Deut 26:4-10
Luke 4:1-13
Our Lenten journey begins with Jesus being filled with the Spirit and led into the wilderness. I always read Luke’s account of the Baptism of Jesus before I read the temptation narrative. Perhaps I am trying to soften things a little, but I like to stay with the words ‘You are my son the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’ Jesus sets out on his wilderness experience safe in the knowledge that he is loved by the Father. It’s in the wilderness that his identity as Son is sealed.
Each Lent we are invited to accompany Jesus into the wilderness. We make this journey safe in the knowledge that we too are loved by the Father. It’s in the wilderness that we are invited to consider our own identities. How deep is our commitment? Will being hungry weaken our resolve? Will earthly power lure us away from God’s Kingdom? Will we seek a path that tries to avoid suffering?
In the desert Jesus models steadfastness for us. The devil makes three attempts at weakening his resolve. Jesus wields the sword of Scripture and remains unmoved. We are perhaps out of the habit ourselves of turning to Scripture in the face of difficulty or temptation. Our ancestors in the faith, the Desert Fathers and the Desert Mothers, might be of some help to us with this. The memorising and repeating of Scripture was the heartbeat of their strange and counter cultural existence. These desert dwellers were all seeking ‘purity of heart’. At its simplest purity of heart is a life so attuned to God that you ‘want what God wants’. Scripture was the tool that cultivated the soil of their hearts. Repetition and meditation on short pieces of text changed and expanded the inner landscape of their hearts. The goal of the whole desert tradition was tenderness and compassion.
How is God calling you to cultivate tenderness and compassion this Lent?