“Those times of temptation”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, March 6, 2022
Luke 4:1-13 (Forward, p. 36) CEV p. 1060
I have read over this account of Jesus’ temptation in the Wilderness, plus its parallel version in Matthew’s Gospel, many times, but somehow failed to notice just one simply thing, and that is the time factor. In verse 2 we are told that the devil tested Jesus for forty days while there in the Wilderness. Forty long days: I can scarcely believe it. That is, day and night, without stop, without relief or interruption, for well over a month. I cannot imagine how excruciating, how difficult, that must have been for Jesus. Most of us, me included, experience ‘bouts’ of temptation from time to time but never anything quite as prolonger, quite as persistent, as that! And should we imagine that this was a ‘piece of cake’ for Jesus, for, after all, He was divine and had divine powers, we should remember that He emptied Himself of those divine powers and prerogatives to become human, to become ‘just’ like us. And so He faced those temptations equipped with just the same weapons, just the same strategies, that we ‘enjoy’ and can make use of.
And, as if this was not enough, after the devil had tested Him there in the Wilderness in ‘every way possible’, he left Him. But notice the rest: ‘he left him for a while’. Or as another translation puts it, ‘until an opportune time.’
The Scriptures never elucidate as to what times these were, but I have my guesses: the time after the Feeding of the 5,000 when the crowds wanted to make Him king, or His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, or His suffering on the Cross, especially when He was taunted by the crowd to call upon God to save Him. To me, those were times of renewed temptations, temptations to compromise and take the easy way out (which, after all, is what Luke’s second temptation is all about).
So, how did Jesus, equipped only as we are, face those recurrent and prolonged times of temptation? He did so only with His knowledge and use of the Holy Scriptures and His consistent reliance upon and prayer to His heavenly Father. Even in those times of desperation and extreme trial, He did not give up on God or on His trust and reliance upon God. And, if He could do so, faced with way less in the way of temptations than we will ever be, then we can do so as well. Amen.
Forward notes: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” (verse 1).
“I attended a retreat years ago where I sought to reflect, rest, and nourish my soul. It was an amazing experience. At the end, I was refreshed and felt like a new person. Then I came home and went back to work, and reality set in.
“In Luke’s version of the temptation story, Jesus has just been baptized. We are not told how much time elapses between that and when the Spirit leads him in the wilderness. Nevertheless, Luke is clear that Jesus is not led “to” the wilderness and left there to handle things on his own. Instead, Luke says the Spirit led Jesus ‘in’ the wilderness, implying that the Spirit stays with him, leading him in his wilderness sojourn.
“Likewise, the Spirit doesn’t lead us to something and then abandon us. The Spirit guides us in our daily lives and walks with us through all our wilderness experiences.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Consider scheduling a retreat during this season of Lent. And remember that the Spirit will lead you during that time—and when you return.”
