Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights
he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when the time
was up he was hungry. The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test:
“Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.” Jesus
answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”
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.” Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy:
“Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute
single-heartedness.”
For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and
put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son, jump. It’s
written, isn’t it, 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’?” “Yes,”
said Jesus, “and it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
That completed the testing. The Devil retreated
temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
Have you ever been
tested? Was it easy to walk away from
what you desired or did you struggle?
Did you reason your way through it or did you let your feelings be your
guide? In your moment of testing or temptation,
did you think of anyone other than yourself?
Did you consider your family, your friends, your community or were you
focused and connected with self alone?
Testing and
temptation are natural parts of our lives.
They are present each day and each day we greet them with more and more to
distract us from responding to these temptations and tests. We allow convenience and busyness to distract
us from our realities – that we are too tired, too sad, too lonely, too afraid
or too apathetic to go deeper and find out what these tests are all about, who
else is in the temptations or just to acknowledge what life is bringing our
way.
Lent is the season
when we intentionally move away from our distractions and notice what is
tempting us, what is testing us. Lent is
the season that calls us to take off our blinding distractions and notice,
really notice what our lives are all about.
Maybe a period of
forty days is too long; perhaps it isn’t long enough for us to begin to hold
together the life we have and the life we want.
When we discover in this intentional paradoxal time of letting go of our
distractions and noticing the truth of the life we want, then we are that much
closer to the place where our desires and God’s dreams for us meet with hope,
joy and love.
Too hard? Maybe.
Maybe not. Whatever you are
thinking or feeling, Jesus thought and felt it too, so join us this Sunday, February
17 at 10am in Christ Church for
the first Sunday in Lent as we remember the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and
his time spent being tempted and tested in the wilderness. See you in Church!
No comments:
Post a Comment