Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 25, 2007 - First Sunday of Lent
[Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13]Jesus.....was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil......
The story has some familiar connections because the temptation seems to be along the same line as that in the garden of Eden. It is a temptation to be false to oneself, to aspire to false goals and desires. In Jesus? case, it is threefold. The first is to meet one?s physical needs. Jesus was very hungry after his forty days. It would appear that the tempter appeared at a moment of supposed weakness. The second temptation is to wealth, as if the devil truly had the power to grant it. The third temptation is to spectacular and cheap showmanship ? God snatching Jesus out of mid-air! Adam and Eve succumbed to a temptation to ?be like Gods.? This was beyond them but they still thought they could do it. That was the power of the temptation. In Jesus? case, the temptations are aimed at the humanity that he shares with all of us. But he had his eye on his mission and the use of divine power to dispense him from his human nature would destroy all that he had come for. Learning what is truly right for us and not false takes a long time and we don?t always learn the lesson completely. Nevertheless, the story of the temptation in the desert can alert us to the possibilities of appetite, power and presumption. Looking for those problems in our own lives can lead us to a very productive Lenten season. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
82 ms
4
