Have you ever wondered just what all this Lent stuff is about? It’s not a straightforward question.

People ask you, even colleagues in offices and workplaces, who for the rest of the year may have no obvious religious adherence: ‘what are you giving up for lent?’ It’s a bit like, the annual, ‘what is your new year resolution’?

But for most people, it is something deeper than that, yet if we are honest, giving something up for Lent is still something of a mystery?

Our NT reading today tells us the well-known account of Jesus being tempted by the devil, after having fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness. 

I am not sure I could unpack such a mystery in a few minutes, nor feel particularly qualified to do so, but we can look into the scene laid before us and glean some really helpful observations.

I think this week I have had the nearest to what I would call ‘sermon writer's block’. So perhaps this is less of a sermon and more of a group of reflections.

I also suspect I have spoken on this very passage in the last 18 months, so you will forgive if there is any repetition, but I hope and believe this is worth looking at afresh as we worship on this first Sunday of Lent.

The first reflection is this: Jesus did not go into the desert to fast, to ‘get more holy’. To get more Godly. 

Of course, Jesus is God incarnate, God who had taken on flesh, both human and divine, so in some sense, we might wonder whether his example is a good blueprint for us. But I believe the emphasis here was not upon Jesus’ deity as he walked off into that desert, but very much in his humanity, so in that, I believe we can reliably find example and inspiration. In fact, the three particular temptations which are recorded for us all support this perspective, as we shall see.

But firstly, as I said, Jesus didn’t go into the desert to fast to ‘get more holy. Verse one tells us he was already ‘full of the Holy Spirit'. After all, rewind a bit and we see Jesus, moments before, standing in the Jordan river being baptised, and the Holy Spirt descending upon him like a dove. 

This is quite important. As there is a real danger for us. That we might think: if I fast and pray more, I will in some way become more acceptable to God. Jesus had just heard the words, as the Holy Spirit ascended upon him, ‘this is my son, with him I am well pleased’. Jesus didn’t fast to get right with God the Father. 

The second refection – perhaps more light-hearted in one respect, is that this passage includes one of the biggest understatements in the Bible – being:  ‘at the end of them [the forty days] he was hungry’! personally, I could kill a Big Mac after about fourteen hours, let alone 40 days and nights. 

The account in Luke is very fleeting. We are given three specific elements of the temptation Jesus suffered. 

And here it’s worth a pause. And to notice this awesome truth. Jesus really did suffer temptation. Just like you and I. This is one of the most incredible moments where we get a lamp shining into the reality of what God has done for us. Stepping down into our shoes. Being like you and me. Knowing exactly what it feels like to be us. 

I think that can be a really hard thing for some of us to appreciate because we so often feel guilty for feeling tempted to sin…so guilty in fact about the struggle, that we feel like we have already sinned. After all, all the thoughts were there, the desire, the sometimes-desperate battle which rages in our minds; to act in a way which God clearly tells us, in the bible, not to do? But temptation isn’t to sin. Temptation is the powerful desire to sin. And Jesus felt that too. If he hadn’t then he wouldn’t be able to ‘emphasise our weaknesses. The Writer to the Hebrews puts it this way:  that he [Jesus] is [able] to sympathise with our weaknesses….. tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin’

The third reflection is this:  we don’t know all the temptation that went on for 40 days, but we know three particular ones, and I suspect we know these three for a reason. And I suspect they illustrate something of a model.

They go like this: firstly, be comfortable – put yourself first – you’re hungry, turn these stones into bread – if you’re God; Then the next: be important – in fact - be God. The devil in Jesus’ case offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world as if they were his to give in the first place – which they weren’t – that’s the most cosmic size irony you’ll ever see: the created (the devil) offering the whole of creation to the creator! And the third: be doubtful. You see, all these ‘if you are the Son of God’, could so easily, be ‘if God loves you; if God exists, if God cares. The answer to all, in truth, is yes, he loves you; yes he exists; yes he cares. But the temptation, in whatever form it comes is to doubt these. You might not be offered all the kingdoms of the earth, but to put ourselves first, to be number one, before God, or simply to give up when the going gets tough, is a human inclination. 

And the fourth reflection: we need to use the same weapon that Jesus used to defeat these doubts and uncertainties. Those temptations not to trust God

Weapon, what weapon we might say, there was no weapon mentioned, no violence. Jesus just replied with words.

In Ephesians chapter 6 we have a beautiful description of the armour of God. And all the pieces bar one are protective. A shield of faith, a belt of truth, a breastplate of righteousness, a helmet of salvation. Even feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. It's easy to imagine a roman legionary in full armour with this colourful pictorial description. But there is one additional and vital element of the armour of God, which we are invited to equip ourselves with: it’s the sword of the Spirit. The one item thatis for attack as well as defence. And this sword has a name, and it’s called: ‘The word of God’. 

It was this very word, this very sword that Jesus wielded to defeat the temptations of the devil. I imagine there were many more temptations he suffered, but I would bet every other would have been met with the same weapon.

So, we are left with a model. We are left with a sword, a weapon of defence. If Jesus, God incarnate, God become human, needed this weapon, how much more do we need it too.

And here’s the final reflection – the fifth reflection: and interestingly this is enshrined in the liturgy for Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of lent, that we are in this time: however you fast, or even if you don’t, let us be encouraged to look deeper into God’s word during this season. To pick up that sword, and like a skilled swordsman or woman, become familiar with its balance and weight, its thrust and movement, able to wield it skilfully. If Jesus needed to do so. How much more do we.

So may we use this lent, if you, like me wonder what its all about, if you too struggle with that question: ‘what are you giving up for Lent’, perhaps have this answer: I don’t know what I’m giving up for Lent. But I know what I am picking up. And it’s a sword. The sword of the Spirit. God’s holy Word. 

Amen.