The Gospel of the 1st Sunday of Lent Year A presents the Temptation of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11). As the Spirit leads the Lord Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (vs 1), Mother Church invites us to tag along so that we deepen our relationship with Him. The Lord fasted forty days and forty nights and became hungry before the tempter came to Him (vs 2).
This year, my journey began with the Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday… and by Friday the tempter had dangled the first carrot…. Oops! In the build-up to Ash Wednesday, I spent quite a bit of time pondering how faithfully I was going to keep my Lenten obligations this year. I specifically prayed that distractions should stay off my path…. yeah, nice try, right!?
Day 2 saw the start of my stumbles. Please don’t get me wrong, I am keeping my obligations faithfully, but what I did not anticipate were the distractions that came my way rather early, rapidly and in succession. And I thought about how Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem called, Divine Comedy’s part 1 (The Inferno) was fitting for my situation….
Midway through our life’s journey, I went astray/from the straight road and woke to find myself/alone in a dark wood” (The Inferno, Alighieri)
Hmm, it seems that there is nothing new in what I experienced since at some point every Christian finds him or herself on a dark and lonely road and wonders when he or she strayed from the straight and narrow path. This usually is a time of growth and development when one experiences self-knowledge and/or clarity. Perhaps one becomes surprisingly awakened or sadly at worst, deeply discouraged. That feeling of being powerless or of wandering about aimlessly can cause one to question the Lord’s presence in our life.
However, on this Sunday we learn to look at these uncomfortable disillusionments as blessings and to see them as opportunities to reassess our course and adjust it in line with God’s guidance and grace. The constant assailments by temptation should become moments of recognizing the assailants and fortifying ourselves with God’s grace. They are a call for us to be vigilant, and to watch and pray so that we may not enter into temptation. The good news is that the Lord God, with whom nothing is impossible, goes before us to show us how to succeed when temptations come.
After Consolation Expect Desolation
Back to the Gospel and we recognize that the Lord Jesus’ winding up in the wilderness soon after His Baptism was not by accident. He certainly was not lost, and neither was He being punished for some wrong thing He may have done (This is how many of us view our wilderness experiences). In fact, He was led into it by the Spirit and for the sole purpose of being tempted by the devil. This sounds scary. But the Lord Jesus knew His Mission; He had been confirmed into it through Baptism; and His identity was reaffirmed by the voice from heaven (Matthew 3:17) and the descent on Him of the Holy Spirit in bodily form like a dove. Those present heard and saw these things. Others unseen also witnessed these happenings and would later appear to try and discredit these events.
The Lord Jesus was entrusted with a Mission as the beloved Son of God. His credentials and authority were already established by His genealogy and birth narrative. His mission was both confirmed and revealed on earth. In the wilderness, He was present in the long-standing history of mankind’s testing, but this encounter with the devil pointed to a future that was as yet to unfold. Was the Lord prepared for the task? Was He ready for what was to come after the forty days?
The Significance of Forty Days
The number 40 is mentioned 146 times in Scripture. It is said to generally symbolize a period of testing, trial, or probation. In the Book of Genesis, God was so troubled by the wickedness of the world that He planned the destruction of all life with a flood. In His mercy, He saved a few righteous ones – but they had to endure their deluge cooped up in an ark for forty days and forty nights (Genesis 7:12). Moses is one man in whose life the number 40 stands out. He lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before the Lord God selected him to lead His people out of slavery. Moses also spent 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions (Exodus 24:18, 34:1 – 28), on Mount Sinai to receive God’s laws so that the Israelites could live in alignment with the Lord. Later, on the eve of their long-awaited entry to Canaan, the Lord God had Moses send out spies into the land so they could explore. The spies spent 40 days and 40 nights scouting the land, returned, and reported all they had found (Numbers 13:25 & Numbers 14:34).
At the felling of the Philistine giant, the Israelites had endured 40 days of taunting and challenges from Goliath before David was sent to the battlefield with bread for his brothers and decided to be the one to fight for his people (1 Samuel 17:16). The prophet Elijah fled the wicked queen Jezebel and travelled 40 days and nights until he reached Mount Horeb, where in the shelter of a cave, he heard the Lord God in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:8).
Jonah prophesied about God’s wrath to the Ninevites, telling them that their destruction would happen in 40 days (Jonah 3:4). The first three human kings of Israel (Saul, David and Solomon), each ruled for forty years. Both Isaac and Esau were forty years old when they were first married (Genesis 25:20 & Genesis 26:34). The Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness in preparation for their entry into the Promised Land (Exodus 16:35 & Deuteronomy 2:7).
After His crucifixion and resurrection, the Lord Jesus remained and walked with His disciples for 40 days and nights before ascending to heaven (Acts 1:3). And we, in the Season of Lent spend 40 days of participation in the Ministry of Jesus, following His way towards the Cross. We ready ourselves for the way of the Lord in our daily lives and the places in which we are called to mission. How prepared are we? How do we face the tempter when he shows up?
What Happens in the Wilderness….
In Scripture, the wilderness represents a place of preparation, a place of waiting for God’s next move, a place of learning to trust in God’s mercy, and also a place of testing. The Lord Jesus was in the wilderness neither eating nor drinking for forty days. He was humanly speaking at His most vulnerable when the devil appeared with his antics. Satan came at the Lord Jesus with things that in most cases are the main causes of human falls: position, power, and property.
Nonetheless, the Lord Jesus wrestles with these temptations and comes out victorious. He leaves satan to lick his wounds of defeat, awaiting another opportune time. This opportune time would present itself at the time of the Lord’s Passion, beginning in Gethsemane. In other words, as concerns the devil, what happens in the wilderness does not stay in the wilderness. There would be a replay in the life and ministry of God’s beloved Son with whom He was well pleased (Matthew 3:17), and likewise in ours. Although the answers are different on different occasions, the choices remain very much the same….
So, What Happened To Me and My Temptations?
Well, I was enticed by (you guessed it…) position, power, and property! Not quite in the same manner as the Lord, nonetheless, with suggestions to amass, to take advantage of powerful associations and to go for a leadership position…. But, at what cost? I came to the Lord in a state of mental and spiritual disarray. And the Lord, being good all the time, sent me His Son to show me the Way. He used the Sunday Gospel to demonstrate how I should henceforth face my assailants. Recognizing that position, power, and property is neither inherently nor necessarily wrong, but that the wrong lies in the times in which and the ends by which we use them.
Lessons from the Temptations of the Lord Jesus
According to Luke 4:2, Jesus endured the devil throughout the forty days and nights. This fast was not in preparation for the testing that He would eventually go through; instead, it made Him very hungry. At this point, the devil jumped at the opportunity to tempt Jesus with the 1st dilemma – “Be selfish and use your miraculous powers to satisfy yourself.” Does this ring a bell? Satan likes to take advantage of our circumstances and our needs in time, to tempt us to meet them in the wrong way. We should not meet our own needs in times when we must trust in God. And yes, we may feel justified by our need (our responsibility to act) and give in to that temptation, yet we must expect that this would give disastrous results (cf. Rebecca & Jacob, Sarah & Hagar).
The Lord Jesus teaches us to deny ourselves the opportunity to be self-satisfied by concerning ourselves not with worldly material things (that are good in themselves) but with spiritual food (the right attitude towards the gift) that is given by God (Matthew 4:4). We must get our priority right. We recognize that doing the Will of God and being obedient to His every word is more important than any material thing. We therefore must trust God to provide our needs in His time, in His way, and with His result.
The 2nd dilemma has the desperate devil quoting from Scripture. The challenge here is for the Lord Jesus to misuse His closeness to the powers that be and test the love of God. The devil tells Him to prove His sonship by throwing Himself from the highest point of the Temple and still expecting God’s protection. This indirect questioning of His identity and authority is meant to infuse doubt in His mission, just as some of us have experienced self-doubt on occasion.
For the Lord, the questioning and torments would become a recurrence throughout His earthly Ministry. First, he again casts doubt on the Sonship of Jesus and asks Him to prove it by throwing Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. The message is “Be presumptuous since He has promised you protection!” (Psalm 91:11-12). Sometimes we create crises in our lives and try to force the Lord God to intervene. We know how throughout the Ministry of Jesus the Lord God demonstrated His watchful care over His Son; so, there was no need for this testing. The Lord Jesus responds with a clear and concise quotation of the same Scripture to not put the Lord God to the test (Matthew 4:7).
The 3rd dilemma was to test Jesus’ devotion to God and the human desire for political power. So, the ruler of this world shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory (in a moment of time – Luke 4:5), claims false ownership over them and offers Jesus all its domain in exchange for just one small act of worship. This is laughable; but aren’t we many times suckered into wanting immediate results? The Lord Jesus responds by quoting Scripture again (Deuteronomy 6:13) and demonstrates that there is no short-term or long-term illicit gain that could tempt Him. He would fully trust in the Father, who would give Him, in His time and in His way, the kingdoms of the world.
The temptation to idolatry comes in a whole raft of things which satan offers us to gain earthly power. The condition is that we put him (and his things) before God. Then we misplace our allegiance, minds, affections, and even our will, for a short run that results in relationship disaster (cf. Adam & Eve). Jesus also tells satan to (just) “Go away!” We must closely follow the example of the Lord Jesus to serve and worship God alone. When we follow Him in the way of righteousness, He offers us a share in the heavenly Kingdom.
Take-Home Message
The Lord Jesus promises to be “with you always, even to the end of the age.” He already went ahead of us, even to the worst of places in the wilderness. He will meet us in our times of temptation if we call on His Name, use His Word, and follow His lead always. There is no place too distant or too desolate or too challenging for Him. There is no temptation, trial or testing that is too challenging for Him to overcome. There is no physical or spiritual need that is impossible for God. He is “Emmanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
*NB: All Bible quotations are from NASB Version
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