Temptation in the Wilderness

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Matthew 4: 1 – 11

After Jesus’s baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the Wilderness for forty days (and nights) to fast and prepare for His ministry. Here He resisted the devil and the temptations laid before Him and strengthened Himself to be ready for what lay ahead.

Forty is a number that pops up time and time again in the Bible. In the account of Noah, once he and his family are on the ark it rains for forty days and nights. Moses fasted on Mount Sinai for forty days and nights. Elijah fasted in the desert for, wait for it, forty days and nights. After leaving Egypt the Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years.

A lot of forties and we should also recognise that we are in one ourselves as we travel the forty days of the season of Lent, participating in Jesus’s ministry and following His way toward the cross. We remember Jesus’s time in the Wilderness during this time of Lent but are we taking the opportunity of the Lenten time of preparation to patiently prepare spiritually, seek God and deepen prayer?

After identifying with sinners in His baptism, Jesus then identified with them again in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.

Temptation is a certainty for everyone. Yet Jesus’s temptation was more severe because He was tempted directly by the devil himself, while we contend mainly with lesser demons. It was also more severe because there is a sense in which temptation is “relieved” by giving in, and Jesus never did yield. Therefore He bore levels of temptation we will never know by experience.

Jesus is tempted by food, by who to worship, and by the power of the nations. This is another way in which Jesus identified with us as all three of these were faced by the Israelites in their exile. Sometimes they were able to withstand the temptation, and sometimes they did not. Jesus, on the other hand, withstood all His temptations even though what Satan offered him is firmly within Jesus’s rights and power.

Jesus’s wilderness temptations “prove” to us what sort of God He is. The tempter starts each of his offers with the Greek word, ei, which is often translated as “if” but also translates as “since…” Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God, he knows the power and authority that belong to Jesus, he also knows that what he is tempting Jesus with are well within Jesus’s rights and capability. Satan is both tempting and taunting Jesus but Jesus refuses to fall for either, proving His humility through denying Himself for the sake of others.

So Jesus was tempted just like us but Jesus succeeded where we fail. Jesus succeeded because He knew that His life was in God’s hands. We do not live by our power of provision but by God’s help and blessings. Jesus succeeded because He knew that God was with Him and He did not need another display of power to prove it.

The cross reminds us that God is with us. We do not need to tell God how to run our lives or how to do things differently; God is with us no matter what. God is with us whether He leads us through the valley of the shadow of death or to the mountain peaks of joy. Jesus succeeded because He knew that worshiping God meant doing God’s will and not seeking His own desires. We do not live for our own desires but for God’s glory so that in the end we will be glorified by God.

We can have victory over temptation if we will look at the root of what the devil is putting in front of us. Ultimately, every temptation challenges whether or not we believe that God is with us, that God will provide for us, that God is for our good, and that God will deliver on His promises to us. Jesus had victory in the wilderness so that He could set us free from these enslaving temptations and sins. Jesus had victory so that he could stand before the Father on our behalf, interceding for us when we fail. His success is even more proof that He is the King who has come to save us from our sins.

Wilderness (Photo by Luis Quintero on Pexels.com)

Advent Is For Life Not Just For Christmas

Our reading from Luke (Luke 21:25-36) today is part of a longer apocalyptic teaching. So, why are we starting Advent with these warnings instead of with the message that a baby will be born?

Well, Advent doesn’t just precede Christmas when we remember the birth of Jesus. Advent is that time of waiting, of preparation, of making sure we are ready. It is about preparing our hearts and opening our minds.

But we are not just ensuring we are ready for baby Jesus. We also need to be ready for when Jesus comes again.

Advent is for life, not just for Christmas!

It is about being ready for Jesus, for watching and waiting and preparing for Him to come, both as a baby and when He comes again in glory. We must be alert, ready for the coming of the end. Not caught up in the commercialisation, the excess and the worries of the day but remaining ever watchful, confident and eager for the events Jesus tells us of – the signs that our deliverance is nigh. That He IS come again.

We all know what waiting is like. In smaller concepts there’s waiting for a bus, waiting for an appointment, waiting for the right vicars to be called to Sheppey. Sometimes the wait seems interminably long…

… and yet it does come to an end with fulfilment as that bus, appointment, those vicars, anything else we’re waiting for … Ashley’s Amazon parcels, the shopping, all arrive.

And they don’t always arrive when we expect them – sometimes the waiting is dragged out and they are a bit (at least in our eyes) late.

But then they arrive and that moment of waiting, that moment of expectation, changes into certainty, realisation and fulfilment of what we have received. No one waits without good reason. How long we wait is determined by the reward at the end. And Jesus is the greatest reward!

So we wait, patiently, trusting in God as we wait.

Waiting faithfully and being prepared, for our Lord will come again – but only God knows the exact day and time. We wait patiently through suffering for the wait is worth it.

Often people fill the waiting with distractions and keep busy to avoid the waiting. How easy it is to miss the very thing we are waiting for if we do that; because we are paying attention to the distractions instead of watching and waiting.

Advent is taking time, slowing down, opening our minds, being prepared to change.

It is the chance to wait and change our lives. Don’t miss that by running around. Instead get our hearts ready for Jesus to be in our lives more fully that ever before.

We must trust and be prepared to trust.

We must trust God in both the good and the bad times.

Take a step back, let God into every situation, listen to His guidance, pray on it, trust and wait.

We know God’s promise will be fulfilled. We must trust in His promise with faith and prayer.

We must be ready as we wait.

If Jesus returned tomorrow, or even this afternoon, are we prepared? Do we put enough planning and preparation into being ready for Him?

Make time for God. Live how Jesus wants us to live. Ask yourself what would Jesus do? Are our hearts and minds focussed on Him? Are we ready?

Tradition is actually the passing on of belief – despite the vernacular it isn’t staying the same or doing things this way because that’s how they were done 20 or 30 years ago. No! It’s actual meaning is the passing on of belief. If we are not ready we could miss out. Pass on the belief so all God’s children can be ready. Keep an open mind. Think and be prepared.

Faith is about going deeper in our personal journey with Christ. Know Jesus and be open to Jesus.

Ensure we have what we need to be prepared so that, no matter what day or hour He returns, we are ready. Don’t be complacent.

Keep relationship with God, and work on it doing God’s will every day.

Advent is a time when we have to look at our lives. Do we accept forgiveness and follow Him?

Humans are very good at procrastination.

Procrastination is very different to waiting.

So, humans procrastinate, run out of time and think I’ll do it tomorrow. But tomorrow might not come, the chance might never come again.

We must respond to God immediately when He calls us.

We must NOT be resistant to change or let rituals become idols.

Don’t procrastinate. Prepare now and keep the preparation ongoing.

Be ready and continue to be ready.

For God’s time is not our time but His promises are always kept. Jesus came, Jesus IS coming again!

So again I say, Advent is for life not just for Christmas!

The Wilderness of Lent

Mark*, in just a few short verses, has summarised for us two key elements from Jesus’s life which took place just before the start of His ministry.

The first is Jesus’s baptism of water by His cousin John. John’s baptism was one of repentance, one of cleansing and forgiveness. God cleansed the earth by flood in Genesis – in a sense starting again. Baptism gives us a chance to start again; to say sorry for our wrongdoings, receive forgiveness and to start a new life in Christ striving to follow in His footsteps.

So why did Jesus, God’s Son, the only truly perfect human, need to be baptised by John.

John was the forerunner to prepare the way. This was also an indication for Jesus that it was time for His ministry to commence. By being baptised by John, Jesus was affirming that He was ready and willing to take the next step on His journey for our salvation. He was saying “yes” to what God wanted Him to do. And God confirmed His approval as He says to Jesus “You are my beloved Son”. He was also showing us what we needed to do.

At that time the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, equipping Him for what was to come. It descended in the form of a dove, just like the dove that carried the olive branch back to Noah, symbolising gentleness, peace and love.

Straight away the Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus was being prepared and tested. He was not being set up to fail but instead to strengthen His mind, heart and soul.

The wilderness is mentioned many times in the Bible. It is a place of preparation – like Lent which we can use to say goodbye to our old selves and find Christ.

It is a place where God communes with His people – God spoke to Abraham, Moses, Elijah and John the Baptist in the wilderness. It is not a place of hopelessness. Jesus, John, Elijah, Isaiah, Moses, Abraham etc were not in the desert by accident but by God’s design. God wanted to speak to them somewhere there would not be distractions. Jesus often went into the wilderness for rest, prayer and to teach His disciples. It provided peace away from the crowds and other distractions.

We often want to escape what we perceive as the discomfort of the desert – hardships and difficult times. But these are the times when God’s presence is greatest. It is an invitation from God for us to encounter Him and listen to Him – He wants to speak to us.

Likewise, Lent is about cutting out the distractions, about preparing and making ourselves ready for the work Jesus has for us and for Him to be in our hearts.

It is not about a show of giving up something that we don’t intend to stick to – for example, chocolate or wine or Facebook – when we know full well that we intend to indulge in what we have cut out as soon as Lent is over.

It is about preparation. In Advent we wait and prepare for the coming of Jesus as a tiny baby. In Lent we prepare for Holy Week and Easter – awaiting the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection. In both we should be preparing our hearts and minds, getting them ready for our Lord and the work He has for us.

Lent is about meeting God in the wilderness, listening to Him, strengthening ourselves for the work He has for us. It is about prayer. Praying more, communing with God more, conversing and listening to God. Setting aside that time for Him. So let us ask God to use this time of Lent to prepare and strengthen us for whatever lies ahead.

*Mark 1: 9-14