For Sunday
Lent 1B
Collect
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
Don’t you want to know more? About the Spirit, the driving of Jesus into the wilderness, what transpires out there, and even the arrest of John? So much happens so quickly! And we only get a glimpse of it.
The evangelist doesn’t want us to dwell on these stories as much as our curiosity does. But these short bursts of info give us some hints: a taste of what is there. But not enough to linger too long.
We get the encapsulation of Jesus’s call story in a half-dozen verses—and a vision for discipleship. As in Christ’s discipleship to God!
The baptism with water and the Holy Spirit leads to a season of temptation and learning. A time when he learns to be at peace with the wild beasts and with the angels. And then, when he returns to the “real world,” he is greeted with the mantle of John the Baptizer: to preach repentance and proclaim the Good News.
This offers us a glimpse of the nature of divine relationship in discipleship, calling, and sacrifice. In it, we see a Christly pattern of devotion and love that resembles the path the disciples will themselves follow over the next fifteen chapters. And the pattern Christians have followed for nearly two thousand years.
That relationship requires commitment, trust, and hope as much as it requires love and the willingness to give everything. And to offer these, not only when we are secure, healthy, and happy. But also when we feel tested or tempted. When it feels like the wilderness will never end.
The irony, of course, it what lies after the wilderness is service. Which is often a different kind of wilderness. But at least we know the Way.