The Temptation of Christ, ca. 1125
Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga, province of Soria, Spain

The First Sunday of Lent

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

To ponder this is too great for many of us. To be there with Jesus is beyond our imagination. Yes, but...

We must.

So I turn to the remarkable preacher and interpreter Fred Craddock for some reflections far deeper than we can get in one glance.

Whatever the ancient echoes, it is clear that Jesus is not on a pensive evening walk in the desert; he is being tested intensely.

Mark does not elaborate on the temptation. So what is happening? Obviously, Jesus was really being tempted. There is no need to protect Jesus by saying he only seemed to be tempted in order to set us an example. Anyone who pretends an experience in order to set an example is not setting an example. "We have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Nor should one rob the event of its reality on the assumption that temptation is weakness. We are not tempted to do what we cannot do but what we can. The testing is one of strength, and the stronger, the more capable, the greater one is, the greater the temptation.

And if the temptation is real, it most certainly is deceptive. Temptation is not obvious, definitely not a caricature: "Hi, I am Satan; I am here to tempt you" The tempter often looks and sounds like a friend or relative. "Get behind me, Satan!" was not Jesus’ word to the local fiend but to his friend, Simon Peter.
--Link

I need to read that many times this Lenten season- and probably allow it to sink in each and every day when I am in the midst of temptation.