiding vision. Which one will it be? Who will you listen to?
Let us pray
In a world full of noise, we believe that you are still speaking, O God.
In a world full of temptation, train our ears that we will hear only you–
–our Creator, Friend, and Guide.
Who will we listen to? To the call of Christ to follow him, to the inner conviction the Spirit implants, to your voice, O Lord, who calls us beloved. Amen.
[1] Sanctified Art theme introduction
[2] Rothaus, Kendall Rae, Sojourns, Living the Word, February 2026
[3] Ibid.
[4] Steagald, Thomas R. Christian Century, February 2026, Stories that hurt, stories that heal
[5] Mann, Rachel, Christian Century, February 2026, Jesus and the wilderness of trans identity
[6] ibid
[7] Rohr, Richard, Jesus’ Alternative Plan, introduction
[8] Bass, Diana Butler,