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On the first Sunday of Lent, we heard that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. This happened immediately following the Lord’s baptism. To understand the significance of the desert temptations, we need to first remember Jesus’ baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended upon him as God the Father pronounced, “You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11).
When you were baptized, you were united to Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon you, and God pronounced his fatherly blessing upon you. In baptism, you became God’s beloved child. You belong to him. Let that incredible truth sink in.
In the desert temptations, Satan goes after Jesus’ relationship with God the Father, just as he did with Adam and Eve in Paradise and the Israelites in their desert wanderings. The devil wants to undermine the relationship; he plays dirty, trying to trip Jesus up through the typical human desires for pleasure, power, and prestige, which often lead us from God because we make idols out of them. Adam and Eve fell, and the Israelites failed, but Jesus triumphs and holds fast to his identity as beloved Son to the Father. This is instructive for us.
During Lent, we journey into the desert with Christ. We, too, will be tempted to compromise our relationship with God. We’ll be tempted to doubt that God’s love is big enough to handle this or that crisis, forgive this or that sin, or overcome this or that obstacle. The devil wants to convince us that what will really make us happy isn’t God, but “fill-in-the-blank.” In our weakness, we make the devil’s job all too easy. Desperate to get our way, we often buy the lie that God can’t be trusted and we grasp for happiness on our terms.
The temptations in the desert give us insight into our vulnerability. At a recent youth ministry gathering, we discussed the three temptations. A middle school student astutely observed that we desire power because we want control. We distrust God and try to take matters into our own hands. The events of this past year should have shattered our illusions of control.
This Lent, having experienced such a weird and difficult year, I’m finding solace in prayer, where I encounter the reality of God’s filial love. I get back to my roots as a Christian. There’s a beautiful prayer from the Talmud, an ancient collection of texts from Judaism, that I like to pray in preparation for the encounter with Jesus: “O Thou who art at home, deep in my heart, enable me to join you, deep in my heart.” It’s in the heart, that deepest place within, that we hear God speak the liberating truth of our identity in Christ: “You are my beloved; with you, I am well pleased.”
- Leighton Drake, Children & Jr. High Faith Formation