Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
The devil, evil and temptation. This section of scripture talks a lot about these three. The devil is something I don’t tend to spend much time pondering, or even acknowledging. I’m certain I don’t believe in a little red horned devil. I’m less certain about an evil force and whether it’s waiting for me behind every corner.
I have more familiarity or comfort in the concept of evil. There are people who have more evil in their hearts, despite God’s best attempts at holding on to those souls. I believe evil happens between people, when people hurt or control others for their personal benefit.
And temptation? I know a great deal about temptation, as I think we all do. I am tempted by big and little things I’ve tried to avoid doing, or not doing. Scarcely a day passes when I haven’t given in to one temptation or another. Some of these temptations are small and I’d like to believe they only affect me. But as a person in a marriage, in a family, in a community – I doubt my actions ever only affect me. There are also the temptations that I know will affect others, and still I cave. Ugh. As familiar as I feel with temptation, I feel unfamiliar with the devil. And yet, I think that’s false.
I give in to temptation despite my best intentions. Despite prayer, despite resolutions. There is something insidious about the things that tempt me, something not of God. Perhaps that’s the force of evil in the world. Most of the temptations I face take me further from God, and that feels like evil. And if I believe that there is a force outside me that helps me do right, I suppose I need to believe that there is a force outside me that tempts me to do evil. Ugh. Ugh.
The insidious nature of the devil is that it cloaks itself in seemingly innocent temptations, which then lead me further from God, which then make bigger temptations more tempting, which leads me further from God.
Jesus could have easily taken the devil up on any one of his temptations, turning stones into bread, worshipping the devil, throwing himself off a mountain. But Jesus knew that to be tempted to do wrong is evil. In my world, when I succumb to temptation, I initially feel like it was no big deal; it didn’t matter. But I also quickly assume that my sense of right or wrong, or my personal desires are more important than any external God-ordained code of right and wrong. Once I take that slippery slide step, it’s a quick journey to thinking I’m God, and my sense of order is what really matters. All the time, I’m walking further away from the loving God who’s waiting for me to return. Somewhere, sometime, I realize the direction I’m heading and turn back to God. As my tradition’s baptismal covenant says, “will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin repent and return to the Lord?”
Temptation is evil. And evil comes from the devil. All of it leads us away from God. This morning, I’m thinking about the distance between the hurtful word and the devil. It’s closer than we think.
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