During Lent, we reflect on and participate in Jesus’ own period of tempting and testing in the wilderness. For Jesus, it was not a self-serving introspective but the forging of a relationship with God where self was denied and God placed first.
This concept is highly counter-cultural in our contemporary culture. Self has been promoted over other. ‘We’re worth it’ and ‘We deserve it’ are tag lines frequently found in adverts. Imagine Jesus saying, ‘I will turn the stones into bread “because I’m worth it.” The Holy Spirit led him out there in order to meet, in a real way, with God. He went with nothing but himself. Whatever cares or burdens he may have had were left at the entrance to the Judean desert.
The wilderness experience of Christ tells us that amidst and amongst everything else, it is good to stop and come before God. Self-examination before God is hard work but the rewards gained are of incalculable wealth. It is no accident that Lent leads us straight into Jesus’ ultimate expression of selflessness, the cross.
As we surrender more and more of ourselves to God it is my prayer that he will reveal more and more of himself to us. For this we need to be open to God, self-denying and self-sacrificing. We cannot fully partake in any other way.