The
Lectionary includes the passage about the temptation of Jesus as the reading
for the first Sunday of Lent every year.
This passage is important as we consider how our Savior was led by the
Spirit to the wilderness for the purpose of fasting for forty days and being
tempted by the devil.
How
have your first two and a half weeks of Lent gone? Have there been many temptations so far? Are you finding your journey exciting and
surprisingly pleasurable? After I
visited the actual wilderness where He went in February of 2012, I will never
think of the Wilderness journey Jesus took the same. I fully entered the wilderness using all my
senses to see, hear, feel and taste its offerings. I found it to be the opposite of what I
expected. A few days before, I had
driven through it on our journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Driving by the wilderness confirmed my
impression that the wilderness wasn’t inviting, and seemed a rather harsh and
bleak environment, especially compared to all the previous fertile places I had
visited in Israel. That was my opinion
until I fully crossed the threshold of the vast wilderness. Completely enveloped in the dull grey of the desert
sand, the universe took on a holy, pure, unimaginable aura. I saw Gedi (deer-like animals) dancing and
prancing in the distance. Everywhere I
looked I saw entities like rock formations that fascinated the mind, while the
sunset and moon shimmered incased in a heavenly blue as I breathed in sacred
pure air. I could not get over how
beautiful and holy the wilderness was.
For the first time I began to consider that Jesus’ journey to the
Wilderness had moments of a refreshing reprieve. Perhaps that’s how you are feeling your first
few weeks of Lent.
My
experience has remained with me as I considered the Temptation of Jesus once
again when the first Sunday of Lent came around. Though Wilderness life does have its
surprising comforts, there is no question that it can be harsh and lonely after
more than a few hours. Added to that for
Jesus was that He did not feed His body for forty complete days. What was that like? No wonder Satan started with the temptation
to turn the stones to bread. I think he
went for the hardest temptation for Jesus to resist. Though Satan doesn’t exist in flesh and blood,
he has learned about those of us who seem willing to sell our souls for a piece
of bread when we are starving. Satan is
cunning and deceitful, so he chose the one area that Jesus might be most
vulnerable—His new human flesh—to carry out his assault. It must have felt good for Jesus when he said
NO to that temptation. Satan comes back with two more, but those
were about spiritual realities rather than flesh; and he had to know that God
in flesh wasn’t as vulnerable in those areas.
I’ve
noticed that Satan uses the same tactics with me. The only difference is that I
don’t stand up quite as well as Jesus.
He came with the hardest of all temptations for me, and I can’t believe
it but with God’s help I have overcome. It is such a good place to be. I feel so complete and so amazed at myself
for not giving into that temptation.
Just as with Jesus, Satan came next with a softer sell, something that I
didn’t think I would be tempted with again and I fell for it. Jesus didn’t let His victory go to His
head. He remained just as serious in
defeating His adversary even when the temptations seemed less tempting. I could see how foolish I was to think that I
could not be tempted in that area. Jesus
shows me how to have victory over temptation through humbly accepting that my
adversary can only get the upper hand if I let down my guard. During your Holy Lent, I hope you experience
victories that you don’t let go to your head and that you always remember: No temptation has overtaken
you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be
tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the
way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13).
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