By Joanne Gallardo, interim campus pastor
Scripture: Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)
It’s not easy to resist temptation.
During Lent especially, people are encouraged to “give up” something that they find themselves more or less attached to, usually of an edible nature. Chocolate, alcohol, pizza, cheese, you name it, someone out there loves it and is giving it up for Lent. Many of us want it to “mean something,” and we want to really feel the loss. But not too much.
Giving up chocolate is annoying and at times disappointing, but it’s doable. And so it is with all the things we choose to consume. We have a choice, we execute willpower, and we resist temptation.
In our story, Jesus is tempted not with sweets or delicacies, but with the very desires of one’s body and soul. The Enemy tempts him with bread. Jesus, having no food with him at all, resists temptation. He’s shown all the kingdoms of the world, and Jesus resists temptation. Jesus is commanded to throw himself off the Temple because, as the Son of God, he should survive it. Again, Jesus resists, and Satan leaves.
With this resistance, Jesus is doing more than resisting bread, fame and hand-of-God miracles, he’s resisting all that would distract him from the path to which the Holy Spirit is calling him. He is called to a pilgrimage of endurance with himself and God. Jesus is being called to be trusting, faithful, hopeful and resilient, and this means, as catechumens in the Catholic Church recite upon baptism, to “renounce Satan and all his pomps.”
Today we are tempted with many things. We are tempted with the myth of self-sufficiency, capitalism, greed, hate and white supremacy, just to name a handful. These things, offered to us by the Enemy, promise everything we’ve been told that we need; fame, money and power.
The kingdom of God does not operate on fame, money and power; rather, it operates with trust, faith, hope and resiliency, the very things the Holy Spirit required of Jesus during his time in the wilderness. What does it mean for us to resist the temptation of these “pomps” of Satan and live into where the Holy Spirit calls us? What does it mean to leave behind what the world tells us is “success” and live into the messy, difficult and holy journey of faith? With this in mind, as we figure out what we’re “giving up” for Lent, let us focus on the things that make for faith, hope, trust, resiliency, and above all else, love.
Scripture: Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” 4Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’” 5Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 9Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ 11and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 12Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.