The Temptation of Christ

If you look through old paintings that illustrate “The Temptation of Christ”, you will usually see “Temptation” pictured as a demon—a twisted, ugly figure with pointed horns, a beaked nose, and hooves. Sometimes, these paintings show the Tempter with claws instead of hands, leering at Christ and pointing to a pile of stones just waiting to become bread.

Now, in these paintings, there is no question about the presence of evil. It is obvious and obscene. The evil of temptation and the loneliness of sin are clearly shown and easily understood. But outside the world of a painting, it’s not always that simple, is it?

After all, it would be easy to resist temptation if temptation appeared as something ugly and grotesque—something so alien, so wild, that one glimpse—one look—would be enough to make us run, and make good choices and decisions.

If the urge to abuse power, an impulse to exploit the weak and vulnerable, betray a friend, or get just “a little” revenge suddenly took the shape of a monster before our eyes, then our choices might just become different. If all bad choices were pointed out to us by horns and hooves and grotesque faces, then our choices might soon become wiser. Unfortunately, it’s only in the movies that scary music announces the presence of evil.

There is modern illustration of the Temptation in the Desert, a painting filled with bright colors and soft golden light. It shows Christ walking with a companion—Temptation—on a cliff overlooking the desert. And the Tempter stands, his arm around the Lord’s shoulder, talking earnestly, eagerly, as one dear friend to another.

His face is like any other face—In fact, the face of the temptor looks a lot like Christ’s. Or yours. Or mine. For this artist, and for many of us, the problem with temptation is that it’s just so…well, tempting.

We justify our sinful choices: Just this once—it won’t hurt anything…It makes me so happy…It’s ok after all, look what "they" did to me!

Far from being ugly, or frightening, or filled with a sense of doom, temptation and sin is so often attractive, looks good—at least at the start. There are times even in our own prayer when it is difficult to separate the seduction of evil from the urgings of the Holy Spirit. I might even think that if I am filled with the Spirit of God from my baptism, God’s Spirit should empty me of temptation!

But, Jesus himself was anointed and filled by the Spirit at his baptism, and then driven into the desert to be tempted by power, by riches, by personal comfort. It hardly seems fair, does it? Yet, this time in the wilderness is important.

For Jesus, it was a time to reflect on his relationship with God and come face to face—not only with the idols that might tempt him, and the demons that might haunt him, but with the Spirit that stood ready to both challenge and comfort him.

Jesus didn’t try to avoid these trials, rather, he used them to define who he was…and was not. For Jesus, the time of temptation became a time of formation, a time of preparation for his mission into the world.

During this Lent, we have an opportunity to make that same journey through the desert. We have the same temptations to face, the same evil to confront, the same formation to experience, the same Spirit to encounter, the same Father to embrace.

Desert journey or no desert journey, bad choices will continue to look good and temptation will persist in being…well, very, very tempting.

But when Jesus met his own temptations head on, he transformed the wilderness, and our lives, forever. As we enter into this Lent, Jesus will journey with you, and your temptations and choices, if you only invite him in.