Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(Luke 4:1-13) After his baptism,
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the
Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He
ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to
become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One
does not live by bread alone.'"
Then the devil led him up and
showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to
him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has
been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will
worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is
written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'"
Then the devil took him to
Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him,
"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is
written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On
their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against
a stone.'"
Jesus answered him, "It is
said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had
finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
God’s first act after the baptism
of Jesus was to lead him into the wilderness, “to be tempted by Satan.” The
Wilderness was a place both physical and metaphorical for Jesus to struggle,
not only with Satan, but more importantly with God and with himself. To wrestle
with the questions, “why did God send me here in the first place? What am I
called to do? How am I to do it?”
You might be thinking, but Jesus
is God, he should know the answers to these questions already. Remember, our
faith teaches us that Jesus is not only fully God, but also fully human. I
believe the human part of Jesus needed this wilderness time to be alone with
the Holy Spirit, to go through the proverbial battle between the angel on one
shoulder and the devil on the other shoulder.
The
temptations Jesus faced during his time in the wilderness: physical needs,
power and glory, proof to the world that he is God’s special person, are the
same temptations we face when we have the courage to go into the wilderness alone
as Jesus did. Jesus’ wilderness time helped form and transform him. It serves as
an example for those of us who are his followers. Lent for us is a reminder
that we, like Jesus, need Wilderness time, that we need to be reformed and
transformed just as Jesus did.
Last week I saw on twitter a book
by Brene Brown, psychologist, social worker, and Episcopalian, entitled “Braving
the Wilderness.” The secondary title is “The Quest for True Belonging and the
Courage to Stand Alone.” The book was truly a gift from God to me. In it, Brown
first defines true belonging as being true to yourself. Secondly, she states that
true belonging means being respectful to those who disagree with you, even if
they are not respectful to you.
Wow, sure sounds like this was
what Jesus’ wilderness time was all about.
After his wilderness experience,
Jesus stood up to the religious and political authorities of his day and stood
with the “least of those” in society: the poor, the orphan and the widow, the
divorced women who were forced to beg or prostitute themselves to feed their
families. He talked with those with whom a Jewish man was not supposed to talk:
Samaritans, women, lepers, tax collectors and Pharisees. No one was left out of
his love.
Yes, it got him ostracized and
eventually killed, but he did it anyway, because his time alone with God in the
wilderness clarified in his mind, heart, and soul that “for this I was born and
for this I came into the world.”
During this season of Lent, I
invite you, to join me in the wilderness, praying that we like Jesus will be
able to say, “for this I was born, for this I came into the world.”
