The Lenten Pilgrimage - Day 2

    “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  The tempter came and said to him….”                   

                                                                                            Matthew 4:1-3a                             

                                  

     Our 40 day spiritual pilgrimage is modeled on the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his Galilean ministry.  Before Jesus began his public ministry, he battled the darkness of temptation’s allure.   The Spirit led him into the wilderness, placing Jesus squarely on the tempter’s home turf.

     In the ancient mind, the wilderness was the place where demons had great influence and power.  Here, darkness clearly had the upper hand.  And it was to the wilderness, that the Spirit sent Jesus immediately after his baptism. 

     A thoughtful Lenten journey requires some inner-wrestling with the temptations that seek to undo us, with the inner-darkness that would destroy us. 

     

     In these early hours of our sojourn together, we acknowledge that there is inner work that we cannot do for one another.  Some work, no one else can do for us.

     Before Jesus could be ready for the work ahead, he had to deal with the devil.

         

     So do we.  And we readily acknowledge that we often haven't responded as faithfully as Jesus in the face of hellish temptations intent on our destruction.  

     The season of Lent confronts our bent to sinning, calling out every unclean thought, word or deed that cowers in our inner darkness.  The invitation of the season is to develop and cultivate spiritual disciplines and practices that can serve to move us toward Christ-likeness. 

       And the correct posture for the journey is one of confession and repentance. This is the crucial work before us.  This is the holy work of Lent.  

       

Prayer  

     Lord Jesus we confess, too often we have yielded to temptation.  We have succumbed

     to the entreaties of the tempter.  We have allowed sin to enter and to grow 

     within us.  We acknowledge our bent to sinning, grieving our propensity to

     self-centered thoughts and actions, lamenting and acknowledging our failure

     to love others as you love us.  Forgive us we pray.  Empower us to walk in 

     newness of life in these holy days of Lent.  In your name we pray, Amen.