Temptation of the Wilderness
“Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. ”
Perhaps most appealing about Briton Riviere’s Temptation of Christ (1898) for this particular Lenten season is the utter desolation and loneliness it depicts. The desert landscape is dark and chaotic, turbulent like the sea, the heavens are roiling and aflame; almost as though Jesus were perched at the edge of some great volcano, ready to erupt at any moment …
That we remember this episode from the life of Jesus on the first Sunday of Lent is potentially problematic. It can send the message, “You’re going to face some temptations during your Lenten disciplines. Look how Jesus faced temptations: you, too, can overcome them!” But Jesus didn’t face the temptations of the wilderness to show us how to endure temptation. He endured them for our sake: such that when we are in the wilderness, whether enduring or failing, he would be there as well.
This is not just the first Sunday of Lent, but the beginning of a second year of a different kind of Lent: a Lent of isolation, disruption, anxiety, and despair. And we encounter Jesus in the midst of this terrible desert.
The sorrows of my heart are enlarged; O bring me out of my troubles.
— Psalm 25:16
First Sunday of Lent
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations, and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
O Love that will not let me go
An Australian Seventh Day Adventist youth choir sings George Matheson’s well beloved hymn to the tune St. Margaret (with which it is usually paired). Indelible Grace also performs a very nice contemporary version that is more folksy and upbeat. Good it is in these difficult and uncertain days to know that the love of God indeed clings to us more strongly than we could ever cling to him!
