We’ve set off on our journey through Lent. On Wednesday, many of us received the imprint of ashes and heard again those words: ‘Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.’ These weeks are about walking with Christ to the cross and beyond, and becoming more like him.
Surely, Lent is going to be more important than ever this year, as we live with war in Europe, war that will challenge and test us, will certainly test our faith and our humanity.
Scripture begins today in a really positive place. Jesus has just been baptised, has just heard those wonderful words from his Father, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’ He is loved. And this is where we start too, in baptism we have been sealed in God’s love. We don’t do anything to deserve this, it’s just how it is, and God loves us.
Full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is led by the Holy Spirit to the desert. He fasts for 40 days and is famished and is then tempted by the devil. Very significant, because Jesus is being tested in his relationship with his Father, and in terms of his calling, what kind of a Saviour is he called to be?
And Lent can be a time for us to find out more about our calling as Gods beloved children, who and what are we called to be?
Luke tells us that Jesus is led into the desert and there he is tested by the devil. I’d like to talk of the devil. The personification of evil. As we see here in a small panel, painted around 1310 by the Italian painter, Duccio.
The OT has little to say about Satan. The ancient civilisations of Persia and Babylon followed dualistic systems of thought where good and evil are in cosmic struggle. But the Hebrews believed of course in one God. Satan then is a fallen creature of Yahweh. He makes a strong appearance in the book of Job, and there he is God’s minister.
In the Gospels, and the Book of revelations the existence of Satan is taken for granted, the NT ascribes to the devil things that we would now understand in terms of mental illness, physical disability or natural disaster. In the early church, the Middle Ages, in the pre-scientific world this continued.
The personification of evil captures the imagination. Here’s an image from my Children’s’ Bible illustrating today’s gospel reading. Here is a noble battle set out for young minds. But does this kind of imagery help us to take diabolical evil seriously? Does it risk trivialising and even glamorising evil? The devil has become, in popular entertainment, a rather glamorous character. Harmless fun.
In contrast, the true harm of evil, of thoughtless, or deliberate, cruelty and abuse, of deliberate violence and cruelty and the infliction of war, the true harm is monstrously real. We have to account somehow for the force of darkness that is Nazism and Fascism, that is holocaust, and atrocity, and is whatever is provoking Putin to invade his neighbours and inflict untold harm to millions of Ukrainians, and to his own troops.
We may trivialise the personification of the devil and feel that we’ve left that behind us, but clearly, we’ve not left behind the human capacity for evil. And the need for human beings to resist evil and chose a different way.
So here is a very different depiction of Jesus in the wilderness. This painting by Ivan Kransky, from 1872, shows us a Jesus with whom we can identify. The artist shows Jesus suffering physical exhaustion and hunger, wrestling with his calling. He is tested in body, heart and mind.
He’s tempted to turn stones into bread, a temptation of the body. Wouldn’t this be a good thing? We know that people love him when he feeds them. But miracles are to be signs of the kingdom, not signs of his greatness or popularity.
The second temptation is a temptation of the heart, the devil says that if Jesus worships him, he will give him glory and authority over all the kingdoms of the world, which he claims are his. Now remember the devil is a liar. He is lying now to turn Jesus away from his Father.
The third temptation concerns the mind, when Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and the devil tempts him to throw himself off, so that the angels with save him. People will see how the Father saves him. He will be spared suffering.
This is not the way of the Saviour. To succumb to these temptations would be a betrayal of his calling, to be the Saviour who serves. God’s Son comes to be with us, and one of us, yet without sin. Not to wield power or to coerce, but to invite each of us to conversion of body, mind and spirit. He does not take away our responsibility from us.
As so too for us, Lent can be a time when we rediscover our calling and vocation, which is to become more like Christ and all that God knows we can be.
So I would like to invite you to a modest, but useful and rather Benedictine practice this Lent. I’m inspired by a rather fine Ukrainian proverb:
With patience, it is possible to dig a well with a teaspoon. With patience, and small but persistent, repeated effort wells can be dug and mountains can be moved, especially when we’re working with others.
This is a really helpful metaphor for Christians who want to drink the water of life. So inspired by the teaspoon, here is a simple activity for Lent, and for life. Particularly if you’re stuck with prayer, or have never been able to pray, or are feeling rather worn down, which may be most of us.
The abbreviation for teaspoon is a reminder of the basics of prayer, basics of relationship. Which is saying thank you, sorry and please.
So speak with God, give thanks for the blessings of your life, say sorry for what’s gone wrong, say please, and ask for your heart’s desire. Every time you deliberately do these simple things, you are turning back to God our Father and you are resisting evil. Say these things to other people too, which can take some courage, because it can feel risky to express appreciation, to ask for forgiveness, to say please and ask for help. But this is how we can build relationships and build trust. With patience, it’s possible to dig a well with a teaspoon. Laying down habits to enable us to follow our calling as Christians and as human beings.
The season of Lent is given to lead us more deeply into our relationship with God and his light and love. Lent recalls us to our vocation as human beings, to become more fully human and more fully in relationship with God.
