At first hearing the story of Jesus ‘temptation in the desert’ sounds about as pertinent to my life as crop yields in the Outer Hebrides. Sure it’s important to somebody, somewhere, but it’s simply too far removed from my time and cultural context to say much to me. Jesus’ dialog with the Diablo sounds more Dickens than Gospel – as the pair seemingly float through a dreamland of time and space from one temptation to another. At least Ebenezer Scrooge got Christmas dinner – Jesus won’t even cave for a loaf of bread.

Maybe it’s because my biggest temptations don’t seem to be Jesus’. I get angry, frustrated, and worry too much about having enough. I want to honk at slow people in the fast lane and call the manager when a check-out lady opens up a new register and the people behind me get to go first. Why didn’t Jesus get tempted by a telemarketer calling at dinnertime? Or a mechanic who told him he needed a new transmission? Or a corporate bean counter coldly informing him his pension was being cut? Let’s see how Jesus handles those temptations!

But when I hear this story again and again, as you and I do on every first Sunday of Lent, we begin to see the shades and nuances that make this encounter more relevant than we might think. I begin to see that these temptations really are my temptations.

They boil down to self-doubt, idolatry and skepticism about the Divine. When Jesus is challenged to make a stone into bread, I too need to deny the impulse to prove myself. When Jesus is offered all the riches of the world if He will only bow down to another, I too need to fight against the desire to make worldly goods my real gods. And when Jesus is asked if God really does care for Him, I too must put to flight notions that God doesn’t care about me either.

Jesus handles this by actually speaking to each temptation. I have found this a helpful strategy, employing not the same words but the same tactic. With a nonchalant indifference I tell whatever tempting notions that come my way, ‘I simply don’t have time for you.’ Like Jesus, we are on a mission to do greater things, and as we set our sights on those things, we might also see the devil departing somewhat swiftly from us.


Reading
How (Not) to Speak to God – Peter Rollins
Empire Falls – Richard Russo
Missional Renaissance – Reggie McNeal