Paolo Veronese, Baptism & Temptation of Christ (1582) in the Pinoteco de Brera, Milan
Lent 1
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-end
Mark 1: 9-15
Welcome to Lent. I wish you all a holy one. As a reminder of what the season of Lent should look like I start with the words from the Introduction to the Ash Wednesday service and invite you to observe it faithfully.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting.
By carefully keeping these days, Christians take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.
I invite you, therefore, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.
Lent is not to be a season of misery or forsaking the delicacies of life for the sake of them. It is meant to bring us closer to God, to build up our relationships with Jesus and to deepen our understanding of the faith. Take the opportunity; we all need to.
The first Sunday of Lent Gospel is always set on the temptation of Jesus. This event happened immediately after Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. It is almost as though Jesus is teleported from the banks of the Jordan to the barren landscapes of the desert.
I was in Milan last weekend for a short art & culture break. One of the paintings that caught my attention was by Paolo Veronese and is called the ‘Baptism and Temptation of Christ.’ On the left of the canvas was the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan surrounded by chubby angels and some onlookers. The dove of the Holy Spirit is radiant. Veronese paints Jesus with a slightly surprised look on his face. On the right of the canvas, walking away from the joyous scene and towards Jerusalem, is Jesus and Satan, a hooded old man.
These two stories are rarely associated other than as chronological events in the Gospel. Yet there is a link. In the waters of baptism we are made new, sins are forgiven, promises made over us and by us and we become part of the family of God. Yet temptation is waiting at every turn to distract, cause us to distrust and walk away from God.
Temptation can take many forms and comes in many guises. We have advertisers telling us to give into temptation, a quick Google search produces all sorts of interesting things: sweets, chocolate, coffee, music, movies, restaurants. Temptation can also take physical or sexual form which can be particularly destructive. While some temptations may seem innocuous, the underlying principle is a desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals.
We are to set our minds on things above. The idea behind fasting for Lent is rooted in this Gospel story; Jesus was able to resist temptation at his weakest points. We give up things in Lent to remind ourselves of the sacrifices that Jesus made. It is not so much about the cakes, chocolates & wine as it is about the attitude of our hearts towards God and the sacrifices of Jesus.
An explanation for Jesus’ temptation is that he had to determine what kind of Messiah he was going to be. Jesus was at the very start of his public ministry; He might as well start as he means to go on.
I want to briefly look at the temptations that Jesus faced and what they might say to us today.
“Tell This Stone to Become Bread”
There should not be any doubt that Jesus could not have done that. He was, after all, hungry. He had been fasting for forty days! He could have made himself a lovely, fresh loaf and satisfied his hunger right then and there. Served himself as he had the power to.
It was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness; this was not something he decided to do himself. He trusted his Father in heaven so to turn the stone into bread would have shown distrust in his father. Many of us have the power to look after ourselves, provide for ourselves to a standard that we see fit. I can do it myself, thank you very much!
By doing things for ourselves all the time, we too can stop exercising trust in God to provide for us. His provision is always better, remember we too are his beloved and precious children.
“Throw Yourself Down From Here”
The second temptation is also about trust in God as Satan wants Jesus to put God to the test. This never ends well! Sometimes we put God to the test too when we try to bargain with him. ‘I’ll do this, if you’ll do that.’
What’s the root here? Power. People crave power and Satan knows this. We want to be in control of our own lives, destinies, plans. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; they were tempted by the prospect of power. They believed, with no proof at all, that eating the apple would make them like God.
The serpent created doubt in their minds by convincing them that there was more to God than he was letting on. Surely just living the good life in the garden was not all that God wanted. Really? The idea that we can become our own ‘god’ is pervasive in current culture. We want to be powerful, image is everything. Is it? People are falling down as a result of giving into the temptations that indulge the short-term but destroy the long.
“If You Worship Me, It Will All Be Yours”
It is very difficult to imagine that Jesus would be tempted to worship Satan. This final temptation is more about Jesus wanting to take Satan’s authority out of his hands. This authority is temporary and limited but it still is very real; a quick read of the news and it is easy to see.
Sometimes we may find ourselves wanting to take control of a situation, overtake another person, and get our own way. We want to be the centre of attention. Adam and Eve listen to the wrong voice and it did not end well for them. The serpent cast doubt in their minds, the apple was eaten and out of the garden they went. God gave them one prohibition and a relatively small one at that.
We listen to the wrong voices! We worship the wrong things, the wrong people, the wrong stuff because we think that they hold the key to our security. It is only in God that we will ever be truly secure. Who are we worshipping today?
The time of temptation was to establish that Jesus had choices and desires of his own, like all humans do. We, following the example of Jesus, must choose to make God’s will our own will. We choose through our temptations and wilderness times what kind of Christian, what kind of person we will be.
There is hope in the wilderness; God does not abandon Jesus there. Jesus was ministered to by the angels. When we find ourselves in the wilderness we are not abandoned as it is Jesus who tends to us.
Lent can be a wilderness season of sorts as we make time (or should make time) to examine where we are at with God. Jesus was able to answer Satan at each turn with scripture from Deuteronomy. Maybe we need to brush up on what the bible says (or doesn’t)!
A wilderness season, however challenging, will never be wasted if we believe and know that God is with us. Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Our identity lies in being His beloved son or daughter. If we can hang on to that, then whatever the wilderness throws at us, whatever illusions we live under can be overcome.