Week 1

Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights,he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Reflection

Jesus has just heard the words of his father: “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  Can you imagine father and son in prayer together?  The father’s heart pounding with delight and pride in Jesus, his perfect son.  Jesus his son basking in his father’s pride. Love and devotion rebounding between them, in staggering power and intensity - the words ‘well pleased’ hardly do justice to the depth of their unity.  

Astonishingly the Spirit, the third partner in this tri-unity, equally caught up in the love and intimacy, then drives Jesus into the desert.  To be tested.  To be made perfect.

What were Jesus’ prayers in the desert?  Did he pray “My Father, whom I love, and who loves me with an eternal intensity that nothing can extinguish, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me”?  Or did he only pray that in Gethsemane?  Or did he pray and hear no answer, except his own words quoting the scriptures - the words his father had inspired to form his answer centuries before?  The devil’s way looked attractive: hunger sated, pain eradicated, kingdoms conquered - all with no sacrifice.  In contrast, his father’s way for him was narrow, costly, difficult and lengthy.

The father’s love for his son had not changed one dot.  So how was this desert experience love?

Maybe it was after this experience that the Spirit of Jesus was able to inspire the writer to the Hebrews to say “Endure hardship as discipline (training); God is treating you as his children”. (Hebrews 12:7).  Jesus, though always perfect in sinlessness, was nevertheless “made perfect through what he suffered” (Hebrews 2:10).  Perfect?  In what way?  Jesus was perfected in purpose - only by suffering was he able to fully complete his life’s purpose.  He was made perfect as he perfectly fulfilled his purpose through what he suffered.

It was God’s love for us that compelled him to come to us in Jesus, suffer and die - as we will celebrate at the end of Lent.  And his love for us means he leads us too, like Jesus, into deserts and hardship.

Jesus’ prayers and fasting in the desert led to his fulfilling his mission to bring the loving kingdom of God from heaven to earth, to drive out darkness, sin, disease and destruction - the kingdoms of the devil.

If you are going through a desert time, it doesn't mean God is against you.  He has suffered so we don’t have to. He could not love you more.  The intensity of his desire and passion for us matches the father’s love for Jesus.  But until his kingdom fully comes, we are not promised a life without trouble.  But he is still with us, working out his purposes.  God’s purposes for your life are not hindered through difficulties, but achieved.

How do you respond?  As we pray and fast this Easter, reflect on your desert times.  You may be in one now.  If not, you will have such times you can look back on.  Where is Jesus in this time (or where was he)?  What’s he saying?  What’s he doing?  Whatever it is, it’s in love for you, and for the fulfilling of the purpose he has for you.  Talk to him about it.