FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
14 FEBRUARY 2016
The
desert is a place of stripping away. God
led his people into the Desert of Sinai to strip away the behaviors they had
learned from their years of slavery in Egypt.
They were also stripped away from the comforts of food, drink, and
shelter that they had taken for granted in Egypt. Once they were stripped away, they could
recognize the fundamental truth that God loved them, formed them into his
people, and was guiding them to the Promised Land. God used their stripping away as a school to test
them in behaving like free people.
Instead, they put God to the test.
We will trust God, they said to Moses, IF God provides food or water, or
IF God protects us from wild animals and human enemies. They were slow learners. It took them forty years before they embraced
the fundamental truth of God’s love for them and entered the land.
Centuries
later, Jesus emerges from the waters of the Jordan. As the heavens open, the Spirit hovers over
him in the form of a dove, and the Father declares that he is the Son of
God. Today, the Holy Spirit leads him
into the desert to be stripped away and confront the fundamentals of his
identity. In those forty days in the
desert, Jesus is also tested. Weakened
by hunger after fasting for forty days, he is vulnerable. So the devil tests him, “IF you are the Son
of God, command this stone to become bread.”
What is wrong with using his power to provide himself with a little
sensual pleasure of food, the devil implies.
But Jesus knows that the Son of God does not use power for his own good
and quotes a passage from Deuteronomy insisting that one does not live on bread
alone.
The devil
tries again. Taking Jesus to a high
place, he lies to Jesus and tells him that all of this belongs to him and that
he can give him power and glory. IF
Jesus worships him, he will not have to go through rejection, pain, and a
humiliating death. Jesus quotes
Deuteronomy to say that we can only worship the Lord our God and be faithful to
God’s will and plan.
Finally,
the devil takes him to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to the place where God
dwells. Standing on the parapet of the
temple, the highest place, the devil tries again and quotes Psalm 91, arguing
that the angels will support him if he throws himself off the parapet. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy again and argues
that he will not make the same mistake as his ancestors. He will not put his Father to the test. He will not place his own ego above the
identity of his Father.
The Holy
Spirit has led us into this desert of Lent, so that we can be stripped
away. In allowing ourselves to be
stripped away through the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we
take a look at all those things which are part of our lives. Sensual pleasures are part of our lives. There is nothing wrong with enjoying food,
drink, and sex. The same goes for the
lure of power. We can use power to
provide good things for our families.
And the same is true of our egos. With a strong sense of self, we can be more
confident in the ways we live our lives.
If we allow
Lent to strip ourselves, then we can see that these passing elements of our
lives are not essential to our identity given by God. Sensual pleasures, the lure of power, and the
building up of our egos cannot sustain us.
The desert of Lent has the power to reveal to us the fundamental reality
of our lives: God loves us and wants the
best for us. The desert of Lent reminds
us that my life is not about me. My life
is about God and God alone.
The people
of Israel failed to learn this lesson over and over again. Jesus learned the lesson completely. In remaining faithful to his identity as the
Son of God, Jesus faced many more temptations from the devil and gave his life
for our salvation. The Holy Spirit is
with us during these forty days as we learn the important spiritual lesson of
being stripped away, so that we can embrace the fundamentals and embrace more
fully the Paschal Mystery.
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