By Rev Lee
Remember you are dust, and dust you shall return. Our Lenten journey has begun with the ashes on our foreheads and with our public confession to the Lord. Every time we fall short, we are met with an Ash Wednesday moment, when we say yes to the ashes, and when we say yes to the promise of God’s grace and forgiveness about our failure to live faithfully as His disciples.
This is a new season, and today is the First Sunday in Lent. The concept of time in liturgy, however, is more than a season. Time is not simply what we measure in hours, days, and years during which we keep certain traditions, but it is defined by meaning.
Lent is a time for reconciliation to God. Actually, the time for reconciliation is every day when we wake up to stumble through the day, yet Lent teaches us to live intentionally in the shadow of the cross and the radiant light of the empty tomb toward salvation that God has promised.
A dilemma for today is where we should begin to talk about hope and promise when the whole world is upside down, when so many people are suffering, especially while Ukrainians are fleeing out of their nation, losing everything and being displaced because of the war.
I hope we can find some clues by visiting the Deuteronomy passage, which contrasts the giving of the first fruit of the harvest with a recitation of God’s acts of liberation.
These two things – thanksgiving and the remembrance of God’s deliverance – are inseparable as one frames the other. It is an invitation to fashion anew our identity by reenacting the saving events that mark the Christian story. This invitation makes us rethink about our priorities, shifting from worldly pursuits to a spiritual discipline that requires intentionality to meet with our Creator.
Lent is not only about a time to repent but also about a time to experience and express gratitude, a time to recall those who have gone before us, who left their imprints on our lives and the life of the community, a time to remember the past that shaped us directly and indirectly.
Remembering the past is not always an easy mental exercise, but the lessons we learned from history will help us to move toward a future with a greater sense of wisdom and appreciation of past struggles.
Many churchgoers are familiar with the Lenten exercises – almsgiving, prayer, and fasting that draw us near to God and help us to participate in God’s passion for the hungry, the poor, the naked, the oppressed, . . .
We are often occupied by our own thoughts, desires, and needs, but salvation means to lose our own selves in the others, putting the others first. Salvation means to lose our own selves to the Other, our God who hears our prayers. And, we know who modeled this for us.
The Gospel passage takes us to the wilderness where Jesus is led. After fasting for forty days, Jesus is hungry. Jesus is being tempted – this is a present continuous tense, indicating an ongoing action.
The devil who tempts Him is bold, clever, and powerful. In each temptation of the three, the devil speaks first and Jesus replies. The story end when devil finishes the temptation and leaves Jesus for the time being.
The wilderness was the place where God met the Jewish People at Sinai after rescuing them from Egypt. In the wilderness God shaped them into God’s covenant people, leading them with cloud and fire.
Note that the wilderness Jesus was led to was an arid region in southern Israel between the fertile land near the Mediterranean Sea and the interior desert regions where food for flocks was. It was not devoid of life like the sands of the Sahara. The devil found a good place and a good timing.
The devil offers self-indulgence (make yourself bread from stones), self-aggrandizement (all the nations of the world will belong to you if you worship me), and self-serving religious identity (if you are the son of God cast yourself from the top of the temple).
The temptations the devil presents are aimed at the heart of Jesus’ identity. Jesus didn’t have to prove His identity. The devil knows the scripture, too, and quotes from Psalm 91 only to tempt Jesus. It is so important for us to know Scripture, but it is more important to understand Scripture rightly in light of God’s nature and to live in obedience to our Creator. The devil misused it for his wicked purpose.
Temptation existed in Genesis, as well.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6).
A delight to the eyes, something that looks desirable and sensational and even makes you believe it will make you wise – this very world of the fleeing senses the first couple in the Garden adored and were tempted by.
But Jesus, the Second Adam, reversed their fallen state, human enmeshment of sin’s power. Yes, food is essential, but life is more than food. Yes, power is attractive, but be careful about the power. When you have a good position that can influence the society, that is a blessing, but you need to use your discernment, following God’s will. Many parents will be proud of their children when their children study in the Ivy League schools, but many of graduates from elite schools took high positions and have gone wrong.
Lent is not about feeling holy, but about life-long commitments that help us hold on to the things that will sustain us. The Lenten discipline, in fact, has nothing much to do with “giving up” things of little consequence but has everything to do with taking on a more disciplined concern for meeting the needs of the afflicted.
Perhaps some of you heard the news about a young man who has reduced the size of his dwelling, sharing an apartment with a roommate, to give away 25% of his earning for a charity that he believes maximizes its impact in the world. Some people promote effective altruism, thinking about how to give effectively to achieve the biggest possible impact with their charitable donations, trying to reduce suffering and increase well-being of our global society. Such a charitable act requires a strong commitment and self-discipline as well as wisdom.
Lent takes us beyond a lament for wrongdoing and a petition for God’s forgiveness. God promised that He would “blot out” our transgressions. God focuses on our desire for a new heart. And, with new hearts we will not only experience God’s forgiveness, but we will be able to forgive others and ourselves as well.
The story of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil is so definitive for the Lenten season. Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him (Lk 4:8). It is a demanding passage, but Jesus quotes it and abides by it with the full knowledge that obedience to God will bring the cross.
Suffering is not a poplar theme in our normal conversation. Love is. But without suffering and pain, can there be love?
When the devil had finished every test, the devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time.
Is there anything that takes your focus away from God today? Hold on to God, and remember that Jesus said no to the world and yes to God. There are times of trails, troubles, temptations and testing, but we must respond in faith. We will be led to places of hunger and despair. Moreover, we must be tested, but let Jesus’ choice be ours and let the Lenten spirit become a life.
The good news is the One who was tempted in the wilderness strengthens us in our weakness. The reward is from our God who sees in secret.
Lenten blessings!
