Flexing our muscles - reflex on Luke 4:1-13 (1st Sun of Lent)
"When temptation comes, turn straight to God and He will help you."
After His baptism, the Lord is "filled with the Holy Spirit" and is led by that Spirit into the desert for 40 days, during which He was tempted by the devil. "When temptation comes, turn straight to God and He will help you," says St. Leonard of Port Maurice. This is exactly the example Jesus gives us, as St. Luke shows by describing three particular temptations.
Christ came to "undo" what Adam and Eve had done, and to "destroy the work of the devil" (1 John). We can draw many parallels/distinctions between the Original Sin in the Garden and Christ's victory over sin in the desert. Here are just five of them:
- Adam and Eve are in a lush garden, with all that they need; Jesus is in the desert, depriving Himself of even the essentials of life.
- Adam and Eve face the tempter and fail, which affects all of us; Jesus faces the same tempter, but takes the victory for all of humanity.
- Adam and Eve DISobey God; Jesus OBEYS, and His obedience "unravels" the knots that our first parents' disobedence tied like anoose around the neck of humanity.
- Adam and Eve EAT the forbidden fruit; Jesus refuses to eat, or even to be tempted by His stomach ("Man does not live by bread alone.").
- Adam and Eve begin to doubt God's word ("You surely will not die; you will be like gods."); Jesus refuses to doubt the Father and remains steadfast in trust.
Prayer and fasting gave Christ the strength to withstand the temptation; these are the tools WE are given as well, to strengthen our own wills. Jesus showed us how to resist the enemy: to have unwavering trust in the Father and to remain steadfast in loving obedience. Temptation is no reason to despair, but an opportunity to exercise our LOVE. Every time we resist a temptation, we extend the Kingdom of God, winning back territory from the prince of this world.
We are given strenth in Christ to fight valiantly for His cause, sharing His sufferings and His triumphs.