Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Comment: I have chosen this passage because we are not entering but are some weeks into the 40 days nominated as ‘lent’ by some branches of the church. It is said by some that the fasting and practices are based on this experience of Jesus. It happened as Jesus was starting His Ministry some three years before His death. I have read various things about lent. I am using Wikipedia’s definition as an (I know) inadequate and secular description of what the period is about. "The purpose of Lent for the Catholic Church is to serve as a sacred 40-day period of preparation for Easter through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is a time for spiritual renewal, repentance, and a deeper conversion of heart as believers seek to draw closer to God and emulate Christ's time of fasting in the desert." I am not criticising those who practice lent except if they think that it has anything to do with adding to their chance of getting into heaven! Maybe they do it to become more sanctified, which in summary. I think. means more Christ-like. Some say that the apostles practiced an earlier form of lent by their fasting and praying but that was throughout the year and not specifically pre-Easter. It was formulated more formally at the time of the Nicene meeting of church leaders and the formation of the Nicene Creed in the fourth century, Paul tells us that we should ‘pray without ceasing’ and put money aside ‘every week as we are able’. James tells us that ‘true religion is ‘to care for orphans and widows in distress’ and these to me are constant commands and not periodic. The mention of repentance is necessary for all us sinners but is summed up for me in a phrase as being not a lenten practice -‘keep short accounts with God’! I have not dealt with the ‘fasting and going out into the wilderness’ aspects of what Jesus did, and I leave you to think about those aspects. The whole ‘Easter Event’ is less than 4 weeks away in our calendar and I will be looking at some passages which deal with these last weeks of Jesus before His Glorious resurrection!
Isaiah 58: 6-7 – Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? – what does the last phrase mean?
Prayer: Help me to prepare myself and my family for the coming Easter season.
As I read it! 