Led By the Spirit
“At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil.
He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry.”Matthew 4:1-2
On the First Sunday of Lent, the Church always invites us to reflect on the Temptation of Jesus. In the Matthean account, we hear of the three temptations with which the devil tempts Jesus: changing the stones to bread, jumping from the parapet, and bowing down to him. Those three temptations can really be summed as as pride, fame, and wealth or possessions.
If Jesus listened to the devil, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread,” He would have fallen into the temptation of needing to prove that He is the Son of God. Jesus did not need to prove anything. He knew who He was, and He would not let His authority be a play of pride. We see this in the very beginning when we are told “Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit.” Jesus was obedient to the Father and followed where He led. In knowing who He was, Jesus knew that where the Father led, He must go, and where He goes the Spirit will be with Him, and where God is, evil cannot stand.
Notice that the devil from the very start attacks Jesus’s identity, “If you are the Son of God…” One who is confident in who he or she is has no need to prove to others who they are or what they can do. If we know and believe that we are indeed the Father’s beloved sons and daughters, then we will have no need to prove anything to anyone. We must know who we are and we must be confident in that, otherwise, our foundation will become shaky and when the devil comes to rock it with his lies, it will not be hard for him to crumble it. We are the Father’s beloved sons and daughters.
Another important detail is the duration of Jesus’s fasting. The forty days remind us of several things – Noah and the flood, Moses on the mountain, Elijah and his journey to Mt. Horeb, the Israelites in the desert. So, Jesus’s 40 days should remind the Jewish reader that something important is going to happen. After these 40 days, Jesus began His public ministry, teaching, preaching, healing, comforting, and raising the dead. But as we know already, this was not welcomed by all. The very fact that Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights tell us that He has come to fulfill and not abolish. He is remaining true and faithful to the traditions of His ancestors and the Mosaic Law – that He was a Jew through and through, but now He is bringing the Jews to where God has promised them – true freedom, a life with God.
The 40 days Jesus spent in the desert also represent our lives. In our lives we ought to retreat and go into the deserts of our hearts, seeking God and asking for His strength and grace. There will also be times when we will be tempted by the devil. We will be among all types of people, people who like us, people who dislike us, those who wish us well and cheer us on and those who wish our failure and rejoice in our defeat, but God’s angels will never fail to minister to us and Jesus Himself, the bread of life will always sustain us and nourish us on this journey.
As we begin our Lenten observances, let us remember that Jesus is with us and is truly like us in all things but sin. Like in this passage, we are told that after all His fasting, Jesus was hungry. Jesus has a human nature. He knows our struggles and our difficulties. He knows the lure of the devil. But He also knows triumph over evil. This Lent let us journey confidently through the deserts of our lives, being led by the Spirit, knowing who we are, whose we are and trusting that Christ journeys with us.
Come Holy Spirit, teach me to follow Your prompting and be led by You so that I might know what God’s will is for me and so live it out.
