Tag Archives: temptation of christ

A guided meditation on the temptation of Christ

Deuteronomy 26:1–11             Psalm 91:1–2,9–16         Romans 10:4–13 Luke 4:1–15

During the next 40 days we will hear some very familiar passages from scripture. Many of them accompany us each year and, if you have been in church all your life they will be very familiar to you. To awaken our senses to them, and encounter them in a different way, we are going to use this time to inhabit these gospel texts in guided meditations, recognising that scripture is to be explored, lived in and through, seen from the inside out and not simply studied.

Sit back, close your eyes, and breathe deeply. Inhale, filling your lungs and stomach completely, and exhale slowly. Allow yourself to settle into a quiet place of stillness. Let your mind become open and receptive, as we begin this new journey together, with Jesus, straight from the waters of baptism, out into the wilderness.

You are Jesus.
Imagine the wilderness around you.

The earth is dry, cracked beneath your feet.

Your body is weak after forty days of fasting. Hunger gnaws at you.

The tempter approaches. “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” You feel the deep yearning for relief, but you know better. You are here for a purpose.

You stand firm, recalling the assurance of your ancestors from Deuteronomy: “we cried to the Lord. He heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression.”

This is your God. You know you must stand firm.
Pause.
Cry out to God, certain you are always heard, known and loved.

In that strength, respond to the tempter; “One doesn’t live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

You know God’s Word sustains you more than physical food.

Reject the temptation to fill your emptiness with anything other than Truth.

Reflect:
What areas of emptiness are you trying to fill with temporary fixes?
What is God calling you to trust Him with, instead of controlling it yourself?

In your mind and heart, hand it to God…

You are the Tempter.
Feel the coldness of the moment.

You see Jesus, worn and vulnerable, yet resolute.

You offer Him a challenge; “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels to guard you…’”

You seek to manipulate, twist Scriptures to your own advantage, make God prove Himself. But Jesus stands firm and responds: “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  His trust in God is unshakable.

Pause and reflect:
Where have you been demanding signs, testing God to prove His faithfulness?
What would it be like to trust completely?
Can you rest in the promise from the psalmist that “those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty”?

You are the World.
You present an image—power, success, control, all within reach.

You offer Jesus kingdoms, glory, and fame. “All this can be yours, if you worship me.”

The allure of quick success, without sacrifice, is right there. You ask for loyalty, for Jesus to turn away from His mission and allegiance to God. But Jesus rejects you firmly: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” (Luke 4:8)

Feel the pull of that temptation.
The world offers power, and glory in exchange for your soul.

Where is the world asking for your devotion in exchange for momentary satisfaction?

Pause:
What does it look like to reject the world’s promises of power, wealth, or comfort?

How can you choose to worship God alone and serve Him faithfully?

You are the Wilderness.
Sense the barren landscape beneath and before you, the dry wind in your face.

You are not a place of comfort but a place of transformation. It’s here that Jesus faces the rawest parts of Himself—His hunger, temptations, humanity. Yet it’s here, in the wilderness, that He grows in preparation for His mission.

Pause:
What is your wilderness?
What difficult or barren places are you facing?

Remember, the wilderness is not a place of defeat—it’s a place where strength is forged, growth happens, and God meets you in your deepest needs.

Take a moment to reflect on each of these aspects—

You are Jesus,

You are the Tempter,

You are the World,

You are the Wilderness.

Where do you see yourself most clearly?

Which elicits the biggest response in you?

What is God inviting you to do, to become, to trust?

Take a deep breath in, and exhale slowly.

Let the wisdom of the wilderness sink in.

When you’re ready, gently open your eyes.

Carry with you the clarity to face the temptations, the power to resist, and the trust to walk through your own wilderness with God. Amen.

Lent One – 2024

Genesis 9:8-17      Psalm 25:1-10       1 Peter 3:18-22      Mark 1:9-15

We hear the story of Jesus in the Wilderness on the first Sunday of Lent, every year, so it may sound familiar. Satan tempts Jesus in every way and yet he doesn’t succumb. And often the teaching is that Jesus has gone there before us and because he managed to not give in, and we should try to do the same. In Mark’s account, the whole scene takes only two verses.

‘The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.’

Mark speaks fast. He talks really quickly and very dynamically.

Everything happens suddenly, or immediately. His whole gospel is at breakneck speed but – even so – forty days in fewer than forty words is still some going. And we hear it every year, but because of Mark’s brevity, we might more easily notice the events either side of the wilderness story.

So. [hand actions] Jesus comes from Nazareth…

Goes down into the water…

Comes up out of the water…

The spirit comes down from the heavens…

And then Jesus is driven into the wilderness.

That’s a lot of movement. A lot of going down and coming up. And if we read those movement words in the original language we discover that the spirit descends in the exact same word as how the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom at the moment of the crucifixion – like, at the moment of Christ’s baptism, the veil between heaven and earth became separated, just as it did at the moment of his death.

And the spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness in the same way, with the same word, as Jesus drove out demons, AND in the same word as would be used to describe violent sickness – the Spirit vomited Jesus out into the wilderness; that same spirit that unzipped the divide between heaven and earth in her descent then convulsed Jesus into the wilderness. The same that spirit descended to proclaim God’s love and parenthood drove Jesus from that place of identity and holiness right into the firing line of the wild beasts.

Surely there must have been a purpose for that deliberate act. It wasn’t just a suggestion made to the dripping wet Messiah – it was a propulsion. And I guess that makes sense; there would be very few of us who would choose to wander into the wilderness, or into any other difficult or brutal situation. Maybe there was a purpose?

When I say ‘purpose’, please don’t hear me saying that God causes or chooses suffering for God’s children. I am not saying that. I don’t believe God allows suffering, just so we learn something, and certainly not as punishment. Let me make that clear. But I can believe that our God is one who accompanies and who redeems – that no situation is wasted – that nothing is so bad that God cannot bring good out of it – and that, despite how alone we might feel in the moment, God is always alongside us, and is always for us. If you hear nothing else today, please hear that.

So… Perhaps there was a purpose for Christ’s journey into the wilderness, because when we return to the passage, we discover what came next, or what the wilderness prepared Jesus for. He is spewed into the wilderness, where he spends 40 days and nights, and then he re-emerges with this message – it is the first thing Mark’s Jesus says and it is this: the time is fulfilled – the Kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe.

And where did he discover this? In the wilderness.

And that sounded like the most Jesus-thing I had ever heard.

In the darkest place, where there is nothing but brokenness and danger – that is where the Kingdom of God comes first. Of course it is! Isn’t it always that God shows up where we least expect it?  Isn’t it always in the darkest place where the light shines brightest? Of course, God’s Kingdom came near in the desert place of the wilderness, where Satan was prowling and the wild beasts were sniffing about. Of course it did. Of course it does!

When Jesus went into the wilderness, the veil between heaven and earth was the thinnest – the Spirit had torn it open in Her descent at his baptism. Heaven was closest, clearest, and the spirit sent him to the most barren place, to take his light there first. And only once Jesus had kicked a chasm into the darkness of the wilderness did he come to tell the others – now the kingdom of God is here. Now we can begin.

So, if you are wandering in the wilderness, even if you are just skirting around the edge, knowing it is near, hear this; you are not alone, you are not abandoned, you are in the place where the Kingdom of God will break in first, and you will be there to see it.

That is what the newly baptised, wilderness wanderer teaches us. And then our second reading reminded us of what the crucified Jesus did first; ‘he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison’, it said.  When the curtain was torn in two the next time, on the cross, at Jesus’ death, he went first to the spirits in prison – or rather, he went to the depths of hell and said ‘it is over’, light wins. Love wins. The kingdom of God has come near. Jesus always goes to the darkest place first. And if that is where you find yourself today, Jesus is on his way. The kingdom of God is coming near.

And for those of us who aren’t in the wilderness right now, we would do well, this lent, to make it our purpose to go to the darkest place we can find and take the light of Christ there. But don’t be surprised to find it there already, ahead of us, because it is always in the place of death and decay that our Lord is to be found first.  And it is there, in the bringing of light and hope, that the Kingdom of God comes near.

Repent and believe. Amen.