God our creator who goes before us
You draw us forward in faith
Like a pillar of fire across desert waste
A rock of assurance
As we journey this Lent time
Speak to us with your words of comfort and wisdom.
Song “Once again”
Reflection on Matthew 4v1-11
Desert/Wilderness experience
In the stories in the gospels Jesus was led into the dry dusty desert. If you’ve ever been to a desert, you will know how barren it is and yet how awesome is that endless sandy, orange and red. Looking at it reminds us of how small we are in this world. Its humbling. We all have these times when we are in an alien place like a desert a barren place, either psychologically or really and we feel alone with no resources. Its frightening.
We may feel we have at times entered a desert in our lives. A time of hunger, thirst, dryness. We may choose to fast and pray to give us a clarity. We may choose to go into a desert or be driven there. For many people in our society there is no choice. They are in a wilderness, especially at a time of a growing gap between the rich and the poor. People may ask "Why me?"
Its a common experience not just something that happened 2000 years ago. When things go wrong, sickness, worries, the loneliness of wilderness is close to us. We sense beasts. It is a time of polarisation. In the desert we will experience the demonic, the devil and doubt who we are and what we are doing. The powers of darkness will test our faith.
The devil
The devil acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one who is to lead his people to the promised kingdom; He accepts the authority of scripture; He is described as lord over the present age; But he is a deceiver (lies being the hallmark) and sets out to compromise Jesus' messiahship.
Mind games
Satan is playing mind games. As with all tempters he starts with the subtlety of doubt. The devil comes to him, equivalent to the Old Testament Satan, meaning adversary, slanderer. "If you are the Son of God (Satan knows Jesus is the Son of God) turn this stone to become bread". Then in an instant he led him up. He says he has all authority. Such power, how terrible! But Satan may be lying! He then led Jesus to the highest point of the temple jutting out from the wall and encourages him to jump because "It is written concerning you that angels guard you carefully". When the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until another time.
If you haven’t eaten for 40 days and are hungry you are open to visions, to the spiritual, both the divine and the demonic.
The three tests
i] Stone into bread
ii] Authority over the world;
iii] Signs and wonders
Jesus' answers to all the wiles of his tempter are to quote scripture back to him. He is tempted to make food and he responds with spiritual food, to perform magical acts for his own benefit, with power the ultimate subtlety, the ultimate corrupter. Power is at the heart of the battle. Who has real power.
Cosmic struggle
Its a story of a cosmic struggle between the devil and God. The wilderness is Satan's realm, a place of horror, loneliness. Jesus's wilderness struggle is a foretaste of the coming three years, which will involve an unending assault from demonic forces. As he is sustained and affirmed in the wilderness, so he is sustained through the wilderness of his ministry.
In our own lives, we like Jesus face choices. We also face many untruths, subtle and not so subtle. Lies can eat at you. There are at the heart of relationship breakdown and distrust. They also unstabilise us mentally. In contrast the truth is healing, life giving and those who speak truth are cleansers, though we might not always like to or be able to hear it!
But we are never alone. Angels will be with us and the wilderness time will pass. Amen
Song “With all I am”
Servant Christ help us to follow you
Into that place of quietness,
Where we face beasts and wildness
But we know the presence of angels
Even in the desert wastes. Amen.
