First Sunday in Lent (Year C)
1-2Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty days and nights he was tested by the devil. Jesus ate nothing during those days, and when the time was up he was hungry.
3Playing on his hunger, the devil gave Jesus the first test: “Since you’re God’s Child, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”
4Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”
5-7For the second test the devil led Jesus to a high place and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours.”
8Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve God with absolute single-heartedness.”
9-11For the third test the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you’re God’s Child, jump. Isn’t it written that, ‘God has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they’ll catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”
12“Yes,” said Jesus, “but it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
13That completed the testing. The devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
3Playing on his hunger, the devil gave Jesus the first test: “Since you’re God’s Child, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.”
4Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes more than bread to really live.”
5-7For the second test the devil led Jesus to a high place and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the devil said, “They’re yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours.”
8Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve God with absolute single-heartedness.”
9-11For the third test the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you’re God’s Child, jump. Isn’t it written that, ‘God has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they’ll catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a stone’?”
12“Yes,” said Jesus, “but it’s also written, ‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
13That completed the testing. The devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
Collect:
All-Loving God, whose blessed Child was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil: help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know each of our weaknesses, come quickly to rescue us; through Jesus the Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
In an interview with Sam Jones, Patton Oswalt talked about what really stops the creative process — ourselves. At first, it’s the voice outside ourselves that tell us we can’t do something — “You can’t do that. That’s not the way things are done. No one’s going to want that. ” Oswalt says that while those type of statements generally come from a place of love and concern, nevertheless they still infect us. The intended goal is to infect us so much that the ones infecting us work themselves out of a job — we quit going to them with our ideas. We now hears that voice in our own heads. While hearing all of the beauty, creativity, and positivity on one shoulder (where the wee angel sits), we also hear all of the gray, bland, and negativity on the other shoulder (where the wee devil sits). What stops us is when the shoulder with the wee devil wins the day.
For those of us who may not know, today is the first Sunday of Lent, the first Sunday after Ash Wednesday.[2] Lent is one of the great seasons[3] of the church and it covers the 40 days leading up to Easter (Pascha).[4] Though there are some parts of the family that don’t follow the church’s liturgical calendar, the majority of us do. But, like a lot of people living in my neck of the woods, I’d never even heard of Lent until recently in my journey (and by “recently,” I mean about 20 years ago). So, if you’re new to Lent, here are some things that might be helpful.[5]
Generally speaking, Lent’s a time set aside for deep contemplation on the “Passion of Jesus,” that is, Jesus’ final week from his “Triumphant Entry” in Jerusalem to his crucifixion and death. During this season people are encouraged to “give up” stuff — certain foods, alcohol, etc. — and “get” stuff — spend more time in prayer, giving to the poor, volunteering, etc. Doing these things, in a small way, we can participate in Christ’s suffering.
But let’s take this deeper. I mean, that’s what Lent is for — to take us deeper in our devotion to Christ, to become more like him. When Paul talks about our “natural lives” or the “flesh,” he’s not talking about eating certain foods or dancing or going to the movies or other such things, he’s talking about releasing those things in our lives that are preventing us from going deeper. Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk, put it this way:
“Lent is not about doing a few practices like fasting, giving to charities, or doing vigils. We are called by God to enter into a change of heart, to open to a new reality that is our True Self and beyond … the image and likeness of God. This discovery of ourselves is always a losing of ourselves … a death and a resurrection.”[6]
In other words, Lent is about letting go of our False Self, the falseness that covers up — but never extinguishes — the Light of God buried deep within us (John 1.5). It’s also about opening ourselves up to our True Self. And that can be a very scary thing.
In our Lesson today, we read about Jesus being tempted. I propose two things: first, Jesus was scared. He’d been fasting in the wilderness for 40 days “with the wild beasts around him and the demons whispering in his ear.”[7] I’m sure, like anyone who feels like God’s called them, Jesus was wrestling with the accuracy and reliability of that call — Did God really call him or was it just his ego, his own falseness?[8]
The second thing I propose is that while each temptation goes deeper than the last one, there’s still an underlying challenge at each stage. The first test is about Jesus’ hunger, his felt needs. A simple enough test. “If you’re hungry, eat something. I’m sure God would understand.” After all, it’s not like the devil’s tempting Jesus to eat anything unclean according to the Law. It’s just some bread. But it’s the principle of the matter, isn’t it. It’s the fact that Jesus is there for a specific purpose and he’s decided not to eat until he gets a response.
The second test gets a little deeper. This test is about Jesus’ vocation. Jesus is aware of what he’s being called to do — rescue the world. He knows the road is going to become really bleak. And so does the devil. The devil’s second test, then, is that there’s another way to reach that goal — no suffering required. “Worship me,” the devil teases, “and the world is yours.” This is another way of asking the old question from the dawn of creation, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3.1). “Did God really say that the only way to go about this is to die a horrible death? Are you sure that’s what God’s called you to do? I assure you there’s another way to rescue the world; worship me and it’s all yours.” This second layer is at the heart of Jesus’ temptations — it’s the very reason he’s out there in the first place.
The last test, though, goes even deeper still. It’s been hinted at throughout the whole experience. It’s probably been whispered in Jesus’ ear from the very beginning. It’s about his identity. Is he really God’s child, the chosen one, the Messiah? In the first test, the devil said matter-of-factly, “Since you’re God’s child …” Here, in the last test — the deepest test — he has Jesus questioning if that’s even true. “If you’re God’s child,” the devil whispers, “surely God would protect you, right? I mean, you could throw yourself off of the highest point of the temple and God would save you, right? I mean, if you’re really God’s child.”
This is the temptation I struggle with the most. And if we’re honest, all of our tests, when we take them down to the deepest level, are really about this — are we really God’s children? How can we profess to be God’s children when we have so much falseness still in us? I mean, that’s the question, right? “Who do you think you are?” the devil whispers in our ears in our moments of doubt and weakness. I know when I’ve struggled with vocation — with “doing” — when I boil it down to the very bottom, the real question is with identity — with “being.” I remember talking to a priest about God’s call on my life and it wasn’t about the “doing” bit — my concern was about the “being” bit. “I’m so unworthy,” I cried out. “I’m so ashamed of some of the things I’ve done.” My crisis was about God wanting me to be God’s child and feeling a sense of worth in that.
My crisis was, and still is from time to time, God wanting me.
As Father Keating said above, Lent’s not about fasting or giving or long nights in prayer. Lent’s about letting go of our deepest falsenesses; those things in our lives that cover over the Light of God within us. The false self that tells us we’re not worthy to be God’s children. Lent’s not about giving up dancing or drinking or going to the movies. It’s about letting go of the anger and bitterness and hatred we have towards others. It’s about purging ourselves of the fear of Love — of Loving Others, Loving God, and, perhaps the most important one of all, Lent is about purging ourselves from the fear of Loving ourselves. It’s about accepting who God has made us to be, who we really are — God’s beloved Children.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
[3] Although there are some differences between Roman Catholics and Protestant churches (e.g., the Episcopal Church), the basic liturgical calendar in the West consists of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. The church of the East, the Orthodox Church, has some different feasts on their calendar from the churches of the West.
[4] “Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), also called Easter, is the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. Pascha is a transliteration of the Greek word, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, from the Hebrew pesach meaning Passover. A minority of English-speaking Orthodox prefer the English word ‘Pasch.’
“Pascha normally falls either one or five weeks later than the feast as observed by Christians who follow the Gregorian calendar. However, occasionally the two observances coincide, and on occasion they can be four weeks apart. The reason for the difference is that, though the two calendars use the same underlying formula to determine the festival, they compute from different starting points. The older Julian calendar’s solar calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian’s and its lunar calendar is four to five days behind the Gregorian’s. The Pascha date this year: April 28, 2019.” — Taken from the OrthodoxWiki page.
[5] During this time, a lot of people will have different devotionals or study aids to help them along. I have a couple I’m using this year — David Cole’s Celtic Lent: 40 Days of Devotion to Easter and Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone: Luke, Year C: A Daily Devotional.
[6] Quoted from Lent and the Mystical Jesus by John C. Robinson, Ph.D., D.Min., 2018, ProgressiveChristianity.org.
[7] Wright, N. T., (2009). Lent for Everyone: Luke, Year C: A Daily Devotional [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
[8] I’m not suggesting that Jesus had “sin” in his life. I’m saying that he was “tempted in every way that we are” (Hebrews 4.15), and he suffered because of those temptations (Hebrews 2.18), but he overcame them.
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