season of Lent: forty days of sacrifice

The text from Church this week was Luke 4:1-13.  It's the testing of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days.  I don't think it is a coincidence that this text is at the beginning of Lent.  It may be some inspiration for all of us who, now five days into Lent, may want to be giving into a temptation that has been set before us.  Some people think of Jesus as someone they can't relate to because he never sinned.  It seems that they are overlooking this passage, where he faces incredible temptation.  For in these forty days, Jesus was tempted with the whole world (Luke 4:5-7).  

The temptation of Jesus is a great inspiration throughout Lent for us to sacrifice and to find strength in Jesus' own temptations and sacrifice.  Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness.  We spend forty days giving something up for Lent.  

During Lent the things that we give up - the sacrifice and the accompanying temptation - bring us closer to God.  Many people often think about or pray to God more.  Some people read the Bible more.  Some people come closer to God through the mere act of surrendering.  It's in this season we often learn a lot about ourselves and at the end we celebrate Easter.   

We're taught in this hardship to come closer to God.  But during Lent we pick our “hardship”.  We choose not to eat chocolate or drink coffee for those forty days.  Some of the things we choose when we look back at it are really more of a nuisance than anything.  They aren't like the temptations Jesus had in the wilderness, or during the hardest times in our own lives.  

In the biggest hardships of life and during the biggest temptations we often fail at loving God and loving others.  We break under the temptation.  When we lose a job or lose a loved one, our faith is tested.  And many of us fail.  We blame God, we blame others, our anger is out of control, and we lose our hope and faith in God.  It may be some of the smaller temptations like choosing work over spending time with our children, or choosing a movie over catching up with friends.  Temptation has gotten the best of us.

In the hardships and temptations that we don't choose, it is in these hardships that our faith should grow.  Sometimes these hardships are forty seconds, forty minutes, or even forty days, or forty years - but in the midst and at the end we need to remember the life of Jesus, and his death and resurrection.  In this - we have hope!