Heading Home: Walking with Jesus to the Cross — Day Five

Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Lent isn’t truly Lent without reading this powerful narrative at least once. We meet Wilderness Jesus in this text, Wandering, Solitary Jesus, the Jesus who had just heard from God before entering this wild and desolate place. The one who chose to follow the Spirit’s lead and walk out into that wild, all by himself, nourished only by what happened by the riverside. That place where the love of Father God descended, speaking words of love, praise, and recognition over the Son’s newly baptized body.

Those words were food and drink for our Jesus, exactly what he needed as he stepped out into active ministry, the pathway that would take him to the cross. So if we are going to walk that pathway with him during these 40 days, we must line ourselves up. And Jesus began his journey with this encounter.

We will, too. The Tempter is not imaginary but very, very real. And I can feel his breath as I set aside time to think/pray/write/imagine. He knows our vulnerabilities very well, indeed, even as he knew Jesus’s soft spots. Have you ever thought about that? Jesus chose to be vulnerable, to become human, to experience the siren call of popularity, adulation, power. Right here, right now. in the rocky, dusty landscape of the wild, wild land. I am guessing that these very things — the physical hunger, the psychological hunger, the political hunger — were ever-present sources of temptation for our Lord. But he learned something so true and so strong out there with the rocks. He learned to use God’s word to fight back, to fight off, to turn away. And maybe most important of all, he knew who he was and he refused to let go of that truth. 

Do you know who you are? Whose you are?

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Remind me who I am, whose I am, and keep me centered in that powerful, life-changing truth whenever and wherever temptation shows its ugly, fascinating head. Thank you.