Lent, marks the Forty Days that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by "the Devil" the symbolic meme for the evil desires of humans in the world as well as forces within ourselves that are not loving. Jews often saw purification happened over a long time as signified by the use of 40 such as in years in the wilderness and the days of the flood. Life lived must be a life reflected upon became a part of religious practice.
In the devil's temptations recorded in Matthew we see the elements of greed, power, control, despair and attempts to play to insecurity that most of us have experienced in our lives. Jesus reflected upon all these forces in His life and identified them situationaly in the events of His day. It is easy to image that Jesus had offers to end His Peace and Justice movement against the power elites of the Temple. Pressure to not continue to rally the people against the Roman rule. His own group-the Apostles thought His insistence in peaceful solutions instead of violence was a weak response and inferred that He was a weak leader. Judas thought Jesus was so unfit that he betrayed Jesus to the invading Roman force. Jesus did resist these pressures as He reflected upon them.
In our lives the situation is not too dissimilar. How do we respond when we think about the First Nations rights compared with the economic consequences in today's economy. It takes courage and reflection to respond following progressive core values and evidence instead of a gut reaction. Our immediate needs are often masks that threaten our responding wholesomely to the economics of climate change. The lists of evil desires is long indeed. We have to pray, reflect and act in a way that is inspired by Jesus. Lent is a time to take time to pray, think and reflect upon our lives, relationships and the life direction we are choosing to follow. Progressives can't just stumble along. Jesus calls us to minister, to love and be brave with confidence in God's presence in our lives. Over the next 5 weeks which equals 40 days when we subtract the Sundays which are not counted as lent, we take time to reflect and conceptualize our progressive response to our world.
