After his descent into the river, Jesus gives himself to another downward journey. He has been blessed, and now will be tested. It will not be a scripted act for show. It was not a done deal that he would pass.
He was led into the wild by the Spirit*, to a place of long shadows. Like a mother walking her child to school, hand in hand…a bag packed full of affirmation and courage for the classes ahead. Other than the stories of his people coiled tightly around his heart, he’s as naked as the day he came. There is no hiding place in this desert. Just dust and his desires. Turning loose his Mother’s hand, he hears her clear call, “stay until your work is done.”
Near the end of forty days, the hunger brings him before his shadows. Having waited patiently to overtake him, they speak. In the desirous emptiness, he listens. Those temptations can be distilled into one: Complete control.
In the quiet and barren calmness, his sleeping desires awaken. If they didn’t, it’s all a sham. To name a simple thing, being tempted means you want it. And he did, which makes him just like us.
On this ragged edge, he unwraps a handful of his people’s stories, like golden gifts, and summons the courage to leave all that control alone. Holding fast, fed by a Mother’s promise that she’ll be waiting, he looks off into the distance, and finds himself free.
-Jim Marsh, Jr., Bread of Life Church
- Where are the “long shadows” in your life?
- What do you hunger for? What are the temptations hidden there?
- Is there a “golden gift” that you unwrap in a time of temptation?
