The first (and perhaps primary) image of Lent is of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness.  It’s a moment in time that three of the four Gospels capture, a hinge moment between Jesus’ baptism by John and the beginning of His ministry.  Unlike the Matthew and Luke, Mark keeps it brief:

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³ and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted  by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. [Mark 1:12-13]

Hans Boersma recently posted a piece about Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness.  He starts:

It is meet and right that Lent should start with Matthew 4. Its first sentence sums up not just Lent but the entire Christian life. “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). We may apply this to ourselves: “Then was I led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Our brief span of life is the wilderness. The Spirit himself has led us here. His purpose is that we be tempted by the devil.

From the get-go, Boersma pulls no punches: that last sentence feels a little reductionistic to me.  But then he unpacks things a bit more:

This sentence contains a great mystery: Why would God himself—the Holy Spirit—lead us into this world so that we might be tempted by the devil? I cannot solve this mystery, for God’s mysteries are not like puzzles. They cannot be solved; they are meant to be lived instead.

I like that last sentence much more.  It reminds me of a quote from somewhere in my past, when someone suggested that we live out lives as answers to the big questions.

Following the lines of Matthew and Luke, Boersma brings in the three temptations Jesus faces: provision, protection, and power, or as he later paraphrases for us: My bread, my safety, my status.

The whole piece by Boersma is worth the read.  It’s a sobering reminder that life in the wilderness is a picture of life in this world including but beyond a season like Lent.  And he reminds us that Jesus is in the wilderness with us.  I would add that, in this part of the Biblical Story, we are in this wilderness world together, which is no small thing either.

A closing line from the piece:

Letup comes only after the forty days are over—at the end of our worldly wilderness. This is the last verse of the temptation narrative: “Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him” (Matt. 4:11). Yes, temptation will give way to consolation, the wilderness will make room for paradise, and the devil will shrink back when angels come to minister. This is the great promise that the story holds out to us: Temptations will certainly end.

Later this week I’ll post my second reflection on Varden’s The Shattering of Loneliness as the season leading up to Easter continues.