Jr. 9: 1-8, 22-23, Heb 3:7-14. Mt 4: 1-11
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be put to the test by the devil”
Have you ever experienced a mirage? I had read about mirages from the time I was young, but it was
only when I personally drove through a desert that I actually experienced one firsthand. I was
traveling through the Mohave Desert on a sweltering day when suddenly, there in the distance,
it seemed like a huge pool of water. It was eerily real. I would have sworn that I was headed
straight for a lake... that I’d get there in a short period of time. And yet the further I drove, the
more the water seemed to recede into the distance. It was a mirage, a phenomenon due to bent
or refracted light, an optical phenomenon that can actually be represented on camera... and yet
the ‘water’ is illusory.
Similarly, illusions can challenge us in the spiritual life as well, tempting us to
think that they are what they’re not: things that bring us happiness and fulfillment.
As a human being, it was no different for Jesus. In this morning’s Gospel,we see
Jesus at his most vulnerable. Following his baptism, where his own self-understandin g as God’s
beloved Son was confirmed, he was led by the spirit to spend forty days in the desert, fasting and in
prayer. It is precisely at the end of this retreat that the Adversary comes to tempt him, trying to get
him to be false to himself, to who he really is, for the sake of a fleeting and illusory h a appiness.
There’s so much to learn here about illusions. Indeed, the three temptations seem so seductively reasonable: “You’re starving -- go ahead, make some bread out of these stones to relieve your hunger... After all, if you really are the Son of God you can do it...” Or, “here’s what scripture says... no harm will ever come to you, after all, God will send his angels to care for you... there’s no need to fear...feel the power -- jump off this temple”... Or finally, and perhaps most insidiously, “You deserve to be ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth... Look at them, they’re all yours: all you have to do is bow down and worship me, and I’ll give you them.” In response, Jesus renounces any attempt to coerce God, to test God, to use his power selfishly. He will not betray himself. Rather in each case he responds with a verse of scripture that expresses the truth of his real identity, of his being. In the face of temptation, Jesus stays conscious and aware; His whole focus remains centered on God who is the source of all power and the one deserving of worship. In the end, Satan retires in defeat, only to return later on in the Gospel to take the temptation to inauthenticity to a wholly different level.
Christians have always understood Lent to be their testing in the wilderness, and we can be certain that in the coming days the Adversary will test us as well, trying in any number of clever ways to get us to be false to ourselves, to believe the lie, to think that happiness can be achieved apart from the designs of God. Yet instead of being anxious about this, it’s helpful to remember a saying of the famous Desert Father Evagrius of Pontus who said, “Without temptations, no one will be saved”. What Evagrius understood is that temptation is actually the opportunity to become more conscious, more intentional, more who we are truly called to be. For every temptation is an opportunity to test our freedom, to choose for God. And if we sometimes stumble, while regrettable, it is not the end of the world. For this is a process lasting a lifetime, and while each of us no doubt recognizes times when we have been false to ourselves, inauthentic, there’s an alternative to despair. It is called repentance, where we own our sin, our inauthenticity and hear God’s word of forgiveness. This, more than any sin or compromise defines our true reality, our true identity as beloved children of God. This is no mirage, and it can leave us peaceful and strong in the face of whatever testing may come our way.
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