Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 50 (51); Romans 5: 12-14; Matthew 4:1-11
What do we make of Jesus’ time in the wilderness and of His temptations? First of all, notice how He comes to be in the wilderness. He is led by the Spirit: Mark actually says that the Spirit “drove Him into the wilderness”. So He was meant to be there, and Matthew specifically states that He was led there in order “to be tempted by the devil”. It was the Father’s will, and the work of the Spirit both that the Son should be in the wilderness, and that He should be tempted.
What are the implications for us? We too will find ourselves in the wilderness, and we too will be tempted, but we mustn’t be anxious, because it is God’s will, and because God will be with us. Is it fair to suggest that we undergo two types of wilderness experience? Firstly, there is Lent, when we go voluntarily into the wilderness, accompanying Jesus, sharing with Him our prayer, our giving, our fasting or self-denial.
There has been a tendency in recent years to play down the self-denial aspect of Lent; to say that we should focus on doing positive things. Yes, of course we should, but we shouldn’t omit the fasting, the self-denial. Jesus fasted, and so should we. Indeed, He takes it for granted that we shall. Remember the Ash Wednesday Gospel, when Our Lord says “WHEN you pray, WHEN you give alms, WHEN you fast—“when”,and not “if”. Fasting in some shape or form should be part of our Lent.
There is, though, a second form of wilderness time, which may coincide with Lent, but which may strike us at any time of year. What is a wilderness? It is a place where we are not at home, where we are uncomfortable, where we wander. It need not be a physical place: we may be in a wilderness in our own living room, when we are distressed about something, struggling, uncertain.
For me, such times have, on occasions, coincided with Lent. In 1995, Ash Wednesday fell on 1st March. I remember it well, because I had just sunk into the depth of depression. On Ash Wednesday, I gave a blood donation, and I remember thinking “By heck! The old doctors were right. Blood letting is good for you. I feel lighter in my head.”
Alas, I was fooling myself. A fortnight later, I had to go into a nursing home. The Sunday after that was the third of Lent, and the chaplain there chose to focus his homily on the text “Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did”. “Thanks a bunch,” I thought. That was just what I needed to hear when I was already feeling like death—I don’t think.
Yet in those wildernesses too, Jesus is with us. His presence may be difficult to detect, but He will gradually make Himself known, and lead us through, and out of, the wilderness. Similarly, though it may seem unbelievable at the time, we will be enriched by, and benefit from, the experience.
What, though, of the temptations? To be tempted to turn stones into bread may involve, for us, feeling an urge to give in, too much, to our appetites. Our appetites are good and holy, but we have to be in control of them, not the other way round. We ae turning stones into bread when our appetite for food, alcohol, sex, or self-indulgence of any kind, runs away with us, takes us under its control.
To throw oneself down from the Temple pinnacle which, from childhood, I have aways identified in my mind’s eye with the balcony at the base of Lancaster Cathedral’s steeple, would be to take unacceptable risks with health, with relationships, or perhaps when driving; trusting, or pretending to trust in God to sort everything out. It may well be a sin of presumption. During the pandemic, there were some extreme evangelical groups in North America which carried on meeting as usual, claiming that God would keep them safe. This was the equivalent of throwing themselves from the Temple, expecting God to work miracles for them. Unsurprisingly, they suffered high casualty rates.
To desire the kingdoms of the earth: what is this but to lord it over people, to belittle or humiliate them? Do you or I give in to any of these temptations? Let us remember that God is with us in the wilderness, calling us to resist, with the aid of our voluntary penances, and that He will lead us through.
