Lent I
21 February 2010
The Rev'd Michael Tuck
It’s very tempting to see our liturgical year as, almost, a re-enactment of the story of Our Lord’s life and ministry. We seem to move in a measured pace, from the expectation of Advent to the joy of Christmas to the majesty of Epiphany. And then we begin the deliberate march through Lent as Jesus’ teachings are misunderstood and rejected. Finally, we arrive at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. And there is a certain logic to this understanding. But it’s not the only way of looking at things. The trouble is, once we get these sorts of structures stuck in our heads, it’s hard to see these stories in a different way.
It is true that the liturgical year offers up to us different aspects of Gospel, and it is true that this is a carefully constructed and ordered process. But it is not a re-enactment. Sometimes, the stories just don’t line up in the chronology we expect, and when things don’t fit, we need to ask questions about why this story was chosen for this part of the Church’s year. And we have an example of this in today’s Gospel.
The story of Jesus’ temptation is powerfully and closely connected with our vision of Lent is all about. Every year on this Sunday we hear this story. But within the chronology of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ encounter with the devil in the desert is very far removed from the events of the Passion. In fact, the temptation takes place immediately after Jesus has been baptized, at the very beginning of Our Lord’s earthly ministry.
What we see in today’s Gospel is a story of withdrawal. Jesus withdraws from the cities from the towns, from his family and friends. He withdraws from ordinary comforts and he spends his time in fasting, self-denial and prayer. The period of forty days is full of power as well. Jesus stands in line with the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. He stands with Moses, who fasted in the Lord’s presence for forty days before writing the tables of the Law. He stands with the prophet Elijah, how fasted for forty days before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb. But at the end of Jesus’ time of fasting, he comes face to face, not with God, but with his own temptation.
Jesus’ temptation comes in three forms. At first, the devil appeals to Jesus’ needs –the hunger which must have been quite real. When that doesn’t work, the devil goes a little deeper, he appeals to Jesus’ desire – for glory and power and status. And then, most insidious of all, the devil appeals to Jesus faith as the place of temptation.
But to each of these attacks, Jesus responds by placing God at the center. To the first temptation, Jesus says, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’, leaving the devil to finish the line from Deuteronomy, ‘but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.’ Our true food is the Word of God. Rejecting power and glory, Jesus reminds the devil that true obedience belongs to God. And in the final temptation, Jesus proclaims that even faith itself comes from God, belongs to God, and he gives it to us as a gift.
As Christians, we are called to enter into Christ and to make Our Lord the pattern of our lives. If we are at all serious about this calling, then we need to take the model of this story seriously as well. At times in our life, it is important, even necessary, to seek out a quiet place, to practice self denial, and to come face to face with our own temptations and our own demons.
If we look ahead a bit in our parish calendar of events, we see that coming up a few after Easter is the parish retreat. The practice of going on retreat is one way in which the Anglo-Catholic tradition tries to emulate the model Our Lord shows us in today’s Gospel. For a few days, we withdraw from our regular lives to see our temptations more clearly and to encounter God in the silence. And having spent time in the desert, we are better prepared to continue in the ministry that God has set for us. As part of your discipline this Lent, I would encourage you to consider incorporating this retreat into your overall life of prayer.
